Prominent among the array of new products being presented by almost 200 exhibitors at the Society for Neuroscience’s 18th annual meeting in Toronto this week are two categories of tools: those that enhance microscopy and those that aim to simplify laboratory tasks. A third category comprises computer-based tools that are designed to both improve microscopy and make lab tasks easier, a good example of which is the Argus 100 Digital Imaging Workstation. The Argus 100, a turnkey system specially designed to improve the image-detection capabilities of optical microscopes, is said to perform high-speed, real-time imaging under a variety of difficult viewing conditions, such as low contrast and dynamic real-time events, fluorescence, ratio imaging, luminescence, and autoradiographic and photon counting imaging.
According to the manufacturer, Photonic Microscopy, the Argus system—unlike other PC-based imaging products, which only interface with a camera—uses a controller to optimize the camera’s performance. The controller allows a...