January 2012 Digital Cameras Supplement Cover Picture and Story
COVER STORY
The front cover image shows mouse embryonic fibroblast cells transfected with DNA plasmids, encoding for two fluorescent proteins: clathrin, fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP-Clathrin), and Rab5, fused to the monomeric red fluorescent protein (mRFP-Rab5), imaged by total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy. GFP-clathrin localizes to vesicles that form on the plasma membrane of cells (visible as green spots). mRFP-Rab5 is found on vesicles located more internally, but still within the evanescent field generated by total internal reflection fluorescence (red spots). Images courtesy of Dr Roberto Zoncu, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, MIT. The image was taken using an Andor Neo Scientific CMOS camera.
The images in the foreground show a comparison of low-light images from an interline CCD camera (upper left) and a sCMOS camera (lower right) in red and green fluorescence channels. The cameras used were the Andor Neo sCMOS (1.2 e− read noise at 400 MHz) and Andor Clara interline CCD (5.5 e− read noise at 20 MHz). The sample was a fluorescently labelled fixed cell imaged in a CSU-X spinning disk confocal microscope using a 60× oil objective. Both images are 100 millisecond exposures, with the same laser power per channel, and displayed with same relative intensity scaling. Note that the field of view is limited by the aperture size of the CSU-X spinning disk unit, which is matched to the 1.4-megapixel interline sensor.
Unlike any CCD or CMOS camera to come before, the Neo is unique in its ability to simultaneously offer ultralow noise, extremely fast frame rates, wide dynamic range, high resolution and a large field of view, including global shutter ‘freeze frame’ capture capability.
CONTACT:
Andor Technology plc
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Belfast, Northern Ireland BT12 7AL
+44 (0) 2890 237126
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