Higher Speeds, Truer Colours and New Names

Olympus has updated its extensive digital microscopy imaging camera range to ensure that they can be matched easily to every application, from standard brightfield to advanced high speed fluorescence. The new designations and features enable users to quickly select the right camera and maximise their imaging capabilities.

The Olympus camera range is built on the same exacting principles as its peerless microscopes. As a result, users can feel confident that whichever combination they choose, they have an excellent imaging system for all their research requirements.

Olympus has updated their camera range to provide faster imaging capabilities for each camera, ensuring that users can catch events as they happen. Furthermore, the entire range now features the unique Olympus True Colour (OTC) system to ensure that there is consistency between the input and output colours, as well as between different cameras. OTC uses internal International Colour Consortium (ICC) reference profiles to govern the relationship between the colours at every stage of the imaging process. It is also possible to apply these profiles in ‘live mode’, to ensure the best possible colour representation at the highest speed.

The revised naming structure ensures easier camera selection since each character of the name conveys essential information. The first character provides a description of the specialisation of the camera. For example ‘X’ relates to the top of the range ‘eXcellence’ cameras which are cooled to provide less background noise, and are therefore ideal for longer term imaging or for low light levels, but also for high speed fluorescence live cell imaging. The Ultra series are designated ‘U’ and are designed for research procedures where cooling is not required. Finally, routine tasks are the domain of the ‘S’ or ‘standard’ series cameras, which are also a highly cost efficient solution.

The second character identifies whether the camera is designed with colour ‘C’ or monochrome ‘M’ imaging chips. The third character gives an idea of the number of megapixels the camera possesses. For example, a ‘1’ represents a 1.4 megapixel CCD chip and a ‘3’ represents a 3.3 megapixel chip. The final character is reserved for future model upgrades.

As a result of this new system, it is immediately clear that the XC50 (formerly the ColorView III) is a top-of-the-range cooled colour camera with a 5 megapixel chip. The SC20 (formerly the ALTRA20) is an un-cooled colour camera with a 2 megapixel chip designed for standard or routine tasks.