The new Olympus FluoView FV10i confocal laser scanning microscope system brings a new level of accessibility to confocal microscopy. Designed to remove all the complex steps involved in setting-up and using confocal microscopes, the system ensures that users can concentrate on the images and data without the need for prior expertise.
All components of the FV10i are motorised and controlled via software, ensuring that functions such as focusing, exposure, fluorescence wavelength selection and even coverslip thickness correction are automated so the user does not have to touch the microscope at all. As a result, advanced imaging processes including time-lapses, Z-stacks and multiposition image capture can be carried out with ease and even combined to provide true multidimensional imaging.
The FV10i is available as both oil-and water-immersion models, providing an overall magnification range of 10x–600x by combining the 10x and 60x UIS2 SAPO objectives with the confocal optical zoom. The four diode lasers (405, 473, 559 and 635 nm) are housed in a combiner unit and provide the flexibility to cover the majority of fluorescent dyes.
The FV10i is fitted with a spectral system featuring two fluorescence channels supplied by a grating, beam splitter and slit arrangement. Each channel is fitted with a variable barrier filter which is set automatically to match the wavelength range for each fluorescent dye in use. The system can acquire two fluorescence channels and a phase contrast channel simultaneously via a line sequence mode, or up to four fluorescence channels and a phase contrast channel using a frame sequence mode, ensuring that multiple fluorescent dyes can be imaged easily.
The water immersion model is fitted with an automated water supply and correction collar for ensuring that the 60x objective is always used correctly. It also features an integrated incubator with CO2, temperature and humidity control, enabling long-term live-cell imaging.