A picture is worth a thousand words, especially a picture of high quality. An inverted fluorescent microscope from Zeiss, Axiovert 200 can provide pictures that can speak volumes about your research. Axiovert 200 is very versatile; it is designed in a modular fashion and can fulfill the needs of various types of research. Here are some characteristics to give a flavor of its capabilities, while limiting technical jargon: Axiovert 200 can be used to acquire bright field, phase contrast, Nomarski and epifluorescent images of the same specimen. It has six camera interfaces, and can capture still images as well as perform life-cell imaging. Axiovert 200 comes as a manual version or fully motorized. It can work with Axiovision software as well as other image analysis applications.
I use Axiovert 200 primarily to capture epifluorescent images of immunofluorescently stained cells and tissues, which are subsequently analyzed by Axiovision software. I also use the same software to control the scope (changing objectives, focusing, changing fluorescent channels, etc.), which is possible due to the fully motorized version of the scope. Thus, with the click of the button on the scope itself or on the screen I can quickly “jump” between different acquisition channels or magnifications. I am finding this option very convenient, especially when I have many slides awaiting analysis. Buttons on the scope are located in handy places, so they can be pressed with your finger without taking your eyes off the oculars. Moreover, they have different textures allowing you to recognize them by touch. In my routine, I first use these buttons to decide on the image area to acquire, and next I switch (again, with just a click of the button) to software-controlled imaging. At this time, the image is on the screen, allowing for a fast set up of the parameters of an image acquisition. Usually, I first use the low magnification (20X), and next the high magnification (40X, 63X), and obtain images that are truly high quality. It is important to remember that, to take a full advantage of the superb Zeiss’ 40X objective, it is necessary to use oil (in other scopes only 63X objective is oil-immersed). Acquired images can be stored for the deconvolution and further analysis, which can be performed later, independently from acquisition.
Axiovert 200 has many options of image acquisition, which has a good side and a bad side. The good side is that it allows for multiple users, each with its own set of unique requirements. It also allows you to optimize your own parameters. The bad side is that you initially need to spend some time to get to know how to play with all these bells and whistles. But after you work out your own routine, you can acquire volumes of beautiful images, just waiting for publication.
In summary, Axiovert 200 is a state-of-the art “flexible” microscope, allowing acquisition of high quality images by an experienced researcher.
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Andrzej Pietrzykowski, MD, PhD
Instructor
Department of Psychiatry
University of Massachusetts
United States
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