As their name implies, these imagers allow for visualization of living cells in a more natural state via time lapse photography. While other cell imaging systems often require harsh lighting and toxic dyes, live cell imagers are not constrained to these limitations and labs that perform this technique take measures to ensure the cells are maintained in a healthy state even while on the microscope stage. Microscopy techniques that can capture live cell images include confocal microscopy, phase contrast microscopy, fluorescent microscopy, and quantitative phase contrast microscopy. Things to consider when deciding on what live-cell imaging technology to purchase include detector sensitivity, desired speed of image acquisition, and specimen viability.