Austin's Imaging Blog

Category: elements

  • Acquisition Speed Comparison of MetaMorph, NIS Elements, Micro-Manager

    Acquisition Speed Comparison of MetaMorph, NIS Elements, Micro-Manager

    How fast can a typical imaging system really run? What factors affect this? While most research might not require rapid sequential capture, almost all experiments can benefiet from tight exposure/illumination timing, yet few microscope users are aware of timing delays injected into experiments by the control software they are using. So how much delay is…

  • Running HASP Licenses on Virtual machines

    One of the downsides to using OSX for my primary operating system is that most of the major imaging programs are windows-only. To compound the trouble, many of these programs, like NIS Elements, use the “HASP” license manager to communicate with a security key in order to fight piracy. So, you have to have this…

  • STORM comparison from UCSF NIC

    I recently received a beautiful comparison image produced by the now operational STORM system at the UCSF NIC.The sample was prepared by Michael Davidson, and was imaged by Kurt Thorn of the NIC. Click the image for a higher res view. -Austin    

  • NIS Elements Fix for Sutter products Released (NIS 4.0)

    NIS 4 was released about a month ago, and the US dev team has already released a DLL fix for the Sutter Instruments product line, which I’ve uploaded here. Don’t use this unless you are running NIS E v4, AND you’re seeing a crash when adding the Lambda 10-3 to the device manager. -Austin  

  • WHY YOU SHOULD ATTEND THE UCSF/QB3 Microscopy Course

    Over the course of my career, I’ve flown across the US to attend a variety of imaging related instructional courses, all on the eastern seaboard. We are all familiar with the Woods Hole courses, the AQLM course, and so forth. What has boggled my mind is that here I am in the SF Bay area,…

  • Updating Software? A pre-chaos checklist…

    A few years after your shiny new system is installed, you’ll inevitably look at it just like you look at a car. What was once running flawlessly now has a few bugs, some dust, is slower and generally worn in. So, at some point you’ll decide it’s time for an upgrade. This may consist of…

  • Lumencor Sola Driver for NIS Elements

    Yesterday we received our first shipment of Sola white light LED driven sources for microscopy. I had a chance to snag one and write a driver for it. Price is $300 USD. The driver controls both the shuttering and  ND on the box, and integrates easily into Elements as a shutter and ND filter wheel.…

  • PhotoFluor 2 Driver for Nikon Elements

    89 North has asked me to cook up a driver for the PhotoFluor 2, which I am now hosting under my Macros & Journals page, or you can use this link. This driver works in NIS Elements AR, and BR with Advanced Interpreter. Please contact me if you have any trouble using it! -Austin  

  • Lumencor Spectra Driver Available

    I’ve written a Lumencor Spectra Driver that works with NIS Elements B3.2+. (AR or BR + Advanced Interpreter) The driver provides integrated control into elements for both intensity of lines and channel. These appear as a shutter and two filter wheels, offering full integration into Elements’ Optical configurations. We are selling it for $750, including…

  • Acquisition crashes, and power settings in Win7

    Windows 7 has a new power management interface, and the design of modern motherboards, along with win7 Automatic Power Management (APM), can cause some insidious device-based software crashes if power options aren’t set correctly. Here’s how to make sure your system is running in the best mode. Open the Windows Control panel Search for and…