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Retiga 3000 USER MANUAL
CHAPTER 3
USING YOUR RETIGA 3000 CAMERA
Imaging Software
The easy-to-use QCapture Pro software supplied with your Retiga 3000 provides complete control over
the camera’s settings and image capture functions. For an up-to-date list of other compatible third-party
imaging software applications, please visit:
http://www.qimaging.com/resources/pdfs/Software-Compatibility-Matrix.pdf
The Retiga 3000 camera’s image capture capabilities are controlled entirely through your imaging software.
Basic functionalities include control over exposure time, gain state, clearing mode, region of interest (ROI), and
pixel binning. For information describing how to implement changes to the camera’s parameters, refer to your
imaging software’s instruction manual.
Basic Camera Parameters
Exposure Time
The Retiga 3000 camera’s exposure controls allow you to adjust the integration time for each acquisition (0
ms – 30 min). By increasing the exposure time, more light is captured by the sensor and a better signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) is achieved. The longer the exposure time however, the longer you also expose your cells to more
light, increasing the effects of photo toxicity and photo-bleaching. The exposure time should be adjusted to a
level that achieves the shortest integration time possible while still maintaining sufficient SNR.
Gain State
Gain (with regards to cameras) is defined as the conversion factor of captured electrons to a digital signal,
often referred to as a grey value or ADU (Analogue to Digital Unit) and has units of electrons per ADU (e/ADU).
Knowing the gain of a camera allows users to directly compare an ADU value as measured from their software
to the physical number of electrons actually captured by the camera’s sensor. Gain plays a critical role in many
of the camera’s parameters including dynamic range and read noise.
The Retiga 3000 provides three user-selectable gain states enable optimal camera performance for different
imaging environments:
■
Gain State 1
≈
1.8e-/ADU (0.5x Gain - High Light: 1/2 single pixel full well = max bit depth)
■
Gain State 2
≈
1.2e-/ADU (1x Gain - Mapped: single pixel full well = max bit depth)
■
Gain State 3
≈
0.3e-/ADU (3x Gain - Low Light: 1/3 single pixel full well = max bit depth)
Summary of Contents for Retiga 3000
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