Andor launches new microscopy camera designed to meet the needs of challenging applications

Andor Technology, an Oxford Instruments company and world leader in scientific imaging and spectroscopy solutions, have announced the launch of Sona 4.2B-6, a new model in the ultrasensitive back-illuminated Sona microscopy camera series.

The Sona 4.2B-6 is designed to provide a superbly balanced combination of sensitivity, speed and resolution, making it perfectly suited to the needs of the most challenging microscopy applications. The new camera features a 4.2 Megapixel sensor format with a 6.5 µm pixel size. This format is suited to obtaining maximum resolution from the commonly used 60x and 40x objective lens magnifications.

This complements the existing Sona 4.2B-11 model, with a larger, 32 mm field of view and promsies to be the camera of choice for imaging the largest possible sample area.

The Sona series is designed to represent the ultimate in sCMOS sensitivity, meaning signal to noise can be optimized under reduced illumination conditions, thus preserving accurate biology of living cells during extended measurement periods.

The Sona 4.2B-6 shares many of the key features that have made the existing Sona models so popular, namely the designed high sensitivity sensors with 95% quantum efficiency and exclusive permanent vacuum sealed sensor chambers with market leading cooling down to -45 °C.

Sona 4.2B-6 also features a Low Noise mode that uses correlated multi-sampling to reduce noise while maintaining frame rates and the low exposure times that are vital for studying live cells. Dynamic cellular processes can be captured by the high-speed imaging capabilities – up to an impressive 74 fps for full-range 16-bit images. In addition, class leading linearity and dynamic range means that Sona is designed to provides the best available quantitative accuracy. Important for the growing number of applications that use measurements over time or change in fluorescence intensity levels to make determinations on rates, concentrations or spatial position such as FRET, ion signalling, gene expression analysis or localization based super-resolution.

Dr. Alan Mullan, Andor’s Product Specialist for Microscopy Cameras, said;

“The new Sona 4.2B-6 camera provides a great combination of sensitivity, speed and resolution. This makes it a very effective and versatile imaging solution for a wide range of life science applications.
“The sensor format is well matched to modern microscopes and offers an easy way to upgrade the earlier generations of sCMOS cameras to the latest detector technology. The superior sensitivity of Sona means that illumination intensity and fluorophore concentrations can be reduced, and exposures decreased, for less impact on cell physiology. Therefore, more accurate measurements of cell processes can be made.”

Dr. Richard Simms, Senior Physicist and Technical Lead on the Sona 4.2B-6 project, said;

“The development team are proud to see this new addition to our sCMOS portfolio. This camera represents a culmination of our efforts in integrating a new sensor into our Sona platform. Our cross-functional team always look forward to seeing any advances in science afforded by the use of our cutting-edge cameras. No doubt we will see this new camera further advance our customers capabilities and advance scientific research in many fields.”

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