Andor Launches Zyla 4.2 PLUS sCMOS Camera featuring >80% QE and Superior Speed

Andor Technology, an Oxford Instruments company and world leader in scientific imaging and spectroscopy solutions, has announced the launch of the new ultrasensitive Zyla 4.2 PLUS Scientific CMOS (sCMOS) camera. The camera features the latest generation QE-boosted sCMOS sensor technology, alongside market-leading frame rate performance, 99.8% quantitative linearity and new application specific modes.

Offering the highest and broadest sCMOS QE profile available, maximizing at 82%, and ideally suited to a wide range of common fluorophores, the Zyla 4.2 PLUS is also uniquely speed-optimized to deliver a sustained 53 fps at full resolution through a convenient USB 3.0 interface, 77% faster than competing sCMOS cameras. New on-camera intelligence delivers a significant linearity improvement, providing unparalleled quantitative measurement accuracy across the full dynamic range.

The high resolution 4.2 megapixel camera delivers QE performance that is 10% higher than the previous gold-standard sCMOS sensor, coupled with < 1 e- read noise and 33,000:1 dynamic range in a light, compact, low vibration design, intended for both research and OEM usage. The Zyla 4.2 PLUS also includes application specific modes such as LightScan PLUS, which adapts the rolling shutter scan mode to applications such as Scanning Light Sheet Microscopy and Line Scan Confocal. FCS Mode offers a market-leading speed of 26,041 fps from a 2048(h) x 8(v) region of interest, ideally matched to the temporal demands associated with Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy.

Dr Colin Coates, Andor’s Imaging Product Manager, said; “The QE-boosted Zyla 4.2 PLUS is an exciting advancement to our sCMOS range, benefitting directly from recent improvements in microlens design. The superior signal to noise ratio enables use of shorter exposures, complemented by the exceptional USB 3.0 frame rates. The sensitivity improvement also allows for reduced phototoxicity and photobleaching. While sCMOS cameras do not possess the raw sensitivity of higher end EMCCD cameras for extreme low light applications such as single molecule biophysics, they do dramatically out-perform interline CCDs across several key parameters, within a similar price bracket, and are excellent cameras for live cell imaging, light sheet microscopy, ion signalling, super-resolution microscopy and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. The Zyla 4.2 PLUS is a significant step forward and should be strongly considered by those looking for market-leading sCMOS sensitivity and speed.”