sCMOS Camera with High Sensitivity, High Resolution and Fast Readout

Hamamatsu Photonics has introduced the new ORCA-Flash4.0 sCMOS camera. In recent years, trying to detect low level or fast fluorescence signals has proved challenging and an EM-CCD camera was commonly used, however, with the arrival of the ORCA-Flash4.0 that situation has now changed. The ORCA-Flash4.0 is the first camera to be able to deliver better signal-to-noise than EM-CCDs, cooled CCDs and first-generation sCMOS cameras for low-level, fast, fluorescence imaging.

The ORCA-Flash4.0’s high sensitivity means extreme versatility. This camera covers a wide range of imaging needs, including super resolution microscopy, TIRF microscopy, live cell GFP, high-speed calcium ion imaging, FRET, real-time confocal microscopy and many more.

The ORCA-Flash4.0 has quantum efficiency values of over 70% at 600 nm and 50% at 750 nm and has only 1.3 electrons of read noise (at 100 full-resolution frames per second) with continuous high speed acquisition at full resolution. This unique combination of high quantum efficiency and low noise, in the absence of EM-CCD multiplicative noise, means that researchers are already pushing back the boundaries of what has been possible to image until now. With a 4.0 megapixel sCMOS sensor (6.5 μm pixel size), the ORCA-Flash4.0 is ideally suited for demanding microscopy applications.