We improve your
Imaging Experience
Super-resolution. Low laser power. The solution for live cell imaging.
The fact that Confocal.nl allows for super-resolution in combination with very low laser intensity will be the winning strategy in live cell imaging.
Our solutions are as clear as our imaging
Sharper. Larger field of view. Easy to use.
Sharp images, a large field of view and easy to use? It’s possible with Confocal.nl. Get more from your samples, with a higher resolution and a higher sensitivity than conventional confocal microscopes and study live samples longer.
Our Re-scanning Confocal Microscope (RCM) uses multiple laser pointers and a camera as a detector. The low laser power required is live cell friendly: it prevents phototoxicity in your live samples and photobleaching of your fluorophores. Creating long-term time lapses at a super-resolution was never this accessible.
Want to discover Confocal.nl solutions for yourself?
How we improve your imaging experience
Camera-Based Confocal Technology
Re-scan Confocal Microscopy (RCM) is a new super-resolution technique, based on standard confocal microscopy. It’s extended with an optical re-scanning unit that projects the image directly on a CCD- or sCMOS camera. By using a sensitive camera as detector, the signal-to-noise ratio of the RCM is 4 times higher than in standard PMT-based confocal microscopes. This new technology improves lateral resolution and strongly increases sensitivity, while maintaining the sectioning capability of a standard confocal microscope. Closing down the pinhole is no longer necessary to increase resolution thanks to the re-scan step.
It is excellent for biological applications where a combination of super-resolution and high-sensitivity is required.
Learn all about improving you imaging
News
Imaging Bacillus subtilis germination proteins
Read more
News
Participate in the Confocal.nl Live-cell Challenge and win a bottle of Champagne!
Read moreNews
44 hours imaging of live cells stained for mitochondria
Read more
News
Confocal.nl makes it to the semi-finals of the European Health Catapult program
Read moreDiscover our solutions
Clever design for brighter images and even lower laser power
RCM 1
RCM1 is a highly sensitive super-resolution confocal system. It’s capable of reaching a 120nm resolution after deconvolution (170nm raw). Study living cells in high detail with minimal phototoxicity and photobleaching.
RCM 2
RCM2 is, like the RCM1, a highly sensitive super-resolution confocal system. It uses digital scanning technology and bigger optics, which allows for brighter images and even lower laser power. Capture more biology with the same resolution.
RCM 1
Super-resolution imaging. Low laser power.
With RCM1, you get super-resolution (170nm raw) with 60 to 100x objective
magnification at 488nm wavelength. It’s high sensitivity allows using
extremely low laser power, which makes the microscope highly suitable for live cell imaging. RCM1 can be delivered in a special near infrared (NIR)
version using 640 and 785 lasers.
- Super-resolution with very low phototoxicity
- API integration into third party software
- VIS or NIR versions available
RCM 2
Brighter images. Larger field of view.
Our digital scanner technology allows us to use bidirectional scanning to obtain super-resolution images faster (170nm raw). RCM2 is equipped with bigger optics, which makes it suitable to work with high NA 40x to 100x magnification objectives. A lower magnification allows for a larger field of view and brighter images, since light intensity is inversely proportional to the magnification squared. RCM2 requires even lower laser power to produce bright super-resolution images with minimal phototoxicity or photobleaching.
- Super-resolution with extremely low phototoxicity
- 2fps at 512x512 pixels
- Hardware integration into third party software
The difference between our products
Find the best fit for you
RCM1 | RCM2 | |
|---|---|---|
Detector | Camera | Camera |
Resolution | 120 nm ** | 120 nm ** |
Sensitivity | up to 95% QE | up to 95% QE |
FOV | 130×130 um (60x, super-resolution) | 220×220 um (40x, super-resolution) |
Optimized for | 100x, 60x (high NA) | 100x, 60x, 40x (high NA) |
Scanner | Analog (open-loop) | Digital (closed-loop) |
Speed | 1fps @ 512 x 512 pixels | 2fps @ 512×512 pixels |
Wavelength | VIS or NIR | VIS |
Software | Micromanager, Nis Elements, Volocity | Micromanager, Volocity, NIS Elements*,
Zen*, LAS X*, Cellsens* |
*still under investigation
** after deconvolution, raw image = 170nm
Let our images do the talking
Take a look at our images
All
RCM 1
RCM 2
We kept cells alive for 61 hours under a microscope
The community challenged us
We took the challenge of long term live cell imaging and this is the result: 61 hours of live cell imaging without phototoxicity. HO1N1 cells expressing M itochondria-RFP through the Bacmam expression system. One image was taken every 10 seconds for 61 hours (giving a total of almost 22.000 images!). Laser power was measured to be 1 microwatt at the sample plane.
Movie taken by Jeroen Kole (Confocal.nl), sample courtesy Dandan Ma (ACTA, Amsterdam), equipment provided by Marko Popovic (Nikon Center of Excellence, Amsterdam University Medical centers, VUmc, Amsterdam.)
Become a partner
Start working on the future of microscopy
As a partner of Confocal, you’ll be working on the future of microscopy alongside a young and dynamic team. We’ll work together to create the best imaging solutions and to distribute them. Let’s make RCM accessible across the world.
Distributors
Partners
"RCM is a very easy to use system that, in combination with our STORM microscope, provides a perfect way to obtain underlying confocal images for our single molecule localization data"
Gabor Csucs
Facility head at ETH Zurich
A team of enthusiastic microscopists
We improve your imaging experience
Founded in 2016, Confocal.nl strives to improve the microscopic imaging experience of all researchers. With our international and open-minded team, we develop innovative and ingenious designs in cooperation with our users, we provide the most user-friendly upgrade technology for microscopes. This brings opportunities to researchers to deliver breakthrough science. With the passion we have for science we create value for all our stakeholders.
See for yourself how we improve your experience
Request your
personalized demo
In about 45 minutes to an hour, our experts
show you how our products perform live.
