Start up

Remove the dust cover and put it on the shelf above the microscope.
If you are taking brightfield images, turn on the switch at the bottom left of the microscope stand.
If you are imaging in fluorescence, switch on the Sola Light Engine and press the Light button.
Switch on the computer.
Log in to the LAS-X user account.
Start the LAS X software.

LAS X

To acquire images, select Acquire and the Acquisition tab.
You can save the correct objective into your image metadata by selecting the magnification you are using (under Magnification). As the turret is manually operated the objectives are changed by hand. There is also a 1.5x magnification changer that can be put into the light path using the wheel on the right of the microscope stand and changing the "Magnification Changer" drop down selection. Make sure to let the software knows whether the 1.0x or 1.5x lens is in place, otherwise your image scaling will be wrong.
To see a live view image, click 'Live'; to take an image, click 'Capture Image'.
Select colour or black and white mode by using the selectors. Note : We advise using black and white mode for all fluoresecently stained specimens, and merging them later in post processing.

Select Color Mode in the software.
Set binning to 1x1 for both Image and Live Formats.
Set the exposure to 1 ms.
Insert both the N4 and N16 neutral density (ND) filters into the light path and turn the lamp voltage up to 11 or 12. By turning up the lamp and inserting the ND filters the light from the lamp should be the right colour and brightness for your eyes and the camera.
Focus on your specimen and redirect the light path to the camera port.
Click Live and adjust the camera exposure to avoid saturation.
Click the Glow Over Under button to indicate saturation in the image. Pixels in red are too bright. Turn down the exposure until you only have a small number of them
Click the same button again to change the Glow Over Under look-up table back to the normal colour view.
Find a background area and proceed to white balance the image.
Set the white balance using the "draw rectangle" tool and selecting 'white balance' when the options appear.
Readjust the exposure if you need to.
To save, go to 'Open projects', right click on your file or folder, and save. LAS X will save whole folders of images into one single lif. If you want individual tifs, use the right click > export option.