GRIN lenses from Inscopix

[cvickstrom]

Edit: I didn't realize we could buy 1.8 mm GRIN lenses from Edmund Optics. But I'll leave this here to let people know that Inscopix and Grintech (who I first emailed) will not sell the objective lens.

I emailed Inscopix for purchasing GRIN lenses, and I was surprised when they told me the largest diameter lens they sell is 1.0 mm. After a couple more emails, I got this message:

"Thanks for your reply. We proudly provide the neuroscience community with fully assembled nVista systems for in-vivo calcium imaging. We do not make any components of our technology, including the objective lens, available for individual resale whether through Inscopix directly or through Grintech.

Thank you for understanding and please let me know if I can help you with any of the relay lenses.

Best,
Katrina"

[Achinput]

Hi Civckstrom and other friends,
I got similar response from Grintech and Inscopix, who don't offer objective lens, and they don't sell relay lens larger than 1.00mm.
After I contact Edmund Optics, they seem not have the appropriate lenses, they only offer lenses suitable for over 670nm wavelength. So I don't know if you guys find any lenses that will fit our need here?
Walter, from go foton said that they just got some new made lenses from manufacture in Japan, but they seem to be relay lenses instead of objective lenses (different in pitch from what I understand , 0.25 for objective and 0.5 for relay lens). So where could we get these lenses to make a two lenses system?

Thank you
Shaohua

[Daniel Aharoni]

Hi Shaohua,
Thanks for the post. The design wavelength for the 1.8mm diameter GRIN lenses being sold through Edmund Optics is what is used to define the specific pitch of the lens. These lenses will function just fine at shorter wavelengths, with the effective pitch of the lens decreasing based on the difference between the design wavelength and the wavelength of the fluorophore being used. Take a look at the second to the bottom section of the GRIN lens information page, http://miniscope.org/index.php?title=GRIN_Lens_Information.

[Achinput]

Hi Daniel,
Thanks for the information. Seems that I didn't really pay attention to the last few paragraphs
Here I still get a question about the 2 lenses system. We had some leftover relay lenses from inscopix, but we are not sure about the pitch. So I'm not quite sure if those would work well with objective lenses from Edmund. I got some info from a friend in Texa saying that they found it quite complicated to find the suitable pairs of lenses, they used objective lenses from Edmund and relay lenses from Gofoton, but they had to reshape the whole microscope for these pairs to work. Is this because of mismatch in pitches? Would you think the inscopix relay lenses work well with Edmund objectives? (we now have 6.1mm X 0.5 mm and 0.8 X3.3 prism)

Thank you!
Shaohua 

[Daniel Aharoni]

Hi Shaohua,
Any relay lens from Inscopix should work in conjunction with an objective GRIN lens from Edmunds. You will want roughly a 300 to 500um gap between the 2 lenses and you will need to image with the scope as you adjust the distance between the implanted GRIN relay lens and Miniscope during baseplating. I am not sure what specific issue your friend was having but we have been successful imagine with all the Inscopix lenses we have tried. Maybe the issue was getting the proper length lens from GoFoton in the past (this shouldn't be an issue now since GoFoton understands the specs required of Miniscope relay lenses).