How to run Dual Camera Acquisition for sCMOS Cameras

Sometimes you may want to run a multi-camera imaging setup. Most common would be a dual camera acquisition setup. There are a number of ways that this can be done – and it can be done quite easily.

• micro-manager in one instance of the software. For example run using a TuCam and then use merge functions in e.g. image J to analyse data.
  • http://www.jbmethods.org/jbm/article/view/36/29
  • https://micro-manager.org/wiki/Utilities
• Fusion dual camera simultaneous acquisition as part of a Dragonfly system.
• NIS-elements – yes under “Dual Andor Sona/Neo/Zyla”. Refer to the NIS-Elements manual for Sona. Frame rates comparable between single and dual camera for given ROIs.
• CellSens – possible in cellSens Dimension software for Andor sCMOS
• MetaMorph- also possible as described here:
  • http://mdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/19928/~/how-to-work-with-dual-cameras

Solis and iQ requires two instances of software

Simultaneous Imaging with two cameras using Andor Solis (version 4.21.300006 onwards) and Andor iQ (version 2.6). This is described as follows:

• In order to set up the cameras to acquire simultaneously and synchronously in either Solis (or iQ), two instances of the software are required to be open, one for each camera.
• Each software is capable of synchronizing the cameras under a ‘Master and Peripheral’ arrangement or alternatively a simultaneous external trigger can be provided to both cameras.

For a Master and Peripheral set-up: camera 1 (Master) will trigger camera 2 (Peripheral) to acquire images

• Set the trigger of camera 1 to be internal
• Set the trigger of camera 2 to be external
• Using the trigger cables supplied with the camera, attach the Aux Out 1 ‘Fire’ cable of camera 1 (master) to the ‘External Trigger’ cable of camera 2 (peripheral) via a BNC connector.

• In this mode camera 2 will wait in a state of readiness for camera 1 to "trigger it" to capture images. The exposure of camera 1 needs to be set marginally longer than the exposure of camera 2. If the exposure for camera 1 is too short there won’t be sufficient pulses available to trigger camera 2 to acquire all of the images in a kinetic series. A general rule of thumb is to set the exposure of camera 1 to be the same or longer than the read-out of the sensor.
• In order to achieve the fastest possible acquisition speed from both cameras, set the exposure of camera 1 to be the same as the readout, otherwise set the exposure to be longer.
• In the ‘Master - Peripheral’ mode, the exposure for camera 2 does not need to be set as it will trigger off of the pulses from camera 1. The exposure setting for camera 2 should be zero. This is because it is effectively the delay between camera 1 acquiring its internal trigger and sending a pulse to camera 2 to acquire. This ensures synchronous acquisition.
• Once the settings are ready click for camera 2 so it is ready to pick up the trigger from camera 1.
• To start the acquisition click for camera 1.
• The cameras will now acquire simultaneous images as per the protocol entered.

For simultaneous External Trigger Dual Camera Operation

• Connect both cameras to the external trigger using a BNC T-piece.

• Both camera 1 and 2 should be set in External Trigger mode.
• Enter the same acquisition parameters for each camera.
• Click for both cameras so that both cameras are ready for the external trigger
• Once external trigger fires acquisition will proceed for both cameras simultaneously.</li

Notes

• Note that each camera should be on it's own card, although it is possible to run both off of a single card this would need to be tested for the specific setup.
• With this set-up both cameras will run simultaneously with the same frame rate in both Solis and iQ and should be very close to that of a single camera.
• Check the Hardware guide for the details of each mode as well as the SDK3 manual.