Zeiss LSM 700 feedback & bugs

The ZEN JPEG conversion is strange

Very strange. First, JPEGs are bigger than the original LSM files?? Converting via Fiji with very conservative settings of 90% quality gives me 1.7 MB JPEG from an 8.2 MB LSM file, while the ZEN JPEG is 9.4 MB. This makes no sense, since JPEG is a lossful compressor and most people use it to get more portable & versatile files of smaller size.

Also conversion does not stick to the colour scheme that is displayed/defined in ZEN. In my case blue in the LSM (left) gets converted to red in the JPEG (right). I also tried to save as TIFF - same colour problem here.

Comparison of file formats

• LSM5 - proprietary file format of the LSM 700; read by Fiji (file size in test 8MB)
• LSM4 - adapted TIFF format; colour problem as above; read by all graphics programmes which can read TIFF (file size in test 12MB)
• TIFF export - colour problem as above; all TIFF enabled graphics programmes (file size in test 12MB)
• JPEG - as noted above bigger than native LSM5 format w 9MB; colour bug (in comparison, converting the 12MB LSM5 in Fiji to a 90% JPEG results file of around 2MB)

Oversaturation streaks

Unlike the LSM 510, the 700 does not cope well with oversaturation. An area with intense signal causes artefactual signal on its right. In the picture below an oversaturated area of intercellular matrix & connective tissue causes green streak to its right. My guess is that the detector does not reset quickly enough and causes this smearing in the direction of scanning.