Is a CLSM absolutely required to take z stacks or can I try using a ordinary Compound Microscope

Posted by dksamuel on Sep 12, 2007; 11:28am
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/Is-a-CLSM-absolutely-required-to-take-z-stacks-or-can-I-try-using-a-ordinary-Compound-Microscope-tp3698392.html

Dear all, the question may be so stupid and so I apologise at the beginning,
Is a CLSM (Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope) absolutely required to take z
stacks, or can I try using a ordinary Compound Microscope like Olympus BX41
etc, Can z planes be photographed using an ordinary consumer camera (Canon
A560)  or are motorized equipment required, can I try by by manual focusing
of some 10  - 20 slices and photograph each slice separately and use plugins
to assemble,  (Real reason is I want to play with stacks and learn volume
rendering by using volumeJ,  but I dont have a CLSM ready now or in the near
future)

Secondly has anybody tried ImageJ and Blender for rendering,

thanks Samuel, Virologist, Bangalore India