EVOS light cubes, objectives, and microscopy accessories

To help you generate publication-quality images, we offer a variety of accessories that have been designed to complement the EVOS imaging systems: some of which come standard and others that are optional depending on your needs.

EVOS LED light cubes

Exceptional illumination with compact EVOS light cubes

Easy to change and produce maximum signal-to-background ratios compared to mercury or metal halide bulbs. 

EVOS light cubes have been optimized to take cell imaging to the next level. They feature improved opto-mechanical design and spectrally optimized optical components—resulting in excellent illumination uniformity across the field of view and maximum signal-to-background ratios even with dim samples. These interchangeable LED cubes enable precise control with plug-and-play capability across all EVOS imaging systems. 

 

Choose from 13 available light cubes—matching the spectra to the dyes you want to use (a wide range of dyes are supported). Many customers choose some combination of DAPI, GFP, RFP or Texas Red, and Cy5 or Cy7 dyes. The table below shows common dyes detected by these six popular light cubes. Additional light cubes can be purchased at any time to help meet new application requirements. 
 

Popular light cubes and their common compatible dyes

Light cube Color Excitation (nm)  Emission (nm) Compatible dyes Category number
DAPI Blue 357/44 447/60 DAPI, Hoechst, NucBlue, Alexa Fluor 350, BFP AMEP4950
GFP Green 470/22 525/50 GFP, Alexa Fluor 488, Calcein, SYBR Green, FITC, Fluo-4, MitoTracker Green, pHrodo Green AMEP4951
RFP Orange 531/40 593/40 RFP, Alexa Fluor 546/555, PE, Cy3, MitoTracker Orange, Rhodamine Red, SYTOX Orange AMEP4952
Texas Red Red 585/29 628/32 Texas Red, Alexa Fluor 568/594, MitoTracker Red CMXRos, mCherry, pHrodo Red, Cy3.5, CellTracker Red CMTPX AMEP4955
Cy5 Deep Red 628/40 685/40 Cy5, Alexa Fluor 647/660, DRAQ5 AMEP4956
Cy7 Near-IR 716/40 794/32 Cy7, IRDye® 800CW, DyLight 750 AMEP4667

Improved stitching to form composite images

EVOS Light Cubes provide exceptional multi-field of view stitching performance.

Spectral fidelity across channels

EVOS Light Cubes provide outstanding spectral fidelity across channels, minimizing undesired bleedthrough. 

Constant light intensity 

Mercury arc lamps can lose 50% of their intensity in the first 100 hours of operation! In addition, images acquired in different sessions cannot be quantitatively compared using without complicated calibrations. Because EVOS LED light sources produce constant light intensity, users can rely on consistent illumination and can compare results quantitatively from images acquired on different days.

Stability of light intensity over time

LED light sources (top line) produce constant light intensity for the duration of their long life. In contrast, mercury arc lamps (bottom line) lose light intensity rapidly and must be replaced often.

Less expensive to own and maintain

The LED bulbs on the EVOS systems are rated for >50,000 hours (~17 years), compared to 300 hours for a typical mercury bulb (and 1,500 hours for a metal halide bulb). That means significant savings in the overall upkeep of your instrument.

What light sources really cost

Over time, EVOS LED light cubes are less expensive than metal halide or mercury lamps.

Hard-coated filter sets for higher transmission efficiency

Hard-coated filter sets are more expensive but have sharper edges and significantly higher transmission efficiencies that typically result in >25% more light transmission than traditional soft-coated filters. With the EVOS system’s hard-coated filter sets, your light cubes cost less over time—and provide brighter fluorescence, higher transmission efficiencies, the ability to detect faint fluorescence signals, and better signal-to-noise ratios.

 

 

Transmission efficiency comparison

Graphs show superior transmission efficiencies observed using hard-coated EVOS filters (top graph) compared to soft-coated filters (bottom graph). Signal is shown for the excitation filter (purple), emission filter (red), and dichroic mirror (green) against Alexa Fluor 488 excitation (blue) and emission (pink) spectra.

EVOS objectives

All EVOS objectives offer outstanding optical performance from visible light to near-infrared light. Choose from more than 40 high-performance objective lenses ranging from 1.25x to 100x. The extensive choice of objectives spans a full range of magnifications and optical specifications to satisfy your application requirements. As with light cubes, EVOS objectives can be purchased at any time based on your evolving needs.
 

There are three types of microscopy objectives, each corresponding to their level of correction for chromatic aberrations:

  1. Fluorite objectives: exceptional for fluorescence and demanding transmitted-light applications. They provide excellent resolution, resulting in bright fluorescence signal and high-contrast imaging. Fluorite objectives help reduce optical aberrations. Color and focus have a higher level of correction than with other objectives.
  2. Achromat objectives: excellent for general applications. Color and focus have standard correction compared to apochromat and fluorite objectives.
  3. Apochromat objectives: excellent for the most demanding applications, especially capturing color images in white light. They provide the highest level of resolution, fluorescence brightness, contrast, and chromatic correction compared to achromat and fluorite objectives.

With each type of microscopy objective, there are two classes:

  1. Long working distance (LWD) objectives: optimized for vessels with a nominal wall thickness of 0.9–1.5 mm, such as slides, cell culture dishes and flasks, and microtiter plates
  2. Coverslip-corrected (CC) objectives: optimized for imaging through 1.5 coverslips (approximately 0.17 mm thick); have a higher magnification-to-numerical aperture (NA) ratio and provide higher resolution than LWD objectives.

Here are some general guidelines when choosing objectives:

  • If your samples are in plastic vessels and you image samples using fluorescence, use fluorite LWD objectives.
  • If your samples are in plastic vessels and you image samples using transmitted light, use either achromat or fluorite LWD objectives.
  • If your samples are under glass coverslips and you want the best image quality, use apochromatic CC or fluorite CC objectives.

EVOS vessel holders and stage plates

EVOS vessel holders allow an excellent fit for your microscope slide, cell culture flask or dish, or microwell plate to the stage of the EVOS imaging systems for increased precision in sample alignment. The numerous vessel holder and stage plate options are specifically designed to fit various brands of plates, flasks, and dishes—helping ensure that your preferred brand is accommodated. 

 

Find the right holder or stage plate for your EVOS microscope—including vessel holders optimized for the Stage View feature of EVOS M5000 and for performing time-lapse imaging with the EVOS Onstage Incubator. 

 

EVOS Onstage Incubator

Paired with the EVOS M5000 or EVOS M7000 imaging systems, the EVOS Onstage Incubator enables precise control over temperature, humidity, and gas (O2, CO2, N2) levels for incubating cells under physiological and non-physiological conditions over long periods of time, making it excellent for demanding live-cell imaging experiments such as hypoxia and neurite outrgrowth studies. It’s intuitive user interface simplifies experiment setup and monitoring of experimental conditions and allows adjustments while experiments are running.

 

Celleste Image Analysis Software

Celleste 6 Image Analysis Software offers broad functionality and point-and-click simplicity. Designed for usability and flexibility, it provides powerful tools for cell counting and sizing as well as classification, segmentation, and analysis of complex images. The multichannel analysis (MCA) protocols of Celleste 6 software use preconfigured templates with machine-learning algorithms and a wizard-based workflow to help simplify batch analysis. 

 

Cell culture products

Start your cell culture with confidence


Our Gibco, Thermo Scientific Nunc, and Invitrogen cell culture products help you to achieve reproducible results and successful research outcomes—every day.


Explore our portfolio of cell culture media, FBS, plastics, and transfection solutions to support the growth and maintenance of a variety of mammalian cells and cell lines.
 

For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.