Polaroid $$$

[RYBICKI, ED]

> In article <1993Oct13.080811.4521 at infodev.cam.ac.uk>,
> Tony Hodge  <tph at mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> (responding to my post about low-budget video documentation of 
gels)
 
> They look as good as new after a year and a half, I don't know about 
longer.
Longer!

> My lab takes pictures of several gels a day, so the video system
> will pay for itself in a few months; we'd have to pay several thousand
> dollars a year for Polaroid film, and since we want the pictures right
> away, using regular 35 mm film isn't an option.  If we ever want a
> publication-quality image we'll borrow someone else's Polaroid 
setup. 

We switched to (mainly) using a video-thermal printer setup a couple of 
years ago, and have saved MANY 10exp3 $US, as Polaroid film is WAY 
more expensive here than there (any there, just about) - convenient, if 
not as high resolution, and not REALLY publishable.  We are currently 
exploring means of getting images onto a PC (Mac?  You have Macs 
out there?  Rich people...!) without using proprietary hard/software - 
easier than you might think; there are a lot of shareware 
image-handling packages around that allow all sorts of sophisticated 
manipulations/conversions.  But Polaroid setups, however convenient 
and publishable, are just far too expensive for the 2nd-3rd world to 
contemplate for routine gel photography.

  ____________________________________________________________________
 | Ed Rybicki, PhD             |                                      |
 | (ed at micro.uct.ac.za)        |      "Lord, won't you buy me         |
 | Dept Microbiology           |          A Mer-ce-des Benz           |
 | University of Cape Town     |     My friends all have Porsches     |
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