Brunel Microscopes are UK distributors for the unique Helicon Focus imaging software. The problem with photomicrography, whether or not it is high power or low power stereomicroscopy, is the relatively limited depth of focus. Helicon software is the answer. Put simply, you take a series of digital images throughout the depth of the specimen, import them as a series into the Helicon software and the multiple images can be consolidated into a single image restoring the depth of focus.

Helicon Focus really is an effective and easy to use software program.  Its effect is probably best shown by the pictures above looking down a gun barrel. The first two pictures are images focused on the two extremes of the subject. In between these there can be any number of pictures (in this case 24 images) focused on a series of points between them. Helicon Focus automatically consolidates all the images into one in the third picture. It works in the same way for a series of photomicrographs. The software is available for both PC and Apple Mac. There are three versions:

Helicon Lite - stacks multiple images to give complete depth - ideal for most microscopy applications.

Helicon Pro - all the functions of Lite plus retouching, 3D and text applications.

Helicon Pro X64 - all the functions of Pro but uses Helicon Processing Server to overcome 3Gb address space limitations for Windows 32 bit applications.

These are images of some blue crystals magnified x100, again the first two images show the extremes of focus and there were 13 others in between focused at steps throughout the object. The third photograph shows the consolidated series, producing an image showing the full depth of focus.

Helicon Focus - Lite  Price £81 + vat - to buy click here

• Automatically adjusts and resizes images    

• Processes an unlimited number of images in the stack   

• No limitation on image resolution   

• Supports “dust map” to automatically remove black specks   

• Automatically adjusts the brightness of  adjacent images   

• Reads and writes RAW, TIFF, JPEG, BMP etc.

• Adds text and scale bar

Helicon Focus - Pro  Price £141 + vat - to buy click here

• Includes all features of Helicon Lite

• Retouching brush to clone from aligned source images to the

resulting image

• Batch mode to process multiple image stacks

• 2D micropanorama

• Export of animated stacks

• Export of 3D model to Helicon 3D Viewer

Helicon Focus - ProX64 Price £176 + vat - to buy click here

•  Includes all the features of the Pro version

•  Generates opacity maps for further editing in Photoshop

•  Uses Helicon Processing Server to overcome 3Gb address space limitation for Windows 32 bit applications. Using this technique Helicon Focus is able to get additional 3Gb of the address space on 32 bit OS and all available RAM on 64 bit OS

All versions of Focus have excellent adjustment features, including automatic lateral movement of the stack to accommodate images taken from stereomicroscopes . Most low power stereos have diverging optical paths, and it is common for one of these optical paths to be diverted via a prism to the third eyetube in a trinocular head. The result is that serial images taken through the depth of focus move laterally one to another down the angle of the optical path. Helicon Focus solves the problem very simply and effectively.This is highly recommended software for those undertaking digital photomicrography.

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