Status

On occasion, a uScopeMXII unit is configured with support for dual (2) objectives. These units have special requirements and instructions for swapping and scanning with the provided objectives.

Information

Following are several support topics necessary to successful operation of a dual-objective uScopeMXII or uScopeHXII.

Swapping Objectives

To change the objective, you must open the uScopeMXII case, remove the mechanism, and replace the objective. Refer to the following knowledge base article for information about swapping objectives:

• Changing Objectives on the uScopeMXII

Loading the Appropriate Configuration File

After swapping the objective, you must load the appropriate configuration file. Refer to the following knowledge base article for information about loading the configuration file:

• Loading Calibration File for Dual Objective uScopeMXII

Scanning Slides

A default objective (the lower-powered of the two objectives) is the primary objective associated with the uScopeMXII when it is initially built and calibrated. The primary objective description, along with a few other parameters, are stored in the internal Flash memory of the uScope. Deep Zoom information files, created for each slide you scan, include the primary objective details. This data in these files are subsequently used by the deep zoom image viewer.

When you scan a slide using the secondary objective, the primary objective metadata is still used to create the deep zoom information files which causes pixel mapping and magnification controls to be inaccurate. Refer to the following knowledge base article for information about updating the metadata files for your scans:

• Fixing Dual Objective uScopeMXII Metadata

Caveats

While we have configured units with two objectives, we would like to point out several caveats to such a configuration.

• The illuminator in the uScopeMXII has a fixed aperture that is matched to the installed objective. To support an additional objective, the aperture must support both objectives. It is therefore not optimal for the higher power objective and image quality is compromised to some extent.
• The uScope calibration files are unique to a particular objective. So, we must create a second calibration file for the second objective and the user must manually load the appropriate calibration file when changing objectives.
• There is no elegant way to swap the objective in the uScopeMXII. Even with the greatest of care, changing an objective ultimately changes the light path (ever so slightly) and could introduce minor calibration errors. However, in practice this hasn't been noticeable.
• There is an additional cost for the second objective and for the time to calibrate and Q/A the unit.