Question

When should I choose the Initial Focus method to scan my slide?

Answer

The Initial Focus method scans the region of interest using the same focus point (single focus plane) for each field in the scanned area. This is the fastest focus method. It is useful for specimens (like insects or textiles) that are very thick for which something is always in focus or for regions of interest that are small enough that focus does not change over the scan area. You can browse a slide to quickly determine focus quality over small regions.

Generally, when you scan extremely thick specimens with the Initial Focus method, the resulting deep zoom images look very good. If you scan thicker specimens with a focus method like Exhaustive Stack, the resulting fields do not combine (stitch) well because each field is more likely to scan at a different focal plane and the edges (where the images overlap) are not focused the same.