Objective lenses for confocal microscopy

Abstract

No other component of the microscope is as instrumental in determining the information content of an image as the objective. The resolved detail, the contrast at which this detail is presented, the depth through the object from which useful information can be derived, and the diameter of the useful field are all limited by the performance of the objective. All other imaging components, such as relay optics, Telan systems, tube lenses and eyepieces, or projectives may have some corrective function but otherwise serve only to present the image generated by the objective to the detector in such a way that most of its information content can be recorded without degradation. © 2006, 1995, 1989 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved.