Setup ACQ4 vs scanimage?

[Diego Restrepo]

II would appreciate your opinion on this question. I spent my summer in Paris working with Michael Graupner (thanks Michael!). He introduced me to ACQ 4. 

We are setting up a new two photon microscope in my lab. We use slidebook, but I want to tweek the software as I do for our awake behaving olfactometer/tetrode setups. I was thinking about using scanimage because I do a lot of the coding in MATLAB. However, Michael introduced me to ACQ4, and I am very tempted to install it! I wonder if I should use ACQ4. I am a bit uneasy because as far as I am aware nobody is using it here (University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center), and I am new to python. We do have experience in Lab View and MATLAB.

The new setup will have a MOM Sutter microscope with regular galvos, fast-gated GaAsP PMTs with sub-microsecond electronic shuttering and a MAI TAI HP DS Spectra-Physics laser.

Thanks!

Diego

[Luke Campagnola]

Hi Diego,

The answer to your question depends on a few others:

 - Why do you want to use ACQ4 -- are there specific features that you want to be able to use that are not available in scanimage? Are you curious about Python in general?

 - Are there specific features you need that are not supported in acq4, and if so, are you willing to dig in to the code? (for example, acq4 does not implement most of slidebook's features, and I don't know of anyone who has used acq4 with a Sutter MOM)

 - How adventurous are you feeling?

I think scanimage is probably the safe option here because you are already familiar with MATLAB, and so you'll probably have an easier time getting it running. However if there is something specific about acq4 that you're interested in, or if you're interested in learning Python, then perhaps you have some motivation to try out a new platform. It's also probable that your hardware will work under both platforms, so you could potentially set up both and see how they work for you. Maybe you can tell us a bit more about the experiments you want to be able to run?

Luke

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[Diego Restrepo]

Thanks Luke, this helps. Likely what I will do is proceed to install both scanimage and acq4. First, we do not need to use acq4/scanimage immediately because we have Slidebook. The reason why I want to setup scanimage or acq4 is because of direct control of galvos, long term integration with closed loop optogenetics, automated olfactometry, recording of animal movements, etc. I do this routinely for tetrode recording, and it is useful. Why acq4? Interested in python (although my coding time is limited...). 

Diego

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