Whether you’re investing in your first digital imaging system for gel and membrane imaging, upgrading existing equipment, or just going with what’s already installed in your laboratory, you’ll need to understand key technical specifications to get the most out of your imager.

In this guide we discuss the features and terminology of charge-coupled device (CCD) technology relevant to biological imaging, explaining how imaging performance is affected by factors including:

• Pixel resolution and CCD sensor size
• Error and noise
• Dark noise, bias and camera cooling