Andor Dragonfly Sona camera settings

Last modified by vonder@helsinki_fi on 2024/01/24 07:25

The Zyla camera on the Andor Dragonfly has been sent for service at Andor in Belfast. We currently (Sep 9th, 2022) have a Andor Sona camera on loan to replace the Zyla while we wait.

The Sona is the Sona 4.2B-6model, meaning it has the same physical chip size / pixel size / camera resolution as our own Zyla but a slightly different quantum efficiency curve (i.e. higher sensitivity). So exposure times will need to be adjusted, although quite possibly less than between samples stained on different days.

As the Fusion software settings are group specific you will need to import channel settings for the Sona (or make new channel settings yourself - in this case please do NOT change the existing channels, but create a copy of them and modify the copy). Probably the easiest way to get started using the Sona would be:








  1. Use the 'Import' button in Fusion's Protocol Manager (see upper image on the right hand side)

2. Go to C:\Sona_Channels and import the protocol you want (this will also import the channel settings included)


    1. Sona_Brightfield.bkp - only brightfield
    2. Sona_CF25.bkp - 25µm pinhole confocal settings for 405, 480, 560, 647, 730nm lasers
    3. Sona_CF40.bkp - 40µm pinhole confocal settings for 405, 480, 560, 647, 730nm lasers
    4. Sona_WF.bkp - Widefield settings for 405, 480, 560, 647, 730nm lasers
    5. Sona_TIRF.bkp - TIRF settings for 405, 480, 560, 647, 730nm lasers

3.  If the camera path is not automatically recognized you will need to manually set the Sona path to the upwards pointing arrow in the Channel Manager advanced setting. (See lower picture on the right hand side how to get there - please DO NOT make any other changes here!)

This will only need to be done once for the first time you use the Sona with any channel settings.


import.PNG.pngAdvancedsettings.PNG



Please note that all settings are defaults and you will need to modify as ususal (exposure time, laser power, TIRF penetration depth) to suit your sample.