Viewpoint Laboratories launches ZIG-gel Wi-Fi Gel Documentation System at NABT 2014

CLEVELAND - Nov. 11, 2014 - PRLog -- Viewpoint Laboratories, LLC, is extending their product offerings for affordable gel documentation systems for teaching and research labs with the announcement of their new ZIG-gel Wi-Fi Gel Documentation System at the National Association of Biology Teachers 2014 Professional Development Conference.

"As camera technology continues to advance and become more affordable, Viewpoint Laboratories has been integrating these advances into state-of-the-art products for the life science market," said a spokesperson for the company. "The ZIG-gel is the latest example, which, to the best of our knowledge, is the first gel documentation system that enables complete control and capture capability from the user's own smartphone or tablet."

The ZIG-gel, named after the ziggurat structure to which it bears resemblance, is compatible with iOS and Android™ devices via a free third-party app. The system includes an 18 MP camera with 10x optical zoom, and images are saved in JPEG format. The field of view of the system is 16 cm x 12.5 cm, perfect for mini- and midi-gels. The ZIG-gel is designed for use with a variety of third‐party benchtop transilluminators including UV, white light, and blue LED models. "The ZIG-gel pairs well with the popular Dark Reader® blue LED transilluminator models, size DR46B and larger, as well as the UV and blue LED transilluminators available from Maestrogen," said the spokesperson.

"In the past few years several companies, including Viewpoint Laboratories, have released products that involve the user attaching their smartphone to a hood and using the native smartphone camera for image capture," said the spokesperson. "This works well in some applications, but at the same time we've received feedback where the end user is interested in investing in a higher performance camera. In a way the ZIG-gel provides the best of both worlds: high-end performance and mobile-device convenience."

Viewpoint Laboratories is offering two versions of the ZIG-gel. One model, the ZIG-F62, includes a high quality 62 mm amber filter for use with UV and blue LED transilluminators and most dyes such as ethidium bromide, SYBR® Green, GelStar™, GelGreen™, GelRed™, SYPRO® Ruby, Pro-Q® Diamond, Cy3®, rhodamine, fluorescein, and various GFPs. The other model, the ZIG-NF, has no filter and is meant for use with the amber screen that typically comes with many commercially available blue LED transilluminators.

"We're excited to launch the ZIG-gel at NABT 2014," said the spokesperson. "We feel this product will be very popular for life science educators, their labs, classrooms, and students, so we couldn't have picked a better venue."

Please visit http://www.viewpointlaboratories.com/in-vitro/ for more information.

Smartphone and tablet shown are for demonstration purposes only and are not included. Dark Reader is a registered trademark of Clare Chemical Research, Inc. Pro-Q, SYBR, and SYPRO are registered trademarks of Life Technologies. Cy is a trademark of GE Healthcare. GelGreen and GelRed are trademarks of Biotium, Inc. GelStar is a trademark of Lonza Group Ltd. Android is a trademark of Google Inc.