Manual MiniRhizotron Camera

VSI-Bartz MS-16 minirhizotron camera module

VSI-BARTZ MS-190, Manual UHD Minirhizotron Camera. The instrument allows wide range of basic or applied plant and soil scientists to capture UHD digital images (up to 2500 dpi!) of roots and the rhizosphere over one or multiple growing seasons. Durable and lightweight, and equipped with the reliable "Smucker" indexing handle for exact vertical positioning (and an novel indexing head for circular positioning), the manual & portable UHD minirhizotron camera system is following the tradition of Bartz camera systems. It is reliable and easy to transport to any field location or can be used in rhizotron facilities and for studies in mesocosms. It is equally suitable to image horizontally, vertically and angled minirhizotron tubes up to 500 cm in length and can be factory calibrated to a large range of different MR tube dimensions (see MR tubes section for standard MR-T diameters). The Windows OS-based ICAP 8 software quickly and reliable allows to set-up and follow-up imaging schedules and locations and handles the comprehensible ICAP naming of images.

VSI MS-190 Manual MR Camera - Specifications

Images for illustration purposes only and subject to change without notice

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VSI MS-190 - Example Rhizosphere Images

VSI-BARTZ MR-190 in the literature

Recently, the VSI-Bartz MR-190 minirhizotron system was added to a Minirhizotron comparison published by Rahman et al. (2020) published in MDPI Sensors. However, unfortunately, some of the given information, especially regarding the VSI system, is not correct. For example, 

 

  • Table 1 lists the older model MS-16/17 instead of the recent VSI MS-190, Tube diameters are both 63.5/64 mm inner diameter AND 53.4/54 inner diameter, 7, or 6 cm outer diameter (differences in 0.5 mm range are caused by Inch vs. Metric Tubes)
  • Table 5 VSI MS-190 line, image resolution is 1-2500 dpi; live imaging IS available as  standard feature in BTC-ICAP 8; this MS system has no semi-auto rotation (but allows for full manual rotation), tube inner diameter is 53.5 to ~100 mm; tube length is 30-500 cm

Further questions arise on the authors objectiveness, e.g. regarding prices, and the reliability of the provided information, e.g. the so called hyper-spectral imaging capacities of their SoilCam system which is using LED light sources on a CMOS sensor with removed IR filter. 

Selected Readings on Minirhizotron Imaging Systems

  • Rahman, G., Sohag, H., Chowdhury, R., Wahid, K.A., Dinh, A., Arcand, M., and Vail, S. (2020). SoilCam: A Fully Automated Minirhizotron using Multispectral Imaging for Root Activity Monitoring. Sensors 20, 787.