Manual MiniRhizotron Camera
VSI 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 indexing head for accurate circular positioning), the manual & portable UHD minirhizotron camera system is an advanced version of the traditional, and much relied on Bartz camera systems. It is robust and easy to transport to any field location and can be used in rhizotron facilities and for studies in pots and 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 root observation tube dimensions (see MR tubes section for standard MR-T diameters). The Windows OS-based ICAP 8 software (see below) quickly and reliable allows to set-up and follow-up root imaging schedules and locations and handles the comprehensible ICAP naming of images.
VSI MS-190 UHD Minirhizotron Camera - Specifications
Images for illustration purposes only and subject to change without notice
VSI MS-190 - Example Rhizosphere Images
BTC ICAP MR Imaging Software
BTC ICAP Minirhizotron Imaging Software. The software was developed and refined during the last decade by Bartz Technology Corporation and offers the reliable and convenient set-up and execution of MR experiments. We build on this strong base to provide minirhizotron camera users with the software they need to smoothly operate our manual HD minirhizotron camera systems. As before, BTC ICAP will run on Windows OS - making it easy for students and newbies to access the program and to download the images.
We can offer a new version of the software as UI of the MS-190 and as stand alone program to organize MR imaging sessions with selected USB camera systems of your choice. Please contact Bartz Technology Corporation for further details.
BTC ICAP Support
Technical support for the BTC ICAP program is provided by Bartz Technology Corporation, CA, USA.
- Email ICAP-Software SUPPORT: ICAP-support@vienna-scientific.com
BTC ICAP Software - Screenshots
Images for illustration purposes only, design subject to change without notice
VSI MR-190 in the Literature
Recently, the VSI MR-190 minirhizotron system was added to a Minirhizotron comparison 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.