Our consultants have recently trialed Pentax and Fuji scopes - at the insistance of Supplies - and have signed up to the Pentax equipment. By that I mean they have signed an evaluation sheet to say that the Pentax stuff is good and that they would be prepared to use it.
We are entirely Keymed for the flexible scopes and find them very expensive to maintain. Pentax are certainly cheaper to buy and should be cheaper to run. I'll let you know if / when we actually buy some !
Someone from Keymed did explain why they used the B&W CCD's with this complex strobing system - but it was a long time ago and I can't be sure I remember the details accurately - but I THINK it was because the definition available from a B&W chip was much higher than from a colour chip. I can't see the relevance of that argument if you do the comparison to a 3 chip colour system, plus the fact that colour technology must have moved ahead in leaps and bounds over the last few years with the increase in digital cameras etc.
It COULD be because this system ensures that you have to use an Olympus light source and camera control unit with the scope rather than cheaper alternatives. Just a thought !
