How to take picture of dna electrophoresis without a gel documentation unit? - (Jan/08/2007 )

Hi all,

I have a technical problem.
I m working on food pathogens. After PCR, i go for electrophoresis. But the problem is that our institution do not have enough funding for the purchase of a gel documentation unit. So i tried with some digital camera (sony made) on UV transilluminator. The pictures are coming but they are not of very good quality, which can be sent for publication purpose.

What should i do? Can anybody suggests something about that?

I don't know if they are still available, but in the old days, we used a Polaroid camera with hood attachments that would fit over the gel (different sized hoods for different sized gels) on the transilluminator. Worked quite well, with quality, in my opinion, higher than some of these fancy, expensive, computer-controlled gizmos. A special filter was also needed. Check out the supply catalogues.

based on what said wbla, and assuming that a digital camera is not worth than a polaroid, maybe you should try to take the picture in the dark so you would have only the ligth from the UV light.
try to find also a way to fix the camera so you don't move.

you sould add a filter for your digital camera at least
I have work with Kodak camera with filter for EB stained DNA band
here is a linker shows an example using digital camera for gel document
http://mercury.bio.uaf.edu/~kris_hundertmark/Lab/Geldoc.html
good luck