Cost-effective gel documentation using a web-cam

In search for a cost effective gel documentation system applicable for different fields of molecular biology, we analyzed the capabilities of a cheap CCD-camera originally designed to capture images for transmission through the internet (web-cam) with regard to gel documentation. The camera was connected to a personal computer by universal serial bus (USB) and used for the documentation of DNA separated on agarose gels and stained by ethidium-bromide using the software provided with the camera. The web-cam provided digital images of sufficient quality for routine documentation and combined the low set-up costs of a Polaroid system with the low running costs of video capture systems, hence is ideal as a start-up system and as augmentation to existing equipment.