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Lionheart FX Alternative

Start imaging cells –
without the
$84,000 price tag

zenCELL owl does brightfield live cell imaging, confluence monitoring and high-throughput screening entry – inside your incubator, for €14,000. No fluorescence budget needed.

6×
lower cost than Lionheart FX
24
wells simultaneously
5 MP
higher than Lionheart (1.25 MP)
Price comparison
BioTek Lionheart FX$84,000
Gen5 software licenceannual fee
Service contractrecommended
zenCELL owl€14,000
Software (ImageJ)free included
Or lease from€290 / month
zenCELL owl saves your lab $70,000+ – enough to fund 2 additional research projects.
€14,000
vs. $84,000 Lionheart
5 MP
sensor resolution
24
wells at once
No
annual licence fees
50+
peer-reviewed publications
Who this is for

You need cell imaging –
not a fluorescence lab

The Lionheart FX is a powerful instrument for advanced fluorescence imaging. But most labs doing standard cell culture monitoring, scratch assays and first steps into high-throughput screening do not need fluorescence at all. zenCELL owl delivers exactly what they need – at a fraction of the cost.

Lionheart FX – where it overdelivers for your needs
—$84,000 for brightfield monitoring you could do at €14,000
—Fluorescence capability you pay for but don't use
—Gen5 software complexity for standard confluence assays
—Annual software and service fees adding up every year
—External device – not inside the incubator, cells exposed on transfer
—Sequential scanning – one well at a time, not 24 simultaneously
—Heavy tabel-top instrument requiring dedicated lab space
zenCELL owl – what you actually need
+€14,000 for full brightfield live cell imaging – or lease from €290/month
+Brightfield optimised for confluence, morphology and migration
+Simple software – results in minutes, ImageJ integration free
+No annual fees – one purchase price, software updates free
+Inside your incubator – cells stay at 37°C / 5% CO₂ throughout
+24 wells monitored simultaneously – parallel experiments in one device
+18 × 18 × 10 cm, 1.5 kg – fits on any incubator shelf
What zenCELL owl does

The assays that matter –
no fluorescence required

These are the applications most labs actually run day-to-day. All work with brightfield. All work better when your device lives inside the incubator with your cells.

01
Confluence monitoring

Track cell growth automatically across 24 wells simultaneously. No manual microscopy, no removing plates from the incubator. AI-calculated confluence percentage every imaging interval – from seeding to 100% confluence.

Brightfield
02
Scratch assay / wound healing

Automated gap closure analysis from first scratch to full closure. Monitor 24 conditions in parallel – different concentrations, different cell lines, different treatments – in a single experiment run.

Migration
03
Cytotoxicity monitoring

Track cell death by morphology and confluence loss in real time. No endpoint assay, no plate reader needed. Continuous kinetic data across 24 wells shows when cells start dying and how fast – without touching the plate.

Label-free
04
Cell counting and growth curves

AI-based cell counting per well, per time point. Growth curves generated automatically. Compare growth rates across conditions without manual counting or hemocytometer. Publication-ready graphs exported directly.

AI analysis
05
Morphology observation

5 MP brightfield images capture fine morphological detail – cell shape changes, rounding, spreading, detachment. 10× magnification with digital zoom for single-cell level observation. Time-lapse video export for publications.

5 MP Imaging
06
HTS entry – first steps

24 conditions in parallel is your first step into high-throughput screening. Test 24 drug concentrations, 24 timepoints or 8 compounds × 3 replicates in one run. No robotic liquid handler needed – just zenCELL owl and your standard 24-well plate.

High-throughput entry
First steps into HTS

How zenCELL owl
gets you started in HTS

High-throughput screening does not have to start with a $500,000 robotic system. zenCELL owl gives you the parallel imaging infrastructure for 24-well format brightfield HTS – the most common entry point for academic and small biotech labs.

1
24 conditions in one experiment
Place your 24-well plate in zenCELL owl. Set imaging intervals. Walk away. All 24 wells are imaged simultaneously at every time point – no sequential scanning, no gaps in your data.
2
Dose-response curves from a single plate
Run 8 drug concentrations × 3 replicates = 24 wells. zenCELL owl generates confluence, cell count and morphology data per well per time point. Export to CSV and build your dose-response curve directly.
3
Multiple devices = real HTS scale
Three zenCELL owl devices cost less than one Lionheart FX – and give you 72 wells of simultaneous imaging. Stack them in separate incubators for independent environmental conditions per experiment.
4
XYZ stage add-on for 96-well and beyond
The optional XYZ motorised stage extends zenCELL owl to 96-well and 384-well plate formats with multiple imaging points per well. A direct path from 24-well entry-level HTS to full high-throughput screening without changing the system.
The HTS entry maths

One Lionheart FX at $84,000 gives you one imaging instrument. Three zenCELL owl at €14,000 each = €42,000 gives you 72 parallel wells of continuous brightfield imaging – for half the price of one Lionheart FX.

If your throughput requirement is 24-well brightfield assays, zenCELL owl is not a compromise. It is the right tool.

When to choose Lionheart FX instead

zenCELL owl is brightfield only. If your assays require fluorescence (GFP reporters, DAPI staining, multi-channel fluorescence), the Lionheart FX is the right choice. We will tell you this honestly rather than oversell zenCELL owl for applications it is not designed for.

Technical comparison

Specifications –
zenCELL owl vs. Lionheart FX

A side-by-side comparison of the specifications that matter for brightfield live cell imaging and HTS entry.

SpecificationzenCELL owlBioTek Lionheart FX
Price€14,000$84,000
LeasingFrom €290/monthNot available
Imaging modeBrightfieldBrightfield, phase contrast, fluorescence
Sensor5 MP CMOS1.25 MP
Magnification10× + digital zoom4× to 100× (oil immersion)
Parallel wells24 simultaneously1 (sequential scanning)
LocationInside incubatorExternal (with environmental chamber)
Dimensions18 × 18 × 10 cm, 1.5 kg~450 × 478 × 320 mm, ~30 kg
SoftwarezenCELL Software + ImageJ (free)Gen5 (licence fees apply)
Annual feesNoneSoftware + service contract
96-well compatibleYes – with XYZ stage add-onYes – motorised stage
Publications50+Many (established system)
Setup timeMinutes – USB-C, plug and imageRequires calibration and setup
Made inGermanyUSA
Setup

From unboxing
to first image in minutes

No installation engineer. No calibration day. No training course. zenCELL owl is designed to be running within minutes of opening the box.

01
Place in incubator

Place zenCELL owl on any standard shelf inside your CO₂ incubator. 18 × 18 × 10 cm fits beside existing flasks and plates. No reconfiguration of your incubator required.

02
Connect via USB-C

Route the flat USB-C ribbon cable through the incubator door seal to your laptop or PC. No external power supply, no complex cabling. One cable does everything.

03
Set up your experiment

Open zenCELL software. Select wells, set imaging interval, name your experiment. For a standard confluence assay, this takes under 5 minutes. Start imaging and close the incubator.

04
Monitor from anywhere

Images and analysis appear in real time on your screen. Access remotely from outside the lab. Confluence curves, cell count graphs and time-lapse videos are generated automatically.

Frequently asked questions

Questions from labs
comparing to Lionheart FX

Can zenCELL owl replace the Lionheart FX for fluorescence assays? +
No. zenCELL owl is a brightfield-only system. If your assays require fluorescence imaging – GFP, DAPI, multi-channel – the Lionheart FX or a similar fluorescence microscope is the right choice. zenCELL owl is designed for labs that need high-quality brightfield live cell imaging at accessible cost, not as a fluorescence replacement.
The Lionheart FX has more magnification options. Does 10× limit what I can do? +
For the applications zenCELL owl is designed for – confluence monitoring, scratch assay, cytotoxicity, cell counting and HTS entry – 10× magnification with digital zoom covers everything you need. Subcellular imaging at 40× or 100× is a different category of experiment. If your work requires subcellular resolution, the Lionheart FX is better suited. If you are monitoring cell culture health, migration and proliferation, 10× is exactly right.
Why is the zenCELL owl sensor higher resolution than the Lionheart FX? +
zenCELL owl uses a 5 MP CMOS sensor per channel (2592 × 1944 pixels), giving sharp brightfield images with sufficient detail for single-cell observation and morphology analysis. The Lionheart FX uses a 1.25 MP sensor optimised for fluorescence sensitivity rather than brightfield resolution. For brightfield-only applications, zenCELL owl's 5 MP sensor produces cleaner, more detailed images.
What does "24 wells simultaneously" mean in practice? +
zenCELL owl contains 24 independent miniaturised cameras – one per well of a standard 24-well plate. Every imaging interval, all 24 cameras capture their image at exactly the same moment. The Lionheart FX uses a single camera and motorised stage that moves to each well in sequence. For a 24-well plate, this means the Lionheart captures well 1 first and well 24 last – with minutes of delay between time points across wells. zenCELL owl captures all 24 simultaneously, giving you truly synchronised time-course data.
Is zenCELL owl suitable for drug screening? +
Yes, for brightfield-based drug screening. Running 8 concentrations × 3 replicates on a 24-well plate gives you a complete dose-response dataset in one automated run. Confluence loss (cytotoxicity), scratch closure inhibition (anti-migration) and cell count reduction are all measurable without fluorescent labels. For label-free drug screening at entry-level HTS scale, zenCELL owl is well-suited. For reporter gene assays or fluorescent compound screening, fluorescence imaging is required.
What software is included and what does it cost? +
zenCELL software is included at no additional cost with every device. It provides confluence analysis, cell counting, time-lapse video export and CSV data export. Integration with ImageJ is free and documented. There are no annual software licence fees. The Lionheart FX uses Agilent Gen5 software, which requires a licence and typically comes with annual renewal costs.

See what zenCELL owl
does for your lab

Book a 20-minute remote demo. We will show you confluence monitoring, scratch assay analysis and HTS entry on a live device. No commitment required.

No credit card required Response within 24 hours Made in Germany 50+ publications
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Full course of live cell imaging

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