Multi-channel images

Fluorescence microscopes can usually register different emission wavelengths (almost) simultaneously, allowing you to image different dyes on the sample. In the terminology of the Huygens Software, one channel in a 3D image refers to the intensity distribution recorded at a given fixed wavelength, independently of what device made the acquisition. Thus, it is a logical channel of stored data, and not necessarily a physical channel (as all the image channels could have been measured by a single photomultiplier, for instance).

In the Huygens Software, every channel is therefore deconvolved independently, using specific microscopic parameters (in an ideal cross talk free situation there's no correlation between channels). A multi-channel image requires a multi-channel point spread function.