Why use a microdensitometer other than a PDS?

The motivations for constructing a special purpose built microdensitometer are explored. The salient points of some of the microdensitometers are described and the advantages and disadvantages of the system in comparison to a PDS machine are outlined. The principal gain is in speed though at the expense of loss in dynamic range. The effects on the astronomical results are demonstrated. The astronomical results already obtained with these machines and from ongoing projects are described. It is shown that there is a large class of important astronomical problems which can be tackled by these machines but which are not feasibile on the PDS because of the speed of the machine.