A set of programs has been developed for rapid collection of x-ray intensity data from protein and virus crystals with a commercially available two-dimensional focused geometry electronic detector. The detector is compact and portable, with unusually high spatial resolution comparable to that used in oscillation photography. It has allowed x-ray data collection on weakly diffracting crystals with large unit cells, as well as more conventional "diffractometer-quality" crystals. The quality of the data is compared with that from oscillation photography and automated diffractometry in the range of unit cells from 96.3 to 383.2 angstroms. Isomorphous and anomalous difference Pattersons, based on detector data, are shown for a variable surface glycoprotein mercury derivative and for a repressor-DNA bromine derivative, which has been solved at 7 angstroms with detector data only.