Video Through A Microscope

Microscope video presents a whole other challenge. The light is very weak, mounting adapters are almost non-existent, focus is a challenge and doing a retake is impossible. Add to that the working life of a slide on a microscope is about 20 minutes, and then they start to dry up, killing the actors. Still, it can be rewarding, as in this particular video of a Lepadella patella Rotifer.

Shot with a Canon T1i mounted on a 1980's vintage Nikon Fluophot research microscope. Hopefully you have high speed cable and can watch it at 720p HD and large. The internal workings of these bugs is quite amazing to see.

That is VERY cool and a little creepy!

Thanks Ben. This is one of the good bugs. They are even employed at sewage plants to eat the crud and dissolve it down to harmless sludge. I have watched them feeding in fairly dirty water and they take in a lot of bacteria, where their stomach acids break it down into harmless waste. It's like biohazard remediation on a micro scale. They only live 15 days, then break down into component particles and are in turn eaten by smaller bugs. I call them the cleanup crew.

Really cool, shot looked great, did you do any color correcting or contrast enhancements?

Thanks Jesse. Normally, I just run through the video to see if there are any really bad parts to cut out, but this time, I corrected the WB, brightened it a bit, added some sharpening, contrast and saturation. It seems the more editing you do, the worse it can make the outcome. What I really need, is the T2i, which would give me full manual video. The T1i is just full auto and no adjustments but WB. I have to use EOS Utility to record with. The functions are limited.

canonloader wrote in post #13069036
Thanks Jesse. Normally, I just run through the video to see if there are any really bad parts to cut out, but this time, I corrected the WB, brightened it a bit, added some sharpening, contrast and saturation. It seems the more editing you do, the worse it can make the outcome. What I really need, is the T2i, which would give me full manual video. The T1i is just full auto and no adjustments but WB. I have to use EOS Utility to record with. The functions are limited.

If I was you I would consider the Panasonic GH1, you can hack it and get some ultra high bitrate video, the quality (clarity) of the video is way beyond anything Canon makes right now. I have 7D, 5D and a GH1 and I can tell you the clarity difference is extremely noticeable. For these specific videos I would use a GH1 hands down.

Nice, but out of my range for now.

I am looking for a HD CCD box camera now. Nothing beats the quality of CCD for microscope use, with it's low lux capabilities.

Another option I have, is Premier Pro CS5. I have it but never used it yet. I am sitting here now, watching some tutorials on how to use it. This may help the final image quality.

canonloader wrote in post #13066724
Thanks Ben. This is one of the good bugs. They are even employed at sewage plants to eat the crud and dissolve it down to harmless sludge. I have watched them feeding in fairly dirty water and they take in a lot of bacteria, where their stomach acids break it down into harmless waste. It's like biohazard remediation on a micro scale. They only live 15 days, then break down into component particles and are in turn eaten by smaller bugs. I call them the cleanup crew.

That is awesome! Sometimes this world is a beautiful machine. Thanks for posting this, now I have a new found respect for that which previously creeped me out! lol

I am still a newbie at this, had microscopes for about a year now, and it has really given me a new outlook on life in general and how it's all connected. One thing I have found and that really sticks out though, is that even at the one celled level, most animals are vegetarians or scavengers. There are actually very few carnivores, hunters or cannibals. The few there are though, are really nasty beasts. Being one celled though, they have no eyes, brains or nervous systems, they just attack, eat and devour their prey when and where they find it, so it might look worse than it is.

At the range of a regular microscope though, and they can be had, used, from E-bay, for less than even a Canon Macro lens costs, you can see not only single celled animals full frame and in detail, but you can see the parts that make them up. This rotifer has about 1000 cells herself, but there are single celled animals almost her size. When they die, the cell membrane bursts and all the parts inside just go back into the water, where other bugs find them and feed on them. Nothing goes to waste.

canonloader wrote in post #13070821
I am still a newbie at this, had microscopes for about a year now, and it has really given me a new outlook on life in general and how it's all connected. One thing I have found and that really sticks out though, is that even at the one celled level, most animals are vegetarians or scavengers. There are actually very few carnivores, hunters or cannibals. The few there are though, are really nasty beasts. Being one celled though, they have no eyes, brains or nervous systems, they just attack, eat and devour their prey when and where they find it, so it might look worse than it is.

At the range of a regular microscope though, and they can be had, used, from E-bay, for less than even a Canon Macro lens costs, you can see not only single celled animals full frame and in detail, but you can see the parts that make them up. This rotifer has about 1000 cells herself, but there are single celled animals almost her size. When they die, the cell membrane bursts and all the parts inside just go back into the water, where other bugs find them and feed on them. Nothing goes to waste.

Someday, when I am older and done running this rat race, I hope to sit back and study more of what makes up this place before I leave it. Microbiology is def one of the places I will start. All humans should see and learn how life works on these levels and take from it an ideal model that we at our level should not only strive for but accept we are supposed to be to a degree.

Well said. I grew up on a farm, and in those days, we did not buy meat at the store. At a very early age I realized that we are no better than the animals. Not better, luckier maybe. More recently, I have gotten very close to birds, and now the micro life. There is one universal that we all share, nothing wants to die. Even a paramecium knows when death is near and will fight it to the very end. The scientists have kept that to themselves. They couldn't sell much Raid if we all knew what it does to the bug.

canonloader wrote in post #13076327
Well said. I grew up on a farm, and in those days, we did not buy meat at the store. At a very early age I realized that we are no better than the animals. Not better, luckier maybe. More recently, I have gotten very close to birds, and now the micro life. There is one universal that we all share, nothing wants to die. Even a paramecium knows when death is near and will fight it to the very end. The scientists have kept that to themselves. They couldn't sell much Raid if we all knew what it does to the bug.

Ha, you touch on some very lengthy topics there. Ive never lived anywhere but well populated urban areas (towns with 45k+ people), but never the less my realization of our existence as human animals in this place came from a long string of deductive logic. There is simply, mathematical, scientifically and logically no other possibility. We are products of the planet. One with it, and still connected to it in many ways that people have forgotten to experience and nurture within themselves. Its sad. It helps feed our intrinsic psychological disposition of loneliness that we are all born feeling to varying degrees. We are a tormented species trapped in the teenage years of our existence in this place and time.

That being said studying how other living beings deal with this "Earth condition" is a helpful and fruitful way to work towards learning what is within ourselves and what we should be striving to become. Their KISS (keep it simple stupid) approach to existing here has a pleasant freedom to it. Call it ignorant or perhaps the right choice, sometimes I wonder if they were just never given the option to open Pandora's proverbial box. Sometimes, most times, I envy them.

I too have always loved birds as well. Their sense of freedom and existence in this truly three dimensional world around us has always made me jealous. We are so disabled we have grown to look at this world as so 2D.

And yes, as with RAID, imagine how little they would sell of 90% of the drugs, food, electronics, cleaning products, and millions of other things they make FOR US if they educated us on what they were actually doing to our bodies! Obliterating insects on a cellular level is at the bottom of an evilly long list.

All you said is exactly why I take these videos and put them up on YouTube. I hope, as simple and non-professional as they are, that others will get a feeling for what we are all part of.

canonloader wrote in post #13077128
All you said is exactly why I take these videos and put them up on YouTube. I hope, as simple and non-professional as they are, that others will get a feeling for what we are all part of.

I understand that reason of motivation well. I hope to write a book someday with all these concepts, ideas and rules listed out in some type of logical organization someday, solely in the hopes that someday whether now or a hundred years from now someone will find it, read it, and feel less alone knowing that there have been others like them and that we are working towards this higher state of being, its just going to be a long journey. Keep with your work, keep refining. Show them what they forgot they needed to see. Even if you only truly reach ten people in the remainder of your years, perhaps one will continue where you left off and the ideas and dreams will find a way to leap frog through time.

Take a look at what this person did. Perhaps it can give you some creative inspiration to help you move in whatever direction you chose to take this:
LINKLINKLINK

Good luck my friend.

Wow, those are beautiful. I wish I were half that creative.