Locked in the basement...

Despite reporting in a previous post about a new traveling companion I must now recant and retire said companion to a cold Manitoba winter, locked in the confines of my basement lab. After a careful examination of every nook and cranny of our Gulf Coast rental unit in the online photos, I couldn't find a place suitable for a photomicrography setup. And so, a thorough examination of the Laguna Madre microfauna will have to wait for now, and if I'm lucky, proceed next year.

As a placeholder for next spring, I'll share a little video I assembled.

Experimenting with video on a possible Glaucoma genus micro-critter

On my second day of experimentation I've finally figured out how to set the white balance for video mode. It turns out that video white balance is set separately from digital stills WB. Next up will be the onerous task of trying to figure out what exactly the real colours seen through the eyepiece are. I ended up taking four separate videos, all of which turned out much better than previous attempts. However, they would all benefit from some artistic, or is that ruthless, editing so I'm only going to upload one here. The organism, a possible member of the Glaucoma genus, expelled a small portion of it's body interior just prior to taking the above shot. The contractile vacuole is still partially distended as a result of that expulsion. Not sure what was happening there and I wish I had caught it on video.

The one video I'm going to post here just shows a slow moving ciliate but displays quite nicely the operation of the contractile vacuole.

Rotifer deli...

I just threw together the new (old) Leitz, the new (old model) Canon T3i and a water sample with a few bdelloid rotifers and tried out the new video capability of my setup. This first video was shot in HD and features a resting rotifer that is not at all shy about sharing the details of her innards with observers at large.

This second video was shot at a resolution of 640 x 480. It features a group of bdelloid chicks hanging out at a detritus bar. If you look closely at the stomach area of the first rotifer you'll be able to make a diatom that was recently ingested.

These first attempts have captured my interest and I hope to do more soon. I've seen several interesting events in the last week or so, unfortunately before I had the camera. So for now I've got to keep looking and hopefully something special will pop up in my oculars. I'll also keep working on cleaning up the images and getting rid of the color cast.

Santa's practice fly-by...

Not that I believe in Santa anymore but how else can I explain the appearance of this little accessory to my new toy 2? My guess is that inventories for this item on North Pole shelves were through the roof and room had to be made for the new models. And since my wife still believes in the cheery, fat man I think I might get away with another one. :)

This will open me to another facet of this wonderful hobby...video. Viewing with these old eyes is getting tougher all the time and having a video to examine, in detail and at my leisure, micro-critters will be a big boon. And video doesn't show all those floaters at high power either. :)