Movies -- Lacrymaria capturing and swallowing Tetrahymenas

Thomas Ashcraft · Post by **Thomas Ashcraft** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 3:58 pm

Movie frame extract of a Lacrymaria shot at 400x magnification.

I made some movies of Lacrymarias hunting and feeding. I think the prey is Tetrahymena (which is not seen in the image above.) If I am wrong on the prey species I hope someone will correct me. (Thanks!) The files are in .divx format and are kind of long because it takes 20 to 30 seconds for a Lacrymaria to swallow its prey down its superlong neck.

http://www.heliotown.com/Lacrymaria_capturing_prey.html

Tom in New Mexico

Canon S3 IS in movie mode
Meiji microscope and optics

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Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 4:28 pm

Tom... those are great! You must have had some pretty hungry Lacrymaria to be fortunate enough to capture it twice. Well done.

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 6:36 pm

Tom,

Fascinating videos! You've done a great job in framing and holding focus. I've watched Lacrymarias for ages and I've never seen anything like that.

Ran smoothly within WMP. So could I ask Tom - what software did you use to edit/convert to DivX?

Will watch these vids again for sure.

Bruce

Thomas Ashcraft · Post by **Thomas Ashcraft** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 8:23 am

Bruce Williams wrote: "Ran smoothly within WMP. So could I ask Tom - what software did you use to edit/convert to DivX?"

Bruce,

I compressed the original .avi files using .divx converter. It costs $20. On one level I hesitate recommending .divx products because of the aggressive marketing they embed into their software but their movie quality seems to be the best for microscopy purposes. At least for the moment.

Tom

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 2:13 am

Hi again Tom,

I have downloaded a trial version of DivX converter and used it to produce the video clip downloadable from my posting "Mystery protozoan - like a balloon floating through the water". I'm impressed with just how easy it is to use and how quickly it works so will be buying a licence.

By the way, my wife loved your Lacrymaria video.

Bruce

Thomas Ashcraft · Post by **Thomas Ashcraft** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 6:28 am

Bruce wrote: "I have downloaded a trial version of DivX converter and used it to produce the video clip downloadable from my posting "Mystery protozoan - like a balloon floating through the water".

Bruce, Very fine video! Thanks for posting it. I like the fact that I can play these videos at full screen ( at least on my 17" monitor screen) and they don't pixelate. When viewed large there is often more subtle detail and information.

Now you'll have to start investing in extra hard drives to hold all your original files.

Tom