Hello Mike, hello Charlie,
please apologize my late response and thanks for your kind comments.
When i check my specimens for ciliates i have a easy to do procedure
(thanks to Sebastian for his tips ! ) : when i come home, i shake the vials with the water
specimens and put the content into a bigger glass. Now i put some coverglasses onto the
water surface. Now i have time enough for drinking some coffee and washing hands and so on.
After some time (30 min. to 12 hours) many ciliates and algae will settle on the swimming coverglasses.
They will build housings and at least a three dimensional habitat. In this small habitat cilates move
much more relaxed than in a water drop taken with a pipette. Coleps moves more slowly and often rests
between the three dimensional particles of the micro habitat.
Adapting DSLR: as you may know, i work with a Leica infinity corrected microscope. Optical correction is
widely done behind the tubus lens, so the picture is directly projected onto the CCD.
The deciding difference to the Coolpix is the missing glass between the microscope objective
and the camera CCD. The light has to pass the eyepiece and the camera objective as well.
Lots of reflections on every lens, you don't need. And the CCDs are much bigger in the DSLRs.
My adaptor works with a tilting angle of 90 degrees, so camera handling is as usual and you
can look at the control monitor directly.
The adaptor is registered at the German Patent Department (
www.dpma.de), the number is :DE202005013948U1 as
a petty patent.
Thanks,
Gerd
