All light images referenced at this site were photographed on a Zeiss Axiophot microscope equipped with a Sony 3-chip CCD camera. These image files include a combination of digital micrographs in polarized light, transmitted light, and phase contrast. Because of the low birefringence displayed by many Tertiary species, most are only illustrated in transmitted light, but those nannofossils displaying higher orders of birefringence are also shown in polarized light or dark field as it is commonly called. These different views are produced by lenses on the microscope that alter the vibration of the source light by effecting the length, amplitude, frequency and velocity of the light ray. These "special effects" give the micropaleontologist different looks at the specimen as you will observe while viewing the species illustrated in the The Calcite Palace.
The conversion from analogue to digital image was completed on either a Unix-based VideoPix® or PC-based Snappy® digitizer using a Sony Trinitron monitor for focal reference. Digital images from the VideoPix were saved in 24-bit TIFF format then converted to GIF 89a type files at 256 colors. All images captured with the Snappy digitizer were saved in 24-bit JPEG format at 16M colors, then reduced in size using Ulead SmartSaver. The difference in image quality between these products is notable. The image of Eprolithus eptapetalus was captured using the VideoPix device. Compare it to the image of Acuturris scotus which was captured using the Snappy device. SEM examples were photographed on either a Cambridge or Hitachi scanning electron microscope. All positive images from the SEM were converted to digital format on a Microtek IIxe ScanMaker at 600 dpi which were also reduced in size using SmartSaver. More information about image capture can be seen at the web site of Meyer Instruments.
NOTE: Because of the large size of many image files, viewing time may be slow.