Piximetre

[chrisjohnson]

Hi Folks

Is anyone using Piximetre as their measuring software?

To calibrate, the system requires a standard rule with the image. I take my photos through the trinocular head which doesn't have a graticule. Is there a simple answer to this, perceived, problem?

Thanks for any advice.

Chris

[BROCSMAN]

I had to give up using Piximetre live because it won't work with my (USB) camera (some codex problem apparently). I get round it by using photos. I calibrated the camera using photos of a calibration slide, viewed in Piximetre. It's not ideal, but I've had good results, and I think it's worth the extra bit of work, because Piximetre measures spores so easily, and give you the average and the Q ratio.

[waxcap]

Hi Chris.

I do the same as Brocsman. I measure the spores from a photograph - not live.

I just took a photo of the Stage Graticule with each Objective. Saved them on the PC and then used them as calibration photos on piximetre (Using the "Calibrate" button bottom left). After taking spore photos I save them to the PC as RAW files. I export my spore images from Adobe Lightroom (as full size jpg's) to a separate folder. It's those jpg's I open in piximetre. I launch Piximetre and load the Objective I used by clicking on "generic Standard" and choosing the saved objective from the drop-down list.

Of course the pixel size of the image must be the same as the reference image - you can't "crop" a spore image then measure.

It sounds long winded but it really isn't in practice. I use the Windows "snipping tool" to capture the Piximetre screen image after measuring and save that for reference.

Dave

B.T.W. I just came across this site - I'm very impressed with the way they record their finds.

[chrisjohnson]

Hi Brocsman & Dave

Many thanks for the helpful replies and to Dave for the detailed approach.

I'm not the brightess with technology but will give it a go and report back, either with success or more questions.

Chris

Edit: Just noticed your link Dave: excellent microscopy; works of art. There are comparable images on http://www.ascofrance.com/