Protocol for Video Capture and Editing of nematode specimens with Configuration 2 (Pinnacle DV500 and Adobe Premiere 6.0).


I. Initialisation

  1. Organise folders for captured and edited files, make subfolders if necessary.
  2. Start Premiere.
  3. "Load Project Settings" page appears: choose appropriate standard for Pinnacle DV500 (i.e. Pinnacle DV NTSC or Pinnacle DV PAL) and take note of capture frame rate (in our case 29.97 fps).
  4. Warning message appears: "No 1394 devices detected. Please check your device connection and retry again". Just click Ok.
  5. Select cascading menus "File" "Capture" "Movie capture": plug in camera power, switch on LM, channel all light to camera and adjust microscope to obtain even background in the video display.
  6. Adjust camera setup buttons: press Menu on the camera pad; set WHITE BALANCE to 3200K, SHUTTER to AUTO, AGC to ON; press Menu on the camera pad.
  7. In "Movie Capture" window: Select "Settings" page, click Edit… in capture settings box.
  8. In "Capture Settings" window: uncheck "Capture audio" box, click Settings.
  9. In "Settings Pinnacle DV500" window, "Video input" page: set sharpness to 100 and adjust brightness and contrast as necessary.
  10. In "Settings Pinnacle DV500" window, "Video format" page: check "OpenDML" and uncheck "Cropping". Ok. Ok.
  11. In "Movie Capture" window, "Settings" page: click Edit… in preferences box: select the correct folders for capture files and temporary video preview files. Ok.
II. Capture
 
  1. Place specimen on stage, select objective 4x-60x, center part of specimen to be captured.
  2. In "Movie capture" window: select "Logging" page and name clip unambiguously; position part of specimen to be captured in the video window, adjust 1x-2x magnification changer to obtain best coverage of viewing area, and rotate camera until axis of subject is horizontal.
  3. Turn up fine focus until specimen is just out of focus.
  4. In "Movie capture" window: click on the Record button, wait 0.25 sec, smoothly turn fine focus down all through specimen with the other hand, click on the Escape button of the PC keyboard.
  5. Move to other part of specimen and capture next clip, or proceed to editing stage.


III. Editing (removes duration redundancy)
 

  1. If necessary, open "Project" and "Timeline" windows from the "Window" menu.
  2. In "Project" window: grab film icon of a captured clip and drag it into leftmost end of track "Video 1A" of "Timeline" window.
  3. If necessary, check leftmost box of track 1A to display the eye icon (for realtime display of clip).
  4. In "Timeline" window: set second drop-down menu in lower left to "12 frames".
  5. In "Timeline" window: double-click on clip in track 1A to open it in the "Monitor" window.
  6. In "Monitor" window - leftmost controls: click play button to verify completeness of captured clip; if unsatisfactory delete clip and repeat capture.
  7. In "Monitor" window - leftmost controls: click on Frame Forward below display until first focused structures appear (cuticle, setae, …); click Mark In below and Apply above. If the left monitor window turns grey, click on timeline track 1 and the left monitor window to reactivate it.
  8. In "Monitor" window - leftmost controls: scrub to end of clip; click on Frame Back below until last frame with focused structures appears; click Mark Out below and Apply above. If the left monitor window turns grey, click on timeline track 1 and the left monitor window to reactivate it.
  9. In "Monitor" window - leftmost controls: Note number of frames after DELTA symbol (written as number of seconds + number of remaining frames, e.g. DELTA = 2:03 = 2 seconds + 3 frames = 63 frames if captured at 29.97 fps).


IV. Exporting (removes other redundancy types)
 

  1. Select cascading menus "File" "Export Clip" "Movie…", click on Settings….
  2. In "Export Movie Settings": select file type "Quick Time", range "In to Out", and check "Open when finished" box.
  3. In "Video" subheading: select codec "Cinepak"; set frame rate to the approximate ratio of 25 times 30/DELTA (e.g. if DELTA = 63 frames then choose frame rate = 10); set depth to "Millions"; set quality to 100%; set frame size to 720 by 540.
  4. In "Special Processing" subheading: click Modify.
  5. In "Special Processing" window: scrub to frame with widest outline of specimen; slide rectangle controls to crop background. Ok; Ok.
  6. In "Export Movie" window: select folder; type unambiguous filename; click Save.
  7. Premiere will open the result: scrub and verify exported clip; repeat editing and exporting if necessary.