The current edition of Video Microscopy has been totally revised to reflect the advances in the tools for electronic imaging, processing, recording, and analysis, as well as applications that are being made in video microscopy and related modes of electronic imaging. The less spiral organization of the revised edition reflects an audience expected to be more experi enced in video and computer image processing than in the earlier days when coupling of video equipment and computers to the light microscope was still considered to be a novelty. Nevertheless, we have emphasi2;ed the how-tos, as well as the fundamental principles, involved in imaging and processing ih the light microscope, the human visual system, video and related electronic imaging, and the digital image processor in the hope that the reader will develop enough understanding, not only to apply rationally what is available, but also to contribute actively to the development of this evolving field. In the text, the terms appearing in the Glossary are printed in bold type, generally, at first appearance. Italics are used for emphasis.

Ever since television became practical in the early 1950s, closed-circuit television (CCTV) in conjunction with the light microscope has provided large screen display, raised image contrast, and made the images formed by ultraviolet and infrared rays visible. With the introduction of large-scale integrated circuits in the last decade, TV equipment has improved by leaps and bounds, as has its application in microscopy. With modem CCTV, sometimes with the help of digital computers, we can distill the image from a scene that appears to be nothing but noise; capture fluorescence too dim to be seen; visualize structures far below the limit of resolution; crispen images hidden in fog; measure, count, and sort objects; and record in time-lapsed and high-speed sequences through the light microscope without great difficulty. In fact, video is becoming indispensable for harnessing the fullest capacity of the light microscope, a capacity that itself is much greater than could have been envisioned just a few years ago. The time seemed ripe then to review the basics of video, and of microscopy, and to examine how the two could best be combined to accomplish these tasks. The Marine Biological Laboratory short courses on Analytical and Quantitative Light Microscopy in Biology, Medicine, and the Materials Sciences, and the many inquiries I received on video microscopy, supported such an effort, and Kirk Jensen of Plenum Press persuaded me of its worth.