Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone ever try this?I used it on my black rat and came up with 76" twice.My gravid trans pecos comes in at 50".Cool program!

i downloaded it....but i have never tried it... i hear its great...i just need pics

~kin
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SNAKIES~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Corns:
.1 Normal (Gertrude)
1. unknown hypo? normal? (Romeo)
1.2 Miami Phase (Hector, Emily, Charlotte) thanks jeff!
1. Amel het Blizzard (Dunesbury)
1. Classic het Hypo, poss het Amel, Anery (Cobra)
1.1 Classics (Henry VIII, Cassy [Emilys babies])
.1 Amel (Pepperoni)
1.1 Hypo zig zags poss het Caramel (Bernard, Abegail)
.1 Classic het Hypo, Stripe (Gracie Lou) {Reduced black}
1.1 Anery het Motley (Lleroy, Persia)

Rats:
1.1 Black rats (Willard, Cecily)

Cal Kings:
1.1 Striped Cal Kings (Dweezil, Skunky)

Other:
0.0.1 Worm Snake

~~~~~~~~~~~~~LEOPARD GECKOS~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Normal het Midnight Blizzard (Mr. Spot)
0.1 Blizzard (Blitz) SHE WAS FOUND ALIVE!!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~TURTLES~~~~~~~~~~~~
.1 white cheeked mud (Opel)
.1 snapping turtle (no name)

I like it, too. I used it on my uncooperative adults. Seems pretty accurate. -Toby

>>Anyone ever try this?I used it on my black rat and came up with 76" twice.My gravid trans pecos comes in at 50".Cool program!

I also used it to get a measurement for my Black Rat. It is good way to get a measurement of a live snake that wont hold still. It has the potential to be fairly accurate - maybe +/- 1%. For a 52 inch snake, that would be =/- 0.52 inches. There are some caveats you should be aware of.

One is the effect of paralax - the camera should be as perpendicular to the subject as possible. An angle of only 1 degree could throw off your measurement.

Another is the type of lens - you need a small apature and a long focal lenght to get a flat image without distortion at the edges of the frame. This can be offset somewhat by moving the camera further away. However, move too far away and the pic will be useless. Most of the point&shoot digitals out today have lenses that are not well suited to obtaining a truly flat image.

Also, the accuracy of your reference object is crucial - very small errors can have a large effect. Its probably best to use a reference close in size to the snake, and as large as possible. E.g., you wouldn't want to measure a 6 or 7 ft Black Rat with a 6 inch ruler. An error in the image size of the ruler would be multiplied and throw your measurement off. Scientific supply companies make cards that are designed for use to provide scale in photos. Biology, forestry, and geology implement suppliers might be good places to look for these.

Lastly, I found that I was not able to get a high-res pic to fit on the screen. In order to use the program, I had to reduce the size of the pic so much that it lost resolution. As a result, it was difficult to read the markings on the yard stick.

Despite all this, it sure beats trying to get a live snake to stretch out straight, or using a string!

Regards,

John D

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I am so not lesdysxic!

0.1 Creamsicle Cornsake "Yolanda"
1.0 Bairds Ratsnake "Steely Dan"
0.1 Desert Kingsnake "FATTY"
0.1 Black Rat (WV Rescue) "Roberta"