Abstract. An overview will be given of some recent results of microstructural electron microscopy studies on martensitic systems. The precursor structure observed in a ternary Ni-Mn-Ti alloy and its correlation with the ensuing stacking sequence is presented. New types of materials of a well known alloy, in casu splat-cooled and nanoscale thin films of Ni-A1 are investigated revealing particular morphologies of the microtwin stackings in the martensite. The complex microstructure with two martensite structures, multiple macro-and microtwinning and different out-of-phase type defects in CuZr is also discussed.