DIYPhotobits.com Camera Control 4.1 – Dog Food

Changes in 4.1 – the “Eat your own dog food” release of DIYPhotobits.com Camera Control.

4.1

– allow fractional bracketing by changing Cint to Cdbl

– don’t crash on line 157 if there is nothing to download

– removed the “download immediately” function and changed things so that the normal tether does this function
– fixed the bug where push external viewer doesn’t work unless you explicitly choose the output folder

Download it here.

DIYPhotobits.com Camera Control 2.0 : Embarrassment

Update, try the

Camera Control 2.1 instead which fixes some bugs.

Ok so here is DIYPhotobits.com Camera Control 2.0 — the Embarrassment release.   I’ve named it that because I’ve had no time to work on it recently and so it still is a) very rough with major holes and b) fails to have all the obvious fixes and enhancements that I have discussed with people.

DOWNLOAD

– Try instead 2.1 which fixes some bugs

So why release it at all?  Well because having control of the camera exposure from the computer is cool — and at the moment I have it sitting here on my PC working and maybe you’d like to have it on your PC working as well.

New features:

  • Control exposure mode (M/S/A/P) – Tested D300 works, D40 does not (because that setting is a physical dial on the D40 and software can’t override it)
  • Control Shutter speed, Aperture, ISO, WB and Exposure Compensation from the PC – Tested  D300 and D40 work
  • Shows battery status while in tethered mode – Tested D300 works

 

New known bugs, issues and uglinesses

  • Exposure Compensation drop down makes no sense — 0 means 0 but the others are internal codes, you’ll see what they mean after a few moments though, each one is a third stop plus or minus.
  • Not all the exposure setting drop downs default to sensible values, e.g. the current camera settings.
  • Also read this bug list
Old known bugs, issues and uglinesses
  • doesn’t save the download target folder name between sessions — should be an easy fix
  • doesn’t download RAW on *some* Vista machines — a mystery
  • finds files exist and complains on each tethered download for some machines — another mystery
  • refuses to believe some cameras can take pictures — needs investigation, but perhaps I can just have it ignore this or make it a warning instead of fatal
  • crashes if the camera can’t focus — I know how to fix this
  • looses camera if cable is unplugged, even if it is plugged in again — I think I have a solution to that but it is clumsy, not sure if it will really work
Features I keep talking about but still haven’t done
  • Time lapse / intervalometer

RAW : in remote shutter release script

Two of my scripts let you press a key on the keyboard, or click with the mouse, and remotely release the shutter.  But just like the built in Windows Explorer technique for doing these they both only are able to trigger JPG, even if the camera is set to RAW.

Until today.  It turns out this is not that hard to fix.  But the programatic technique is a bit of a laugh; because Windows Image Automation does not officially support RAW the NEF files on my Nikon D300 are typed as being of “undefined” type.  Unlike JPG files which WIA does know are JPG files and are typed appropriately.

So to get the WIA Take Picture command to get me a NEF I actually have to ask for a picture of type “undefined”!  It’s amazing it works, I guess somewhere an engineer (I’m not sure Microsoft or Nikon) decided that undefined=NEF.  I have no idea of this will also work with Canon, it might or it might not.  

Anyway it works, and it opens up a whole range of possibilities I’ll be exploring soon with the scripting.  But until then head over to the posts for those remote scripts and you can download the latest versions which support RAW.

PS.  Please please no religious RAW vs JPG comments.   It’s a free world, people are entitled to the file format of their choice.

Tethered Shooting Script — a HOWTO Video

Since I first posted my free script that allows Nikon DSLRs to be shot tethered I’ve been very pleased with the response, it seems to have been helpful to many people.  However I’ve hardly been very good at documenting how to use it.  So in an attempt to fix that I’ve made this little video which shows how to use it.

Or view high quality YouTube version

This is my first video attempt so it is pretty basic — but it took me all afternoon to put together, so please excuse the rough edges.  Hopefully I’ll work out how to do this better and perhaps make some videos explaining my hardware DIY projects which would also benefit from this type of explanation.

If you’re not sure about tethered shooting then ProPhotoLife has just released a great video

, as usual, explaining all about it – using Canon as an example.  I particularly like his safety tips regarding long USB cables.

D300 Remote Control Script

Update: This is now obsolete for two reasons, firstly remote is built into windows, and secondly for advance use you have the DIYPhotobits.com Camera Control 1.0 application.

I wrote yesterday about why I need this script to be a remote shutter release for my Nikon D300 so today here are the details of what you need, and how to use it.  Oh, and why not use one of the cheap 3rd party remotes

 (e.g. Phottix N1

or Cleon N8), a real remote like a ML-3 or a MC-DC1 Remote cord?  Well if I can DIY I’d always like to try that first!

Hardware (this is what I used, you can substitute some pieces of course):

  • Long USB cable — doesn’t have to be that long but longer is more convenient
  • One Thinkpad X31 — or any laptop with a USB port and a Wifi connection
  • One Fujitsu Lifebook — or any other laptop with a Wifi connection
  • Wireless access point — so you can connect from one PC to another
  • Windows XP SP2 on both PCs
  • Microsoft Windows WIA Automation
  • The software Linked below
DOWNLOAD (2.0)remote2

– RAW or JPG, you choose

– JPG only
Installation:

Copy the files into any folder on your PC, I suggest c:program filesremote but it’s up to you.

Usage: 

  • Make sure your camera is in USB PTP mode
  • Plug the USB cable into the first laptop and into the camera, turn the camera on and cancel any pop-ups that occur for downloading etc
  • Install the Windows WIA Automation DLL by running install.cmd (you only need to do this once)
  • Run the script c:program filesremoteremote.wsf by double clicking it.

… and here’s the key thing that makes it wireless

  • Now use your second laptop and use the built in Windows Remote Desktop function to connect to the first laptop over your wireless connection.
  • To release the shutter on your D300 just click or use the enter key to press the “OK” button

Works with:

  • Nikon D300
  • Nikon D40
  • … and I presume would on any Nikon dSLR
  • Cost:

    • Long USB cable $2
    • Thankpad X31 $1,099
    • Fujitsu Lifebook $1,507
    • Linksys Wifi Access point $47
    • Windows WIA Automation $0
    • My script $0
    • Total: $2,655

    Or, if you already have all that hardware then :

    • Total: $0

    Variation, remote but not wireless:

    A very long mouse cable or keyboard cable could get you a similar effect with one laptop/computer – but that wouldn’t be so much fun now would it?  Or how about a wireless keyboard or mouse?

    And next:

    And then this could be combined with the tethered shooting script – plus a “advanced to next image” script to get some good results, that’s the next thing to do on the scripting side.

    Please let me know if you try this out and it works for you!  I know this isn’t particularly easy to understand from reading the above, but you’ll find it easy if you try – and I’ll try to do a video some time to show how it works.

     

    Update: The combined script that has the remote shutter release functionality here plus the tethered downloading I called the “Self Portrait Script” and you can download it

    here .

    Free Tethered Shooting Script for Nikon

    Update: This version is now obsolete,

    download latest from here .

    Update: The With Bridge version provides almost instant image viewing in Adobe Bridge without any keypresses.  If you use Bridge instead of Adobe Lightroom then download that version.  I’ve also made a video to show how to use this script.

    If you’ve been keeping up with the blogs of various big photography bloggers out there you’ll certainly have been seeing quite a bit about tethered shooting recently. Not that it is a revolution or anything, but it certainly is a help to be able to see your images immediately on a big screen — and that doesn’t just go for those with failing eye-sight but basically the images you see on the LCD at the back of your camera are only the jpg preview, not the RAW (should you be shooting raw).

    Even if you are shooting jpg just having to view them on such a tiny screen really makes it hard to tell if they are sharp or perhaps shaded as you are hoping. Sucking them right into your PC seems just so logical.

    If you are a Canon shooter then no issue – the software comes with the camera (so I’m told).

    If you are a Nikon shooter then it gets a little more difficult. If you are a Mac user you could use Aperture, but for Windows you seem to be stuck with Nikon Camera Control Pro. That’s a $160 or so software which does a lot more than just tethered shooting, but is probably overkill if like me you are a hobbiest just messing around.

    So in true geeky DIY mode I thought it can’t be that hard to write a script that sucks pictures out of a USB connected camera and saves them onto the PC. And after a little poking around I find that actually it’s true, it isn’t that hard.

    The thing that makes it practical is that most of what you need is built into Windows, another chunk comes as a standard optional microsoft download, such that the glue you need to pull it all together is just a few lines of code.

    Part 1 is Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) – that’s built in

    Part 2 is WIA Automation Layer

    – a free download from Microsoft for Windows XP SP2 or higher

    Part 3 is a script to tie it all together – which I present here

    DOWNLOAD

    This is now obsolete, use instead the free DIYPhotobits.com Camera Control 4.0

    application.

    Requirements:

    • Windows XP SP2 or higher
    • A Nikon DSLR (D40, D60, D200 and D300 tested ok)
    • USB cable

    Installation:

    Well nothing really, just unzip it and put it in a folder anywhere — I suggest c:\program files\tethered but anywhere would do.

    Usage:

    1. Empty your camera card — that’s optional but a good start for reasons that will be apparent later
    2. Plug your camera in via USB — you should make sure USB in your menus is set to PTP
    3. If your PC pops up one of those windows wanting to download stuff, just cancle it
    4. Run “tethered.cmd” by double clicking on it
    5. Open your image viewer of choice – I use Bridge – and set it to look in the c:\tethered folder.  If you are using Lightroom then you’d want to set that to be a watched folder.
    6. You are now ready to start shooting.  Anything you shoot will turn into a file in a folder called c:\tethered within a second of you completing the exposure
    7. When you are done just close the Tethered window.

    Notes:

    • All your images are also stored on your memory card so you have a backup without using a D3 and two cards
    • If you shoot more than 1000 images in one session it is liable to give an error as the filenames wrap around.  That’s why it is good to empty your memory card first so that you are starting at file number 000.
    • I’ve tested this with a Nikon D40 and it works fine, in theory it should work with any WIA compatible camera but the other Point and Shoot ones I have refuse to take pictures while the USB cable is connected so I can’t test them.  I’d be very pleased to hear from those of you who have tried it on other cameras and if it worked or not.
    • If you want the images stored somewhere other than c:\tethered then edit the .wsf file to change the location