Comments on: Choosing Tethered Shooting Software for Nikon DSLR Cameras

By: Videoaufnahme mit einer Nikon DSLR auch ohne Videofunktion? Dank Zusatzprogramme möglich. // hombertho.de

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:23:27 +0000

[...] habe mich daher mal im Netz nach einer Alternative umgeschaut und bin dabei auf folgende interessante Übersicht gestossen. Ihr findet dort eine tolle Übersicht aller Programme, die es für Windows, Mac [...]

By: Raymond

Raymond — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:44:45 +0000

Yes, unfortunately I don’t have any hope on speeding it up. At the level I’m working with (WIA Aut) it is already going as fast as possible. I suspect that the WIA Aut interface is waiting for the camera to say the image taking process is complete before returning control.

If I could code straight WIA (which i can’t) I see there is a WIA Burst mode which perhaps could be faster, but only if it were supported all the way through WIA->PTP->camera which is unknown. And most importantly it has no controls to adjust camera values between shots so no bracketing. It would be pure timelapse. Search for WIA_DPC_BURST_INTERVAL if you want to consider coding this, but you’ll need to be doing proper Win32 COM, not just the COM Automation I’m using.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:49:13 +0000

@Djago, I think the protocol DIYPhotoBits uses is relatively slow, and as you have noted the other programs are unlikely to support trigger only tethering. If you had a newer camera it should be possible to code something via the publicly available SDK but the D70S SDK has not been published. Unfortunately I don’t think there will be a satisfactory answer to your question.

By: Djago

Djago — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:02:30 +0000

Hi
I have a D70S. I want to do a RAPID succession (3fps is the fastest D70S can do), but these free programs (even Nikon’s program) can’t do it. Mostly they try to transfer the photos and USB is very slow to give me 3fps. So I really need a program that can do the triggering and the camera store the photos. DIYPhotoBits is a step in the right direction as it allows me to take the photo only (without transferring it), but for some reason it is slow at giving the order (6 photos in 10 seconds).
Anyone knows another solution?

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:04:16 +0000

@Nick, I hadn’t really paid attention to those two aspects of the tethering tools so would need to look over them again to find those that had those capabilities. Personally I’d be surprised if any of the tools have the ability to downsize the images to 500×300 pixels for you as tethering is usually treats the computer as an extension of the camera, and cameras usually don’t have that capability built in. Different file naming schemes are more likely to be available though.

Alternatively you could just use another tool (script?) to manage this part of the process. e.g. On Windows I know that XnView allows you to create batch processing scripts that should be able to do these tasks for you.

By: Nick Oldfield

Nick Oldfield — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:45:42 +0000

I am currently evaluating NKremote with a D5000. Works well to control the camera, including live view. There are two things it does NOT do, and I wondered if anyone had any other suggestions. First, NKremote does not seem to allow you to name the image files, so you have to accept the file structure the program creates. Second, there is no way of reducing the file sizes as they are captured, so the smallest file you can create is the smallest one the camera will output. I am trying to capture images of equipment to insert in an inventory file, and I do not need a large high resolution image, something that’s about six inches wide would suffice, so let’s say 500×300 pixels. Right now I hae to capture the images using NKremote, and then downsize the images separately before I can use them.

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 06:45:37 +0000

@Peter, The Sofortbild application states that it supports the Nikon D2X, it runs on Mac OS X, and the author still appears to be offering the software for free.

By: Peter Joseph

Peter Joseph — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:12:46 +0000

Hi, I have a Nikon D2X and a Macbook Pro, can you tell me what free thering software there is I can download. If any

Thanks

Peter

By: Axel

Axel — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:19:04 +0000

@Matt: Yes it should work with your D70s, Nikon cameras have an excellent PTP implementation and work out-of-the-box with Windows (Vista and 7 in particular, without manufacturer driver, so they also work on x64). Just make sure the camera is in “PTP” USB mode (not mass storage) and press Ctrl+T in FPV.

By: Raymond

Raymond — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:48:52 +0000

I’m really surprised about the sloweness of Lightroom to import (something I haven’t experienced, but read about). I believe that the author of one of the other tethering solutions has solved this by having a LR plugin — sounds like a good idea and if I ever start to use LR I’ll have to investigate how that works. Till then Bridge works fine for me as a viewer!