On 2006-Jun 30, at 13:06hrs PM, David Euans wrote:

Bob Axtell wrote:

> Gus S Calabrese wrote:
>
>
>> On 2006-Jun 27, at 04:56hrs AM, xkrja wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hi Jan,
>> the thing is that I'm trying to find some kind of general solution
>> that can
>> work for many different cameras and brands. That is for cameras that
>> support
>> USB control of course. Hopefully, when I have the hardware, its  
>> just to
>> write different software for different cameras.
>>
>> All major brands (Olympus, Canon, Nikon) have freeware/software for
>> creating
>> your own software for controlling the camera from the PC and I hope
>> to get
>> help from that.
>>
>> Would you mind supplying some URLs for the freeware software ?
>> AGSC
>>
>> Gus S Calabrese
>> Denver, CO
>> 720 222 1309     303 908 7716 cell
>> I allow everything with  "spamcode2006"  in the subject or text to
>> pass my spam filters
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
> You might have a tough job, dependent on what you are trying to
> accomplish. If you plan
> to control a camera in the field, like to take security or animal
> pictures, you might be disappointed.
> When I looked at that a few years ago, the USB channel was only  
> used to
> pull pictures from the
> camera, nothing else. I was not aware of any digital camera whose USB
> port allowed you to actually
> snap pix with it. But then, I am an ole guy and sometimes fail to pay
> attention...
>
> There are two major issues when trying to use a digital camera for
> security or animal purposes. The
> first is that the camera tries to shut itself off all the time with a
> 3-5 min timer. The way you can prevent\
> that is by toggling the focus ring (the first contact when pressing  
> the
> "shutter button", partially depressed).
> So, now, the camera is still on, so far so good.  Now you need to
> actually press the  shutter button to
> get a picture taken. Some  cameras have LANC capabilities, such as  
> SONY
> VTRs and Video cameras.
> A few have the capability of being driven by a remote IR switch . Both
> LANC and IR are easily handled,
> but the inexpensive cameras require you to get inside the camera to  
> make
> hard connections, a tough problem.
> The way we did it was to use optoisolators to isolate the camera  
> signals
> from the control board.
>
> Is Olympus still making cameras? I thought they got out of that  
> business...
>
> --Bob
>
>
The Fuji S2 and S3 have this capabilty.  I use it frequently.  You can
use USB or Firewire with their Hyperutility software.  The auto-off
feature could be a problem.  I haven't yet tried using it as a security
cam or similar.

Dave

A number of Canon cameras allow USB control of exposure, snapshot, etc.
-- AGSC
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Gus S Calabrese
Denver, CO
720 222 1309     303 908 7716 cell
I allow everything with  "spamcode2006"  in the subject or text to  
pass my spam filters


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