Viewing image on Computer before taking

[Visions]

I have had a rather strange request from a friend yesterday and wonder if anyone could help.
He wants to take individual pictures of his agate collection with a view to the images being sent to a publisher in Germany to be included in his book.
Someone advised him that he should connect a camera to his computer, view the image and adjust the focus and lighting etc before taking the picture.
Now you can do this sort of thing with a video camera and capture direct to the computer - but can you do it with a digital camera?
He has no restrictions budget wise (lucky him) but needs advice on what to do for the best.
I suggested a good SLR with Macro lens but this other suggestion has taken seed so I promised to ask ...
I would appreciate your responses.
AJ

[GEli]

You'd need a DSLR that can do tethered shooting, but even then a regular DSLR wouldn't cut it, as to get an image on the computer you need to raise the mirror and actually take a photo. Some of the new DSLRs out there with LiveView might be able to do it, but I don't know of any off hand.

Why exactly can't he just take the photos with the camera like normal and then load them onto his computer afterwards? I don't understand the reasoning/don't see any reasoning behind needing to be tethered.

[Nicole]

Well, it kind of depends how live of the view he wants it to be. Nikon makes Camera Control Pro which lets you shoot tethered and actually trigger the shutter via the computer. But that's only an immediate preview after taking a picture. However, the thing is, once you've taken the picture it's right on the computer, and using the Nikon software you can adjust the camera's settings right there too, so it's quite easy to just take another picture right from the computer. I'm not 100% sure, but it does say that it can take advantage of the LiveView that's on the Nikon D300, which may mean that he might be able to see the image live right on the computer before shooting.

Although if he owns a Mac or has access to one, he can also take a picture from the computer using the built in software. The only difference is that you cannot adjust the settings with that software. So, the actual software is probably your better bet.

[mattdm]

Pentax has software to do this too — not live view, but "tethered" shooting with control from the camera, and for the described purpose that seems good enough, because you can take test shots, adjust, and reshoot.


(I've never used it, though.)

[GEli]

Pentax has software to do this too — not live view, but "tethered" shooting with control from the camera, and for the described purpose that seems good enough, because you can take test shots, adjust, and reshoot.


(I've never used it, though.)

The Mac OS X version is horrifyingly unstable and likes to lock up every time I set up a time lapse sequence. It actually gave me my first and only kernel panic on this machine. I am very, very disappointed in it - it'd be completely unusable in a studio setting due to the stability issues, and the UI is very clunky. I suppose it's better than nothing, but not by much.

I can't say anything about the XP version, though. If it were stable it'd be just fine.

[Nicole]

Have you tried the automator / image capture version of time lapse photography on your mac? Not too difficult to setup :) You can read about it on this link (http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/digitalmedia/2006/12/05/tethered-shooting-in-aperture.html?page=2). Granted, there are probably better ways out there (and you've probably already found this one or another solution), but I've always had pretty decent luck with this free solution ;)

[ttcorsa]

hi there you can use nikon camera control pro v2 with the nikon d300 live on the computer. If this is any help and confirms what nicole says using the live veiw with nikon d300 and a computer. i am not sure about older models with v2 of camera control pro but i can confirm the d300 does

[mattdm]

The Mac OS X version is horrifyingly unstable and likes to lock up every time I set up a time lapse sequence. It actually gave me my first and only kernel panic on this machine. I am very, very disappointed in it - it'd be completely unusable in a studio setting due to the stability issues, and the UI is very clunky. I suppose it's better than nothing, but not by much.

Huh, good to know. And of course, there is no Linux version (which is why I haven't tried it).

[GEli]

Have you tried the automator / image capture version of time lapse photography on your mac? Not too difficult to setup :) You can read about it on this link (http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/digitalmedia/2006/12/05/tethered-shooting-in-aperture.html?page=2). Granted, there are probably better ways out there (and you've probably already found this one or another solution), but I've always had pretty decent luck with this free solution ;)

Very neat! I don't use Aperture, but I will definitely look into the Automator option. I tried the Pentax tethered shooting software more on a whim than out of necessity, so I hadn't yet found a replacement.

I should note that I only tried this on one machine, albeit a brand new Macbook, but still only one. It may be a unique experience on this machine only - so still give it a try if you're interested.

[Visions]

Thank you all so very much for your help and suggestions, I have passed them on to Paul and if he comes back with any response I will share with you.
AJ

[Visions]

Since writing that last brief message I have discovered that, like Nikon, Olympus also has software to allow tethering of digital SLRs I have copied part of the blurb from the Olympus web site.
Olympus Studio is a professional workflow software application for picture management, raw conversion, image-editing and tethered image capture with all Olympus digital SLR cameras.
This might be of interest to other Olympus users.
AJ

[smc1377]

I read this thread when it was first posted and thought something and decided not to share it. But I wonder, does he really need to tether shoot? I mean, I guess it's cool and all, but seems to me like it's a lot more trouble than it's worth. If someone is going to buy a good DSLR, it's already going to do a good job of properly exposing the picture given the correct settings which aren't hard to figure out. Tethering or not, you're still going to have to figure out the correct settings.

Seems to me the added expense of tethering and the added time to set up tethering just doesn't sound beneficial to me cause once you figure out the settings, why would you need to check the tethered screen? This is of course assuming that you'll have a set controlled area for shooting like a light tent/box or something where you'll move product in and out of it.