Various usefulness for Canon and not only. Practice: Controlling the camera via a PC Controlling the camera s5 is from a computer

Manufacturers do their best so that the user, when taking pictures, resorts to using a PC as little as possible. Modern cameras not only shoot well, but also process frames without the participation of a computer. Including apply various effects, work with the format RAW , stitch panoramas and even make HDR ! And some photo gadgets can connect to the Internet and upload footage to popular online resources. It would seem that most amateur photographers do not need a computer at all. But in some cases it is more convenient to use a camera (regardless of its additional capabilities) in conjunction with a PC.

For example, you need to see a picture on the screen of a laptop or desktop PC in a matter of seconds after the shutter is released - this makes it easier to evaluate the result or visually demonstrate it to a wide audience. But that is not all. By linking the camera to your computer, you can configure it directly on your PC. This is useful if it is extremely undesirable to move the camera to change the shooting parameters, or if the shooting takes place in a place where either only the camera or the photographer is placed. Another interesting area of ​​application of such a bundle is photographing without human intervention, when shooting occurs automatically after a certain time or when an object appears in the frame.

For the sake of fairness, it must be said that a lot depends on the capabilities of the device and the software available for it. In this article we will tell you about the most common programs for popular models of SLR (and not only) cameras and some of the features of their use. Immediately, we will make a reservation that we will talk about the simplest and most budgetary way to connect the camera - through a cord USB ... We'll talk about advanced wireless connectivity sometime next time.

For camerasCanon

For SLR camera owners Canon lucky the most. For them, the manufacturer has in store a free programCanon EOS Utilitywhich is included on the disc. Supported as entry-level models - from 1000 D as well as professional type 1 cameras D, 1 Ds, 5 D etc. Despite its free cost, the utility can do almost everything that a photographer might need. Namely: automatically download images from a memory card to a computer, configure the camera via a PC, as well as remotely set shooting parameters and take pictures via a computer.

Depending on the camera model, settings such as owner name, information about the author of images and copyright information can be configured via a computer. But it is much more interesting, for example, to set the processing profiles of images (use of filters, levels of sharpness, image saturation, etc.), personal white balance or the quality of image processing in Jpeg ... And then use the presets depending on the situation. Or, for example, the distortion compensation settings for the lenses you are using (nothing is difficult, just select from the list of lenses that you use to take them into account when processing images RAW ). In a word, all those settings that you would hardly have done directly in your camera, even if they were just as diverse in the camera itself.

But, of course, the most interesting feature of the program is remote control of the camera and taking pictures in theLive View... The settings of the camera itself in this mode are no different from what can be done on the camera itself. For example, in aperture priority mode, you can change the actual aperture, sensitivity and exposure compensation. In fully manual mode - shutter speed, aperture and sensitivity. You can also select the format of the captured images (for example, Jpeg high quality or RAW + JPEG ), metering and focusing method.

VEOS Utilityall settings for shooting parameters are placed in a separate window. Main screen can be used for sighting, focusing and white balance

To see on the computer screen what the camera will shoot, you need to enable the function Live View ... Now by clicking Remote live view shooting a window will appear with an image of the scene that your camera sees. By the way, this window can be used not only for sighting, but also for precise and thoughtful focusing on the image. By the way, unlike most supported DSLRs, Canon 4 D Mark II there is also a simulation mode for changing exposure. This allows you to visually evaluate the illumination of the frame at different shooting parameters.

Most cameras support manual focus. To do this, you need to hover over a fragment of the image using the Loupe tool. Then, using the manual focus buttons, you can achieve perfect sharpness in the selected fragment in small and not very steps. Some camera models can focus automatically, including in the face detection mode, or simply by choosing a position on the screen to focus, just as if the shooting was not through a computer.

Also in Live View shooting mode you can fine-tune the white balance by simply selecting the part of the image in the frame that should be white. It is important to note that any frame can be viewed immediately after the shot using the button Quick Preview ... Read more about the program here:

Canon EOS Utility

Developer: Canon

Site:

Price: is free

Grade:

Free of charge

- only works with some camera models

Not a free alternative

If your camera is not supported by the official utilities from the manufacturers, please try a third-party product. Unfortunately, there are very few of them, and these programs are far from free.

The most famous solutions for Canon and Nikon are, perhaps, the company's products Breeze Systems (). A distinctive feature is support for a very wide list of cameras. For Canon in general, there are two programs - DSLR Remote Pro (from $ 129) and PSRemote ($ 95), for SLR cameras and advanced compacts PowerShot respectively. Large number of cameras Nikon , however, only mirrored, supported by the utility NKRemote ($ 175).

DSLR Remote Pro interface does not shine with beauty and convenience, but provides access to all camera settings in one window

Among other interesting features of DSLR Remote Pro - the ability to remotely shoot and video for most cameras, viewing in Live View both a full frame and a fragment of an image at a scale of 100%, the function of bracketing and creation HDR - snapshots from 15 consecutive frames. The program also has a function Photobooth - automatic creation of a series of images, their arrangement in one photo and printing. More about the possibilities and experience of using the program ().

The only thing that upsets the programs Breeze Systems , - archaic application interface and high price.

For camerasNikon

Nikon has also taken care of a remote control utility for its DSLR cameras. Truth, Camera control pro 2 is far from free. The utility supports almost all modern "DSLRs" Nikon (from D 5100 and higher) and allows you to connect them to a computer either via a wire or wirelessly through a special adapter.

The utility allows you to remotely control most of the camera parameters via a computer, take pictures and transfer captured images to a PC. It is noteworthy that images in the camera's buffer can be confirmed or deleted before being transferred to a computer. Remote shooting from a computer is possible in two modes - Hand-held and Tripod. The latter differs in that it allows you to remotely select the AF point.

The utility also allows you to manage images, including selecting and adjusting images on a computer, creating custom curves (tone change information), and saving them to the camera.

Camera Control Pro2 lets you create control over all camera parameters including exposure settings, focus, flash sync, and more.

CameraControlPro 2

Developer: Nikon

Site: http: // nikon. ru / ru _ RU / product / software / camera - control - pro -2

Price: from $ 129.95

Grade:

The program supports all the necessary functions

Wired and wireless connection

- high price

For camerasPentax

With cameras Pentax generally an interesting situation. There is an official free utility for platforms Windows and Mac OS X , but it is rarely updated and does not work with all modern cameras. Its capabilities are generally standard - remote control of the camera and uploading photos to a computer. That is why many fans of these cameras prefer a third-party camera control utility - PK_Tether from the Polish enthusiast programmer Tomasz Kos.

The program works with cameras Pentax k-x, K7, K5, k-r, K20D, K10D, K200. The utility is able to configure all shooting parameters, remotely take pictures and download the taken photos to a PC. In addition, the program can take pictures at a given time interval. What else does a photographer need to be completely happy? By the way, according to users, this program also works great with DSLR cameras. Samsung.

In addition to all the camera settings in one window, PK_Tether boasts a function for viewing pictures saved in the camera's buffer

PK_ Tether

Developer: Tomasz Kos

Site: http://www.pktether.com

Price: is free

Grade:

The program supports all the necessary functions

Free of charge

Small but remote

Although these small programs cannot become a full-fledged replacement for official utilities, they will certainly please with their unique capabilities.

Photos of the documents

The name of the program speaks for itself. But in addition to fine-tuning the camera via a PC and composing images using templates of specified sizes (passport photos, visas for different consulates, etc.), depending on the version (express, standard, pro), the utility can do a lot more. For example, quickly change the background or even a person's clothing based on templates and import new clothing options from Canon

DCamCapture

This small free program does not know how to configure the camera through a computer. All it is designed for is to take pictures at specified time intervals (you can set the date and time of the start of shooting, the number of shots and the intervals between shutter releases) and save them on the hard disk of your PC. The program has a function Live View ... The utility is useful for background photo and video surveillance, as well as shooting videos like "how the grass grows" or "24 hours of the life of a big city."

Developer: Bernd Peretzke

Website: www.bernd-peretzke.de

Price: Free

Grade:

Timelapse fine tuning

Free of charge

- only support for DSLRs Nikon

DIYPhotobits Camera Control

Free utility to manage DSLR cameras Nikon ... The distribution kit of the program takes less than 200 Kb, and all camera settings are made in the web interface. At the same time, the program can control the connected camera as well as its commercial counterparts.

In this section, I will post or describe various usefulness.

I'll start, perhaps, with the programs for controlling the camera from a computer. There are quite a few different types of them. Here is some of them.
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I will give four more programs designed to simplify the process of downloading, processing and printing digital photos for documents as much as possible.
Can drive the following models:
Canon PowerShot: S60, Pro1, G5, G6, G7, G9, G10, A75, A80, A85, A95, A510, A520, A620, A640, S3iS, S5iS, SX100iS, SX110iS.
Canon EOS SLRs: 40D, 1000D, 450D, 500D.
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Using a Canon camera as a web-camera (see the list of supported models on the manufacturer's website !!!):
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Recently, many in the department were cut off access to the Internet and ICQ was cut off. A private conversation with the admin and the boss did not lead to a consensus. But it wasn't all that bad - there was a car with full access nearby. Proxia will save us, I thought, and started looking. Stopped for two. For ICQ, HTTP-Tunnel v4.4.4 was ideal, I did not find a crack, and why - the speed for ICQ is not so important. For the Internet, I installed Etlin HTTP Proxy v1.0.0, I attach a crack (when asked to register, type something in the fields, or do it right after installation). These programs have fairly simple settings, clear interfaces, and work stably. Problem solved.
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Once I came across the site http://www.detiseti.ru I found a lot of useful things for kids. There are three good example generators: for multiplication and division (two-digit numbers), for memorizing the multiplication and loss tables for training oral counting. But I was very tired of printing, I wrote 2 simple generators for solving examples on a computer: one for addition and subtraction, the second for multiplication and division. It is convenient to type the answers on the numeric keypad and the Enter button next to it. If you find bugs, write to the soap ( [email protected]).
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Download

The target audience of such universal tools should include numerous advanced users who regularly use non-standard camera settings and therefore consider proprietary applications not yet developed.

As an example, consider the program DSLR Controller(available on Google Play). She has been at the beta testing stage for a long time, which does not prevent her from coping with the task. In addition, despite this status, the application is paid, but you can check the compatibility of your mobile device and the camera for free on a subsidiary solution - "Remote Release" from the same developer (available on Google Play).

So, DSLR Controller is designed to control Canon DSLR photography equipment via the built-in Wi-Fi module or USB port. If everything is clear with the wireless connection, then in the second option you will need a "correct" USB cable and support for the USB host mode by the gadget, but in most cases you do not need root rights. By the way, on the developer's website there is information that the missing Wi-Fi in the camera can be replaced with the TP-LINK TL-MR3040 wireless router available in Russia.

The DSLR Controller program displays on the smartphone screen all the information necessary to control the camera, in particular, the shutter speed and aperture data, the histogram. It is important that there is a "Live View" option if the camera itself supports it. The application also allows you to adjust the focal length when the AF mode is selected on the camera, sensitivity, white balance, etc. You can also program time-lapse shooting. If there is support for video recording, then this option will be available in the application.

The remote control, into which the program turns a smartphone or tablet, not only repeats the control of the SLR camera, but also expands it. For example, it is possible to use remote manual focus (R-MF), and you can increase and decrease the focal length using the buttons on the screen. At the same time, the area currently in focus will be highlighted on the display. True, the operation of such a "manual focus" entirely depends on the type of motor in the lens.

Other interesting features include saving images to an Android device instead of a camera memory card and tracking focus. In the future, the developers promise to deal with scripts for shooting.

Similar tools can be found for other popular camera models - for example, the Helicon Remote is suitable for Nikon devices.

Today I want to talk with you about how shooting from a computer is carried out, consider in detail what is required for this, and what settings need to be made.

Benefits of shooting from a computer

Before proceeding with the consideration of the process of photography, let's figure out what it is for in general. When taking product photography, I always connect the camera to the computer via the USB port. As a result, the resulting image is displayed on a large screen, which is very convenient, since it makes it easier to control the quality of the resulting image on the fly, as well as it is convenient to demonstrate the obtained frames to other participants in the photo shoot. With a high magnification (on the liquid crystal display of the camera, the photo is much smaller), you can examine the resulting image in detail, evaluate the quality of the exposed lighting and make the right decision about the need to make certain changes. In addition, the taken pictures are directly copied to the hard disk of the computer and do not clog the memory card of the camera, which saves us from subsequent cleaning.

Do you work on the road and do not have the opportunity to connect your camera to a stationary computer? Perhaps the option of connecting the camera to a tablet will suit you.

By using this method of shooting, you will not miss out on small details that you would probably not notice under normal conditions. The connection diagram is extremely simple: one connector of the USB cable is connected to the computer, and the other to the camera. But for this method of shooting, you will need the appropriate software. If you use a Canon camera, consider that you already have it. Each camera of this company comes with a CD with the EOS Viewer program (it is available completely free of charge on the company's official website). Users of Nikon cameras will need Nikon Camera Control Pro, which allows them to save captured images to their computer's hard drive, bypassing the camera's memory card. On the official website of the company, you can download a trial version of the program with a 30-day lifespan.

Warning: If you try to take pictures with a computer connected, you will quickly get used to viewing large images, after which it will be difficult for you to return to working with the camera's LCD screen. You get used to good things quickly, don't you?

What do you need to connect?

You will need:

1. Camera
2. A computer
3. USB cable

The standard cable for connecting to a computer does not exceed 1.8 meters, this is clearly not enough for comfortable work, so it will have to be lengthened. In principle, this is not a problem, in any computer store you will be offered such an extension cord (1, 3, 5 and 10 m). The first three work without any additional devices, but a 10 meter cable will already require additional signal amplification.

UPD: After several years of work with a cable 5 meters long, problems arose: when transferring a picture to a computer, the latter loses its connection. I bought a 5m USB-3 cable and it worked again.

The second, exactly related to Nikon cameras, the PTP connection mode must be enabled on the camera, in Russian - PTP, not Mass Storage - Data storage device, in the latter mode you are doomed to always see the camera as a USB flash drive. On Canon cameras, the situation may be different, for example, the 5D MkII is always detected in the mode that suits us. So, if everything is connected, but there is no camera in the program, first of all, you should open the instructions and read about the connection modes.

Setting up the software

To get started, open the Lightroom program. Next, in the File menu, select File> Tethered Capture> Start Tethered Capture:

A dialog box will appear on the screen:

In this window, you can set the name of the photo session, specify the path to save the received photos, and add metadata and keywords. After the OK button is pressed, the program is ready to work. This is what Tether Capturing looks like in Lightroom:

As you can see, the program has identified the camera model and the settings set on it. Unfortunately, it is not possible to set the camera settings directly in Lightroom, but you can shoot remotely, which is already important, especially when you need to avoid “shaking”.

Another nice bonus is that in the Lightroom program, in the control panel, you can select a preset that will be automatically applied to the newly captured photo:

After everything is set up, you can take a picture:

And we immediately see the result. You can also check the focus and make the necessary image settings.

As already mentioned, this connection method does not allow changing camera settings from a computer, which is not very convenient. To solve this problem, you can use the native program from Canon - EOS Utility.

First, let's launch it. In the window that appears, select the item "Camera settings / Remote shooting".

After that, the control panel will open, where you can change almost all camera settings. Hover the mouse over the parameter you need, click and select the required value. After setting the necessary settings, take a shot. Pretty damn convenient!

But to make it really good, you need to do a little adjustment, as a result of which we can take pictures using EOS Utility, and the result is automatically transferred to Lightroom. To do this, go to the settings of the EOS Utility program, open the "Destination folder" tab and specify the pack into which the captured frames will be moved.

Next, go to Lightroom and go to File> Auto Import> Auto Import Settings. In the window that opens, specify the folder that Lightroom will track and take all appearing files from it. We also choose a folder where Lightroom will save these files.

An important point! Do not forget to check the box next to "Enable Auto Import", otherwise auto-import will not happen.

If you did everything correctly, then when you press the shutter button after a few seconds, the photo you took will appear in Lightroom.

That's all for today. And if you are interested, then I can tell you later how to shoot from a computer using Capture One. Good luck!

Fair, not overpriced or understated. There should be prices on the Service website. Necessarily! without "asterisks", it is clear and detailed, where it is technically possible - the most accurate, final.

With the availability of spare parts, up to 85% of complex repairs can be completed in 1-2 days. Modular repairs take much less time. The website lists the approximate duration of any repairs.

Warranty and liability

Any repairs must be guaranteed. Everything is described on the website and in the documents. The guarantee is self-confidence and respect for you. A 3-6 month warranty is good and sufficient. It is needed to check quality and hidden defects that cannot be detected immediately. You see honest and realistic terms (not 3 years), you can be sure that they will help you.

Half of the success in Apple repair is the quality and reliability of spare parts, so a good service works with suppliers directly, there are always several reliable channels and your own warehouse with proven spare parts of current models so that you do not have to waste extra time.

Free diagnostics

This is very important and has already become a good form for the service center. Diagnostics is the most difficult and important part of the repair, but you should not pay a dime for it, even if you do not repair the device as a result.

Repair in service and delivery

A good service values ​​your time and therefore offers free shipping. And for the same reason, repairs are carried out only in the workshop of the service center: correctly and according to technology, it can only be done at a prepared place.

Convenient schedule

If the Service works for you, and not for itself, then it is always open! absolutely. The schedule should be convenient so that you can catch up with before and after work. Good service works both on weekends and on holidays. We are waiting for you and working on your devices every day: 9:00 - 21:00

The reputation of professionals consists of several points

Age and experience of the company

Reliable and experienced service has been known for a long time.
If a company has been on the market for many years, and it has managed to establish itself as an expert, people turn to it, write about it, recommend it. We know what we are talking about, since 98% of incoming devices in the SC are being restored.
We are trusted and passed on by other service centers for difficult cases.

How many masters in directions

If several engineers are always waiting for you for each type of equipment, you can be sure:
1. there will be no queue (or it will be minimal) - your device will be taken over immediately.
2. You are giving Macbook repairs to an expert in the field of Mac repairs. He knows all the secrets of these devices

Technical literacy

If you ask a question, a specialist must answer it as accurately as possible.
So that you have an idea of ​​what exactly you need.
They will try to solve the problem. In most cases, the description tells you what happened and how to fix the problem.