How to get a live view from my Nikon D3300 on the computer?

Sometimes I photograph food and it would be awesome to have a live view on my computer when arranging the food. It would be also great if I could control the camera through the computer (maybe even manual focus) and if it would be possible to save photos on the memory card in the camera as well as transfer them to the computer.

What software could you recommend me?

I have Nikon D3300.

Thanks for any tips.

I would follow gphoto2, D3300 is not there yet, D5200 is allready there as it is older model.

 

Back in 2008 I took few frames with gphoto2 and d200. Back then there were no viewfinder view, as liveview was not a thing back then and no autofocus with AF-S lenses like nowadays. Things are evolving continiously in opensource world.

I believe you'll have a problem - Helicon Remote requires at least a D5x00 series, Lightroom has the same restriction, as do controlmynikon, camerarc, etc. I suspect the D3300 isn't set up to allow remote triggering.

 

Without having a D3300 to try with, I suspect that if you plug a monitor into the HDMI socket of the camera and shoot in live view, the monitor will show what you would have seen on the rear LCD (which is how, I believe, other Nikons do it). That's only TV resolution, though, and doesn't solve the download problem - but if you want a larger view of what you're arranging, that would do it. At a push you could get a video capture system for your computer, although that seems overkill in this case.

 

To transfer photos to the computer the moment you've captured them, you could get an Eye-Fi card, which is an SD card that transmits its images over Wi-Fi to your home network. You might want the pro version rather than the mobi. They're not especially fast or cheap, though.

 

Triggering the camera to take a shot is another matter. There's a WR-10 remote trigger that Nikon will sell you, or you might be able to jerry-rig something for a physical remote cable, but it sounds like it wouldn't be the end of the world to press the shutter release, for your need. :-)

 

Or you might be better off upgrading to a D5x00 series or above so that one of the tethering software solutions works, I'm afraid.

 

But I've never tried to tether a model in that line, so I could be wrong.

Crossed over with Hapien. I have to say I'd not heard of gphoto2, I'm interested that they've got the D3000 and D3100 to work, but they're not exactly recent. It sounds as though Nikon isn't exactly helping them! Good luck, though.

The live view is the most important for me (the other features not so much). D3300 has a fixed LCD and I need to see the image when I arrange the food on the table in front of the lens.

I found this: Easy to use, free solution for complex camera control | digiCamControl

https://www.tethertools.com/product/case-air-wireless-tethering-system/

https://kuvacode.com/

Any experience with this software?

Huh. Okay, fair enough, I was wrong - there's a set of software which doesn't support the D3x00 series, but it sounds as though some do. Sorry for the misinformation.

 

That said, if you do just need to be able to see for framing, I'll reiterate my suggestion that you could just plug the camera into a TV in live view mode and ignore the tethering entirely. Of course, if it's easier for you to get a computer near your photography set-up than to get a TV there, that may not help you much. ;-)

I have Digicam Control, and it works at least somewhat on a D3200, so I don't see why it would not do so on a D3300. The functionality is not complete, but it does give you a full screen live view, some exposure control and AF. Since the program is free, I'd give it a try and see if it does what's needed. I use it very seldom but have found it pretty easy to set up.

I tried Digicam Control. It works, but i cant find out how to zoom in live view (if its possible). There is some zoom in and zoom out button, but doesnt do anything.

I tried Digicam Control. It works, but i cant find out how to zoom in live view (if its possible). There is some zoom in and zoom out button, but doesnt do anything.

 

I find that that also does not work on the D3200, unfortunately. It does on the D7100, both zoom and auto focus functioning. I had hoped it might have been updated to work on the D3300, but I guess not. Too bad. If it's any consolation, the zoomed image on the computer screen is nastily grainy anyway, and probably would not have helped much.