GUI for controlling you camera from the computer?

[paulus]

I am planning to write an open sources GUI to control your camera from

a PC using the PTP protocol over a USB connection. From the PC you

should be able to set all the major settings, like aperture,

shutterspeed, white balance etc. After taking the photo, a preview

will be shown and the final version downloaded.

 

Now I am thinking how to setup the user interface (GUI) in a user

friendly way and would appreciate some feedback on how to best setup

such a GUI. After the basic functionality has been build other

features like time loops etc could be added.

 

The initial software will only be tested on Linux with a D70 camera,

but it should not be to difficult to get it working with other cameras

as well. There is no schedule yet, so please do not ask when it will

be done, there I do not know yet. I know that it can be done, but

thats all I can say for the moment.

 

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

 

Paul

[jtk]

Isn't there a Canon-oriented application for this?

[jeff.grant]

and one from Chris Breeze, too.

[jerry s]

Nikon Capture provides all of these features, and the user interface is simple enough. You might want to use that as a reference point.

[paulus]

John and Jeff,<br>

I did found some screen shots from Chris Breeze which helps, thanks for the name. Do you think this software is easy to use? What are the strong and weak points?

<p>

Jerry,<br>Nikon capture might have this functionalty, But I can not run Nikon Capture there I do not own MS-windows so I can not try it out. Have you use it? Is it easy to use? Or do you think it can be made easier?

[jeff.grant]

The Breeze product is very good. It has all the features that I need and then a few but my tethered shooting requirements are fairly basic. I use it for the immediate feedback. In the future, I expect to use it for time-lapse. It doesn't have a live video mode as Flexcolor does but a preview mode. Live video is a great feature to have.

[jerry s]

Paul, Nikon Capture is easy enough to use; you can control most of the camera settings from the PC. Image downloads are rather slow on my D200, probably due to the fact that the camera only supports USB 1.1. The D2 series includes a wireless transceiver; certainly a useful feature! If you are writing your own GUI, I would be interested in having the ability to save camera settings (i.e., "banks"). The Nikon Capture manual is available for download, and includes screen snaps of the user interface.