Options for remote triggering Canon DSLRs & Powershots

[Widelyunknown]

Hey all,
I've been looking into remote triggering for cameras and what not and came across some cool things. First up is Breeze Systems software for controlling mutiple DSLRs. http://www.breezesys.com/MultiCamera/index.htm. I do not have have experience with this software as I have found something much cooler which i'll talk about last. But it can control up to 16 cameras with a single PC. They also have software for controlling multiple Powershots, http://www.breezesys.com/MultiCamera/psr_index.htm. I wanted to share this because somone might find use of it.

On to the really cool part. Canon EOS Utility and Live View. (Widen your browser for the full pic).


This allows you to remotely control and EOS camera and also view through the camera in real time. From what I've read you can control multiple cameras, though I have yet to verify because I only have one. More info at http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/product/canon_software/eos_utility.do The pictures get stored directly to your PC and there are a myriad of ways to choose exactly how.

[dpc]

That's pretty cool. If it does work with multiple cameras, I'm pretty sure that I'll eventually scrap the digital compact cameras I'm currently toying with and pick up a pair of T2i Canons (EOS 550D) for my scanner. So many of the problems that we face when using the cheaper compact cameras for document scanning no longer exist once you move up to a DSLR. Gotta crack open the wallet though.

[Widelyunknown]

I had thought that I read somewhere that EOS Utility could handle both cameras at once through LiveView but I was wrong. EOS Utility can auto-download from multiple cameras. So I was left with the issue of still having to trigger two DSLR cameras simultaneously. (I'm using two Canon Rebel XS/1000D) In doing a little more research I came upon this website: http://www.doc-diy.net/photo/eos_wired_remote/

It supplies a diagram for the wiring for a wired remote trigger. With that in mind I bought a male to male stereo cord with 3.5mm jacks (McMaster 8317T13). I was unable to find a cord with 2.5mm jacks, but I bought two 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapters. I also got a 6 terminal momentary rocker switch (McMaster 7246K19). I had planned it so that when you push the switch up the camera focuses and when you push it down it takes a picture. This specific cord has three colors; red, yellow and white. Red corresponds to focus, yellow to ground and white to shutter. I figured this out by plugging the cable into the camera and then just touching wires and seeing what happened (it didn't blow up thank god). i didn't have a wiring diagram for the switch and kind of guessed that ground would be the middle tab. I wired it up and it works!



Here is a close up of the switch. I noticed that the switch works opposite of the how the wires are connected. So when I move the switch up to white, it actually focuses. I don't know why this is, but also don't care because it works.



I'll be using this switch to run both cameras and mounting it somewhere handy on the scanner. I'm not sure where yet and still have to make a mount.

[Gerard]

it's maybe a little overshoot, but you could install virtualbox (not the opensource edition) or vmware and install two virtual machines with the EOS Utility.
you can tunnel an usb device to an virtual machine, so you have to tunnel one cam to the one machine and the other cam to the other

next you need a way to say both eos utilitys that you wont to shoot, an simple tcp socket server and a key emulation could do the job

or try gphoto http://old.nabble.com/tethered-capture- ... l-rebel-XS)-td24169480.html

or an other utility that is able to capture over ptp (ptp is an standard protocol)

goood luck and please share the results

[dpc]

I had thought that I read somewhere that EOS Utility could handle both cameras at once through LiveView but I was wrong.

This might have something to do with it...
From the Canon DSLR SDK docs: Note that EDSDK does not support opening sessions with more than one camera at once.

[KiwiScanner2]

I've been using the Breezesys software - specifically the PS Remote Multi-Camera with two Canon S5 IS 's

Its pretty pricey at $190, but works extremely well - I love that it saves directly to the hard drive !

I have assigned the right click button to be the 'release' button, so its nice and easy to hack a mouse (or hold a small mouse) to release the shutters.

[daniel_reetz]

kiwiscanner2, how long does it take to transfer the pictures? does using the software limit your scan rate?

[KiwiScanner2]

Very fast, it quite happily writes between lifts of the cradle and doesn't slow me down at all. It has settings for where to save the files - I'm just using the 'save only to the Hard disk' setting, avoiding any delay resulting from needing to write to the SD Card .

It also has live view, so you can see what the camera is looking at from the PC - the S5 IS i'm using also has movable LCD's on the back that you can position to see the image - or turn it off in the software settings to save battery. The camera is only 8MP though, so i'll be need to upgrade to something higher soon for some of my projects

There is a 15 day trial version of the software that is pretty much complete if you have a compatible camera

[daniel_reetz]

So, Canon Powershot S5 IS + breezesys means direct-to-computer scanning is possible, however one possible downside is that there is no backup on the SD card if something goes wrong with software. That is very encouraging - thank you for the report kiwiscanner2!

[KiwiScanner2]

So, Canon Powershot S5 IS + breezesys means direct-to-computer scanning is possible, however one possible downside is that there is no backup on the SD card if something goes wrong with software. That is very encouraging - thank you for the report kiwiscanner2!

No problem - You can set it to save to the SD card and PC simultaneously - I haven't tested the speed of this though - i'll have a go and report back at some stage this week.

All of the manual functions of the camera are available to be set, including zoom, exposure etc etc

This page lists the powershot models that are supported (and some that are not): http://www.breezesys.com/PSRemote/features.htm#ps

In addition there is a version for DSLR's