Instruction for Beginner

[70k1]

Hi,
im from Germany, and my englisch is pretty crappy, so i hope you can help me.
What do i have to do, that the camera does´nt focus everytime i press the remotebutton??
I want that the camera is shootíng each time i press the button once (with the same focus and stuff like that).
Have i to use CHDK or SDM, and how do i have to set the settings? or are they any scripts for us bookscanners??
Please can you try to explain it in simple englisch words?
Sorry again
Thx
70k1

[Gerard]

hi
maybe this can help http://diybookscanner.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9

[daniel_reetz]

Welcome 70k1,

Well,I see that You1 has already replied to you, but a few things that might help -

1. You might try seeing if CHDK or SDM offer "manual focus" for your A480 -- I think they do.
2. If not, the magic words are "autofocus lock" -- I don't know much about the A480 yet but that's the function that should autofocus once and then hold it.

I took this image from the English A480 manual - the German one will probably be better for you. Don't worry too much about your English here, we have a lot of non-native speakers.

[70k1]

Hi Daniel,
thank you
that work at least
But i try further to use some scripts, to make the workflow easyer.
Next days i take pictures from my bookscanner, i´ve built it all from flakeboard and i have paid (with cameras) roundabout 175$

[daniel_reetz]

Can't wait to see the pictures!

[spamsickle]

I think it's probably not worth it to try to do your focusing in a script, but maybe if your cameras are always at the same distance from your platen it could work. You have to specify the distance in millimeters in the script, and my experience has been that it's not especially accurate or repeatable. I have custom scripts, but I still do the focus with the autofocus lock method Dan described. It takes more time to get the framing right than the focus.

[70k1]

Ok, but your Grid is helping to do the Framing right

[spamsickle]

It helps me. My setup is a little non-standard; I'm still using cameras on tripods rather than having camera mounts attached to the base of the scanner. That came in handy recently, when I had a book that was wider than it was tall, and needed to be shot in "portrait" mode rather than in "landscape" mode. I made another grid for that.

Anyway, having the cameras on tripods means I set them up every time I'm going to shoot a batch of books. I use a tape measure to make sure they're the same distance from the platen, and CHDK enables me to make sure the zoom level is the same on both cameras. At that point, I just try to get them both positioned within the same grid lines. If the page doesn't line up with a grid line, I know something is wrong -- either the tilt of the camera is off, or the tripod is off to one side and needs to be centered.

[70k1]

I have another Question,
which Zoom is´usable with the A480´s??
Is 45 ok or has it to be 55 ???
and can i change the Zoom step by step (manually) with sdm? (with chdk it works!)
Greetz
70k1