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DSLR Camera Control Software


RobertB

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Hi,

Can someone recommend software to control my DSLR camera (Canon 1000D)? At present I only image to the the maximum 30 seconds the camera allows, but I am looking to increase the exposure times. (And before I get the lectures - yes, my mount is up to sub 1 minute, but I am looking at autoguiding in the future).

The camera control software that comes with the camera is at first promising but isn't as flexiable as I'd like. It also appears to want to take dark frames between every image, and this doesn't seem to be able to be switched off.

I thought I'd found the answer with DSLR Shutter, however I can not get this to work at all. Any other options would be gratefully received.

Many thanks.

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My personal favourite programme at this moment is APT (Astro Photography Tool) with AstroJan coming a close second. There are alternatives like BackyardEOS but I've only dabbled with them so wouldn't want to compare the performance or features.

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IIRC DSLR Shutter needs a Serial Shutter cable for the canon cams... you can also use the EOS Utils that came with the camera need to set the Shutter "speed" to bulb and then set it up the long exposure shooting (stopwatch icon) ...

APT can do a lot more ...I havent tried the others yet...

The auto darks are turned off through the custom functions menu on the camera... Page 155 and 156 of the user manual... CFn-3 wants to be 0 and you might want to look at the Hi ISO setting as well Cfn-4...

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Canon supply EOS utility with the 1000D which can be used to control the camera. If you use the BULB setting you can keep the shutter open as long as you want to. I regularly use 2mins or 5mins. To get rid of the "darks" it takes go into the menu and turn off noise reduction - goto custom functions and find "C FnII long exp. noise reduction" and change it to 0 (=off).

With EOS utility you can programme the camera to take eg 40 x 2min subs with a 10 sec pause between them - or pretty well any other combination. You can also control the ISO and use live view.

APT works as well and has even more functionality.

Darn! Beaten to it by Billy!

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Thanks very much for the quick responses. I will have another go at turning off the automatic darks (although I had tried, maybe I just need to go through the process again to double check the correct settings.)

I'll check out AstroJan as well.

Thanks!

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I use APT with my 400D and a home made serial shutter control lead. For the small registration fee I think it's an excellent program and runs fine on a small Asus 900A netbook

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For me it's BackyardEOS.

-bob

The only issue I have with this app is that it doesn't (currently) support serial shutter control, and the 400D doesn't support USB shutter control so I would be limited to 30 sec exposures ;)

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The only issue I have with this app is that it doesn't (currently) support serial shutter control, and the 400D doesn't support USB shutter control so I would be limited to 30 sec exposures :o

I agree malc-c... But not for long ;)

The release in June 2011 will support serial cables.

Thank you for your support and interest,

Guylain

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Another vote for APT. Works great for me on a Canon 1000D. I have found problems with amp glow when using a virtual mirror delay, but if you set mirror delay to zero it works fine for me.

Good software, and a nice support group on yahoo groups.

old_eyes

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  • 2 months later...

This is the type of thread I need I think. I have spent a large portion of the day trying to get EOS Utilities to work on my laptop and it just wont play at all, it works fine on the PC but I never use it there. Anyway that is maybe an issue for another thread, for the moment I am interested in an alternative software than EOS Utility to basically remotely run my 450D. Right now it would be mainly for solar(with the PST), widefield and luna. So really all I want it for is to bring the live view up on my laptop screen to asist me with my manual focus and maybe to set a string of shots off.

What I'm not sure on is if I was to get APT for instance what cable do I need or do I need two cables, one to connect to the USB and one that goes in the trigger jack.

I downloaded the trial version of 'DSLR remote pro' which seemingly works great although it clouded over before I could test it on the sun, but that just uses the one USB cord that I already have thankfully. I would keep it after the 15 day trial except the cost of $175 is putting me off.

I'm not opposed to paying for my software It's just why pay that much when other cheaper options are available that do the same thing but I don't want to get the trial software of something and then find out I can't run it because I don't have the right cables.

To sum up, I have this cable......... 2m USB CABLE FOR CANON EOS 1000d 450d 500d 550d 60d SLR | eBay ......

Will it be enough to use with APT, astrojan or something else?

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Thankyou for clearing that up. :BangHead:

I just wasn't sure and I can always get the serial cable later anyway. At least now I can give it a trial and know that it will work with what I have.

Out of curiosity does anyone know what advantages DSLR remote pro has that makes it so pricey?

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  • 2 weeks later...
The only issue I have with this app is that it doesn't (currently) support serial shutter control, and the 400D doesn't support USB shutter control so I would be limited to 30 sec exposures :)

The latest release of BackyardEOS (July 24th 2011) supports serial cables for Bulb shutter control on your 400D. Check it out; it's a great tool.

-bob

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