Canon 550D Live view

[Sierra Golf Mike]

Can anyone tell me if the Live view from a Canon 550D can be viewed on a laptop. My 30D doesn't have live view and I am considering a 550D (S/H) or an Altair Astro GPCAMV2 to get into half decent Lunar, Solar, Planetary and DSO AP. Live View to a laptop would be a big help, I think!

[Davey-T]

Yes using the supplied USB lead and Canon utilities .

Dave

[Marky1973]

Or try something like APT  - works really well with DSLRs

[PeterCPC]

or Backyard EOS - great bit of software.

Peter

[RichLD]

+1 for BYEOS!

[kendg]

I have both BYEOS and APT. 99% of the time I use BYEOS. Although I will say APT has more feature baked in to it.

[RayD]

I'm afraid the one thing you will learn very quickly here is that no matter what someone recommends or suggests, someone else will argue that something else is so much better (that's not saying that is what has happened here, but that is generally how recommendation threads end up).

It really is about what suits your needs, and how it feels to you using it.  Both APT and BYEOS work fine, and both will do exactly what you're looking for.  I use BYEOS with my 450D purely because it was the first one I tried and having spent some time with it got used to the interface and quite liked it.  Many note APT as also very good, but I don't think either is necessarily "better" than the other, they just do it in different ways.  Give them both a try and see which one feels better to your eye, or which if either you feel fits in best with what you are hoping to get from it.

[Alien 13]

I prefer the canon eos utility and a simple intervalometer for timing, I recently tried APT (latest version) and although fine with my older camera it doesnt like the new 80D and locked up refusing to connect. 

Alan

[michael8554]

Canon Utilities does timed exposures too but some find a separate Intervalometer more convenient.

Michael

[Sierra Golf Mike]

Thanks for the input guys, still to make the final decision on the camera but getting closer!

[Jannis]

As you probably know from the answers, yes, it's possible - with a number of programs. Personally i use APT to control it.

Still i use the cameras own display quite a lot, for the very simple reason that with magic lantern you can override the live view exposure. This makes finding the target and using a focus mask very very simple.
You won't ever need a computer to set the camera to take for example 50x 300 sec exposures.

[spaceman_spiff]

I don't know if this will sway you but I use a 550D and it has a very useful 640x480 movie crop mode. This mode is not available on most other Canon cameras, which is strange. In this mode the camera films a small section of the camera's sensor at 60fps which is great for planets, lunar and solar imaging. The field of view is smaller than the live view mode but you benefit from the faster frame rate. I.e. you get lots of frames to process for lucky imaging. I also like it because I can do my imaging without a laptop: all the movies files are stored directly on the memory card.

Dan

[StargeezerTim]

I use dslr controller to display and help with focusing. Its free, if i remember correctly. +1 for movie crop mode! I have had several years of use of my 550d, astro and terrestrial and its a great camera. Built like a tank and has never failed me, even after i dropped it on the slabs... 

[Adam J]

Happy BYEOS premium user here.