SharpCap - free Astro Webcam Capture Software

[rwg]

I have just used SharpCap for the first time with a QHY5 and I seem to have multiple streaked images on the capture/preview screen. Not being a webcam user or indeed intending to be, I just tried it out of interest but thought you should know.

Streaked images are usually a sign that the colour (or lack of it) of the image is being handled incorrectly. I presume that you are using the ASCOM option to capture from this camera? ASCOM capture is really experimental because I don't actually have an ASCOM camera so I can only test using the simulated ASCOM test camera driver.

Robin

[themos]

Hi Robin, you don't have to have a physical focuser. Just download ASCOM Platform 6 and you will have the Simulator focuser to play with. I think I've asked for this before but we really need explicit "Connect" buttons for the cameras and focusers, alongside the "Select" buttons. Having SharpCap automatically connect to whatever hardware was selected the last time leads to all kinds of usability problems. If you download ASCOM Platform 6 you will be able to see them and fix them.

One thing that happened just now was I tried to select the LX webcam and then got the Serial dialog up but (perhaps because I was lying and only had the normal webcam connected) I was forced to give bad values to the dialog which kept popping up whether I hit OK or Cancel. This happened twice now but I can't reproduce it any more - I had to kill SharpCap with the Task Manager.

[tonyowen]

With SharpCap is there a direct relationship between the exposure setting of -4 to -14 in the video control panel and the 1/25th sec - 1/10000th sec setting in the video capture filter?

regards

Tony

[rwg]

With SharpCap is there a direct relationship between the exposure setting of -4 to -14 in the video control panel and the 1/25th sec - 1/10000th sec setting in the video capture filter?

regards

Tony

It depends on the camera - there is supposed to be a relationship between the two - each increase of 1 in the value is supposed to double the exposure, with 0 being 1 second (I think). However lots of cameras don't actually obey that rule due to either bugs or even by design. Logitech even managed to get the scale the wrong way round at one point (http://www.quickcamteam.net/documentation/faq/questions-about-accessing-the-exposure-time-through-directshow).

The upshot is that SharpCap doesn't show the actual exposure value, because it has no way of knowing if the camera correctly obeys the relationship or not.

Robin

[rwg]

Hi Robin, you don't have to have a physical focuser. Just download ASCOM Platform 6 and you will have the Simulator focuser to play with. I think I've asked for this before but we really need explicit "Connect" buttons for the cameras and focusers, alongside the "Select" buttons. Having SharpCap automatically connect to whatever hardware was selected the last time leads to all kinds of usability problems. If you download ASCOM Platform 6 you will be able to see them and fix them.

One thing that happened just now was I tried to select the LX webcam and then got the Serial dialog up but (perhaps because I was lying and only had the normal webcam connected) I was forced to give bad values to the dialog which kept popping up whether I hit OK or Cancel. This happened twice now but I can't reproduce it any more - I had to kill SharpCap with the Task Manager.

Hi Themos,

I'm reluctant to remove the connect on startup feature - it is probably the right thing to do far more often than it is the wrong thing todo. There are a couple of bugs that make it awkward that I will try to squash when I get a little time - the first is that if the application crashes it is supposed to not auto connect to the camera then next time it starts up, but it does. The second is todo with the cancel button on the LX dialog not really cancelling...

cheers,

Robin

[themos]

I'm reluctant to remove the connect on startup feature - it is probably the right thing to do far more often than it is the wrong thing todo.

I will try to argue against that. For starters, it never starts off with a "nice" resolution/code/fps combination. I always get tiny, freaky resolutions and a 30fps rate which I am never going to use with my ToUCam. So I have to go and click on 3 buttons to get the combination I will use. Hitting one more button to explicitly connect to a device is small beer in comparison.

[rwg]

Ah, but what you need to do is save a capture profile with the settings (resolution, frame rate, etc) that you want and then press the 'set default' button for it - that means that it will load that capture profile every time it select the camera (there is a default capture profile per camera, so no worries if you use more than one)

That way every time you start SharpCap it should have the settings you want loaded straight away...

Robin

[themos]

Thanks, I'll have to remember to do that. I have been trying SharpCap on 3 different machines so I guess I hadn't got round to saving profiles on all 3.

[tonyowen]

Robin

With SharpCap is there a means of aborting a single frame run when the capture interval is less than 2 seconds?

Aborting seems to be a two-keystroke action - okay for intervals greater than 2s, but I could not beat the computer displays at shorter interval times and had to wait for the whole sequence (sequence length) to finish!!!

Is there a means of specifying the format for the captured images? I'd like *.bmp. but I'm getting *.png.

regards

Tony

[rwg]

Hi Tony,

You may be right that there is no way to cancel in time - the only thing I can think of that might work is holding down the escape key. I will look into this for the next version.

As to the file output format, no way to change that at the moment. It's extremely easy for me to change the output format for these frames, but the tricky bit (as always) is what to do with the UI. I expect that sooner or later I will have to bit the bullet and add an options/settings dialog to SharpCap. I have been trying to avoid it because I wanted it to 'just work' without people having to go in and tweak page after page of configuration options, but it is just getting too complex now

Robin

[tonyowen]

Hi Tony,

You may be right that there is no way to cancel in time - the only thing I can think of that might work is holding down the escape key. I will look into this for the next version.

Robin

Hi Robin

Just tried using ESC key - no luck with stopping sequence of 1s intervals.

Also tried randomly other combinations of Esc, Alt, Ctrl etc, but unable to stop sequence.

Short of using Ctrl, Alt, Del, which seems an overkill (no pun intended), it seems that short interval (<2s) runs have to go their full length.

regards

Tony

[wenjha]

Hi,Robin

Sharp cap works great for me just except the "Video Capture filter" issue

here is a image captured using sharp cap work and my webcam ASI130MM

Its great!

hope the "Video Capture filter" issue can be solved soon

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Great software like the gain control to get rid of noise on imaging

[Yung]

Good afternoon!

Has installed version 1.5 of program SharpCap.

Already two times restored win7x64 from a control point...

If the program gives failure in versions 1.3 and 1.4 it was closed, and the subsequent start passed correctly.

In version 1.5, after failure, the program is started with the same error.

Reinstallation of the program and register cleaning does not help.

Prompt - where the information on an error remains what to return the program in a condition "before failure"?

Thanks.

Log.txt

[rwg]

Hold down the Control key while starting SharpCap - this will stop it from automatically opening the last used camera. It's supposed not to do this if the last run crashed, but as you have found there is a bug in v1.5 that breaks this feature

Robin

PS - Sharpcap settings are stored in the registry at HKCU\Software\RWG\SharpCap\<version> - deleting these would be another way out of the problem.

[Yung]

Robin, many thanks!

Key pressing has helped...

Successes to you

Yury

[themos]

Hello Robin,

I was thinking, since you already opened the Pandora's box of ASCOM programming with the focuser, whether you'd like to add some ASCOM mount control code to keep a planet centered (just calculate the "centre of mass" of the light coming in). It would be great when we do a long series of captures not to have to worry about planets drifting off chip.

[rwg]

Kind of like having bits of PHD built into SharpCap - I know that some of the PHD code is open source, or you could imagine a version of PHD that screen captures its input from the SharpCap window rather than talking direct to the camera.

If only I had the time

Robin

[themos]

Well, I have your source code so I'll have a play.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

will they be linux version of this sharpcap

[yesyes]

How about an Atari version?

[rwg]

will they be linux version of this sharpcap

It's something that could probably be done if someone wanted to try - You can run C# on Linux using Mono. Someone would have to write a camera provider that talks to whatever webcam library Linux has. Sharpcap is modular, so this is possible to do without disrupting the rest of the code.

All you need to do is find someone who can program Linux to port it across

Robin

[SimonfromSussex]

Hi, I have been using sharp cap really well for several months on the same laptop computer for both short and long exposure mode. It has been a great program and so far i have had no issue. I use one of dion's phillips spc900 type mod web cams + windows 7. All of a sudden for no apparent reason it now wont boot up. The only obvious chnage i can think of to computer is i recently installed deep sky staker. I have tried unistalling it and then reinstalling. I have also tried two of the older versions but i get the same reponse. I get the following error message and then it closes......please help

SharpCap, Version=1.5.0.304, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null

System.ArgumentException: Font 'Arial' does not support style 'Regular'.

at System.Drawing.Font.CreateNativeFont()

at System.Drawing.Font.Initialize(FontFamily family, Single emSize, FontStyle style, GraphicsUnit unit, Byte gdiCharSet, Boolean gdiVerticalFont)

at System.Drawing.Font.Initialize(String familyName, Single emSize, FontStyle style, GraphicsUnit unit, Byte gdiCharSet, Boolean gdiVerticalFont)

at System.Drawing.Font..ctor(String familyName, Single emSize)

at SharpCap.UI.FocusScoreBar..ctor() in D:\Documents\Source Code\trunk\SharpCap\src\SharpCap\UI\FocusScoreBar.cs:line 51

at SharpCap.UI.FocusScoreForm.InitializeComponent() in D:\Documents\Source Code\trunk\SharpCap\src\SharpCap\UI\FocusScoreForm.Designer.cs:line 31

at SharpCap.UI.FocusScoreForm..ctor() in D:\Documents\Source Code\trunk\SharpCap\src\SharpCap\UI\FocusScoreForm.cs:line 49

at SharpCap.SharpCapForm.SharpCap_Shown(Object sender, EventArgs e) in D:\Documents\Source Code\trunk\SharpCap\src\SharpCap\UI\SharpCapForm.cs:line 331

at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnShown(EventArgs e)

at System.Windows.Forms.Form.CallShownEvent()

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallbackDo(ThreadMethodEntry tme)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallbackHelper(Object obj)

at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.runTryCode(Object userData)

at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData)

at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)

at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallback(ThreadMethodEntry tme)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallbacks()

===============================================================

Application Log (from start)

Debug: 11:34:28.2813683 SharpCap.Cameras.Basler.BaslerCaptureProvider.Initialize(IWin32Window previewTargetWindow) :: Started

Warning: 11:34:28.3281684 SharpCap.MultiCaptureProvider.AddProvider(IWin32Window targetWindowHandle) :: Could not load capture provider - SharpCap.Cameras.Basler.BaslerCaptureProvider - System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'PylonC.NET, Version=2.3.0.2279, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=a77e8471c5919d5a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

File name: 'PylonC.NET, Version=2.3.0.2279, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=a77e8471c5919d5a'

at PylonC.NETSupportLibrary.ImageProvider..ctor()

at SharpCap.Cameras.Basler.BaslerCaptureProvider.Initialize(IWin32Window previewTargetWindow) in D:\Documents\Source Code\trunk\SharpCap\src\SharpCap.Cameras.Basler\BaslerCaptureProvider.cs:line 91

at SharpCap.MultiCaptureProvider.AddProvider[T](IWin32Window targetWindowHandle) in D:\Documents\Source Code\trunk\SharpCap\src\SharpCap\MultiCaptureProvider.cs:line 71

WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.

To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1.

Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging.

To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].

Debug: 11:34:28.3281684 SharpCap.Cameras.Basler.BaslerCaptureProvider.Initialize(IWin32Window previewTargetWindow) :: Started

Warning: 11:34:28.3281684 SharpCap.MultiCaptureProvider.AddProvider(IWin32Window targetWindowHandle) :: Could not load capture provider - SharpCap.Cameras.Basler.BaslerLXProvider - System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'PylonC.NET, Version=2.3.0.2279, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=a77e8471c5919d5a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

File name: 'PylonC.NET, Version=2.3.0.2279, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=a77e8471c5919d5a'

at PylonC.NETSupportLibrary.ImageProvider..ctor()

at SharpCap.Cameras.Basler.BaslerCaptureProvider.Initialize(IWin32Window previewTargetWindow) in D:\Documents\Source Code\trunk\SharpCap\src\SharpCap.Cameras.Basler\BaslerCaptureProvider.cs:line 91

at SharpCap.MultiCaptureProvider.AddProvider[T](IWin32Window targetWindowHandle) in D:\Documents\Source Code\trunk\SharpCap\src\SharpCap\MultiCaptureProvider.cs:line 71

WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.

To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1.

Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging.

To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].

Debug: 11:34:28.4217685 SharpCap.DirectShow.Capture.Initialize() :: Started

Debug: 11:34:28.4217685 SharpCap.DirectShow.Capture.Initialize() :: Device notification registered

Debug: 11:34:28.4217685 SharpCap.DirectShow.Capture.Initialize() :: Ended

Error: 11:34:28.5777688 SharpCap.Base.Tracer.Trace(LogLevel level, String format, Object[] args) :: Exception from Loading implementation assemby : C:\Program Files\rwg\SharpCap\LXControllers\inpout32.dll : Could not load file or assembly 'file:///C:\Program Files\rwg\SharpCap\LXControllers\inpout32.dll' or one of its dependencies. The module was expected to contain an assembly manifest.

Stack Trace: at System.Reflection.Assembly._nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, Assembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection)

at System.Reflection.Assembly.nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, Assembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection)

at System.Reflection.Assembly.InternalLoad(AssemblyName assemblyRef, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forIntrospection)

at System.Reflection.Assembly.InternalLoadFrom(String assemblyFile, Evidence securityEvidence, Byte[] hashValue, AssemblyHashAlgorithm hashAlgorithm, Boolean forIntrospection, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)

at System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadFrom(String assemblyFile)

at SharpCap.Base.InterfaceFactory`2.ScanDll(String filename) in D:\Documents\Source Code\trunk\SharpCap\src\SharpCap.Base\InterfaceFactory.cs:line 57

Extra Info:

Debug: 11:34:28.6401689 SharpCap.DirectShow.Capture.Initialize() :: Started

Debug: 11:34:28.6401689 SharpCap.DirectShow.Capture.Initialize() :: Device notification registered

Debug: 11:34:28.6401689 SharpCap.DirectShow.Capture.Initialize() :: Ended

Error: 11:34:29.7477709 System.ArgumentException: Font 'Arial' does not support style 'Regular'.

at System.Drawing.Font.CreateNativeFont()

at System.Drawing.Font.Initialize(FontFamily family, Single emSize, FontStyle style, GraphicsUnit unit, Byte gdiCharSet, Boolean gdiVerticalFont)

at System.Drawing.Font.Initialize(String familyName, Single emSize, FontStyle style, GraphicsUnit unit, Byte gdiCharSet, Boolean gdiVerticalFont)

at System.Drawing.Font..ctor(String familyName, Single emSize)

at SharpCap.UI.FocusScoreBar..ctor() in D:\Documents\Source Code\trunk\SharpCap\src\SharpCap\UI\FocusScoreBar.cs:line 51

at SharpCap.UI.FocusScoreForm.InitializeComponent() in D:\Documents\Source Code\trunk\SharpCap\src\SharpCap\UI\FocusScoreForm.Designer.cs:line 31

at SharpCap.UI.FocusScoreForm..ctor() in D:\Documents\Source Code\trunk\SharpCap\src\SharpCap\UI\FocusScoreForm.cs:line 49

at SharpCap.SharpCapForm.SharpCap_Shown(Object sender, EventArgs e) in D:\Documents\Source Code\trunk\SharpCap\src\SharpCap\UI\SharpCapForm.cs:line 331

at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnShown(EventArgs e)

at System.Windows.Forms.Form.CallShownEvent()

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallbackDo(ThreadMethodEntry tme)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallbackHelper(Object obj)

at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.runTryCode(Object userData)

at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData)

at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)

at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallback(ThreadMethodEntry tme)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallbacks()

[themos]

I tried opening the SharpCap solution file in MS Visual Studio C# 2010 Express and got this:

Warning 1 The referenced component 'SharpCap.CamControlProxy' could not be found.

Warning 2 The referenced project '..\CamControlProxy\SharpCap.CamControlProxy.csproj' does not exist. SharpCap

Warning 3 The referenced component 'WeifenLuo.WinFormsUI.Docking' could not be found.

Warning 4 The referenced component 'DirectShowLib-2005' could not be found.

[rwg]

@Simon,

your system seems to have (somehow) lost the 'Arial' font or it has become damaged. Looks like this can happen a lot as a search for 'Font 'Arial' does not support style 'Regular'.' comes back with a lot of matches. This page looks like it has some useful suggestions for fixing the font problem : Lost font: Arial Regular--how can I reinstall it? - Microsoft Answers

@Themos,

I don't include the binaries that Sharpcap depends on in the source folders of the Sharpcap install pack - it would just make the install bigger and only people who build from the source would benefit. You need to make a 'packages' folder next to the 'src' folder and put the dependencies in that - you'll find them all on the web. This applies to the WeifenLuo...Docking dll and the DIrectShowLib one - there will likely be more too . I have no idea about the CamControlProxy only - the .sln file I have here doesn't mention it. The only mention I can find on my machine of this file is a copy from back in July - I expect I renamed the dll to something else...

Robin