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canon eos 1000d as a webcam?


starstalker

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i was just wondering if anyone had used a canon dslr as a webcam for imaging, i have just found a bit of software that allows you to record live video from a 1000d on to a computer in an AVI file, anyone else had a go at this or will it be a waste of time??:)

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I understand there is a patch called "the Russian mod" that turns the 1000D into a webcam and I've seen this working. It produced quite a nice result on Jupiter and you could see the grs drift accross halfway.

The chap suggested I try it on the camera I bought from him but I decided I didn't want to mess with the camera firmware. No reason why you shouldn't though :)

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sorry i should have said, this isnt a firmware mod, its a stand alone piece of software that uses the liveview to record,also u can adjust focus w/b from the laptop, its called "eos movie record" (just google it, its freeware) this video shows its features:

heres a link to the download: http://sourceforge.net/projects/eos-movrec/

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There is a program called "Eos Movie Record" EOS Camera Movie Record | Download EOS Camera Movie Record software for free at SourceForge.net

which grabs the "live view" stream and allows you to record AVI videos. It doesn't modify the camera's firmware.

I tried it on my EOS 1000D and found that it can produce rather good results - if you can get it to work, that is. Which is somewhat difficult and rather random...

- Connect camera via USB cable

- make sure EOS utilty doesn't get in the way (no autostart)

- start EOS Movie Record

Ideally, you will her a click from the camera and see the live view on your computer. If you hear a second click, the camera has shut off and that's it... It may have something to do with the quality of the cables, but I haven't found a way to make it work reliably. Yet...

If you do get it to work, it's a useful tool. Here are some examples, taken on a 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain (200mm/2000mm f/10) with the EOS 1000D in prime focus:

Full view:

eosmovie1.jpg

The red box marks the part of the image you can "zoom" to (resolution ca. 750 x 500). This is where it gets interesting, because you can record detailed close-up images like this one (Sinus Iridum, the "golden handle"):

Sinus_Iridum.jpg

For planets, I found the the EOS 1000D just isn't sensitive enough. Even at 1600 ASA, you will need exposure times which are too long to freeze the seeing. Here's a rather bad attempt of Saturn:

saturn-eosmovie.png

Do try to make it work on your EOS - and tell me how you did it if you get it to work reliably ;-)

Wolfgang

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Ahhh .... now that does look interesting. The one I saw was a mod on the camera and it was played back on the live view screen independant of a computer.

But a bit of computer software that records from the camera is very interesting. Think I'll download that and try it out for astronomy. Thanks very much for drawing it to my attention.

I'll try remember to let you know how I get on with it. :)

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Yes, this video download definitely works. I used it with my Canon 450D. Before using the downloaded video images in RegiStax, I fould I had to unpack the avi movie file using another bit of free software called VirtualDub. This unpacks the vid into a set of bmp files, or other image formats, ready to be stacked.

Here's a pic of Jupiter on the night of 16 October 2010 using my 450D as a vid cam.

out_450000_adjusted_4th_stargazers.bmp

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well at the moment i have the software installed on my old laptop running xp and it seems to work perfectly,wont work on my tower pc running vista tho,not really a problem for me,will try it out in the field and post some results(when the skies clear)

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I downloaded, installed and used it a few months ago but could not see the sence of using a DSLR when a cheapie webcam done the same so deleted. It is an okay programme don't get me wrong but as I have a number of webcams I will stick to them :) .

Jim

this is what i was wondering, is there any benefit in using the canon over a cheap web cam, will just have to try it out:)

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There are some benefits, I think:

The chip on the DSLR is bigger. You have a view of the full moon and can leisurely zoom in on the feature you're interested in (as opposed to trying to fit a tiny feature on the moon onto the tiny chip of a webcam, something which usually involves quite a bit of swearing on my part :-)

This is particulary handy if you happen to own an evil mirror-shifting Schmidt-Cassegrain beast like I do...

Plus, the dynamic range of the DSLR is higher than on webcams, making it easier to deal with the high contrasts between dark and bright areas on the moon and avoiding overexposed areas.

This is why I eventually sold my Philips webcam.

Wolfgang

P.S. @starstalker: Love your signature line :-)))

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This sounds intriguing as an alternative to the webcam, but surely the much larger chip would result in the avis being vast and unmanageable files?

I mean, a webcam producing, say, 1500 frames at 640x480 pixels might make a 900MB file, but a chip of 4272 x 2848 pixels (Canon 450d) with the same number of frames would create an absolutely huge file and cause memory problems? Wouldn't it?

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According to the documentation it only records short videos - doesn't say how long/short they are nor how many frames are taken. You have to unbundle the .avi's to split the frames out apparently using "Virtual Dub".

Might not be such a big file in the end but I guess you have to have enough space to record the movie first then discard what you don't want. Certainly worth looking into IMHO :)

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It captures the Live View resolution and not the camera's. 850x560 approx :)

Oh, I see. I notice that the pixel size of the Canon is 5.2 microns, whereas the SPC900 webcam is 5.6 microns. Does that mean that, in theory, you would get a bigger image and at better resolution with the DSLR?

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I had a try at this today.

Not at the scope, yet, but just a desktop experiment using EOS Movie Record and my Canon 450d. I did a 2 minute exposure which gave me roughly 2000 frames and an avi file size of 300MB. However, as Brantuk says, you need run the file through VirtualDub or similar to put it into a useable format for Registax to read. This produced a file of 3GB which is obviously huge, and Registax took ages to process it, but at least it worked.

The finished result was an image of 840 x 560 pixels. Now, as the image was taken full-frame, and recorded on a chip of 4272 x 2848 pixels, I assume that means that the final image effectively has effectively combined the pixels. This would result in the effective pixel size being not 5.2 microns, but 25 microns, and thus nowhere near as high a resolution as the 5.6 microns of a webcam. The finished result is certainly very 'pixely', so I can't see much use for this program as an alternative to the webcam or small-format CCD.

Anyone else had a go?

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I agree that there's not much point in using the full-frame image. The original resolution is just scaled down, and you may get a "pixely" result like you've written.

However, if you use the 5x zoom feature, EOS Movie Record will just read out a 800 x 800 pixel *part* of the sensor -anywhere on the sensor! So you still have 5.2 micron sized pixels, smaller than your average webcam.

Have a look at the moon pictures I posted earlier in this thread - they were taken with an EOS 1000D in prime focus of an 8" SC. I think it's safe to say they're not pixely...

Wolfgang

P.S. Why does this program work on everybody's computer except mine??

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I agree that there's not much point in using the full-frame image. The original resolution is just scaled down, and you may get a "pixely" result like you've written.

However, if you use the 5x zoom feature, EOS Movie Record will just read out a 800 x 800 pixel *part* of the sensor -anywhere on the sensor! So you still have 5.2 micron sized pixels, smaller than your average webcam.

Have a look at the moon pictures I posted earlier in this thread - they were taken with an EOS 1000D in prime focus of an 8" SC. I think it's safe to say they're not pixely...

Wolfgang

P.S. Why does this program work on everybody's computer except mine??

Ah right. Thanks Wolfgang. I thought the 5x zoom was just a focusing aid. Didn't realise that it actually just recorded on the zoomed part of the chip. Now that sounds like it has possibilities!

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You could also check out ExtraWebCam that turns the liveview feed into a simulated webcam stream, allowing you to feed it to all sorts of other programs.

I already have this software, just checked and in fact I have two versions, v2.0.0.112 and v3.0.0.235, as I downloaded these maybe 3/4 months ago I cannot find where I got the newer version from :). Will thave to take a look at this.

Jim

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  • 1 month later...

I had a play with this tonight, as the moon was the only thing I could see through the clouds. It works really well but maybe someone could explain this to me.

This image

vd-moon4.jpg

is the result of a few seconds of video at ISO 200 stacked in Registax. When using the DSLR record thingymajig, the moon was in focus, however, when I looked at it using Nebulosity (which I'd previously focused on a star) the moon was (as you'd expect) way way way out of focus. So, how is it that DSLR Record can capture a prime focus image in focus when it should be out of focus :)

I'm obviously missing something here.

Nice tool though for lunar imaging.

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