On Thu, 14 Nov 2013, Ian Field wrote:



"dave" wrote in message
m...
On 11/13/2013 01:59 PM, Jon Elson wrote:
Ian Field wrote:

It would be handy to stick one of my Nikon cameras on a tripod and use it
to capture snapshots on the PC of things on the bench - but Nikon charge
rather a lot of money for their Capture software suite.

Is there a generic type capture util that will work with the Nikon?

The cheap & nasty Vivicam had this included with the drivers already in
XP, but its not so good with no optical zoom.

Any help appreciated - thanks.
Linux seems to let you download pictures from nearly all cameras
without installing any software. You plug in the camera, and a
box pops up notifying you a camera has been detected, and asks if
you want to download images.

Jon

This works on XP as well. I just get a folder called DCIM, which contains
contents of Camera.

On one of the cameras I have, it can be plugged in and used exactly like a
webcam - alternatively, the shutter can be controlled by clicking the mouse
for single shot capture. It has some very basic controls like brightness &
contrast etc - something that basic would be good enough, even better if it
works with any camera that I've installed the basic drivers for.

That Intel camera I pulled out of the garbage was mostly a webcam, with
the ability to be used off batteries as a standalone digital camera.

The problem with webcams is of course lower pixel count compared to the
average current digital camera. I'm not sure how that works out in this
sort of application.

I just saw something suggesting taking a webcam and reversing the lens, so
it works better for close up work. That might be something worth trying,
webcams are something easy to find in the garbage.

Michael