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.

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

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.

"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.

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

"Michael Black" wrote in message
news:alpine.LNX.2.02.1311141503030.22053@darkstar. example.org...

I just saw something suggesting taking a webcam and
reversing the lens, so it works better for close up work.

How do you intend to reverse a lens that presumably cannot be removed from the
camera?

The camera is already designed for "close ups", so I don't see how that would
help.

This is odd, because my Olympus and Canon DSLRs came with free software that
lets you download from the camera.

When you say "capture", do you mean something other than a simple download?
Are you looking for software that lets you control the camera from the
computer?

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
This is odd, because my Olympus and Canon DSLRs came with free software
that lets you download from the camera.

One of the Vivitar cameras does that without even running the driver install
disk - when you plug the USB cable in, it displays a USB symbol and a webcam
symbol, the default is USB and it just turns up as a removable drive in
explorer.

What I'm after allows shutter control with a mouse click - any other
controls would be a bonus.

"Ian Field" wrote in message ...

What I'm after allows shutter control with a mouse click --
any other controls would be a bonus.

I checked, and the EOS Utility that came with my Canon DSLR, for free, lets
you shoot photos from your computer.

I can't believe Nikon doesn't have a comparable free application.

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
"Ian Field" wrote in message ...

What I'm after allows shutter control with a mouse click --
any other controls would be a bonus.

I checked, and the EOS Utility that came with my Canon DSLR, for free,
lets you shoot photos from your computer.

I can't believe Nikon doesn't have a comparable free application.

Apparently its on special offer - £119.

In article ,
Ian Field wrote:

What I'm after allows shutter control with a mouse click - any other
controls would be a bonus.

Linux will see the camera as a USB device and let you grab the
existing files on there, to force the camera to take pictures in "tethered"
mode check out "gphoto2", if it supports your camera, then it could
help :-

List files with gphoto2 --camera="Oregon Scientific DShot III" -L

Get all files with gphoto2 --camera="Oregon Scientific DShot III" -P

Get numbered files with gphoto2 --camera="Oregon Scientific DShot III" -p 5-7

Delete all files with gphoto2 --camera="Oregon Scientific DShot III" -D

Delete numbered files with gphoto2 --camera="Oregon Scientific DShot III" -d 1-9

*** Force capture of picture from PC, stored on camera with
gphoto2 --camera="Oregon Scientific DShot III" --capture-image ****

Capture filenames can be set with
--filename=`date +"%Y%m%d_%H%M%S".jpg`

This works with some cameras, not others, depends on support from the
manufacturer to provide such a useful facility, and then on the driver
writer!

So a combination of force capture, get file, delete file in sequence would
fetch the pics straight over to the PC.
--
--------------------------------------+------------------------------------
Mike Brown: mjb[-at-]signal11.org.uk | http://www.signal11.org.uk

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

"Mike" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Ian Field wrote:

What I'm after allows shutter control with a mouse click - any other
controls would be a bonus.

Linux will see the camera as a USB device and let you grab the
existing files on there, to force the camera to take pictures in
"tethered"
mode check out "gphoto2", if it supports your camera, then it could
help :-

Linux is for when I get a bit more ****ed off with M$ - I found some digital
camera capture apps with an ftp search, but I also found a load of other
interesting stuff, so it could take a couple of weeks to do the download
queue.

"Mike" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Ian Field wrote:

What I'm after allows shutter control with a mouse click - any other
controls would be a bonus.

Linux will see the camera as a USB device and let you grab the
existing files on there, to force the camera to take pictures in
"tethered"
mode check out "gphoto2", if it supports your camera, then it could
help :-

Linux is for when I get a bit more ****ed off with M$ - I found some digital
camera capture apps with an ftp search, but I also found a load of other
interesting stuff, so it could take a couple of weeks to do the download
queue.

"Mike" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Ian Field wrote:

What I'm after allows shutter control with a mouse click - any other
controls would be a bonus.

Linux will see the camera as a USB device and let you grab the
existing files on there, to force the camera to take pictures in
"tethered"
mode check out "gphoto2", if it supports your camera, then it could
help :-

Linux is for when I get a bit more ****ed off with M$ - I found some digital
camera capture apps with an ftp search, but I also found a load of other
interesting stuff, so it could take a couple of weeks to do the download
queue.

On 11/13/2013 11:44 AM, 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.

The screenshot that comes with XP (ctrl + Prnt Scrn) makes an
uncompressed bit map which you can open and Zoom directly in MS Paint,
or do as I do and tweak it in GIMP.

"dave" wrote in message
m...

The screenshot that comes with XP (CTRL+PrtScn) makes an uncompressed bit
map [on the Clipboard] you can open and
Zoom directly in MS Paint, or do as I do and tweak it in GIMP.

This feature has been available in just about every version of Windows.