Photographer adds camera control with home-made computer accessory grip: Digital Photography Review

There is another such a device coming to market:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DqsFOAma24

0 upvotes

Future Canon BG-EX grip: AMD FX (or i7) + Radeon HD 8990 + WLAN inside. Now that's image processing power, dear. Problem is, how to cool it... Cheers! :)

0 upvotes

Maybe it could connect to a global wireless network so I could upload photos instantly. Oh wait I have a Iphone. To me its just a bigger smart phone. Perhaps I am missing the point.

0 upvotes

What we need is Canon to develop an iPhone & Android app and a connection to the phone. And please integrate wifi in future bodies. You can really fell the stupidity of all this when you have a 2K $ body and use a cheap phone to take a picture of the camera display and then send that image over wifi network to somebody else.

2 upvotes

I bet if you look enough you can find a CF to SD adapter, then put in a pre-configured Eye-Fi X2 card that does just that - provides a WiFi access point, and has iPhone (and Android too I think) software to integrate downloading into the smartphone app world...

0 upvotes

there are android apps w live views

0 upvotes

The CF to SD adapter for the Eye-Fi X2 turns out to be unreliable. When they fail they don't just lose com they also scramble stored files. Eye-Fi said they would replace my card but only changed it's ID, when it failed again in a couple of days file recovery software extracted images that could onlt have come from the original card. I'm looking forward to 5D MKIII long term reports on Eye-Fi.

0 upvotes

I did think of an idea for David's device:

David's device could expand a camera's high speed buffer depth, provide wireless, IR remote control, USB3 and GPS capabilities to cameras that do not currently offer those interfaces and functions.

d2f

Comment edited 6 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

IMHO:
It is one thing to hack the camera code and activate or adjust existing features in the code or at best add a custom function. It is unrealistic to expect hackers to fix bugs in that code. Installation of that patch would be like adding a OEM update to the existing firmware. Hacker firmware modifications carry risk of rendering the camera inoperative and incompatible with future OEM patches.

Likewise it is unrealistic to expect to import third party code such as LR or PS into a external low power & much slower standalone microcomputer & small memory capacity and expect a quick results. Current or future wireless or cabled interface to computer or hand held device would be more efficient and convenient to most photographers who require such functionality. The later solution allows for greater flexibility when it comes to LR and third party add on SW upgrades.

When you add it all up there is no need or purpose for the device built by David hunt.

1 upvote

Sad.
Canon is (probably) able to do it.
Why don't they offer this to everybody ?
Are they waiting 2023 ? :-)

0 upvotes

I think this should be standard features in 2012 rather than require a hacker to get them on. These companies are taking their sweet time in rolling out these features.

Samsung seem to be the only company getting on with it (followed slowly by Sony), this is not so surprising considering they are electronics and particularly smartphone experts.

But with applications available, my meagre iPhone camera has far greater potential of uses than my main workhorse camera. Which is a shame as the only difference is software, and one basic bit of connectivity hardware.

This makes sense to retro fit to older cameras to bring them into 2012 and beyond, but connectivity of a camera to the internet should be a lot more common these days than it is. It should also be built in, not an added extra like Nikon's d3200 wifi dongle.

1 upvote

Genius!

0 upvotes

That's not the path to be followed.

Nikon already ships a miniatur Wifi dongle attached to the USB port (with the D3200) and I am sure, forthcoming dSLRs will have an embedded web server on board making the Wifi dongle obsolete. The Web server will act as a gateway to the remote tethering APIs which Canon and Nikon are already providing (the D3200 Wifi dongle already is this except that nobody yet reverse engineered its protocol).

APPs for iOS and Android will then provide access to the capabilities, incl. Liveview. Already available for the D3200 and I expect more open solutions (i.e., a documented Web API) for future SLRs.

2 upvotes

The Pi offers many opportunities for low cost applications. In the case of current dSLRs however, their interface capabilities are likely to be very limited and , as such, the Pi will be 'talking to itself'.

0 upvotes

Great idea, but who's going to program it?
How about squeezing a smart-phone running Android into the grip, it would have a head start...

0 upvotes

Sorry, I'm not understanding something. Ok, there's a computer in the grip. You could theoretically do a lot of things with a computer attached to a camera. What I'm not understanding, is how one would navigate this computer and tell it what you want to do when you basically only have a button and a wheel?

With a tethered computer, can you operate the computer and software from the camera body?

0 upvotes

You could, for example, SSH (secure shell) into it (over a wifi network, say) , and issue commands that way. And then there are numerous things you could program it to do automatically beforehand (like backup photos you take over a cellular data connection)

0 upvotes

We need third party manufacturers like Sigma to make generic Nikon and Canon BODIES with open source software running the firmware.

0 upvotes

that shows how increativ CaNon (and others ) are when it comes to additional functions as timer, water level gauge, horizont , triggering by movement , by focus ... etc..
Help lines for architetural and landscape pictures , storing and remembering focus points, DOF calculations and sisplaying ,, Infinit calc etc. etc.

1 upvote

I use the android app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.dslrcontroller&hl=de a lot to control my 5DIII and 5DII. It works like a charm and critical manual focusing on my samsung galaxy note works nicely in live mode. Also timed sequences is easy. I use it mainly for astrophotography.... Have a look!

0 upvotes

I think it would be very awesome and spawn some ideas like it has here. But seriously, I don't know why a simple interface could be designed among many DSLRs that would allow inexpensive modules attached like WiFi or GPS? How long have we had cheap USB devices? It's not a technical big-deal. We'd have cameras like the 30D or 40D. What's up camera makers?

0 upvotes

As far as computers go into the grip I guess I'd like one to have a lighter version of Adobe Lightroom/Capture One/GIMP to contain it -

...so that I can use the grip to make edits on the go, in case I shoot RAW and client needs JPEGs before I leave.

e.g.
1. Before shooting, calibrate the camera's LCD for color... and make custom presets using the grip's installed Adobe LR-light plugin/program.

2a. During shooting, use the grip's own CPU for downloading RAW data from cam, automatically process using internal Adobe LR-light presets and save it to another memory card in the grip as JPEG.

2b. During shooting, use the grip's own CPU to download RAW data from cam and store it as backup.

3. After shooting, select images to process and use internal Adobe LR-light presets to convert and save to JPEG.

4. After processing,use Bluetooth/WiFi to transmit images directly from grip or use USB 3.0 ports in grip to transfer photos to client's computer.

AND NO, NO FACEBOOK FOR MY CAMERA PLEASE

Comment edited 1 minute after posting

0 upvotes

Even if this was properly interfaced/programmed to use the internal bus/USB to give functionality comparable to what you can get with a Windows PC...

Would it be preferreable to a smartphone/tablet with USB host functionality (not too many out there) doing similar things? Then you would have a large touch-screen to control everything.

-h

0 upvotes

Great idea. Unfortunately considering the "Canikon" price level this grip would be somewhere around $1000+ at least if produced by "Canikon".

0 upvotes

The gang over at http://www.thisweekinphoto.com/ have been talking about for a long time how great it would be if someone created a DSLR that would allow something like an Iphone to slide into the camera (be part of the camera) and be used as the cpu / operating system that controls the camera. The iphone could snap into camera and be used as an interface, and we could download specialty apps to use in our cameras. People from all over the world could develop apps we could download from the app store and use in our cameras.

Imagine a camera with an amazing sensor, converters to use the best Canon and Nikon glass, and the interface + ability to use various apps. Sounds awesome to me!

So maybe people will take notice to what David Hunt is doing and cameras will be able to use smart phones in the future.

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 4 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

congrats to David Hunt for a great innovative idea!

and I can't belive there are posters that are criticising DPR for putting up stuff like this. Of course it's news! It's even about digital photography equipment...how more relevant could it be?

there are huge possibilities here, imagine, extra processors to help buffering or AF speeds, or as he's mentioned on his own post, storage, tethering, wireless etcetc...
really good work David!

3 upvotes

indeed. an extra processor always helps...

..given they do a photographic job, not unnecessary computing... cough*socialnetworkingsites*cough

0 upvotes

One of first digital cameras, the Kodak DC290, could be "programmed." All these (brief) years and the full potential of camera as computer has yet to be realized. Manufacturers want the DSLR, etc. to be relevant in the age of smartphones, etc. Why not exploit these potentials?

1 upvote

great, a good job such a grip would be much more usable than the wifi accessories sold by the manufacturers at insane prices.

0 upvotes

Excellent David Hunt. This is admirable work and will be very useful when the manufacturers restrict consumers by limiting capabilities of the camera. GREAT.

4 upvotes

It does have potential given the grip will typically have a control path for the command wheel(s) and shutter release. With that I can imagine some nice bracketing features, intervalometer usage, not to mention remote triggering or auto triggering based on various external stimuli such as lightning, sound, etc.

0 upvotes

Raspberry Pi is nice, but the compute power inside most digital cameras is at least comparable, and the control and I/O then is integrated with the camera. I've been running my own code in Canon PowerShots (via CHDK) for years, and soon hope to be doing the same inside my Sony A55 and NEX 5/7 (which run a linux environment not too different from the Raspberry Pi).

Right now, this project looks like a Raspberry Pi is just "mounted" on a camera without much reason for being there. I suppose the reuse of a battery grip's shell is novel, but I'll be more impressed when this is doing something that we and others haven't been doing inside CHDK PowerShots for years. There is potential in that the I/O interfaces on Raspberry Pi are much more flexible than those integrated in cameras....

1 upvote

very cool thinking, lots of gumption, and a great idea to breathe a new span of life into a xxD body (looks like 40d :) !!

0 upvotes

I would think Android could be a good platform for something like this. They already have Android capable computers the size of card readers, and Android apps for camera control.

0 upvotes

One can always connect the camera to a little laptop for "hard drive backup, control across the Internet or sophisticated interval shooting" and such. Why should one make own grip-top and programming it too?

Invention and creation is good, but why should anybody reinvent the wheel?

1 upvote

I like the idea of sitting at the back of the church waiting for the bride to arrive, playing solitaire on the lcd of a canon 5d mk iii :)

0 upvotes

If it's games, even the Nokia 3310 has some - lighter too. I wouldn't dare hold a 2-kilo camera+lens combo for a long time just to play Solitaire while waiting.... my wrists will be tired before the shoot starts and would just suck..

0 upvotes

A lot can be done with putting electronics in the grip. It's just the camera companies just aren't innovative and can still sell any black plastic DLSR they can come up with no matter what. You would think by now they could integrate GPS into a body.

1 upvote

Far cooler, at least with Canon cameras, are CHDK and/or Magic Lantern:
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK_in_Brief

Comment edited 17 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

"He's not got as far as programming the computer yet but has blogged about the possibilities"

Is that a news? Is it worth publishing it?

Shame on you, DPREVIEW!

3 upvotes

You may not think it's interesting, but people clearly do. At which point I'm not ashamed to have told people about it. If it gets people thinking, or programmers involved, then it's worth drawing attention to.

We can't win - if it's a commercial product, people accuse us of just pandering to PR, if it's something interesting an individual does, you tell us it's not news.

22 upvotes

Yes it's news. Someone has actually made an accessory, instead of waiting till it became readily available in some shop. In the days long gone, many of us used to make some helpful thing which enable us to follow a line in photographic intention. Now it's quite common to think like if it isn't on the shelf then it's not possible.
I'll congratulate anyone who brings a vision in this field, however small or insignificant it seemed. From imagination all advancement begins.
And in the same time I don't regard separate program modes for cats and dogs in Pets photography as an advancement! I wouldn't even if they added a third one for parrots... but I do wonder why some of the excellent ideas the hackers had made for Canon cameras (such as automatic lightning shots) aren't becoming standard software... this is surely a more advanced piece of thinking than Face recognition with show-teeth-to-click "option".

Comment edited 9 minutes after posting

3 upvotes

yes, it is news. It doesn't make sense to program before you even know if you can make the attachment work. Announcing it is really a call to other interested parties to collaborate on what to do next. And yes, it may well be that the pi isn't the most suitable processor to use, but you got to start with something.

1 upvote

Sounds great, but I seriously worry how long the batteries will last. Raspberry Pi isn't exactly low power. Been working myself with a Bluetooth LE device that runs code and will run for over a year on a coin cell!

Comment edited 48 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

Should make Thom Hogan happy.
Something like this has a decent potential for automating workflow after you've pressed the button.

0 upvotes

Its kind of cool actually. Lets see what happens.

The info in this article i somewhat limited though. I dont really get exactly what he have done, except putting a computer in a grip, which dont per se give you any interesting functionalities.

He has downloaded images from the camera and distributed them with WiFi though. So - I assume the USB port on the computer is connected to the USB contact at the camera.

So ... some programming must have been done. Its probably not only cool and advanced things that not have been programmed yet.

I dont know much about Nikon tethering. But as far as I think I have heard - it is quite extensive. Or?

1 upvote

How exactly does attaching a piece of electronics to the bottom of the camera get around the need for hacking the firmware?

People resort to firmware hacks because manufacturers do not provide API's to the firmware, not because they don't have a Rasp. Pi in the grip.

1 upvote

Most interchangeable lens cameras have the capability to be tethered to and controlled by a computer. He's just putting the computer in the battery grip so he can (theoretically) perform advanced functions without bringing along the laptop.

0 upvotes

Yepp ... you could instead use the laptop as a backtop in your backpack and have a long USB cable over your shoulder. Same functionality ... but somewhat cumbersome.

0 upvotes

Having a full fledged computer attached to the bottom of the camera is essentially the "gateway" into unlimited possiblities that often firmware hacking tries to do.

For example, typically you attach a "computer" to a camera and can remote control it using tethering software. But now that the computer is attached, you can have all that tethered functionality, built onto the camera.

Once that is done you could automate commands, for interval shooting, obviously back up images on the computers disk, but more interestingly, using any other type of communication protocol available (wifi, ethernet, heck RS-232), you can remotely control all these features as well.

I could imaging having this as a remote camera would be fantastic, as you could change settings, and even remote in/file share to see how the results are going on your local PC.

As for "programming". I haven't checked Canon's remote software available on linux, but it's possible that there is already much available

0 upvotes

There is no Canon software for Linux but he is using GPhoto which is a hack of the USB protocol. The advantage of using Linux is that you have low cost and lower power. The disadvantage is that you have to use the hack which doesn't have full functionality and may not work immediately with new cameras.

If you use Windows then you have higher power, needing special consideration for heat and much higher cost. However you can use the standard Canon toolkit which is normally available with new cameras and has a lot of functionality.

0 upvotes

Thanks, that actually makes sense guys, given that this is a Canon. What threw me was the reference to the Sony A55 hacking, for which I guess you could have a Cray built in the grip you still couldn't get away without hacking the firmware :-(

0 upvotes

having a computer with no screen in the grip for tethering is somewhat almost the same as shooting without the grip isn't it? all you do is store.. you'd still use the camera's LCD.

0 upvotes

I'm assuming he has decoded the the internal connector and created some sort of interface board to allow the single board computer to talk to the camera via the standard grip connector. He must also have create some sort of UI to allow his new functionality to be selected and an interface for loading programming. It's a great idea but there are lots of details. This sounds like a excellent community project.

0 upvotes

I built one of these, but mine runs OS 10.6 on 8MB RAM, and 1TB HD. It does get a little warm sometimes, and the battery only lasts about 4 minutes.

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 2 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

I attached a small computer to my lawnmower but I haven't gotten around to programming it yet.

5 upvotes

LMAO!!! I'm thinking about going to Mars as soon as I figure out how to program my car's computer to drive there. :)

DPReview is beginning to be a joke with these stupid articles that have little or no value.

Comment edited 30 seconds after posting

2 upvotes

Quick! Someone please help him out. Maybe he'll take the rest of the naysayers with him!

1 upvote

I'll try attaching a small computer to my coffee mug and program it to make coffee on its own. :)

0 upvotes

Good idea Ali, make a few more for you and yer mates on the way to Mars!

0 upvotes

Just think how much more useful your lawnmower will be when you've programmed it. You could add gps and get it to do patterns or sound an alarm when it's low on petrol. The possibilities are endless. If you add an adaptive router, you have an unmanned ground lawnmower. In fact it would no longer be a lawnmower - it would be the ultimate man's toy. Who needs to cut grass anyway?

0 upvotes

Waste of time - no grass on Mars. Saw it TV just the other day!

0 upvotes

It's interesting that he has been able to incorporate a main board into a Camera grip, but IMHO it won't be cool until it can actually do something. The hard part is programming.

0 upvotes

He could just not bother and take photographs instead.

2 upvotes

About time!!! this may help Canon to get ideas...

1 upvote

Ah, cool! <3

0 upvotes


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Photographer adds camera control with home-made computer accessory grip

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