Z-Cam E1 notes, tips, feedback

[Gius19]

Thank you for all info.

Yes, I meant that cable but as it is not possible in photo mode....

Is it possible to to use a cable to shoot photos via USB (or a serial port)?

If yes, I could split the cable in 4. I did that with my 2 sony a5000 with the option "photo without a lens" and I got a sync at 1/1000s. The same results could, hopefully, be achieved with Zcam E1 provided it is possible, in this camera, to exclude the focussing process, which may cause lags.

I read some repos regarding Zcam E1 from you and others on Github, which I can only vaguely understand.

I would need to set the camera this way: exclude focussing process, set aperture priority mode with a limit to exposure time, e.g. when exposure time is higher than 1/1000s increase ISO.

Do you think that would be feasible?

Giuseppe Porciani

 

[Ragnar Jensen]

I thought it was you when I got the notification email from Github

The camera can shoot with any lens, or without a lens. There is no "shoot without lens" setting to change, it will happily snap away with anything or nothing mounted. If it doesn't detect an electronically controlled lens, it switches to manual focus mode automatically. As it has a manual focus mode, which you also can select from the menu, you can disable AF even with an AF lens mounted.

There is no functioning exposure time limiter. It does have a setting for that in the menu, between 1/2 and 1/320 second, but that setting is not officially supported and is not described in the manual (I have an early draft of the manual where it is mentioned briefly). If you do manage to change the setting, it will often change back to a greyed out "Auto" by itself. Both aperture and shutter speed can be set manually, though. The camera has a manual exposure mode. So, possibly you could set a fixed aperture and shutter speed and let auto-ISO take care of the exposure.

A wired remote will require some do-it-yourself. I'm not aware of anything ready-made that you can purchase. The camera has a multi-use 12-pin port that can be configured as a simple wired remote or as a serial port. But you need to configure the port by use of an external EEPROM chip. And the plug that goes into the port can be difficult to find.

Airbot Systems has a couple of adapters for the Z CAM E1, one of which is for getting at the composite video output that is also present on the 12-pin port. It just might be possibe to use that adapter and just solder a couple of wires to it to get a wired remote. At the very least, I think they could supply the plug that goes into the 12-pin port. I suggest that you make contact with them and ask about your use case.

--
Ragnar

 

[Gius19]

Thank you very much for all info.

...yes it was me: I asked some questions in Github also.

I am trying to figure it out how to follow your hints for a wired remote. I will contact the link you suggested. I know almost nothing about programming or electronics: reading the repos (the designs, schematics of circuits...) in Github I ingenuously believed the shutter pins in the camera ports were a solved stuff.

About a maximum limit in exposure time I could manually fix, for example, 1/1500s in aperture priiority mode (I will use a manual lens with a fixed aperture) and let the camera choose ISO. I need not more than 1/1500s because in some cases there are fast moving cars in the pictures. I would need to set these parameters for many pictures taken at a rate of about 1 per second. The problem comes when, on a sunny day, 1/1500 and ISO 100 turns into an overexposed picture. That is why It would be nice to let the cam choose time first but not more than a limit.

Here:

Z-Camera-Doc/E1/expansion/expansion.md at master · imaginevision/Z-Camera-Doc

Document for Z CAM camera. Contribute to imaginevision/Z-Camera-Doc development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

I found:

CAMERA_CONFIG_MAX_SHUTTER_TIME,

Has that something to do with the function I need?

Giuseppe

 

[Ragnar Jensen]

I think that is the function that you can access from the menu, to set max exposure time between 1/2 and 1/320 seconds. In the menu it's only changeable directly after a complete factory reset of the camera. If you set it and then e.g. change the exposure mode from Program mode to Aperture priority, the Max Exposure Time resets itself to "Auto" and cannot be changed again. Maybe it can be changed through commands on the serial port, but I haven't tested that.

The camera has WiFi and can be controlled from a web browser. In the http.md file I can see a key max_exp， // Max exposure time that might be usable to change the setting. Again, not something I have tested. But I will test it, just to satisfy my own curiosity.

 

[Gius19]

Thank you for clarifying.

I wrote to the french company for an adapter to use for a wired remote shutter, waiting for answer.

I will try to understand the functionality of this cam as I can. I need to solve the issues I mentioned, before even thinking to buy.

Thank you for any further hints, suggestions you may have.

Giuseppe