Nikon Control Beta 1
I recently finally bought digital SLR camera. I actually thought I’m more a Canon guy. I actually wanted to wait for an affordable full format camera, but since I didn’t want to spend about 2.500 EUR for my first DSLR I chose between the Canon 50D and Nikon D90 and then decided for Nikon for several reasons.
One reason for a DSLR was the ability to take pictures for HDR imaging. Unfortunately the camera only can take three pictures using the bracketing feature. So I thought maybe I could write me some nice application which allows me to take a few more pictures.
Accidentally there was a hype in a few Nikon websites two weeks ago due to a video taken with a Nikon D700 (which is not able to record movies). The smart programmers used the Nikon SDK to capture a movie using the LiveView mode.
So I downloaded the SDK and played around with the sample code. Unfortunately the code was a Carbon project and the documentation is not very detailed. The sample code is a command line programm which lets you get and set a lot of features and take pictures.
Since I’m a Mac user I started to build a small graphical Cocoa application from the sample code. Due to the lack of documentation it took me a few nights to figure out how exactly the camera driver works. But finally I did get the functionality I wanted.
The result is an early version of Nikon Control. The application should work with any Nikon D3, D2, D700, D300 and D90. (I’ve tested it with my D90 and a friend did the same with his D300.)
When you connect your camera to your Mac the application will automatically detect the camera (if the model is supported) and display the most important settings in the bottom bar.
In this version you can either capture a single picture by clicking the toolbar item or pressing the trigger on your camera. When you are using autofocus the camera might not be able to focus thus don’t take a picture.
In addition you can do bracketing by selecting minimum and maximum shutter speeds. The application then will take a picture for all shutter speeds in the range.
In this version all pictures are saved in “~/Pictures” and the most recent one is displayed in the viewer. You can then use the Inspector to view all image parameters like EXIF and TIFF data.
Like previously said, this version is an early beta and might not be stable in some situations. If the app crashed and the display on your camera shows “PC”, just switch the camera off and then switch it on again.
I’m not sure yet how the final application should look like (concerning design and features). So if you have any ideas, suggestions or feature requests please drop me a line. If you are a smart graphics designer and would like to contribute to this application I would be really happy.
One major feature I want to add soon is automatic high dynamic range image creation. So you then could use the application to create HDR images without any additional work and review them while shooting. (I won’t add any tonemapper though since there are already several really good ones available [for the Mac]).
That’s it for the moment. As I said please give me some feedback.
Please read the Readme. You have to copy the files (camera driver) in the Nikon folder to the correct location (/Library/Application Support) before you launch the application. If you have already installed Camera Control Pro 2 or CaptureNX they should already exist, so you don’t have to copy them.
I forgot to mention: I’m using Leopard API, so the application won’t run under 10.4.x. Sorry for anyone still using Tiger.
Peter from Nikon Rumors suggested that I should change the name of the application. If someone has a nice idea please let me know.
I actually wrote that you don’t have to copy the camera driver files if they already exist on you system. A user did so and had problems since his original driver files seemed to be outdated. So if you had installed a Nikon software some time ago and the driver files still exist, override them.
Nikon Control is now called Sofortbild. Please visit the new website http://www.sofortbildapp.com/ to download the app.
[...] geschrieben, mit dem man vom Mac aus die per USB angeschlossene Nikon D90 fernsteuern kann. In der ersten Version von heute kann man die Kamera auslösen und recht rudimentär Belichtungsreihen machen. Schaut für den [...]
Schaut für den Anfang ziemlich klasse aus und wird sicher schnell von anderen gefunden als nur von mir.
Ein dickes Lob! Ich bin gespannt, wie sich das entwickelt.
[...] the whole story here. The app can be downloaded [...]
it would be great benefits for DSLR D90 filmmakers to be able to at least:
- initiate video recording from the application (as there’s currently no remote to launch video recording on d90, very inconvenient to use on a crane)
- being able to at least see the Shutter speed and iso would be nice that d90 chooses for video recording
- of course control over shutter, iso, frame rate in D90 video mode would be huge
- if one can make any nikon FX camera record HD video like D90, this would be big too.
Wonderful initiative. Got it up and working within 2 minutes! Looking forward to further developments! Sebas, The Netherlands
[...] Stefan Hafeneger: Sito Web [...]
Great work Stefan, look forward to seeing this develop further.
Looks you are creating a very usable alternative for Nikon’s Camera Control Pro application.
Great initiative, Stefan!
Sehr schönes Programm! Endlich kommt Bewegung in den von Nikon Camera Control dominierten Markt ;)
Hoffentlich entwickelst du das Programm weiter.
Grüße,
Alex.
would you be willing to make the xcode project available for others to learn as well? I’m trying to teach myself cocoa programming and this would help me greatly!
Suggestion
Kontrole - Camtrole
Hello Stefan,
Cool stuff, thanks for the work!
What I would love to be able to do, is to use your application to automate DoF stacking for panoramic applications with a robotic head. I don’t know if the DSK provides for that though.
There are 2 ways to do useful DoF stacking:
1. Define closest and farthest points that need to be in focus, and compute automatically the points in between where focus needs to be set.
When I say define, I mean “measure”. In other words focus the camera on the closest point - record that focusing distance, focus the camera on the farthest point, record that also, and do a bit of math to compute how many intermediate focus points are needed based on focal lenght, f stop and circle of confusion.
When that preparation work is done, you should be able to replay the focus sequence.
2. Based on a given scene, identify some objects that need to be in perfect focus. Focus the camera on each of these points, record the focus distance for each of these points.
When this is done, replay the sequence.
This whole “replay the sequence” thing can be of tremendous value when doing an automated pano with one of the robotic panoramic head… since you would be able to get the exact same focus points for DoF stacking at each of the panorama positions. Really cool stuff that nobody is current able to do. I have been talking with Chris at Breeze Browser, but they cannot do it…
Thanks.
Cheers,
Bernard
[...] Product page [Stefan Hafeneger via Nikon Rumors] [...]
hi, there’s some chance to see the same tool for my “new” nikon d40x? tnx and good work
How ’bout: NiKontrol?
[...] Product page [Stefan Hafeneger via Nikon Rumors] [...]
Amazing stuff. Here are a few suggestions on thing to add.
1. Automate the installation so all the files go in the proper folders.
2. Make the size of the inspector window bigger so you can read all the info.
3. Full manual control as well as A,S,and P modes. with buttons to change aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc.
4. Change the folder that the photos are sent to.
5. Live view on the computer with focus point selection
This looks like the start of an amazing product. Congrats to you ! I have a D700 so if you need a tester let me know !
Well, that’s quite an amount of feature requests for the first day.
I’m pretty sure it might be a good idea to make this piece of software open source and let others help you developing it.
MC-30.
[...] read Stefans’ blog and bookmark it to keep track of software [...]
While I don’t have a D series, I gotta say this sounds cool.
Why not call it “NikonTrol”
Feel free to use that if you wish
It works nicely on my Mac once I installed the camera control files (I forgot this step the first time). I think it would be nice if the software was able to dump the files directly into Lightroom or Aperture.
When using the bracket function, it keeps firing after the first series of bracketed shots. Perhaps a counter to trigger the camera X number of times would be nice for bracketed and non-bracketed shots. (Better yet, add an interval timer to fire the camera every X seconds, minutes or hours or whatever.) The bracketed shots seem to have a delay between them. It might work better in some situations to allow for the three shots to fire as fast as they can. I’m sure i’ll think of some other feature suggestions later too.
Nikon D200 - ?
Tried the Nikon App. No luck just yet, maybe my Camera is not supported.
Any chance supporting a Nikon D200 DSLR? This App looks like it could really be promising with wider Nikon DSLR support.
Hello,
Maybe you can develop something for Windows too. I would appreciate that very much! Thanks and keep up the good work!
Louis
I would like D200 support too, if possible ;)
Great article will add it to our podcast as the amature in the groupI would be happy to just get apature bracketing on my D40x. I know it can be done on some low end canon cameras and I have been looking for some way to do it with my nikon as I am very interested in HDR but my budget dosn’t stretch to a pro camera like the rest of the group
Das ist schon beinahe ein Grund, den Leoparden zu installieren! ;-)
Und meine kryptische Namensvorschläge:
NDSLRctrl
DSCNctrl
HafeControl (ja, “have” schreibt man eigentlich anders…)
ClickController
ShutterDominator
WireShot (oder geht’s auch wireless?)
Viele Grüsse
Chris
[...] Control Pro 2 is capable of. Now Stefan Hafeneger played with the Nikon SDK packages and created a Mac application that allows tethered shooting with Nikon DSLR [...]
Hey im daniela from venezuela, and i’ve been searching this kind of program while ago, i’ve a sony semy-professional digital camera, and i always wanted to shoot photos and automaticly saved in my pc, like your program.. but yours it’s only with nikon, do you know about other simylars softwares for canon ?… i need one and i’m very bad for searching this kind of sutff, i will apreciate the answer please:) !!!
would having the control modules (/Library/Application Support/Nikon/Camera Control Modules/)
for D1
D2
D200
etc
help to be able to implement camera control for those models? if so, i can supply them.
i tried the software with our new D90 here at work, and it worked splendidly!!
Just need to get the D1x, D2x and D200 capable as well.
There is a similar free Windows program on DIYPhotobits.com.
Maybe you can work with that person and jointly create MAC and PC versions. He seems to be further along in the development of features. Maybe you can share code.
[...] Hafeneger, has built a Nikon specific camera control app for macs which is now beta and freely available. Â He is using the Nikon SDK as well so should be [...]
[...] Product page [Stefan Hafeneger via Nikon Rumors] [...]
great app, looking forward to updates! :-)
It does not see my Nikon D2x. Could that be added?
How about KontrolNik?
What is the reason for this to only work for the models you listed? I tried it with my D60 with no luck. Either way, the software looks promising (and I hate Nikon’s own software). Keep up the good work :)
This is very, very cool! And the feature addition that I’d like most is a customizable intervalometer function :)
Very interesting. I tried it with a D700, With my D3x, the software can’t detect the camera. When a new version for D3x? Good work
Well done!!! For a fist release (that I have seen) it is a great effort, thank you for sharing with us.
I second that question on the D60
Stefan,
Awsome app. I think you should keep it simple looking like all mac applications! It looks great so far.
A feature that I would like to have on this app is an intervalometer for time lapse photography. Elvind already mentioned it, but I surely second that!
Your plans for HRD - SWEET!!!
I have the D90 as well. I wish there was a way that could more nicely control the video setup - in terms of shutter speed and aperture and ISO so that we wouldn’t have to dance around it every time (but I doubt that you can get access to those settings through the pc? you probably know better!).
Keep up the great work. Thanks for sharing!!!
Stefan,
Thanks this is very useful and it seems to work fine for my D700. I would like to suggest that you allow the user to specify the folder into which the images will be placed. This would allow an application such as Lightroom to set up a watched folder (that needs to be empty initially and user/pictures is definitely not empty for most of us). Another user setting would be to not have the images displayed automatically. Given these two user settings in your application, Lightroom users could set up to have images imported, moved to another folder location, rendered using any desired preset settings and then displayed right within the Lightroom application and that would be ideal for people like myself who really don’t do a lot of tethered shooting but would appreciate the ability to do so directly into this application without buying another piece of Nikon SW.
Downloading it now… Thanks for making something like this dude!
Stefan,
On a D700 the bracketing does not seem to work, all pictures are taken at the same speed. Should I use a special camera setting? It would be very cool to be able to use Live View.
The UI is very clean, congratulations!
Nicola
Great program! I installed it and tested it in less than 2 minutes. I have a D3 and it works perfectly.
If it was able to choose a different folder, I could set up a “watch folder” for Lightroom and it would automatically import the pics as they were taken.
Works perfectly with the D3. It would be nice to have the possibility to set the parameters (ISO, f/number, shutter speed) from the software. Hopefully would come. Thanks a lot anyway!
Please make it for 10.4? Please??!!! I finally found something that doesn’t cost $160 and I can’t use it!!
Feature request: selectable download folder, in addition to having files written to CF card. Thank You.
Bob
Stefan, you are really on to something here. I hope you keep developing it. I’m a D200 guy and (along with the others) am looking for something lightweight such as this that can handle a watch folder for Lightroom.
Keep going! This is great.
Thanks, this is great and has huge potential.
Would love bracketing in manual mode and also the ability to set the bracket set in stops. ie If one wants to set exposures at 2 or 3 stops difference. At present one can only set 0.3, 0.7 or 1 stop through the camera and that reflects in the program.
This would help us doing HDR and exposure fusion work.
Keep up the good work.
I was wondering do you have any plans of making this compatible with windows. I have windows Vista 64 bit and would love to try this. Please lit me know.
For multiplatform support I suggest Java or Qt (C++ API). They work on Win/Mac/Linux.
Build your front end with one of those two, link to the Nikon lib for the specific platform. I believe the API is consistent for both OS’s.
Would love to help out if this becomes GPL.
looks really promising, any chance that this might support the D80? since the available camctl does only very basic things with the camera, and i’d love to have a remote possibility to trigger exposure bracketing!
Great!
One thing to be careful.
If you have other Nikon applications installed on your computer, draging the Nikon folder into the Application Support ask you to remplace an existing Nikon folder in that location.
Any work around this situation?
would not want to loose my Capture NX installation.
Thanks
Hi Stephan,
I found a way around.
I just draged the folder there was inside your Nikon fokder into my already Nikon folder I had in my Application Support folder. Works fine.
My request woukd be that your Nikon Control woukd support Live View.
I own a D300 that I use for Astrophotography.
Your Beta version works great on my side.
Thanks again.
i am look ing forward to giving your application a go, but my nikon d90 is still in the mail! thanks for what you have done.
all the best.
–
oskar
looks promising as soon as my d200 is recognised.
[...] Product page [Stefan Hafeneger via Nikon Rumors] [...]
I was very excited to read about this application… sadly it does not seem to work with the Nikon D40 yet… :( I’ll have to give it a try with the D300 at work.
I think the name should not contain “Nikon”, since it is protected and that could make trouble.
So what about “niControl” ?
And what about a PC version? By the way, is it open source?
Terrific and thank you!
I am grateful you & co created this free alternative to Camera Control Pro.
It setup easily on a MacBook Pro 10.5.6 (I had the Nikon drivers already) and worked fine with a D90.
Since it is made in Cocoa, I hope you will consider porting it to iPhone. Such an app would be very helpful for shooting time lapses “in the field” and, I believe, successful in the iTunes Store.
cool stuff. Now as you have grip on that - you will be flooded with feature requests and support for various cameras.
Here is my one ;-) I would like to access to the D90 flash commander settings from the mac. This is possible (at least in principle) with Nikon’s Camera Control but so deeply hidden in submenus to be useless for a workflow.
This feature would make a killer app as photography is all about lighting. Having sliders for the remote flashes. uhh, thousands of strobists out there will love you forever.
Respekt!
Tolle Software und völlig ausreichend für die meisten Belange.
Für alle Makrofotografen ist die Übertragung des Live-View inkl. Lupe zur manuellen Fokussierung interessant.
Viele Grüße
Ulli
Has anyone successfully gotten a D40 to work with the software?
Would like to see if anyone can provide some insight on the setup.
Thank you :)
Looks great” But is there any way to support a D70s???
Thank you so much. This is wonderful. With a paypal link to send you small funds, I’m sure you would do well.
I will link to your project from my blog. I have hooked up the D90 and it works flawlessly for interval shooting - Thank you. I have been looking for a way to do this without paying nikon 200 dollars. If I notice anything buggy, I will certainly let you know.
Do you have plans to incorporate Live View for the D90 in the future?
Thanks … excellent
do you know any app for nikon d80?
Stefan,
I’ll add… this is a great piece of work and I wish you success in marketing the software once out of Beta. A tethered product is very good for checking your lighting, as the small LCD on the back of the camera is much too small to do this with any success. One thing I found was that RAW files were slow to load but the work around was to shoot Jpeg Basic, analyze the lighting, make your adjustments then shoot in RAW without the tether. Best of luck and I’ll keep an eye on your site….
great app! just wished it was compatible with Nikon D60, looks very promising. Anyone out their have a solution for HDR Photography Software for a Nikon D60?
Looks like a great application! If for no other reason, it would ease my attempts at macro stuff as I don’t seem to focus as well through the view-finder. Alas, I have the D70s and have yet to save the $$ for something new. If you consider expanding the app to work with other models please consider the D70/D70s series.
I am trying to do something like your program for Windows. I have part of it, but am having trouble with the image transfer using the Nikon SDK. So any more thoughts about Open Source? I know I am at least the third person to ask.
So is “Direct Image” the correct English translation?
Thanks
Just tried it on my D3 and works great. What an excellent smooth running program. My compliments to the programer.
My only suggestion would be to make the important information larger, such as exposure, focus length etc. The ability to see a histogram would be great too.
[...] Product page [Stefan Hafeneger via Nikon Rumors] [...]
Thank you Stefan for this very smooth working app! I love using it as a teaching tool, as it lets me capture straight into the laptop, where it gets automatically opened by Lightroom and projected onto the studio wall! Now all my students can immediately see the effects of lighting changes. Brilliant!
I’ve been using it so far with the D80, D300 and D3 - and it has been working beautifully!
The only features I would like to request would be:
• support for live video, so you could use the camera remotely
• start/end time options + maximum number of shots for timelapse
• support for long exposure times (up to five hours)
The program looks great . But could you make an update/plugin or something so it get’s compatible with the Nikon D3000 and D40 ?