HDRI capture program for Canon EOS cameras under Mac OS X

hdri
1

Hi All,

Under contract with LBNL, I have written an HDR capture program that works with the Canon EOS 5D camera under Mac OS X, and should work with other Canon EOS cameras as well. When open from the Finder, the application triggers a sequence of image captures, saving them to the laptop across a USB or Firewire connection. Setting the camera in manual mode, the sequence begins at the fastest available shutter speed and works its way down until it finds the first exposure with over-exposed pixels in its thumbnail. It saves this image along with the previous one, and continues downward in the exposure range (longer shutter times) for the number of stops and images you specify in a configuration file.

Unfortunately, CanonHDRcap does not work from the command line, as the Canon software requires building with CodeWarrior and an outdated Carbon application package model, which doesn't support command-line operation. However, using the OS X "open" command, you can run it from a batch file and determine when it finishes based on another output file it creates, specifying the names of the image files it has created. (My next task is to build a script that runs hdrgen automatically afterwards, which should be easy enough.)

I've put the app. on my website for any masochistic beta testers who want to have a go with their Canon EOS camera. It produces beautiful results, so long as you don't mind lugging a laptop and a tripod with you; it eliminates all camera movement and does a much better job capturing the full range than auto-bracket mode. The link is below:

  http://www.anyhere.com/gward/pickup/CanonHDRcap.tar.gz

Most of the camera settings are left as set on the camera, including aperture, white balance, JPEG/RAW mode, etc. The one thing I'm sure doesn't work is storing both JPEG and RAW images at the same time, but let me know if you run into any other problems.

-Greg

P.S. The correct mailing address for the list is <[email protected]>, not <[email protected]> as we originally announced. (Thanks to Rob Guglielmetti for pointing this out.)

2

Hi All,

Under contract with LBNL, I have written an HDR capture program that works with the Canon EOS 5D camera under Mac OS X, and should work with other Canon EOS cameras as well. When open from the Finder, the application triggers a sequence of image captures, saving them to the laptop across a USB or Firewire connection. Setting the camera in manual mode, the sequence begins at the fastest available shutter speed and works its way down until it finds the first exposure with over-exposed pixels in its thumbnail. It saves this image along with the previous one, and continues downward in the exposure range (longer shutter times) for the number of stops and images you specify in a configuration file.

Unfortunately, CanonHDRcap does not work from the command line, as the Canon software requires building with CodeWarrior and an outdated Carbon application package model, which doesn't support command-line operation. However, using the OS X "open" command, you can run it from a batch file and determine when it finishes based on another output file it creates, specifying the names of the image files it has created. (My next task is to build a script that runs hdrgen automatically afterwards, which should be easy enough.)

I've put the app. on my website for any masochistic beta testers who want to have a go with their Canon EOS camera. It produces beautiful results, so long as you don't mind lugging a laptop and a tripod with you; it eliminates all camera movement and does a much better job capturing the full range than auto-bracket mode. The link is below:

  http://www.anyhere.com/gward/pickup/CanonHDRcap.tar.gz

Most of the camera settings are left as set on the camera, including aperture, white balance, JPEG/RAW mode, etc. The one thing I'm sure doesn't work is storing both JPEG and RAW images at the same time, but let me know if you run into any other problems.

-Greg

3

I assume that these would be the cameras the EOS Capture software is
available for. On the Canon website the list is:

EOS-1D
EOS-1Ds
EOS-1D MkII
EOS 20D
EOS-1Ds Mark II
EOS 350D
EOS 5D
EOS-1D Mark II N

(For beginners: The EOS 350D is the current low end of the list
and available for about 500 $).

URL for the (Windows) EOS Capture:

http://software.canon-europe.com/software/eos_captures22671.asp?model=

BTW: Canon has a SDK for these cameras which is probably what Greg
      has used for his HDR capture. Nice to have something for OS X, too.

Thomas

···

On 20.01.2006, at 21:05, Gregory J. Ward wrote:

Hi All,

Under contract with LBNL, I have written an HDR capture program that works with the Canon EOS 5D camera under Mac OS X, and should work with other Canon EOS cameras as well.

4

There is a semi-working version of EOS Capture for OS X as well, but of course you are left to manually control the camera. It avoids having to touch the camera, but it takes a while to get through the exposure sequence (as clouds move, etc.) and it doesn't really save you any effort. CanonHDRcap gets through the exposures as quickly as they can be downloaded, which is pretty fast on the newer cameras that have Firewire or USB 2.0 support. It might have been faster still if I had written the images to the card then downloaded them, and perhaps I will in some later version, but it's a lot more work for me and only really makes a difference for RAW captures on the 5D. (I found RAW captures not to be the way to go for HDR merging, for various reasons.)

Rob G. asked about Nikon cameras, and we did look at them originally, but there were two things that led us to use the Canon 5D. One was the fact that we needed to capture full 180-degree circular fisheye images, and this requires a full-frame sensor. The second was the way Nikon created a separate SDK with a different programming interface for every model camera, which makes supporting more than one a real pain. It's a shame, though, because we have this really awesome f/2.8 Nikkor fisheye lens, and the adaptor ring that's supposed to mount Nikon lenses on Canon bodies doesn't work for this particular lens.

-Greg

···

From: Thomas Bleicher <[email protected]>
Date: January 20, 2006 3:14:22 PM PST

On 20.01.2006, at 21:05, Gregory J. Ward wrote:

Hi All,

Under contract with LBNL, I have written an HDR capture program that works with the Canon EOS 5D camera under Mac OS X, and should work with other Canon EOS cameras as well.

I assume that these would be the cameras the EOS Capture software is
available for. On the Canon website the list is:

EOS-1D
EOS-1Ds
EOS-1D MkII
EOS 20D
EOS-1Ds Mark II
EOS 350D
EOS 5D
EOS-1D Mark II N

(For beginners: The EOS 350D is the current low end of the list
and available for about 500 $).

URL for the (Windows) EOS Capture:

http://software.canon-europe.com/software/eos_captures22671.asp?model=

BTW: Canon has a SDK for these cameras which is probably what Greg
     has used for his HDR capture. Nice to have something for OS X, too.

Thomas

5

(I found RAW captures not to be the way to go for HDR merging,

for various reasons.)

Could you elaborate on those, Greg? I've been capturing TIFs for HDR assembly but was thinking of using RAW for a wider dynamic range.

Rob G. asked about Nikon cameras, and we did look at them originally,
but there were two things that led us to use the Canon 5D. One was
the fact that we needed to capture full 180-degree circular fisheye
images, and this requires a full-frame sensor. The second was the
way Nikon created a separate SDK with a different programming
interface for every model camera, which makes supporting more than
one a real pain. It's a shame, though, because we have this really
awesome f/2.8 Nikkor fisheye lens, and the adaptor ring that's
supposed to mount Nikon lenses on Canon bodies doesn't work for this
particular lens.

Wow...I wish I could automate capture for my Nikon. I've been using the FC-E9 spherical fisheye with my 5700 and getting some nice results with a custom made pano bracket designed just for the lens. I would love to be able to automate the capture and/or processing of the images...Nikon capture doesn't and won't ever (according to the reps I've talked to) include fisheye unwarping for this lens. Which is a shame really...it's a brilliant piece of glass.

···

On Friday, January 20, 2006, at 04:18PM, Gregory J. Ward <[email protected]> wrote:

6

Hi Lisa,

Nikon really does make the greatest lenses. LBNL has this f/2.8 Nikkor fisheye that's just amazing, but unfortunately doesn't work with any of the Nikon digital cameras in the sense that the 1.5 multiplier turns the 180 degree circle into a partial view. It's vignetting is quite low for a fisheye -- just -20% at the edge at f/4.0. The 8mm Sigma lens we got for the Canon is pathetic by comparison, with vignetting of -80% from at the edge at f/5.6, and the eccentricity is not very linear, either. (See attached graphs for comparison.) Unfortunately, the Nikkor->Canon adaptor ring we bought doesn't seem to work for a Nikkor manual lens.

Regarding RAW captures, I've run into problems with pink highlights showing up under some lighting conditions, and I can't seem to shake them. There are also issues with noise at the bottom end, and we avoid this as well if we just use JPEG or 24-bit TIFF output. The reason is that cameras have a lot of built-in processing that cleans up the sensor range and shortcomings you just don't want to deal with yourself. As long as the camera doesn't mess up the tone curve, the on board processing generally helps the HDR merge process more than it hurts it. (Automatic white balance is one of the notable exceptions, but luckily we can disable that.)

The potential benefit you cite for RAW images, the bit depth, turns out to be an illusion. Although many RAW files contain 12 bits/channel, it's in a linear space rather than the gamma response space of JPEG or 24-bit TIFF, and doesn't actually encompass a greater dynamic range. (See my page at <http://www.anyhere.com/gward/hdrenc/ > and scroll down to "What Is a Gamma Encoding?" to more.) Since the camera and the A/D converter inside the camera are both linear devices, this is in fact why 12 bits is necessary for an 8-bit gamma-encoded output. Otherwise, you'd end up with horribly visible quantization errors (banding) at the bottom end.

So what happens to the extra 4 bits of resolution? The answer is, it gets *wasted* at the top end, giving us much finer steps than we're able to see or represent in an 8-bit, gamma=2.2 encoding. Could this ever be useful in an HDR merging process? Maybe, if your output format could capture these finer steps, and you spaced your exposures close enough that you could get the top ends of all your exposures to cover the full range of the scene, but by that time, exposure averaging will give you the same benefit from standard 8-bit/channel JPEGs. In other words, a RAW process to HDR is a lot of work for very little benefit. You don't get additional range at the top or bottom; white balance ends up as more of a problem rather than less of one, and the loss of noise-reduction processing in the camera makes the deep shadows look much worse.

I spent the better part of a week playing with dcraw.c and the Canon EOS 5D to find all this out. It's possible that my conclusions don't apply to all cameras that produce RAW output, but in some ways, that's another argumentagainst it -- camera RAW files are all different! If you're trying to build up or recommend a standard practice, I think RAW is a great big unknown in the equation, and much harder to work out than the camera response function, which is as far as I can tell, the *only* effort RAW saves you.

That's my 2 cents.
-Greg

SigmaVignetting.pdf (18.1 KB)

NikkorVignetting.pdf (23 KB)

7

Under contract with LBNL, I have written an HDR capture program

> that works with the Canon EOS 5D camera under Mac OS X, and should
> work with other Canon EOS cameras as well.

CanonHDRcap seems to work fine with the EOS 20D (a quick test).

-John

···

-----------------------------------------------
Dr. John Mardaljevic
Senior Research Fellow
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH, UK
+44 (0) 116 257 7972
+44 (0) 116 257 7981 (fax)

[email protected]
http://www.iesd.dmu.ac.uk/~jm

8

I get this for the Digitial rebel:

[shutter release]

···

---------
Canon SDK version 8.2.0 openend
Canon EOS Kiss/REBEL/300D connection established
Cannot create file '~/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.cr2'
---------

Is this a permissions issue? I got the same error with the default "/scratch/...." directory too.

On Jan 23, 2006, at 9:49 AM, John Mardaljevic wrote:

> Under contract with LBNL, I have written an HDR capture program
> that works with the Canon EOS 5D camera under Mac OS X, and should
> work with other Canon EOS cameras as well.

CanonHDRcap seems to work fine with the EOS 20D (a quick test).

-John

-----------------------------------------------
Dr. John Mardaljevic
Senior Research Fellow
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH, UK
+44 (0) 116 257 7972
+44 (0) 116 257 7981 (fax)

[email protected]
http://www.iesd.dmu.ac.uk/~jm

_______________________________________________
HDRI mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/hdri

9

So I got it to run and shoot a sequence of images, but it only keeps 2 of the JPEGs ( i shot in JPEG mode).

Here is the log file text:

···

-----
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793086.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793086.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793086.jpg
.
-----

It seems as if it keeps writing those two files over each other - is this correct? These are the two files in the folder. I am shooting inside at night, so there may not be a huge range of exposures. Could this be the issue? I break things really well, so I like being a beta tester!

Also, it took a while for me to repeatedly launch the app and finally establish a connection. I have the communications settings on my Digital Rebel set to normal, not PTP. My camera is sort of an older Digital Rebel - i wonder if this makes any difference.

Here are my Capture Parameters:

1 ; verbose output? (0 or 1)
"/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun" ; base output name
"/Applications/CanonHDRCap/capfiles.txt" ; capture file names log
2 ; search f-stop step
1 ; f-stops beteween captures
6 ; # images to acquire

i'll try a smaller search f-stop.

kirk

On Jan 23, 2006, at 8:13 PM, Kirk Thibault wrote:

I get this for the Digitial rebel:

[shutter release]
---------
Canon SDK version 8.2.0 openend
Canon EOS Kiss/REBEL/300D connection established
Cannot create file '~/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.cr2'
---------

Is this a permissions issue? I got the same error with the default "/scratch/...." directory too.

On Jan 23, 2006, at 9:49 AM, John Mardaljevic wrote:

> Under contract with LBNL, I have written an HDR capture program
> that works with the Canon EOS 5D camera under Mac OS X, and should
> work with other Canon EOS cameras as well.

CanonHDRcap seems to work fine with the EOS 20D (a quick test).

-John

-----------------------------------------------
Dr. John Mardaljevic
Senior Research Fellow
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH, UK
+44 (0) 116 257 7972
+44 (0) 116 257 7981 (fax)

[email protected]
http://www.iesd.dmu.ac.uk/~jm

_______________________________________________
HDRI mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/hdri

_______________________________________________
HDRI mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/hdri

10

Here is the blow-by-blow screen shot:

···

On Jan 23, 2006, at 8:36 PM, Kirk Thibault wrote:

So I got it to run and shoot a sequence of images, but it only keeps 2 of the JPEGs ( i shot in JPEG mode).

Here is the log file text:

-----
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793086.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793086.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793086.jpg
.
-----

It seems as if it keeps writing those two files over each other - is this correct? These are the two files in the folder. I am shooting inside at night, so there may not be a huge range of exposures. Could this be the issue? I break things really well, so I like being a beta tester!

Also, it took a while for me to repeatedly launch the app and finally establish a connection. I have the communications settings on my Digital Rebel set to normal, not PTP. My camera is sort of an older Digital Rebel - i wonder if this makes any difference.

Here are my Capture Parameters:

1 ; verbose output? (0 or 1)
"/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun" ; base output name
"/Applications/CanonHDRCap/capfiles.txt" ; capture file names log
2 ; search f-stop step
1 ; f-stops beteween captures
6 ; # images to acquire

i'll try a smaller search f-stop.

kirk

On Jan 23, 2006, at 8:13 PM, Kirk Thibault wrote:

I get this for the Digitial rebel:

[shutter release]
---------
Canon SDK version 8.2.0 openend
Canon EOS Kiss/REBEL/300D connection established
Cannot create file '~/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.cr2'
---------

Is this a permissions issue? I got the same error with the default "/scratch/...." directory too.

On Jan 23, 2006, at 9:49 AM, John Mardaljevic wrote:

> Under contract with LBNL, I have written an HDR capture program
> that works with the Canon EOS 5D camera under Mac OS X, and should
> work with other Canon EOS cameras as well.

CanonHDRcap seems to work fine with the EOS 20D (a quick test).

-John

-----------------------------------------------
Dr. John Mardaljevic
Senior Research Fellow
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH, UK
+44 (0) 116 257 7972
+44 (0) 116 257 7981 (fax)

[email protected]
http://www.iesd.dmu.ac.uk/~jm

_______________________________________________
HDRI mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/hdri

_______________________________________________
HDRI mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/hdri

_______________________________________________
HDRI mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/hdri

11

Hi Kirk,

Just a quick response before I go to bed...

From: Kirk Thibault <[email protected]>
Date: January 23, 2006 5:13:25 PM PST

I get this for the Digitial rebel:

[shutter release]
---------
Canon SDK version 8.2.0 openend
Canon EOS Kiss/REBEL/300D connection established
Cannot create file '~/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.cr2'
---------

Is this a permissions issue? I got the same error with the default "/scratch/...." directory too.

Sounds like you figured this one out, but CanonHDRcap doesn't interpret the '~' character as the user's home directory, the way the C-shell does. The fix there is to use the full path in your CaptureParams.txt file.

From: Kirk Thibault <[email protected]>
Date: January 23, 2006 5:36:15 PM PST

So I got it to run and shoot a sequence of images, but it only keeps 2 of the JPEGs ( i shot in JPEG mode).

Here is the log file text:
-----
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793086.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793086.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793086.jpg
.
-----

It seems as if it keeps writing those two files over each other - is this correct? These are the two files in the folder. I am shooting inside at night, so there may not be a huge range of exposures. Could this be the issue? I break things really well, so I like being a beta tester!

Also, it took a while for me to repeatedly launch the app and finally establish a connection. I have the communications settings on my Digital Rebel set to normal, not PTP. My camera is sort of an older Digital Rebel - i wonder if this makes any difference.

Here are my Capture Parameters:

1 ; verbose output? (0 or 1)
"/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun" ; base output name
"/Applications/CanonHDRCap/capfiles.txt" ; capture file names log
2 ; search f-stop step
1 ; f-stops beteween captures
6 ; # images to acquire

i'll try a smaller search f-stop.

kirk

It seems like the Digital Rebel is not correctly setting the SequenceID parameter in the SDK for some reason. It doesn't appear to be anything you're doing wrong. I'll have to come up with a workaround for this as there's no way to fix either the camera or the SDK -- I'll give it some more thought tomorrow morning.

-Greg

12

Same thing on my computer at work - I used the absolute path, I have the latest firmware ... going to go out on a limb and guess that the (or my) Digital Rebel (300D) is not compatible?

The app logs that it writes 6 files - the number I have specified in the Param file. however, it actually writes the same two files three times alternating between the two, effectively causing capture 3 to overwrite 1, capture 4 to overwrite 2, capture 5 to overwrite 3 and capture 6 to overwrite 4, leaving two files (captures 5 and 6) in the capture folder. it always writes the same two files as shown below (fun444793328.jpg and fun444793086.jpg). i suppose these file names mean something specific to the image, capture settings or something? I wonder why they would alternate repeating, resulting in successive overwrites. The images that are written are actual JPEG images, so a valid file is written, presumably each time.

Oh well, I'll keep at it.

Also, it sometimes takes a few attempts for communication to be established with the camera (I exit and relaunch the app and it eventually works.

···

------------------------------

Kirk L. Thibault, Ph.D.
[email protected]

p. 215.271.7720
f. 215.271.7740
c. 267.918.6908

skype. kirkthibault

On Jan 23, 2006, at 8:44 PM, Kirk Thibault wrote:

Here is the blow-by-blow screen shot:

http://kirkt.smugmug.com/photos/53659316-L-0.jpg

On Jan 23, 2006, at 8:36 PM, Kirk Thibault wrote:

So I got it to run and shoot a sequence of images, but it only keeps 2 of the JPEGs ( i shot in JPEG mode).

Here is the log file text:

-----
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793086.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793086.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793086.jpg
.
-----

It seems as if it keeps writing those two files over each other - is this correct? These are the two files in the folder. I am shooting inside at night, so there may not be a huge range of exposures. Could this be the issue? I break things really well, so I like being a beta tester!

Also, it took a while for me to repeatedly launch the app and finally establish a connection. I have the communications settings on my Digital Rebel set to normal, not PTP. My camera is sort of an older Digital Rebel - i wonder if this makes any difference.

Here are my Capture Parameters:

1 ; verbose output? (0 or 1)
"/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun" ; base output name
"/Applications/CanonHDRCap/capfiles.txt" ; capture file names log
2 ; search f-stop step
1 ; f-stops beteween captures
6 ; # images to acquire

i'll try a smaller search f-stop.

kirk

On Jan 23, 2006, at 8:13 PM, Kirk Thibault wrote:

I get this for the Digitial rebel:

[shutter release]
---------
Canon SDK version 8.2.0 openend
Canon EOS Kiss/REBEL/300D connection established
Cannot create file '~/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.cr2'
---------

Is this a permissions issue? I got the same error with the default "/scratch/...." directory too.

On Jan 23, 2006, at 9:49 AM, John Mardaljevic wrote:

> Under contract with LBNL, I have written an HDR capture program
> that works with the Canon EOS 5D camera under Mac OS X, and should
> work with other Canon EOS cameras as well.

CanonHDRcap seems to work fine with the EOS 20D (a quick test).

-John

-----------------------------------------------
Dr. John Mardaljevic
Senior Research Fellow
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH, UK
+44 (0) 116 257 7972
+44 (0) 116 257 7981 (fax)

[email protected]
http://www.iesd.dmu.ac.uk/~jm

_______________________________________________
HDRI mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/hdri

_______________________________________________
HDRI mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/hdri

_______________________________________________
HDRI mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/hdri

_______________________________________________
HDRI mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/hdri

13

I'm working on a G4 dual 1.25 with OSX 10.4.4.

···

------------------------------

Kirk L. Thibault, Ph.D.
[email protected]

p. 215.271.7720
f. 215.271.7740
c. 267.918.6908

skype. kirkthibault

On Jan 23, 2006, at 8:44 PM, Kirk Thibault wrote:

Here is the blow-by-blow screen shot:

http://kirkt.smugmug.com/photos/53659316-L-0.jpg

On Jan 23, 2006, at 8:36 PM, Kirk Thibault wrote:

So I got it to run and shoot a sequence of images, but it only keeps 2 of the JPEGs ( i shot in JPEG mode).

Here is the log file text:

-----
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793086.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793086.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.jpg
/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun444793086.jpg
.
-----

It seems as if it keeps writing those two files over each other - is this correct? These are the two files in the folder. I am shooting inside at night, so there may not be a huge range of exposures. Could this be the issue? I break things really well, so I like being a beta tester!

Also, it took a while for me to repeatedly launch the app and finally establish a connection. I have the communications settings on my Digital Rebel set to normal, not PTP. My camera is sort of an older Digital Rebel - i wonder if this makes any difference.

Here are my Capture Parameters:

1 ; verbose output? (0 or 1)
"/Applications/CanonHDRCap/fun" ; base output name
"/Applications/CanonHDRCap/capfiles.txt" ; capture file names log
2 ; search f-stop step
1 ; f-stops beteween captures
6 ; # images to acquire

i'll try a smaller search f-stop.

kirk

On Jan 23, 2006, at 8:13 PM, Kirk Thibault wrote:

I get this for the Digitial rebel:

[shutter release]
---------
Canon SDK version 8.2.0 openend
Canon EOS Kiss/REBEL/300D connection established
Cannot create file '~/CanonHDRCap/fun444793328.cr2'
---------

Is this a permissions issue? I got the same error with the default "/scratch/...." directory too.

On Jan 23, 2006, at 9:49 AM, John Mardaljevic wrote:

> Under contract with LBNL, I have written an HDR capture program
> that works with the Canon EOS 5D camera under Mac OS X, and should
> work with other Canon EOS cameras as well.

CanonHDRcap seems to work fine with the EOS 20D (a quick test).

-John

-----------------------------------------------
Dr. John Mardaljevic
Senior Research Fellow
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH, UK
+44 (0) 116 257 7972
+44 (0) 116 257 7981 (fax)

[email protected]
http://www.iesd.dmu.ac.uk/~jm

_______________________________________________
HDRI mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/hdri

_______________________________________________
HDRI mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/hdri

_______________________________________________
HDRI mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/hdri

_______________________________________________
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14

Sorry for the blabber, the camera is firmware 1.1.1, current for the 300D according to Canon's website.

···

------------------------------

Kirk L. Thibault, Ph.D.

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15

Hi Kirk (and other EOS 300D users),

I've uploaded a new version of CanonHDRcap for Mac OS X to my website, same URL:

  http://www.anyhere.com/gward/pickup/CanonHDRcap.tar.gz

I've put in a workaround that should hopefully fix the problem with the Canon EOS 300D (Digital Rebel). The image file name is made from the sequenceID returned by the camera, which seems to be garbage in the case of the 300D. I simply reset to 1 any values over 9999, and start doing my own count.

To make this work, I've added a new line to the CaptureParams.txt to control whether or not the program will overwrite existing image files. This must be set to 0 for proper operation with the 300D, and you'll probably want to set it to 0 for most other situations as well.

-Greg

16

Greg -

As always, I am grateful for your consideration of my "issues". I really appreciate it. Hopefully you find my ability to break things helpful and not a waste of time.

Again,

Thanks for the extra effort - you rock.

Kirk

···

On Jan 24, 2006, at 6:08 PM, Gregory J. Ward wrote:

Hi Kirk (and other EOS 300D users),

I've uploaded a new version of CanonHDRcap for Mac OS X to my website, same URL:

  http://www.anyhere.com/gward/pickup/CanonHDRcap.tar.gz

I've put in a workaround that should hopefully fix the problem with the Canon EOS 300D (Digital Rebel). The image file name is made from the sequenceID returned by the camera, which seems to be garbage in the case of the 300D. I simply reset to 1 any values over 9999, and start doing my own count.

To make this work, I've added a new line to the CaptureParams.txt to control whether or not the program will overwrite existing image files. This must be set to 0 for proper operation with the 300D, and you'll probably want to set it to 0 for most other situations as well.

-Greg

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17

Works like a charm.

Thanks again Greg - can't wait to test it out on a mirror ball.

kirk

···

On Jan 24, 2006, at 6:08 PM, Gregory J. Ward wrote:

Hi Kirk (and other EOS 300D users),

I've uploaded a new version of CanonHDRcap for Mac OS X to my website, same URL:

  http://www.anyhere.com/gward/pickup/CanonHDRcap.tar.gz

I've put in a workaround that should hopefully fix the problem with the Canon EOS 300D (Digital Rebel). The image file name is made from the sequenceID returned by the camera, which seems to be garbage in the case of the 300D. I simply reset to 1 any values over 9999, and start doing my own count.

To make this work, I've added a new line to the CaptureParams.txt to control whether or not the program will overwrite existing image files. This must be set to 0 for proper operation with the 300D, and you'll probably want to set it to 0 for most other situations as well.

-Greg

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18

Hi Kirk,

Glad this works. I really appreciate all the detailed reports of your problems with the Digital Rebel -- it made it obvious what was going wrong, and it helps a lot to have complete information, since I don't have your camera to play with. I think it's important to support what I can, and the 300D is probably the most popular in Canon's EOS line, so I wouldn't want to leave those people out if I can help it. I'm just glad it wasn't something more serious in the SDK, since there's no real support for it outside Japan. I may have to ask Santiago to help me if I ever need to communicate with headquarters....

I have put together some scripts, including the RAW -> HDR converter I've been playing with in a more complete package on my website. It's linked into my front page <www.anyhere.com> where the old hdrgen link for Mac OS X used to be. (You may have to hit your browser's "Reload" button to see it.) I just finished a "canoncap" script that runs CanonHDRcap and hdrgen for you.

Check it out:

  http://www.anyhere.com/html/gward/pickup/HDRcapOSX.tar.gz

I figured it was easier just to put it all together for OS X users, rather than maintaining a whole bunch of separate links. A README.txt file hopefully explains enough to get you started.

-Greg

···

From: Kirk Thibault <[email protected]>
Date: January 24, 2006 6:03:10 PM PST

Works like a charm.

Thanks again Greg - can't wait to test it out on a mirror ball.

kirk

19

Of course, the next question is:

  "What do we have to do to convince you to make a plugin architecture for it?"

All of us poor saps with Nikon SLRs want to play too. I know you certainly don't want to, but I'd be willing to kick in the time to get it working with my D70. Are the program and Canon API horribly intertwined, or is it something you can make available to enterprising third parties that want support for their cameras? Just a thought, it looks great as it is.

Cheers
Trent

···

On 24-Jan-06, at 8:16 PM, Gregory J. Ward wrote:

Hi Kirk,

Glad this works. I really appreciate all the detailed reports of your problems with the Digital Rebel -- it made it obvious what was going wrong, and it helps a lot to have complete information, since I don't have your camera to play with. I think it's important to support what I can, and the 300D is probably the most popular in Canon's EOS line, so I wouldn't want to leave those people out if I can help it. I'm just glad it wasn't something more serious in the SDK, since there's no real support for it outside Japan. I may have to ask Santiago to help me if I ever need to communicate with headquarters....

I have put together some scripts, including the RAW -> HDR converter I've been playing with in a more complete package on my website. It's linked into my front page <www.anyhere.com> where the old hdrgen link for Mac OS X used to be. (You may have to hit your browser's "Reload" button to see it.) I just finished a "canoncap" script that runs CanonHDRcap and hdrgen for you.

Check it out:

  http://www.anyhere.com/html/gward/pickup/HDRcapOSX.tar.gz

I figured it was easier just to put it all together for OS X users, rather than maintaining a whole bunch of separate links. A README.txt file hopefully explains enough to get you started.

-Greg

From: Kirk Thibault <[email protected]>
Date: January 24, 2006 6:03:10 PM PST

Works like a charm.

Thanks again Greg - can't wait to test it out on a mirror ball.

kirk

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20

Hi Trent,

I believe one of the problems with the Nikons is that each camera uses a differint API. I quote below from an earlier post from Greg on the topic:

Rob G. asked about Nikon cameras, and we did look at them originally, but there were two things that led us to use the Canon 5D. One was the fact that we needed to capture full 180-degree circular fisheye images, and this requires a full-frame sensor. The second was the way Nikon created a separate SDK with a different programming interface for every model camera, which makes supporting more than one a real pain. It's a shame, though, because we have this really awesome f/2.8 Nikkor fisheye lens, and the adaptor ring that's supposed to mount Nikon lenses on Canon bodies doesn't work for this particular lens.

-Jack

Matthew Trentacoste wrote:

···

Of course, the next question is:

    "What do we have to do to convince you to make a plugin architecture for it?"

All of us poor saps with Nikon SLRs want to play too. I know you certainly don't want to, but I'd be willing to kick in the time to get it working with my D70. Are the program and Canon API horribly intertwined, or is it something you can make available to enterprising third parties that want support for their cameras? Just a thought, it looks great as it is.

Cheers
Trent

On 24-Jan-06, at 8:16 PM, Gregory J. Ward wrote:

Hi Kirk,

Glad this works. I really appreciate all the detailed reports of your problems with the Digital Rebel -- it made it obvious what was going wrong, and it helps a lot to have complete information, since I don't have your camera to play with. I think it's important to support what I can, and the 300D is probably the most popular in Canon's EOS line, so I wouldn't want to leave those people out if I can help it. I'm just glad it wasn't something more serious in the SDK, since there's no real support for it outside Japan. I may have to ask Santiago to help me if I ever need to communicate with headquarters....

I have put together some scripts, including the RAW -> HDR converter I've been playing with in a more complete package on my website. It's linked into my front page <www.anyhere.com> where the old hdrgen link for Mac OS X used to be. (You may have to hit your browser's "Reload" button to see it.) I just finished a "canoncap" script that runs CanonHDRcap and hdrgen for you.

Check it out:

    http://www.anyhere.com/html/gward/pickup/HDRcapOSX.tar.gz

I figured it was easier just to put it all together for OS X users, rather than maintaining a whole bunch of separate links. A README.txt file hopefully explains enough to get you started.

-Greg

From: Kirk Thibault <[email protected]>
Date: January 24, 2006 6:03:10 PM PST

Works like a charm.

Thanks again Greg - can't wait to test it out on a mirror ball.

kirk

_______________________________________________
HDRI mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/hdri

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