Controlling a Digital Camera from PC

Richard Slater · 10-12-2007, 21:08

OK, here is the situation at times we need to take photographs of a few hundred people at a time. What we need is portrait photos of each person, they are standing or sitting in front of a screen so we can arrange it so that each person is sitting in the same position in each frame.

What we currently do is just take the pictures on a digital camera and record the sequence of people that we take pictures off, then go through the images and rename them to the primary key of the person who the picture is taken of. The issue with this method is that it is prone to human error, if someone forgets to record one of the names, or takes two photographs and doesn't record it, or misreads the list when renaming the images - all following images are mislabelled.

Ideally what I would like to do is to have a Laptop and a Digital Camera that are connected together via USB. We could then take a picture by clicking a button, pressing a key whatever which would be transferred to the PC, a barcode could then be scanned to associate the image with the person - rename the file and save it somewhere.

The software to handle barcodes, moving and renaming files can be handled not a problem. However I am struggling to find any camera that allows you to take pictures with a camera from a PC.

Any thoughts?

Rich_L · 10-12-2007, 21:36

My aged old Canon A70 could do this through the application which came on the CD with the camera, I'm fairly sure it saved the picture to the computer as well but I'm not 100% about that.

Not much use, it seems like a simple enough thing I'm surprised most camera don't have an option or utility for this!

kaiowas · 10-12-2007, 21:39

How about taking a still with a decent quality webcam or CCTV type camera? Or would the quality not be up to scratch?

Richard Slater · 10-12-2007, 21:43

Web Cam tend to be quite grainy, they are optimized for video rather than stills. I thought about it but it was decided it probably wouldn't be very useful.

Desmo · 11-12-2007, 08:49

Certainly sounds a tricky one and not something that would be common on a regular household camera. Not something I've ever seen I must say. I get the feeling you might be looking at some more specialist kit.

FakeSnake · 11-12-2007, 09:38

Nikon Camera Control Pro works well, you can have pretty much full control of the camera.
http://www.europe-nikon.com/product/.../overview.html
Obviously its for Nikons

Richard Slater · 11-12-2007, 19:40

Talked to some more people about this, someone suggested this:

http://photopc.sourceforge.net/

With Olympus cameras, when I get access to the budget again in January will have to pick one up.

10-12-2007, 21:08	#1
Richard Slater Long Island Iced Tea Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Brighton, UK Posts: 285	Controlling a Digital Camera from PC OK, here is the situation at times we need to take photographs of a few hundred people at a time. What we need is portrait photos of each person, they are standing or sitting in front of a screen so we can arrange it so that each person is sitting in the same position in each frame. What we currently do is just take the pictures on a digital camera and record the sequence of people that we take pictures off, then go through the images and rename them to the primary key of the person who the picture is taken of. The issue with this method is that it is prone to human error, if someone forgets to record one of the names, or takes two photographs and doesn't record it, or misreads the list when renaming the images - all following images are mislabelled. Ideally what I would like to do is to have a Laptop and a Digital Camera that are connected together via USB. We could then take a picture by clicking a button, pressing a key whatever which would be transferred to the PC, a barcode could then be scanned to associate the image with the person - rename the file and save it somewhere. The software to handle barcodes, moving and renaming files can be handled not a problem. However I am struggling to find any camera that allows you to take pictures with a camera from a PC. Any thoughts?

10-12-2007, 21:36	#2
Rich_L Dr Cocktapuss Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Seven Sizzles Posts: 1,044	My aged old Canon A70 could do this through the application which came on the CD with the camera, I'm fairly sure it saved the picture to the computer as well but I'm not 100% about that. Not much use, it seems like a simple enough thing I'm surprised most camera don't have an option or utility for this! __________________

10-12-2007, 21:39	#3
kaiowas The Stig Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fightertown USA Posts: 1,458	How about taking a still with a decent quality webcam or CCTV type camera? Or would the quality not be up to scratch? __________________ Anal Fish Porn

11-12-2007, 08:49	#5
Desmo The Last Airbender Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Pigmopad Posts: 11,915	Certainly sounds a tricky one and not something that would be common on a regular household camera. Not something I've ever seen I must say. I get the feeling you might be looking at some more specialist kit. __________________

10-12-2007, 21:43	#4
Richard Slater Long Island Iced Tea Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Brighton, UK Posts: 285	Web Cam tend to be quite grainy, they are optimized for video rather than stills. I thought about it but it was decided it probably wouldn't be very useful.

11-12-2007, 09:38	#6
FakeSnake Absinthe Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Devonshire Posts: 1,143	Nikon Camera Control Pro works well, you can have pretty much full control of the camera. http://www.europe-nikon.com/product/.../overview.html Obviously its for Nikons

11-12-2007, 19:40	#7
Richard Slater Long Island Iced Tea Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Brighton, UK Posts: 285	Talked to some more people about this, someone suggested this: http://photopc.sourceforge.net/ With Olympus cameras, when I get access to the budget again in January will have to pick one up.