K-x and remote software?

[bunegg]

how about eye-fi?

[knoxploration]

Originally Posted by bunegg

how about eye-fi?

It's certainly a possibility, but much slower than tethered USB (on the order of 6-8 seconds per 25MB Raw file), and I I've heard reports of troubles with Eye-Fi in the K-7 specifically, for example:

Anyone tested Eye-Fi Pro with K-7?: Pentax SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

[Aristophanes]

Originally Posted by knoxploration

Nobody's going to be able to support the K-7 or K-x for tethered shooting unless Pentax allows this with the cameras' firmware. At the moment, if the K-7 is connected to a computer, then all on-camera controls are disabled, and any software on the PC is only able to transfer files - not control the camera remotely. Hence there's no way to trigger the shutter with a PC connected. I've not personally used the K-x yet but believe the same to be the case with that camera too.

I'd really love to see this change - the lack of tethered shooting capability is, to me, the biggest shortcoming of the K-7 as compared to its rivals. There's no real need for remote control of exposure variables or shutter - just allowing the camera to shoot from the on-body controls while tethered would be enough to make the function useful.

That would allow me to set the camera up on a tripod, shoot a bunch of images and have them automatically downloaded to preview them near-immediately on my large, high-res PC display, and confirm whether I needed to reshoot with a minimum of fiddling to either pan/zoom on the camera LCD, or transfer flash cards / connect / disconnect the camera between shots to preview on the PC.

There's an structure called Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) of which this capacity is part. I am not sure it is firmware; it may be part hardware and licensing related for the USB segment:

Picture Transfer Protocol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[knoxploration]

Originally Posted by Aristophanes

There's an structure called Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) of which this capacity is part. I am not sure it is firmware; it may be part hardware and licensing related for the USB segment:

Picture Transfer Protocol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yep, I know - but you can see for yourself that it won't work with the current firmware because the camera disables all external controls and powers down the metering system as soon as the USB cable is connected, when set to PTP mode. Hence, there's no way to take a picture.

For it to be useful for tethered shooting, Pentax would need to change their current firmware so as to allow the camera to shoot while in PTP mode, which is something it can't currently do.