Want to instantly see photos on laptop after I take it.

[CaymanImaging]

Hi all. I'm wanting to be able to take a photo in my studio and as soon as I take it, I want to be able to see the results instantly on my laptop. I know Pentax gives away software in the packages, but I'm wanting something more.

The stuff I'm looking for will upload the photo right after I snap it, show a large view on the laptop. I then can check the compensation, exposure, etc, and then continue on.

Do any of you have the software to do this? And were would I get a long USB cord to hook into the camera if Pentax DSLRs even allow this.

Thanks!!!

Jamie

[Peter Zack]

Remote assistant won't do what you want?

[CaymanImaging]

I've messed around with it and it seems confusing to me. The photo that does come up just sucks, way too small, shows no detail.

[CaymanImaging]

I just discovered this idea is called "tethering". I finally found a way to get this work for my own needs. I just hook up the pc to video cable that came with our gear. It turns off the LCD monitor on the camera, but shows everything on a TV. This allows me to show my clients their photos on a larger TV as we shoot.

I just would love to get a longer cable, about 20' long, but after searching the net for an hour, doesn't look I'm going to find it.

[Peter Zack]

This will do but I'd expect some signal loss with a cable that long.

10M USB 2.0 A Male to Female Extension Cable 30FT - eBay (item 280289394268 end time Nov-29-08 17:20:19 PST)

But you need a monitor that will take a USB input vs a TV.

[kevindt]

I don't know any specific software that does this in one step. Remote Assistant can download each picture file to the computer as taken ( but with a dialog box involved) and then the picture can be opened with whatever viewer you like. Several steps involved but can choose viewer.

The K20D is a USB2 device - I'm not sure if the others are all USB2 or USB1. Cable length maximum for reliable USB is 3 meters for USB1, 5 meters for USB2. Longer needs a repeater, due to constraints of USB transfer/timing protocols. You can get repeater cables on ebay and plug the normal cable into them. You can use a maximum of 5 repeaters daisy-chained!

By the way, the 30 foot cable listed above is NOT within USB spec, whatever the seller in Hong Kong tries to kid you. Two ferrite toroids on a cable do not make it a repeater

An example of a repeater cable on Ebay:
16FT 5M ACTIVE USB 2.0 EXTENSION / REPEATER CABLE - eBay (item 260302132432 end time Dec-16-08 20:55:52 PST)

Of course, for a quick and (very) dirty look with a much higher maximum length cable you could use NTSC or PAL video out as you just realized

[Redfish]

I do this all the time with Pentax Remote Assistant and Adobe Bridge. Bridge pops up the files as I take them, in native res, not low res NTSC or PAL, like the TV signal gives. I use a 4 metre USB lead to avoid signal degradation.

[CaymanImaging]

You all really are awesome!! I thank you all for the advice. After tinkering with my "cheapo" set up of hooking the supplied AV cable to a cheap TV, I think my need will be satisfied. I was just looking for a way for clients to see the photos as we go to keep them motivated and excited and I think this will more than do the job.

As always, this group of people helps their own and I love being part of a brotherhood that takes care of their own.

Thanks so much you all!!

Jamie

[Peter Zack]

Originally Posted by Redfish

I do this all the time with Pentax Remote Assistant and Adobe Bridge. Bridge pops up the files as I take them, in native res, not low res NTSC or PAL, like the TV signal gives. I use a 4 metre USB lead to avoid signal degradation.

My turn for a question. I use bridge rarely (CS2) and I'm not sure of how you'd use remote assistant with bridge. Would you mind detailing the steps?

[kevindt]

And just purely for fun, with a bit of research and a little hacking - there is even an open-source little application in Linux that is still very, very early beta (pkremote) that does a lot of what Pentax Remote Assistant does. Just for fun, I tried downloading a SVN copy and compiling for Ubuntu Linux. It is buggy but it controls my K20D OK and it will display a pretty good initial picture (albeit with autofocus points superimposed) and saves to disk well.
So there is information there to build on if anyone has a second life coding in C
Live-disk with controller for Pentax, anyone

[StarDust]

Originally Posted by Peter Zack

My turn for a question. I use bridge rarely (CS2) and I'm not sure of how you'd use remote assistant with bridge. Would you mind detailing the steps?

As a CS3 user I am also curious, I just recently discovered RA but if Bridge can do it better I'd be glad to know how.
I'll do some research on it, we'll see how it goes.

[systemA]

Eye-Fi
^this maybe an easy solution?

[Redfish]

Sure.

1. Set up Remote assistant to save files to a particular folder (The job folder is good practice)
2. Open Bridge, and browse to that folder. It'll be empty, if its new.
3. Start shooting frames. They'll pop up in Bridge. (I use CS4, but have also done it since Remote assistant was released for Mac with Bridge CS3.).

Hope that helps.

[kibipod]

Hi to all .....

I am also interested in using my laptop when shooting my K10D. I still use medium format because I love the bright viewfinder. So I was playing with what being suggested above. Here is what I have found useful with remote assistant.

In Pentax remote assistant opening screen - click on VIEW and then click on SEPARATE SCREEN DISPLAY. This will give you approximately 5X4 inches of preview screen. This is as big as large format screen. This is big enough for me to see the details and adjust my composition or settings.

I find this very useful and hope you guys will find it helpful too

Subho

[JCSullivan]

Jamie thanks for posting the question - been asking myself the same question but never thought of posting it here.

Peter and Kevin thanks for your input on the cable.