K-x tethered shooting

Stafflover · 12-02-2010, 11:58 PM

Tried it on my k7, the upper lcd screen light keeps blinking ?
Apart from that it does shutter release but nothing more.

I hope he adds more functionality for the k7 and k5 soon!

jolepp · 12-03-2010, 03:56 AM

I suppose Pentax has kept (some) support in the firmware to facilitate automated testing at the factory. It would seem like a worthwhile thing to try the Pentax utility that once was with a supported camera and a USB sniffer and see if the protocol could be reverse engineered and documented now that we know the support is still there in the FW. An open source, multi-platform library based on that might be the next logical step. This Polish guy might be inclined to help?

Incidently, it occurred to me that some DLINK (if I remember correctly) WLAN gear had a feature where any USB device plugged in them and used remotely (with Windows), if this in fact works it could be convenient for some applications :-)

piesforyou · 12-03-2010, 06:44 AM

Hmm I can't seem to get PK_Tether it to see my Kx.

Win7 64 bit.

yusuf · 12-03-2010, 06:56 AM

Originally posted by piesforyou

Hmm I can't seem to get PK_Tether it to see my Kx.

Win7 64 bit.

In my case, it wasn't able to detect till I inserted the memory card (incidently memory card was not present when when I tried first). So if that's the case with you, try after inserting the SD card.

piesforyou · 12-03-2010, 07:09 AM

Originally posted by yusuf

In my case, it wasn't able to detect till I inserted the memory card (incidently memory card was not present when when I tried first). So if that's the case with you, try after inserting the SD card.

You nailed it! No problems now.

FullertonImages · 12-03-2010, 11:17 AM

I hope he adds support for Mac.

hooverfocus · 12-06-2010, 09:54 AM

Originally posted by FullertonImages

I hope he adds support for Mac.

I second that! In order to have a (hopefully working) tethered option for my K-7...

photochimp · 12-06-2010, 10:48 AM

Tried this on my new k-r with the 18-55 kit lens.
Doesn't peoperly recognise the lens (says "M42 or no lens attached" or something like that).
I can click the 'shutter' button and can hear the shot being taken, but don't see anything on the screen and there's no file to save. After that the k-r goes black and won't do anything until I unplug the USB cable and turn the camera off/on.

knoxploration · 12-07-2010, 01:17 PM

I'm curious to see where this goes for the K-7 and K-5... hopefully we'll finally have a usable solution. It'd be doubly awesome if the protocol is decoded and published, so that others can make apps on various platforms.

It should be feasible to make a third-party plugin for Lightroom tethering even if Adobe / Pentax don't issue one, as well. The same has already been done for Sony:

DNA Software

It seems the author is soliciting feedback from people with the K-7 and K-5 to help in the development process by confirming what functions work, and what don't. The thread's in Polish, and he's already had one reply from a K-7 owner, but if anybody wants to chip in, it's located here:

http://pentax.org.pl/viewtopic.php?t=33702&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20

**boriscleto** · 12-07-2010, 01:31 PM

Originally posted by FullertonImages

I hope he adds support for Mac.

Unlikely. PK_Tether is written for the .net framework. For it to be ported to the Mac you would need a working .net framework for OS X. Years ago there was a project called Rotor for FreeBSD but no one did anything for it with OS X.

Somebody might be able to do something with his PKRemote code...

PK_Tether also doesn't work in Parallels with Windows XP. The program launches ok but when you take a picture it crashes.

hooverfocus · 12-07-2010, 03:04 PM

Originally posted by boriscleto

Unlikely. PK_Tether is written for the .net framework. For it to be ported to the Mac you would need a working .net framework for OS X. Years ago there was a project called Rotor for FreeBSD but no one did anything for it with OS X.

Somebody might be able to do something with his PKRemote code...

PK_Tether also doesn't work in Parallels with Windows XP. The program launches ok but when you take a picture it crashes.

On "another" forum there's a similar thread talking about PK_Tether; I had asked about Mac support too, before finding this topic here. Now, quoting from there — somebody please point me to best practices in terms of quoting people from other forums — that's what another user had to say about Mac support:

Quote:

There's every chance it could be made available to Apple Mac users as the application seems to be written in "DotNet", which should mean that it wouldn't be that hard to make it work under "Mono" (Main Page - Mono). I haven't looked at the code through Redgate Reflector enough to be absolutely sure of this, but it sure seems like it could. You should maybe ask the author.

And indeed, I mailed the author about it. In short, he told me that porting between OS, in general, is quite complicated, and he didn't know "Mono" beforehand. He went on to say he had a quick look and found it to be interesting, and looked like it could be useful for porting. On the other hand he said that communicating back and forth with the camera wouldn't work, as he used specific Win components which, basically, Mono cannot supply.
He ended by saying that in the future he might look into the matter, but for now he's quite busy fixing the Win version.

I still hope this doesn't die here... I sure would love to be able to use my K-7 with tethering on a mac (hey, one can only keep dreaming!)

dupazbita · 12-08-2010, 07:50 AM

wow great program!! cant get it to save to where i want...or autosave....
tbh i dont think it saved any of the shots ive done..
and when i "save as" it saves a picture that doesnt work

knoxploration · 12-08-2010, 12:44 PM

Originally posted by dupazbita

wow great program!! cant get it to save to where i want...or autosave....
tbh i dont think it saved any of the shots ive done..
and when i "save as" it saves a picture that doesnt work

Easy, now, let's not be ungrateful for somebody else's hard work. It says it right there on the download page:

"It is early beta version, not all functionality is active, and this which is enable can have bugs."

It's obviously in heavy development, and I'm sure its author will fix these issues given time.

RolloR · 12-08-2010, 08:56 PM

wow it's written in .NET.

It would be wonderful if he can make a DLL available to reference toolbox controls to (no need to make it open source), so we can make our own GUI in Visual Studio

photochimp · 12-11-2010, 11:14 AM

Has anyone gotten this working with a k-r yet?
I've tried it a few times and it freezes the camera up on me.
Second time I noticed that the camera said '9999' jpeg shots left before it froze.
I had to take the battery out and put it back in to be able to get the camera back on.
Then I took a picture (not tethered) and it froze again but I could still hear the SR working away.
Battery out and back in again and saw that even with my memory card in which is only 4GB it said it had room for over 7000 jpegs.
Had to reset camera settings to get it back to normal as I'm not sure exactly what got screwed up.

12-03-2010, 03:56 AM	#17
jolepp Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Finland Photos: Albums Posts: 3,196	I suppose Pentax has kept (some) support in the firmware to facilitate automated testing at the factory. It would seem like a worthwhile thing to try the Pentax utility that once was with a supported camera and a USB sniffer and see if the protocol could be reverse engineered and documented now that we know the support is still there in the FW. An open source, multi-platform library based on that might be the next logical step. This Polish guy might be inclined to help? Incidently, it occurred to me that some DLINK (if I remember correctly) WLAN gear had a feature where any USB device plugged in them and used remotely (with Windows), if this in fact works it could be convenient for some applications :-) Last edited by jolepp; 12-03-2010 at 04:05 AM.

12-07-2010, 01:17 PM	#24
knoxploration Veteran Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 846	I'm curious to see where this goes for the K-7 and K-5... hopefully we'll finally have a usable solution. It'd be doubly awesome if the protocol is decoded and published, so that others can make apps on various platforms. It should be feasible to make a third-party plugin for Lightroom tethering even if Adobe / Pentax don't issue one, as well. The same has already been done for Sony: DNA Software It seems the author is soliciting feedback from people with the K-7 and K-5 to help in the development process by confirming what functions work, and what don't. The thread's in Polish, and he's already had one reply from a K-7 owner, but if anybody wants to chip in, it's located here: http://pentax.org.pl/viewtopic.php?t=33702&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20 Last edited by knoxploration; 12-07-2010 at 01:27 PM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
shooting tethered with k200?	sgonzalez	Pentax DSLR Discussion	3	04-06-2011 05:30 PM
Shooting Tethered??	CLYNN0928	Photographic Technique	1	06-21-2010 08:28 AM
Shooting tethered with K-7	GossesPhoto	Digital Processing, Software, and Printing	1	07-17-2009 01:56 AM
Tethered Shooting	balofagus	Pentax DSLR Discussion	22	06-15-2009 04:25 AM
Tethered shooting....	Aaron1971	Photographic Technique	11	10-21-2008 06:23 PM

12-02-2010, 11:58 PM	#16
Stafflover New Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 22	Tried it on my k7, the upper lcd screen light keeps blinking ? Apart from that it does shutter release but nothing more. I hope he adds more functionality for the k7 and k5 soon!

12-03-2010, 06:44 AM	#18
piesforyou Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Photos: Albums Posts: 129	Hmm I can't seem to get PK_Tether it to see my Kx. Win7 64 bit.

12-03-2010, 06:56 AM	#19
yusuf Pentaxian Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Palo Alto, CA Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,497	Originally posted by piesforyou Hmm I can't seem to get PK_Tether it to see my Kx. Win7 64 bit. In my case, it wasn't able to detect till I inserted the memory card (incidently memory card was not present when when I tried first). So if that's the case with you, try after inserting the SD card.

12-03-2010, 07:09 AM	#20
piesforyou Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Photos: Albums Posts: 129	Originally posted by yusuf In my case, it wasn't able to detect till I inserted the memory card (incidently memory card was not present when when I tried first). So if that's the case with you, try after inserting the SD card. You nailed it! No problems now.

12-03-2010, 11:17 AM	#21
FullertonImages Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Boulder, CO Posts: 883	I hope he adds support for Mac.

12-06-2010, 09:54 AM	#22
hooverfocus Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 210	Originally posted by FullertonImages I hope he adds support for Mac. I second that! In order to have a (hopefully working) tethered option for my K-7...

12-06-2010, 10:48 AM	#23
photochimp Inactive Account Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 70	Tried this on my new k-r with the 18-55 kit lens. Doesn't peoperly recognise the lens (says "M42 or no lens attached" or something like that). I can click the 'shutter' button and can hear the shot being taken, but don't see anything on the screen and there's no file to save. After that the k-r goes black and won't do anything until I unplug the USB cable and turn the camera off/on.

12-07-2010, 01:31 PM	#25
boriscleto Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: North Syracuse, NY Photos: Gallery Posts: 16,476	Originally posted by FullertonImages I hope he adds support for Mac. Unlikely. PK_Tether is written for the .net framework. For it to be ported to the Mac you would need a working .net framework for OS X. Years ago there was a project called Rotor for FreeBSD but no one did anything for it with OS X. Somebody might be able to do something with his PKRemote code... PK_Tether also doesn't work in Parallels with Windows XP. The program launches ok but when you take a picture it crashes.

12-07-2010, 03:04 PM	#26
hooverfocus Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 210	Originally posted by boriscleto Unlikely. PK_Tether is written for the .net framework. For it to be ported to the Mac you would need a working .net framework for OS X. Years ago there was a project called Rotor for FreeBSD but no one did anything for it with OS X. Somebody might be able to do something with his PKRemote code... PK_Tether also doesn't work in Parallels with Windows XP. The program launches ok but when you take a picture it crashes. On "another" forum there's a similar thread talking about PK_Tether; I had asked about Mac support too, before finding this topic here. Now, quoting from there — somebody please point me to best practices in terms of quoting people from other forums — that's what another user had to say about Mac support: Quote: There's every chance it could be made available to Apple Mac users as the application seems to be written in "DotNet", which should mean that it wouldn't be that hard to make it work under "Mono" (Main Page - Mono). I haven't looked at the code through Redgate Reflector enough to be absolutely sure of this, but it sure seems like it could. You should maybe ask the author. And indeed, I mailed the author about it. In short, he told me that porting between OS, in general, is quite complicated, and he didn't know "Mono" beforehand. He went on to say he had a quick look and found it to be interesting, and looked like it could be useful for porting. On the other hand he said that communicating back and forth with the camera wouldn't work, as he used specific Win components which, basically, Mono cannot supply. He ended by saying that in the future he might look into the matter, but for now he's quite busy fixing the Win version. I still hope this doesn't die here... I sure would love to be able to use my K-7 with tethering on a mac (hey, one can only keep dreaming!)

12-08-2010, 07:50 AM	#27
dupazbita Inactive Account Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 14	wow great program!! cant get it to save to where i want...or autosave.... tbh i dont think it saved any of the shots ive done.. and when i "save as" it saves a picture that doesnt work

12-08-2010, 12:44 PM	#28
knoxploration Veteran Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 846	Originally posted by dupazbita wow great program!! cant get it to save to where i want...or autosave.... tbh i dont think it saved any of the shots ive done.. and when i "save as" it saves a picture that doesnt work Easy, now, let's not be ungrateful for somebody else's hard work. It says it right there on the download page: "It is early beta version, not all functionality is active, and this which is enable can have bugs." It's obviously in heavy development, and I'm sure its author will fix these issues given time.

12-08-2010, 08:56 PM	#29
RolloR Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Photos: Albums Posts: 264	wow it's written in .NET. It would be wonderful if he can make a DLL available to reference toolbox controls to (no need to make it open source), so we can make our own GUI in Visual Studio

12-11-2010, 11:14 AM	#30
photochimp Inactive Account Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 70	Has anyone gotten this working with a k-r yet? I've tried it a few times and it freezes the camera up on me. Second time I noticed that the camera said '9999' jpeg shots left before it froze. I had to take the battery out and put it back in to be able to get the camera back on. Then I took a picture (not tethered) and it froze again but I could still hear the SR working away. Battery out and back in again and saw that even with my memory card in which is only 4GB it said it had room for over 7000 jpegs. Had to reset camera settings to get it back to normal as I'm not sure exactly what got screwed up.