[bobbotron]

I feel that Ricoh / Pentax should add a basic script engine (such as the ever cheery Lua) to allow people to write scripts to control their camera. I know there is already an open API, but this requires a USB or phone tether.


My thought here is that this could provide a useful an innovative way for hobbyists to perform custom actions with the camera such as:

* focus bracketing
* video focus pulls
* custom time lapses
* battery management

* possibly image trap triggers (ie take a photo when some condition occurs)


Given the Lua engine is open source, I feel that this wouldn't be a huge effort to add support, and could be a really interesting offering for the brand. It would definitely attract some tinkerers and if useful scripts were developed average users might also adopt them.


Anyway if anyone has the ear of Ricoh please pass this along. A long time ago I used this kind of scripting ( https://magiclantern.fm/ ) on an old canon camera and it was good fun.

[biz-engineer]

That's also been my thoughts for the last few months. For the camera manufacturer, it is not possible to guess all possible workflows customers may want to use. So, the ability to program a sequence of camera actions (such as record a macro) would be great.

* focus bracketing

I thought of pre-setting a number of focus points in liveview, so that the camera would take a quick series of images, without having to touch the camera.

[UncleVanya]

Extending the firmware via user contributions would be interesting. Something like magic lantern for canon would also be interesting. They could limit it to older systems and use it to mine for ideas for newer camera firmware but I think it goes against the monetizing features model they are testing.

[kypfer]

WiFi Commander Wifi Commander for Pentax - wireless remote control for your Pentax camera lets you do all sorts of clever stuff with the later cameras, albeit over a WiFi connection, so may not be totally suitable, but at least worth a look (no motion sensing, though)

[biz-engineer]

Given the Lua engine is open source, I feel that this wouldn't be a huge effort to add support

The essence of the open source business versus licensed software is that open source doesn't have staff paid for supporting it, making adoption easy but then opening up business opportunities IT consultancy services, the cost of free open source is just postponed to a later time once you're hooked.

WiFi Commander Wifi Commander for Pentax - wireless remote control for your Pentax camera lets you do all sorts of clever stuff with the later cameras, albeit over a WiFi connection, so may not be totally suitable, but at least worth a look (no motion sensing, though)

If I understood correctly, the functionalities of Wifi commander are bounded by what Ricoh allows with the SDK / firmware interface they provide.

---------- Post added 16-01-23 at 18:48 ----------

The thing with scripting code is that most Pentaxians won't be interested to use it. If your job is software engineer, you may not want to also have to program your camera on your holiday time when you would like to relax, take pictures, do something other than your job. And I think at this point in time, Ricoh-Pentax probably has much more important priorities since their resources can hardly cover the basic demand. First things first, first release that Pentax K1 III, and the full frame TC, and the 70-300 lens, and the 30ish mm prime, then once the sales of Pentax K1 III roll-in, you'll have time play around with fun features that bring no money.

[bobbotron]

The thing with scripting code is that most Pentaxians won't be interested to use it.

Totally true. This would be a feature most people wouldn't use, like the live view perspective correction. But it's still a draw to the system! :-)

---------- Post added 01-16-23 at 03:01 PM ----------

but I think it goes against the monetizing features model they are testing.

Ewwww, I hope they don't go the route of car companies where you get to pay to unlock software features that used to be offered for free.

[lotech]

I feel that Ricoh / Pentax should add a basic script engine (such as the ever cheery Lua) to allow people to write scripts to control their camera. I know there is already an open API, but this requires a USB or phone tether.


My thought here is that this could provide a useful an innovative way for hobbyists to perform custom actions with the camera such as:

* focus bracketing
* video focus pulls
* custom time lapses
* battery management

* possibly image trap triggers (ie take a photo when some condition occurs)


Given the Lua engine is open source, I feel that this wouldn't be a huge effort to add support, and could be a really interesting offering for the brand. It would definitely attract some tinkerers and if useful scripts were developed average users might also adopt them.


Anyway if anyone has the ear of Ricoh please pass this along. A long time ago I used this kind of scripting ( https://magiclantern.fm/ ) on an old canon camera and it was good fun.

As far as I remember such idea is not new, I can't recall exactly it was Kodak or Minolta released an user scripting language for their early digital cameras, to allow user to customize their 'desktop' and create special features not came with the camera out of the box and I had that camera.

[UncleVanya]

Ewwww, I hope they don't go the route of car companies where you get to pay to unlock software features that used to be offered for free.

I am not exactly thinking that route. I assumed it would be for unusual and interesting add-on items and they wouldn’t want competition in this area. I’m just guessing.