Eos 400d ( Rebel XTI )

a1ex

550D code for this: https://bitbucket.org/hudson/magic-lantern/src/tip/shoot.c
(look for bulb_take_pic or bulb timer).

JoeNeptune

That sounds like useful stuff.
Makes me think about getting a bigger lens than my Kodak 80-210mm.

0xAF

a1ex
550D code for this: https://bitbucket.org/hudson/magic-lantern/src/tip/shoot.c
(look for bulb_take_pic or bulb timer).

thanks alex !
i'm having some hard time with buttons handler routine for the sergei's variant of creating dialogs ...
i hope i will get it working soon (but 2-3 days with no success is little disappointing)
i hope ill have the time to look at this later ... but there are too much stuff in my todo already 😉
one of them was to look after extended time for shutting (more than 30 secs), so this will come useful 😉

JoeNeptune

I was just checking the local forsale ads and I plan to go see about getting a 6 inch diameter telescope for $50 tomorow.
Its called an Orbitor 4000. I cant find a review of it on the web, I hope it has a standard connection for attaching the camera.
I always wanted a telescope.

guffster

I will be experimenting and testing over the next few days with the new "Presets" menus as well as some of the other new features recently added to 400plus. I'll report back with my findings. Nice work and thanks to all.

eduperez

New version available, introducing the new "Presets" feature; this time thanks to the collaboration (in no particular order) of 0xAF, Sergei, and myself:

New "Presets" feature.
More info (BodyID) at the INFO dialog.
AF settings moved to the shortcuts dialog and expanded.
I think we have finally found the cause for all the camera lock-up's.

As always, the links are:

A Word of Warning (that everybody should read) at http://code.google.com/p/400plus/wiki/AWordOfWarning.
Source at http://400plus.googlecode.com/files/400plus-20110425-1.src.zip.
Binary at http://400plus.googlecode.com/files/400plus-20110425-1.bin.zip.
Updated user guide at http://code.google.com/p/400plus/wiki/UserGuide.
There are also Spanish, Italian, and German translations (still not updated to the latest version, however).

We hope you enjoy.

guffster

Just found and played around with the "Configuring the Shortcuts menu" feature with the "Menu button" grab, set, and save ability - SWEET! Very nice touch on this feature... 😀

TomBStonE

The shortcut menu is really convenient and the option for amending the iso is perfect.

The classification of functions is very handy too.

Now i'am test the preset function.

Thanks Man 😁

guffster

Questions to users regarding Custom Presets:

Since the XTI/400D does not have custom preset AE positions on the mode dial (like C1, C2, C3 on the Canon 7D), it can be confusing when using the 400plus Custom Presets to load a preset that may use an AE mode of Tv when the mode dial is still currently set to Av, M, P, or another mode. The Custom Preset feature does work however by overriding what the mode dial setting is currently set to which is GREAT but still a bit confusing.

I'm getting to my questions now... The mode dial has an A-DEP (Automatic Depth-of-Field mode) position which is probably not often used by many photographers (my opinion). Would it make better sense to only allow the Custom Presets to be loaded when the mode dial is set to the A-DEP position? Maybe this would be a bit less confusing for the reasons stated above?

At this time I am not even sure if the devs working on the 400plus source can even support this feature but if so, it seems to make more sense to me to do it this way.

Please chime in with your opinions...

eduperez

guffster
Questions to users regarding Custom Presets:

Since the XTI/400D does not have custom preset AE positions on the mode dial (like C1, C2, C3 on the Canon 7D), it can be confusing when using the 400plus Custom Presets to load a preset that may use an AE mode of Tv when the mode dial is still currently set to Av, M, P, or another mode. The Custom Preset feature does work however by overriding what the mode dial setting is currently set to which is GREAT but still a bit confusing.

I'm getting to my questions now... The mode dial has an A-DEP (Automatic Depth-of-Field mode) position which is probably not often used by many photographers (my opinion). Would it make better sense to only allow the Custom Presets to be loaded when the mode dial is set to the A-DEP position? Maybe this would be a bit less confusing for the reasons stated above?

At this time I am not even sure if the devs working on the 400plus source can even support this feature but if so, it seems to make more sense to me to do it this way.

Please chime in with your opinions...

I must say I fully agree with your analysis: having a dial that says 'M' and a display 'Tv' (for example) can be very confusing. But the problem is even worse: when the camera shuts down and up again, it automatically goes back to the mode selected in the main dial. And the user may not even be aware of this, if the power-saving option shuts the camera down and the user brings it back to life with the shutter button.

The A-DEP mode is a good candidate to tinker with (I also think it is completely useless), and your proposal seems quite easy to implement. We still have to determine how to solve the problem with the shut down/up cycle (perhaps we could sacrifice the A-DEP mode completely, and determine that "the camera will always revert to the last AE mode used if it starts in A-DEP mode").

Another option that crossed my mind was to allow the user to select only those presets whose saved AE mode match the current AE mode selected in the main dial, but that can be quite frustrating. Or open a dialog after loading a preset, prompting the user to change the main dial to the AE mode saved in that preset.

I am open for ideas...

chross

Hi,
great work and improvements so far.
Is it possible to implement cycling menus that wrap around when you reach the top/bottom of the list. So pressing the down arrow when at the bottom will select the topmost entry and vice versa?
Just a little suggestion to improve usability / handling.

Cheers

eduperez

chross
Hi,
great work and improvements so far.
Is it possible to implement cycling menus that wrap around when you reach the top/bottom of the list. So pressing the down arrow when at the bottom will select the topmost entry and vice versa?
Just a little suggestion to improve usability / handling.

Cheers

Looks interesting, I'll note it down; thanks.

0xAF

eduperez
Another option that crossed my mind was to allow the user to select only those presets whose saved AE mode match the current AE mode selected in the main dial, but that can be quite frustrating. Or open a dialog after loading a preset, prompting the user to change the main dial to the AE mode saved in that preset.

I was going to propose that too... this is the best solution in my opinion.
We can have separate presets for each AE mode. It wont be so confusing when we make the names for the presets.

About the A-DEP mode, it's useless really, I think we can make it work too... when the camera starts we can detect the AE mode (A-DEP) and load the last used preset. This should fix the problem with restarting the camera, but we still need to detect auto power-off though. If i'm lucky I could catch some events about the power-off, this could help with autoloading the preset.

JoeNeptune

I hope we can figure out how to do this with out taking away a function.
I haven't got around to using the A-DEP function.
But it might be useful if I get drunk and snap happy.
Or while letting someone not so familiar with camera use it in a outdoor setting.
but it is no issue for me, i am sure i could do with out it.

Do you think the hand wave function could have a "Bulb" mode?
One wave open shutter. Second wave close.
maybe with a timer displayed on the screen.
It would be useful if it could work with the repeat mode.

What would be really interesting is if you could watch the picture develop while taking it in bulb mode.
So you could stop it just when you think it exposed enough as it is displayed on the screen or as a live, evolving, histogram.
But I would imagine that sort of data flow might even need different hardware not to mention total access to the software and a great deal of work.

I got the 6 inch reflector telescope i was looking at.
It came with a camera mount. 9mm, 15mm, 25mm objective lenses, moon filter and a 2Xbarlow.
I think I am getting best results with the 25mm in telescope and my 35mm-80mm on camera set between 55mm and 80mm.
I also have a 18mm-55mm lens for camera and 80mm-210mm but it is too long for mount.

It has been rainy since I got it.
But so far i can see a nail in a patio half a km away on a warm day with the air moving.

any tips would be nice.
I read I should get a canon t adapter for direct focus.
I hope to find one cheap soon.

guffster

chross
Hi,
great work and improvements so far.
Is it possible to implement cycling menus that wrap around when you reach the top/bottom of the list. So pressing the down arrow when at the bottom will select the topmost entry and vice versa?
Just a little suggestion to improve usability / handling.

Cheers

I have thought about this as well. If I were coding such a thing - I would tend to want to have a menu selection somewhere which would either allow or not allow the wrap around menus such as "Wrap around menus: Yes/No" and then have the menus act according to the setting made by the user. I think some users (most) would like the wrap around menu feature but some would not - especially as they first get used to using 400plus and learning what the menu choices are and where they are located. Just my .02 worth...

guffster

0xAF

eduperez
Another option that crossed my mind was to allow the user to select only those presets whose saved AE mode match the current AE mode selected in the main dial, but that can be quite frustrating. Or open a dialog after loading a preset, prompting the user to change the main dial to the AE mode saved in that preset.

I was going to propose that too... this is the best solution in my opinion.
We can have separate presets for each AE mode. It wont be so confusing when we make the names for the presets.

About the A-DEP mode, it's useless really, I think we can make it work too... when the camera starts we can detect the AE mode (A-DEP) and load the last used preset. This should fix the problem with restarting the camera, but we still need to detect auto power-off though. If i'm lucky I could catch some events about the power-off, this could help with autoloading the preset.

Now, this would certainly be a nice feature and solve both issues! I am having a tough time trying to wrap my head around what you would code to restore to the camera upon powering back on in A-DEP mode though.

Would you restore the last Preset if one had been chosen prior to power-off? This would work fine if no settings had been changed by the user after the Preset had been loaded. I think this feature will take some serious thought prior to implementing - it's a great idea though if you can pull it off! Especially being able to "listen" or "auto-detect" a pre- "power down" event or something in order to save a flag or semaphore or value indicating that a Preset was currently loaded and which Preset it was.

What if: When the camera powers on in A-DEP mode (only) and it was determined from the last power-off cycle that a Preset was loaded that a dialog is displayed indicating to the user to "Reload last Preset, or use standard A-DEP settings?" or something similar?

chross

With AE you mean the Auto Exposure measurement pattern, or else what presets are you talking about?
Just for the record: the sensor cleaning is triggered before each powerdown...

eduperez

chross
With AE you mean the Auto Exposure measurement pattern, or else what presets are you talking about?

We are refering to the "Auto Exposure modes": P, Tv, Av, M, A-DEP, ...

0xAF

guffster
Now, this would certainly be a nice feature and solve both issues! I am having a tough time trying to wrap my head around what you would code to restore to the camera upon powering back on in A-DEP mode though.

Would you restore the last Preset if one had been chosen prior to power-off? This would work fine if no settings had been changed by the user after the Preset had been loaded. I think this feature will take some serious thought prior to implementing - it's a great idea though if you can pull it off! Especially being able to "listen" or "auto-detect" a pre- "power down" event or something in order to save a flag or semaphore or value indicating that a Preset was currently loaded and which Preset it was.

What if: When the camera powers on in A-DEP mode (only) and it was determined from the last power-off cycle that a Preset was loaded that a dialog is displayed indicating to the user to "Reload last Preset, or use standard A-DEP settings?" or something similar?

when im thinking more of it ... you are right, we should never restore any settings if we had restarted the camera. after all i'm using a power-cycle to reset some settings, like AEB for example (this is faster than going to the menu). and if you are using noice reduction function (which seems to be using some buffer), it's good to have power cycle after each shot... when im shooting lightenings im shooting in bulb for 45-60 seconds ... then after the first photo the noise reduction is working fine ... after the seconds shot, the post-processing takes as much time as the photo itself... thats why im power-cycle-ing the camera after each shot.

when talking about the auto-power-off, i believe when you hit half the shutter button it restores the settings ... so we should be good here.

@chross, thanks for the hint... there are alot of events when the camera auto-power-off, we have to find the right one, but im not sure we have to? and yes by AE i meant what Eduardo described.

eduperez

I did the following test first (no hack involved here):

Set the camera to M mode, aperture to 1/1.8 and speed to 1/60; moved to Av and set aperture to 2.2; changed to Tv and set speed to 1/400. Now I can jump around these modes, and the camera will recall the correct aperture and speed that I had set for each mode. I also saved these settings as three presets.

Then I made a small modification to our code, so the when a preset is loaded from the card, only the AE value is read and applied, no other parameter from the preset is used. Now I set the camera to A-DEP mode and read those presets; guess what happens? When I change the AE mode, the camera also recalls the other parameters!

This means we could do the following:

Presets can only be read while in A-DEP mode.
When a preset is read, we write to the card the AE mode corresponding to such preset.
When the camera boots, we check the current AE mode: if we are in A-DEP, we load and apply the last AE mode set by a preset; the camera will then recall the other parameters.

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