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Old 23-05-2009, 01:45 PM
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Octane (Humayun)
IIS Member #671

Octane is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Canberra
Posts: 11,159
Malcolm,

Yeah, Bintel usually stocks these items.

I've got the GPUSB which is used for guiding my G-11. I bought mine directly from Shoestring Astronomy, at the time, because I wasn't sure if Bintel had them back when I got it.

Unfortunately, they seem awfully expensive for what they are. They do a good job, though.

I used to use the good old DSLR Focus, with a home built serial cable, which, unfortunately doesn't have support for the "newer" Canon DSLR's such as the 40D and onwards. I downloaded DSLR Shutter but then realised that it won't support the direct USB data/instruction cable, so, again, you're stuck with 30 second exposures. I realised then, that I'd either have to purchase the DSUSB or purchase Craig Stark's other program, Nebulosity.

So, I fork out the $81 for the software only to realise that it doesn't save files in the *.CR2 RAW format; it converts them to *.FITS files. Which is fine if you are going to use Nebulosity to process your images, but, useless if you use IRIS for all your astrophotographic processing. I use IRIS and am a bit miffed about what seems like a waste of money!

But, I then realised the Remote Shooting feature in the Canon EOS Utility will allow me to do long exposures through the single cable. In the older versions of the software, that came with the 300D and 350D, for example, didn't support exposures longer than 30 seconds, if my memory serves me correctly. Unfortunately, the software still doesn't support mirror lockup, but, at least it saves in the native format!

So, before you go and spend the money on the DSUSB, think about giving the Canon EOS Utility a go. I really liked the idea of Nebulosity being able to interact with PHD Guiding, and therefore enabled the ability to dither your guidestar between exposures facilitating in nicer images, but, sacrificing the native RAW format was not an option.

Regards,
Humayun
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