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  #81  
Old 19-10-2012, 05:02 PM
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Anybody aware of any tricks required to get the BULB mode thing working with Eclipse Orchestrator and the 5DII?

I've tried using TAKEPIC and SETEXP but my 5DII is not going into bulb mode. The exposure value on the top screen stays on whatever it was on and playback of the file shows that it was still shot in manual mode with the displayed exposure value.

Any ideas?

EDIT: Bulb mode works in v3.3.1 but not in the latest v3.4 (at least for me). I've sent a message to Fred B..

Phil

Last edited by Phil Hart; 19-10-2012 at 05:42 PM.
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  #82  
Old 20-10-2012, 01:48 PM
geoffsims (Geoff)
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No idea but seems like there is no real need (at least for me) to run the latest version then.
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  #83  
Old 21-10-2012, 08:14 AM
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Originally Posted by geoffsims View Post
No idea but seems like there is no real need (at least for me) to run the latest version then.
Geoff.. are you able to use mirror lockup with the RELEASE command in v3.1.1?

For me, mirror lockup seems to be ignored with the RELEASE command. Whenever the script gets saved by EO, any value in that field gets erased and I'm just left with an exposure time value and not much else in that row.

Phil
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  #84  
Old 21-10-2012, 09:33 AM
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Not sure Phil - and I can't check right now because my camera is in Hong Kong getting repaired (great timing...).

Also I just installed the latest EO, without realising I don't think I have the installer for the old version if I want to revert back.
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  #85  
Old 21-10-2012, 09:57 PM
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Originally Posted by geoffsims View Post
Not sure Phil - and I can't check right now because my camera is in Hong Kong getting repaired (great timing...).

Also I just installed the latest EO, without realising I don't think I have the installer for the old version if I want to revert back.
I can easily send you the old installer if necessary. Hope the camera comes back soon. Would be interested in your report.

I haven't received any reply from Fred B so not sure there's any likelihood of the bug if it is one being fixed. i guess he's busy!

Phil
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  #86  
Old 22-10-2012, 12:11 PM
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I will try and test is as soon as I get my camera back!
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  #87  
Old 22-10-2012, 12:40 PM
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currently there are some exciting developments with Solar Eclispe Maestro for the macs - stay tuned. should be able to run 4 canons at the eclipse from the one computer - awesome!
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  #88  
Old 22-10-2012, 01:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by philiphart View Post
Geoff.. are you able to use mirror lockup with the RELEASE command in v3.1.1?

For me, mirror lockup seems to be ignored with the RELEASE command. Whenever the script gets saved by EO, any value in that field gets erased and I'm just left with an exposure time value and not much else in that row.

Phil
Seems like free version simply ignores commands that are available in Pro version (ML is one of them).. this sucks a bit (IMHO).

What I also don't like, you can't develop your script without camera connected.
In my case, I left my 400D at home.. so I can't do much at the moment.
However, I have 60D with me here where I am now, but I can't use it because it's not supported.

Try SETnC.. or just DSLRTimer
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  #89  
Old 22-10-2012, 09:10 PM
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Originally Posted by bojan View Post
Seems like free version simply ignores commands that are available in Pro version (ML is one of them).. this sucks a bit (IMHO).

What I also don't like, you can't develop your script without camera connected.
In my case, I left my 400D at home.. so I can't do much at the moment.
However, I have 60D with me here where I am now, but I can't use it because it's not supported.

Try SETnC.. or just DSLRTimer
hi bojan.. i have the full version so that's not the issue. but doesn't seem like a huge community of EO users. No forums full of the other issues people have had along the way?

Phil
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  #90  
Old 22-10-2012, 09:22 PM
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Phil, I can try it tonight. So you want to test whether RELEASE works with mirror lockup? I've never tried it.
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  #91  
Old 22-10-2012, 10:07 PM
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Originally Posted by colinmlegg View Post
Phil, I can try it tonight. So you want to test whether RELEASE works with mirror lockup? I've never tried it.
Thanks Colin. Yes.. at even moderate focal lengths mirror lockup makes a significant difference to the sharpness of my images.. even with only 0.3-0.5 second delay. So I definitely want to use that even if it slows down the frame rate because I can't use SETEXP/RELEASE etc.

In my scripts, a value in the MUL field of a RELEASE line gets overwritten as blank after saving it again from EO, and does not get used in the script.

Phil
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  #92  
Old 22-10-2012, 11:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by philiphart View Post
Thanks Colin. Yes.. at even moderate focal lengths mirror lockup makes a significant difference to the sharpness of my images.. even with only 0.3-0.5 second delay. So I definitely want to use that even if it slows down the frame rate because I can't use SETEXP/RELEASE etc.

In my scripts, a value in the MUL field of a RELEASE line gets overwritten as blank after saving it again from EO, and does not get used in the script.

Phil
I'm using an earlier beta version 3.3 Beta 4, and those fields are left blank on export as well. You can edit them in later (edit file), then reload the script and all appears to work.

I used the emergency mode for testing, and in my beta version the first script entry is ignored, so I duplicated it. Some quirks you have to workaround

SETEXP,EMERGENCY,+,00:00:03.0,5D2,1/2,8.0,100,1.000,RAW,,Y,Prominences Q=10
SETEXP,EMERGENCY,+,00:00:06.0,5D2,1/2,8.0,100,1.000,RAW,,Y,Prominences Q=10
RELEASE,EMERGENCY,+,00:00:09.0,5D2, 1/4,,,1.00,,,,
RELEASE,EMERGENCY,+,00:00:11.5,5D2, 1/4,,,1.00,,,,
RELEASE,EMERGENCY,+,00:00:14.0,5D2, 1/4,,,1.00,,,,

You say you only have 0.3 - 0.5 s MLU delay. Is that a settable option for 5D2?

Do you reckon MLU is needed for 100mm FL?
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  #93  
Old 23-10-2012, 08:53 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by colinmlegg View Post
I'm using an earlier beta version 3.3 Beta 4, and those fields are left blank on export as well. You can edit them in later (edit file), then reload the script and all appears to work.

I used the emergency mode for testing, and in my beta version the first script entry is ignored, so I duplicated it. Some quirks you have to workaround

SETEXP,EMERGENCY,+,00:00:03.0,5D2,1/2,8.0,100,1.000,RAW,,Y,Prominences Q=10
SETEXP,EMERGENCY,+,00:00:06.0,5D2,1/2,8.0,100,1.000,RAW,,Y,Prominences Q=10
RELEASE,EMERGENCY,+,00:00:09.0,5D2, 1/4,,,1.00,,,,
RELEASE,EMERGENCY,+,00:00:11.5,5D2, 1/4,,,1.00,,,,
RELEASE,EMERGENCY,+,00:00:14.0,5D2, 1/4,,,1.00,,,,

You say you only have 0.3 - 0.5 s MLU delay. Is that a settable option for 5D2?

Do you reckon MLU is needed for 100mm FL?
thanks.. i'll have to play some more with reloading the script and see if i get the mirror lockup time to be recognised.

because i'm using the Shoestring DSUSB, the mirror lock up time is controlled by the gap between the two activations of the shutter. the only automatic way to do it on camera is with 2 second timer delay, where the mirror lifts up on shutter press and then the shutter activates at the end of the 2 seconds. too slow for an eclipse though!

100mm focal length on a solid tripod probably doesn't need MUL and the blurring effect if you can see it at all would be the order of a pixel. but at >500mm the blurring effect is quite significant.

Phil
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  #94  
Old 23-10-2012, 11:09 AM
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Canon 400D not releasing

Hi,

I wondering whether anyone else has experience the same issue as me?

I'm running a 600D with a 400mm lens and a 400D with a 200mm lens, both controlled by EO. My sequence starts with the 600D, then does a block with the 400D and then returns to the 600D before third contact. The software is running under Win XP and works pretty well. It tends to drop the first shot after each camera change and lengthening the delay doesn't seem to help. So that's perhaps two shots out of 70 that are lost. I can live with that.

Last night I tried the same script on a friend's machine (which will be the backup) running Win 7 and had real problems. The change from the 600D to the 400D works OK but the change from the 400D back to the 600D freezes the script. When the 400D is taking shots you can see the red light on the back which indicates that it is busy writing to memory come on after each shot for 1.5-2 sec. However, after the final shot it comes on and stays on. In EO the status of the 600D is shown as 'waiting on another camera' (or similar - it's not in front of me) and remains that way. This can continue for at least several minutes (the limit of my patience). If I unplug the 400D the 600D resumes taking shots. I tried the XP box again and it still works OK. We tried the upgrade and it made no difference.

I'm thinking it might be driver related but that's about the limit of my knowledge. I'm going to file a bug report but I believe there are a few bug reports being submitted at the moment. In the meanwhile has anyone else experience this problem and have you solved it?

BTW my best solution so far is to have a voice prompt to unplug the 400D immediately after its block.
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  #95  
Old 23-10-2012, 11:42 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AstralTraveller View Post
Hi,
I'm thinking it might be driver related but that's about the limit of my knowledge. I'm going to file a bug report but I believe there are a few bug reports being submitted at the moment. In the meanwhile has anyone else experience this problem and have you solved it?
David.. I don't have your issue but when i've been playing and editing scripts using just one camera i've had issues where EO and the camera seem to lose communication. I have to force EO to close and then start again.

Have you found somewhere to submit a bug? I found an email address for Fred B but have not got any reply?

Phil
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  #96  
Old 23-10-2012, 12:23 PM
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Have you found somewhere to submit a bug? I found an email address for Fred B but have not got any reply?

Phil
No, but I haven't looked either. We finished up late last night. It's just that I remember reading that a few people have written to Fred with bug reports so I imagine he has a lot deal with and there isn't much time and EO isn't his full-time job .....
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  #97  
Old 23-10-2012, 12:30 PM
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Just tried varying MLU delay in 3 shots and it worked fine. If I use 2 s delay, however, it doesn't work.

SETEXP,EMERGENCY,+,00:00:03.0,5D2-1,1/2,8.0,100,1.000,RAW,,Y,Prominences Q=10
SETEXP,EMERGENCY,+,00:00:06.0,5D2-1,1/2,8.0,100,1.000,RAW,,Y,Prominences Q=10
RELEASE,EMERGENCY,+,00:00:09.0,5D2-1,1/4,,,0.3,,,,
RELEASE,EMERGENCY,+,00:00:11.5,5D2-1,1/4,,,0.5,,,,
RELEASE,EMERGENCY,+,00:00:14.0,5D2-1,1/4,,,1.00,,,,


Quote:
Originally Posted by philiphart View Post
David.. I don't have your issue but when i've been playing and editing scripts using just one camera i've had issues where EO and the camera seem to lose communication. I have to force EO to close and then start again.
Phil
It'll loose comms if you have auto power off turned ON and the camera powers off. Also, sometimes it can take up to a minute to initialize a camera on start up.

I've had issues with multi-cam reliability. Fred says it's more an issue with the Canon drivers rather than his software. He even contemplated taking the option out at one point. To be safe, either go with what you know works, or use 1 laptop/netbook per camera.
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  #98  
Old 23-10-2012, 04:14 PM
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David - I haven't had your issue, but did have the issue of major lag when switching between cameras. So much so that I used to fire off a dummy exposure just to wake the camera up, then pause about 5s, then start the sequence! No idea why that is the case. Possibly the situation is worsened by having the low-end DSLRs like you do (and I did in the past).

Phil - if you are desperate, you should join & post to the SEML (Solar Eclipse Mailing List). I don't recall too many posts about EO specifics in the past, but there is likely a lot more people on that group who use it than there are on IIS.

See: http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/SENLinfo.htm
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  #99  
Old 24-10-2012, 08:16 AM
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David - I haven't had your issue, but did have the issue of major lag when switching between cameras. So much so that I used to fire off a dummy exposure just to wake the camera up, then pause about 5s, then start the sequence! No idea why that is the case. Possibly the situation is worsened by having the low-end DSLRs like you do (and I did in the past).
I've seen that too but somehow (and I've forgotten exactly how) I seem to have overcome it. One thing I did was run a SETEXP about 30s before C2 so the camera is correctly set for it's first shot.

I had a 'lightbulb' moment last night and saw the bleedin' obvious . If I'm taking a backup 'puter I can just run one 'puter per camera. So now I will have one script for the 400D one for the 600D and one for both should I only have one 'puter. I also found an issue with the 400D I hadn't noticed. If the shots are a bit too close together they will still fire but the settings won't change. You get a series of eg 1 sec shots instead of stepping through the sequence. The necessary spacing also depends on the preceding shot's duration. So if I take say 0.1sec a 2 sec gap is OK but if I take 2 sec then 4 sec (ie 2 for the shot and 2 to prepare for the next) isn't enough, 4.5 is needed.

If we could just put the eclipse off for a week or two I reckon I can be ready in time.
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  #100  
Old 25-10-2012, 10:06 PM
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only need to make the filters now i have the camera functionality sorted out dont mind the mess - its an organised mess - see here and turn up the volume

the MAC will be controlling 4 canon cameras - 650D 60D 600D and a 30D lenses will be a 250mm lens, 400mm L lens , 200mm L lens and a 10mm fisheye lens - wont bother with a solar filter for the fisheye

I am just so stoked I have got this working. Xavier has just finished a beta before the eclipse and this seemed an impossible goal – not now. Be using a 400mm L lens, 250mm standard lens, 200mm L lens and a 10mm fisheye, starlapse (2 cameras, 60D and 600D with the 400 and the 200) the polarie (fisheye and 30D) and astrotrac (650D with 250mm)…..

Last edited by h0ughy; 25-10-2012 at 11:00 PM.
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