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  #61  
Old 09-10-2012, 04:45 PM
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Originally Posted by h0ughy View Post
havent tried it but there may be a conflict where both programmes see the cameras and even though you have selected different cameras in each they may tie up the resources of the other?
That's exactly what I am afraid of - but as I mentioned earlier, I can't try it now because I have only one of them here with me..
Anyway, if there is a problem/conflict, I will control one of them (with bracketing enabled) with external timer, and I will try to manually change the exposures [when bracket sequence (of 3 exposures) is over].
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  #62  
Old 11-10-2012, 01:23 AM
Danack (Dan Ackroyd)
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Originally Posted by EclipseMaestro View Post
That's a great resource, but what does this mean?

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Suggested shutter speed : 1/3200 s

With extinction : 1/2500 s
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  #63  
Old 11-10-2012, 04:59 AM
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With extinction means making allowance for the atmosphere. If you adjust the altitude of the Sun, you'll see the suggested shutter speed change accordingly.
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  #64  
Old 11-10-2012, 08:43 AM
Danack (Dan Ackroyd)
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Ah thanks, that makes sense.

For the record, I'm going to go up with just my 100-400mm lens and try to get shots like these:

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/05/30/...eclipse-photo/

http://mvas.org/node/3417

Or if there is a bird or two sitting in a tree in front of the eclipse, that would also be good.
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  #65  
Old 13-10-2012, 01:52 PM
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Finally doing some testing for the eclipse and having a few issues with Eclipse Orchestrator. Anybody got advice for the following questions? I'm using a 5DMKII.

1) I have a Shoestring DPUSB adapter, so as I understand it for the "Minimum spacing between exposures" I should be able to use much less than 1 second? What do others use for this setting? I'm finding that even with spacing around two seconds, the camera settings often do not match what they are supposed to be during a sequence, which suggests that the setting of the exposure via USB and the firing of the shutter via Shoestring DPUSB are still tripping over each other a lot?

2) Recycle Time in the hardware setup is just used when visualising the sequence.. but does not actually affect the program etc right? That seems consistent with the short entry in the Help contents.

3) I've often found that the log stops getting updated, ie when i go back and review it after a sequence, it stopped partway through. For awhile it seems the log had completely frozen and was not showing even program startup etc after several attempts. Then finally it kicked back into life again.. anybody else experience that?

Appreciate any thoughts..

Would love to see somebody's else's program and particularly how many shots for diamond ring/bailey's beads/prominences you manage to fit into that short period of time.

cheers
Phil
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  #66  
Old 13-10-2012, 02:12 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by philiphart View Post
Finally doing some testing for the eclipse and having a few issues with Eclipse Orchestrator. Anybody got advice for the following questions? I'm using a 5DMKII.

1) I have a Shoestring DPUSB adapter, so as I understand it for the "Minimum spacing between exposures" I should be able to use much less than 1 second? What do others use for this setting? I'm finding that even with spacing around two seconds, the camera settings often do not match what they are supposed to be during a sequence, which suggests that the setting of the exposure via USB and the firing of the shutter via Shoestring DPUSB are still tripping over each other a lot?

2) Recycle Time in the hardware setup is just used when visualising the sequence.. but does not actually affect the program etc right? That seems consistent with the short entry in the Help contents.

3) I've often found that the log stops getting updated, ie when i go back and review it after a sequence, it stopped partway through. For awhile it seems the log had completely frozen and was not showing even program startup etc after several attempts. Then finally it kicked back into life again.. anybody else experience that?

Appreciate any thoughts..

Would love to see somebody's else's program and particularly how many shots for diamond ring/bailey's beads/prominences you manage to fit into that short period of time.

cheers
Phil
ok from the testing i have done to date you only shoot RAWS, you have nothing on the memory card to start with ie formatted fresh, make sure you have the fastest possible memorycard you can afford to get, ie 95mbpersec or better, do not save to computer only to memory card, 1 per second is probably about it, but you can test it to see if it will do quicker. with SEM running a 1 sec shot scenario i can get quite a lot of shots off. but it will work in a sort of burst mode for the baileys beads. go to Xaviers website for some hints

i will be honest i found Eclipse Orchestrator to be a pain to get to work (i bought the pro version a few years back) , especially with newer canon cameras. the free programme setnc seems to work with the newer 650D where it wont with the EO, or SEM.

also use the usb connection, i only use the dsusb for the 30d but i am running the 650D 600D and 60D off usb only

Last edited by h0ughy; 13-10-2012 at 04:33 PM.
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  #67  
Old 13-10-2012, 09:51 PM
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thanks houghy. some good ideas there and using USB alone worked a bit smoother and has helped me trouble shoot what's going on with the shoestring adapter. i'd like to get it working though as having mirror lockup will help (but am going to do some testing to verify exactly how much). reducing the shutter press time to 50ms seems to have helped as well (fred and i had to experiment with that on his timelapse controller as well).

some results below.. bizarrely in each case it's the switch between the longer 1"-2"-4" exposures that start to break down first, rather than the gaps between the faster exposures.
  • with just USB control, the sequences work fine with a spacing of 1.0 secs, and start to break down at anything less than that.
  • using the shoestring DSUSB without mirror lockup, i get a similar result but actually need slightly longer than 1" for a reliable sequence.
  • using the shoestring DSUSB and mirror lockup, i need closer to 2" exposure spacing to get a reliable result.
there are still two advantages to using the shoestring adapter though.. i get mirror lockup (of variable duration as needed) and when i'm running consecutive exposures of the same settings (eg 1/3000 sec for bailey's beads) i can run a few of those together with <1 sec spacing, which i can't do via USB alone.

so i'm leaning towards still using the shoestring adapter but it will take some hand coding of the scripts to optimise the result.

cheers
phil
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  #68  
Old 13-10-2012, 10:22 PM
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Phil, you could also try usb + serial remote. If you don't have a serial adaptor I can send you one...have a couple of spares. It'll take about 2 or so seconds to update the shutter via usb. Camera is triggered via remote, so time between shots is 1s or a bit less for constant shutter + fast card.

Edit: Just to clarify: You can update the shutter setting (or ISO) via USB and fire the shutter via the serial remote. Fred B made this change for my project... not sure if it's documented though. You can also use bulb below 1/30 s for faster turn around.

Last edited by colinmlegg; 13-10-2012 at 10:45 PM.
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  #69  
Old 13-10-2012, 10:55 PM
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Originally Posted by colinmlegg View Post
Phil, you could also try usb + serial remote. If you don't have a serial adaptor I can send you one...have a couple of spares. It'll take about 2 or so seconds to update the shutter via usb. Camera is triggered via remote, so time between shots is 1s or a bit less for constant shutter + fast card.

Edit: Just to clarify: You can update the shutter setting (or ISO) via USB and fire the shutter via the serial remote. Fred B made this change for my project... not sure if it's documented though. You can also use bulb below 1/30 s for faster turn around.
thanks colin. how much different is a 'serial adapter' to the shoestring DSUSB adapter? they seem like pretty much the same thing to me.. each just triggering the shutter via remote release socket while exposure settings are set via normal USB (which DSUSB does not replace). the shoestring just has the USB-to-Serial bit built in?

i do have an old serial shutter release somewhere that i could try but functionally they seem almost identical?

Phil
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  #70  
Old 13-10-2012, 11:05 PM
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Maybe the only difference is that you can separate the 2 operations in time. Not sure, haven't used the shoestring. I used a gap of 3 seconds (usb update vs trigger) for my project to be on the safe side.
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  #71  
Old 14-10-2012, 08:58 AM
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Originally Posted by colinmlegg View Post
Maybe the only difference is that you can separate the 2 operations in time. Not sure, haven't used the shoestring. I used a gap of 3 seconds (usb update vs trigger) for my project to be on the safe side.
Phil, I just re-checked the docs and you're right the functionality should be the same (shoestring vs regular serial trigger).
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  #72  
Old 14-10-2012, 11:23 AM
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Originally Posted by colinmlegg View Post
Phil, I just re-checked the docs and you're right the functionality should be the same (shoestring vs regular serial trigger).
as i understand it, in the Eclipse Orchestrator script, "TAKEPIC" means set the camera to required settings and take the picture, whereas "RELEASE" just triggers the shutter (via serial/shoestring) at whatever settings the camera is currently set to.

i can't see a way in Eclipse Orchestrator to just update exposure settings via USB without taking a shot. presumably that is your own code updated by Fred B that was able to do that? (Is Fred B associated with Little Bramper, or is that custom code for your project that you are referring to)?

thanks for the help!

Phil
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  #73  
Old 14-10-2012, 01:55 PM
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Originally Posted by philiphart View Post
as i understand it, in the Eclipse Orchestrator script, "TAKEPIC" means set the camera to required settings and take the picture, whereas "RELEASE" just triggers the shutter (via serial/shoestring) at whatever settings the camera is currently set to.

i can't see a way in Eclipse Orchestrator to just update exposure settings via USB without taking a shot. presumably that is your own code updated by Fred B that was able to do that? (Is Fred B associated with Little Bramper, or is that custom code for your project that you are referring to)?

thanks for the help!

Phil
Try SETEXP

eg.

SETEXP,2011/09/01,-,22:09:54.000,5d2,0.001,2.8,100,0.0 00,RAW,,N,Test

Yes, Fred B (EO author) made the mod for my project mid last year, so it should be in the latest version. I can send you my version if it doesn't work. Can't say that it'll improve your turn around time. I used a variation on the serial triggering. Rather than trigger directly, EO sent a serial command with shutter duration to a 2nd triggering device. Ultimately the same result though.
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  #74  
Old 14-10-2012, 08:41 PM
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Originally Posted by colinmlegg View Post
Try SETEXP

eg.

SETEXP,2011/09/01,-,22:09:54.000,5d2,0.001,2.8,100,0.0 00,RAW,,N,Test

Yes, Fred B (EO author) made the mod for my project mid last year, so it should be in the latest version. I can send you my version if it doesn't work. Can't say that it'll improve your turn around time. I used a variation on the serial triggering. Rather than trigger directly, EO sent a serial command with shutter duration to a 2nd triggering device. Ultimately the same result though.
you're right.. that's not documented! i've learnt a lot now .

Phil
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  #75  
Old 15-10-2012, 10:12 AM
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I wasn't aware of this either.

So is using SETEXP followed by RELEASE (with serial cable) faster than TAKEPIC using USB alone?

I have used Eclipse Orchestrator for the 3 previous TSEs, and have always had to use quite long waits between exposure changes via USB.

One technique that was recommended to me once, though I have never tried it, is to put your camera in drive mode, then use a long RELEASE command, which will take fast sequential shots as quick as the camera allow. It may be possible to combine this with in-camera autobracketing to automatically take 5 bracketed for each 1 exposure change via USB.

As has already been mentioned, it is worth using Bulb mode (& only the RELEASE) command for longer (>1/30s) exposures.
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  #76  
Old 15-10-2012, 02:55 PM
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I wasn't aware of this either.

So is using SETEXP followed by RELEASE (with serial cable) faster than TAKEPIC using USB alone?

I have used Eclipse Orchestrator for the 3 previous TSEs, and have always had to use quite long waits between exposure changes via USB.
Yeah, that's my experience as well. I went with a 3 sec gap for my project last year. Somewhere between 2 and 3 is what seems to be needed for the camera to register a change. No idea why it should take that long?

SETEXP is good in the scenario you describe using a long RELEASE + bracketing, in that you don't waste a shot. It's probably the fastest way of getting all stops from 1/4000 to 3 sec.

You can also use it to switch the camera from Manual to Bulb without turning the dial. Your dial stays on M, but the internal readout says B. (Officially not supported on 5D2, but Fred B got it working)

SETEXP,2011/09/01,-,21:41:24.000,5d2,B0.1,2.8,100,0.00 0,RAW,,N,Test

Note the B before 0.1

Quote:
Originally Posted by geoffsims View Post
As has already been mentioned, it is worth using Bulb mode (& only the RELEASE) command for longer (>1/30s) exposures.
The bulb precision issue is one of the reasons I went for a 2nd triggering device. Between 1/30 and 1/10 sec you don't get reliable bulb times due to PC timing inaccuracies.

Last edited by colinmlegg; 15-10-2012 at 03:05 PM.
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  #77  
Old 15-10-2012, 03:46 PM
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One other thing. I wouldn't recommend using SETEXP and RELEASE if you have multiple connected cameras. I couldn't get it working reliably, so had to resort to 1 netbook per camera
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  #78  
Old 15-10-2012, 04:49 PM
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Thanks for the info.

I have often used 2 cameras, but not in that fashion - however, I have always thought 1 camera per laptop would be safer! In the past I've had to leave copious amounts of room between camera switches.

Anyway - this reminds me, I had really get thinking about my TSE photography plan, with under a month to go...
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  #79  
Old 16-10-2012, 01:30 PM
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Eclipse Orchestrator Visualiser

I've got the gear together, can run sequences and am pretty organised with my coronal shots. The thing I'm hung up on is the sequence around the 2nd and 3rd contacts - what features to shoot when. I think the visualiser in EO has some advice but I can't find it documented anywhere. There are a number of coloured bands which I think represent features like Diamond Ring, Bailey Beads, Chromosphere, Prominences, Inner Corona and Outer Corona. Their span across the time axis is the time to shoot these features and the position on the vertical axis is their brightness (in Q?). Does anyone know if I am reading this right? Otherwise, when should I shoot what?
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  #80  
Old 18-10-2012, 11:40 AM
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Eclipse Orchestrator 3.4 has been released, which now appears to officially support the SETEXP command (and the 5D Mark III if you're lucky enough to have one). The display and selection of file types looks like it will fix an issue i have with the 5DII as well.

Quote:
Changes:
- Add Canon 60Da, 650D (Rebel T4i), 5D Mark III, and 1D X support.
- Add SETEXP script command to set camera exposure but not fire shutter.
- Add ALLCAMS camera option to perform script line item on all cameras simultaneously.
- Raise maximum number of exposures to 65,000.
- Fix display and selection of file types for late model Canons.
- Fix event times not calculated when switching from script with hardcoded event times to script without.
- Fix Canon serial number not readable.
- Fix off by one line bug in script editor.
- Fix rounding error on display of duration when seconds is 0.05-0.10.
- Fix emergency script first items dropped on slow machines.

Fred Bruenjes
Owner
Moonglow Technologies, LLC
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