Yes, live view on the PC works in manual mode if you use the EOS utility to control the camera. Once you are in the EOS utility, just change the camera settings on the screen instead of on the camera itself. You'll probably need to disable any timer function on the camera though. (I just set the mode to single shot, not sure if others work)
Just a tip: There is also a test photo option which lets you take a photo without storing it on the camera or hard drive. You can take a 5-10 second exposure while pointing to a bright star, zoom in, focus again, then take shot and compare the focus. You will still be zoomed in at the same place so it's easy to see if your focus is improving.
Last edited by Chancellor; 11-11-2010 at 02:54 PM.
Do yourself a favour, and download the Bat Grabber software. It's free, and, helps a lot.
When you start capturing via Live View through EOS Utility, you load up the Bat Grabber software, and draw a rectangle around the star and its spikes (due to the Bahtinov Mask). The Bat Grabber software then draws a bullseye and some vectors through the star; these vectors then help you nail focus as they move whenever you make a change to focus. Once the vectors have disappeared, and you're left with just a bullseye, you know you're in focus. It takes all of 30 seconds to get focus.
Wow guys
Great replies, especialy the bat grabber software. I'm getting really good results at the moment with my unmodded Canon 350 but the 500 seems the way to go. I can get a goop price of around $600 for 500d body only, the kit lenses are crap. Then I'm going to get in modded by Peter Tan.
Where do i download bat grabber. or is it batch grabber?