Nikon D70s USB control?

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #1 01-05-2015, 06:12 PM

Hi gents. I am doing the DIY astro camera with a Nikon D70s I picked up. This camera will be ratted for the sensor, but in the mean time I wanted to play with it, tether control it via lappy.

Now this camera has no liveview and backyardNikon etc do not have support for the D70s so any control will be of limited use (mainly because of lack of liveview) but tethered shooting is obviously better than none. I am looking at building a USB/Serial controller, l ike this or this but first wanted to ask if anyone is using similar shutter control? I see they have these (above ) working with BYNIK and SGP I thinnk thru serial port control thus I guess they actual control is limited to bulb > 30s, and as an intervalometer, not much else.

Here is one...expensive though.

Thus I guess it's possible to do this same using a Bluetooth SPP/TTL module to wirelessly control thru the Nikon MC2 port?

Maybe a fleabay intervalometer via wireless or IR is a better option?

Any thoughts on this appreciated as I wanted to get one working asap ..just to play before dooming 5the camera to the parts bin!

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #2 01-05-2015, 09:44 PM

In answer to my own question...free software for Nikon DSLRs. Particularly tethering software: Nikontrol 3K (which I tied) and Digicamcontrol (Haven't tried).

After reading lots about no SDK for Nikon D70s and similar Nikons...I was surprised to find Nikonctrol 3K tethered and ran the D70s via USB just fine. Interface is a little clunky but I managed to take a series of snaps with delay and change iso/shutter speed etc. Image came up on control panle, not liveview, but the last image shows.

No magnification of image but, hey it works. Now need to try Digicamcontrol, but, I expect it'll be similar.

Disappointing to see Backyard Nikon touting no support to D70s as no SDK...but hey obviously there is support thru USB!

cometcatcher (Kevin) · #3 01-05-2015, 11:38 PM

Interesting. I have a full spectrum D70s. Haven't used it for astro for ages as the sensor is very noisy compared to my K-5. Maybe I should dig it out again...

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #4 02-05-2015, 09:52 AM

The D70s has a damn fine imaging sensor the Sony ICX453AQ, as used in the QHY pro OSC camera. This QHY camera performance is "excellent". The bayer matrix on these sensors is reasonably easy to remove thus they are good candidates to "mono-fy" your DSLR. Which will increase photo sensitivity by 2~3x just from that alone.

The sensor has pixel size ~7.8um which like the Canon 20D (6.4um) is pretty damn good for grabbing photons and achieving a good image scale (arc sec/pixel) for most users. Most more modern DSLRs have pixel size below 5 microns or smaller which is not ideal for photo catching and image scale is all wrong. That said, the newer DSLRs have much lower read/amp & sensor noise.

Problem with the D70 is that it has no live view although this can be overcome by taking a series of shots, enlarging them, and focusing between them for optimum (thus the need for tethering software to do this). The other issue is "amp glow" and general noise, attributed to the design etc. Readout noise of the D70s is more than twice that of a Canon 20D and newer DSLRs are much much lower than the 20D! The QHY 8 camera cools this D70 sensor so noise is much lower and design has achieved lower noise.

So, over all, the D70 is not bad, particularly wrt to sensor pixel size it just lacks appropriate tethering software like backyard Nikon and is a little noisy. It is well worth a look at. In fact I'd love this sensor in a more modern camera...already doing that!

chuckywiz (Ben) · #5 02-05-2015, 10:04 AM

I use digicamcontrol for my nikon. Is awesome free package. Also use intervalometer for over 30sec exposures

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #6 02-05-2015, 10:37 AM

Hi Ben...does it have the ability to magnify the captured image...aka for focusing?

edit:
trying now...its a bit buggy. Might be to do wit hit being a beta release but it's slow and laggy. Difficult to get iso or shutter speed to change and some popup boxes flicker small/large. Frustrating atm.

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #7 02-05-2015, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuckywiz

I use digicamcontrol for my nikon. Is awesome free package. Also use intervalometer for over 30sec exposures

Ben, many thanks..... I've got it (digicamcontrol) working on my lappy (beta ver). It was all over the place on my mainframe, crashing and some option boxes not displaying correctly.

Anyway, when using "astronomy tab (plan editor)" I can input a series of shots/iso etc but when I start the sequence it counts them down and comes up with "bulb mode not supported", and takes no images. Indeed need bulb mode for this and the camera cannot support bulb mode thru this USB, that I know of. The support matrix tells me this as well.

I'm guessing I need an external shutter as the USB is cable in use running this tethered software? I can see a box for "external shutter release" (with some empty settings as i have none connected or configured) and I'm guessing I need something like another USB port connected to a serial/TTL out to the camera MC-DC1 shutter remote port, something like this or this to send external shutter control signals?

The links given indicate that this is required, clunky I know but from what I could tell this is the only way to tether and run this camera given it's firmware/hardware constraints.

Any advice appreciated.

chuckywiz (Ben) · #8 02-05-2015, 10:14 PM

ok not sure if your camera is similar to mine or not but here goes.

i connect my camera to laptop via USB and startup digicamcontrol. From there you go into astronomy tab and live view and it shows some cross hairs. If you centre your star there it appears also in the blown up version over to the right. The blown up version also has the focus numbers for the size of the star so you can get your star focused to the lowest number.

Next i close out of that and and open up normal live view to do my aligning. you can put a diagonal cross hair on the screen to asist getting the star centred.

Make sure you have your exposure set less than 30 seconds whilst setting up in live view other wise it gets all upset at you.

ive also bought this http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Time-laps...item258ea703e0

which connects into a port next to the usb tether so i can take longer than 30 second exposures. you need to close live view down then change it to bulb mode for the intervalometer to work. the pictures then dump directly onto your computer for you to view.

Ben

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #9 03-05-2015, 09:54 AM

Ahh..many thanks.

From what I can see, my D70s, like yours has issue with bulb mode via USB control, thus you need the external shutter control. You are doing this with the intervalometer. However, this can be done by using a USB/serial converter (plugged into another of your laptop's USB ports and running appropriate USB/serial driver software) and connecting this to run the as the intervalometer (by configuring the USB port software as a serial out com port). This involves some electronics to ensure the signal is TTL level. The links I posted above show this.

Basically they get one of the cheap external shutter controls and pull it apart for the plug to wire to this USB/serial port, this then becomes tour intervalometer. You can configure which com port used in digicam control or any other control software like Sequence generator pro and maybe even Backyard Nikon (BYN) (even if your camera is not listed in the BYN matrix) then to be this intervalometer. The USB/serial intervalometer cable...just like this, but not this one due to it's price. Can be made from fleaby parts ~ $15.

Your camera has some live-view control, mine has none, which makes it more difficult but not impossible. What I need to do is to take a series of shots, refocus between them and inspect them as I go by enlarging the image. Digicamcontrol can do this.

Yes there is still an issue with live-view exposure control under 30sec, I think this is to do with something like it cannot run bulb control via USB this is why they say for liveview focus expose less than 30s.

Many thanks. I was going to contact Guyroch, of BYEOS and BYN and ask how come some Nikon DSLRs are not listed as supported in BYN camera matrix when clearly other software is capable of controlling them via USB.... along with an external intervalometer or USB/serial intervalometer.

I think he basically has already basically stated this but decided not to pursue this approach due to the need for the extra intervalometer...not really sure as he even has plans for USB/serial intervalometer on his site.

edit:
of course you can use one of these on the hot shoe and run as an intervalometer from a iphone/ipad etc.

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #10 03-05-2015, 06:47 PM

Ok ordered parts to build this USB/RS232 serial shutter control via COM port. Thus I can connect and run the camera using any tether software and control the shutter via the USB/RS232 COM port, I can use software like DSLR shutter, Sequence Generator pro, possibly BYNIK etc etc.

Costs of parts....~ $25 all up. Although instead of buying a MC-DC1 remote shutter controller for the D70s I purchased a std 3.5mm to MC-DC1 cable. The reason is that I already have a intervalometer that uses the 3.5mm plug...so I can use this as the intervalometer shutter release...or the USB/Serial COM port...."swappability"...if thats a word!