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D800 support?

Posted: 23.03.2012 02:01
by Bernard Languillier
Hi there,

Although I have owned a licence of Helicon focus for a few years I had somehow overlooked remote.

It seems about perfect for a given application I have in mind. I was wondering when you were planning to offer support for the Nikon D800?

Thanks.

Cheers,
Bernard

Re: D800 support?

Posted: 26.03.2012 10:48
by Stas Yatsenko
Helicon Remote was added only about a year ago. We definitely plan to add D800. We are waiting for Nikon SDK to get information about its software interface.

Re: D800 support?

Posted: 29.03.2012 20:52
by Tom S
Hi,

I have a D800 and would love to have your software work with it.
Please let me know if I can do anything to help test, other than send you my D800 : ).


-Tom

Re: D800 support?

Posted: 30.03.2012 20:05
by maladat
Hello,
I have a D800 and tried to use it with Remote today. It actually seems like things were mostly working. The ISO selection had the available ISOs a little mixed up which isn't a big deal.

The one big issue is that liveview doesn't seem to be working at all. Previews work and it will increment focus and take pictures, but it takes a while to get everything set with no live view.

Re: D800 support?

Posted: 31.03.2012 01:49
by maladat
Hi. I have a D800 and tried it with Remote today.

The focus stepping and picture taking parts appear functional as well as the camera settings. However, nothing is showing up for liveview (although previews work) and the available ISO list is a little messed up - it has HI and LO settings in the middle of numbered ISOs and numbered ISOs listed outside the normal range.

Re: D800 support?

Posted: 02.04.2012 10:58
by Stas Yatsenko
Thanks for feedback. We plan to get D800 ourself soon so we are not sure it will help till Nikon publishes documentation (SDK) to altered interface. If we have bright idea for the LiveView, we will ask you to beta test it then.

Re: D800 support?

Posted: 02.04.2012 23:28
by maladat
Thanks!

Sorry for the double post, I wasn't paying attention and missed that posts need to be approved. I went back and didn't see my first post so I posted again.

Re: D800 support?

Posted: 12.05.2012 09:23
by Guest
waiting for D800 support

Re: D800 support?

Posted: 12.05.2012 09:46
by iporteous
I tried the D800 today and found it would give me an error if the SD card was not in place. If the SD card was not in, it would not show me a preview and nothing else worked. With a CF card and SD card in place I found the preview and everything else worked fine. I have not checked all the functions but so far so good. Android ICS (4.0) Acer 500

Re: D800 support?

Posted: 14.05.2012 10:51
by Stas Yatsenko
Thank you for the report, the problem is currently being fixed and the next version will be free of this error. Until then please keep a flash card inserted to avoid problems.

Re: D800 support?

Posted: 19.07.2012 15:16
by Guest
the day when D800 liveview support will be added to Helicon Remote ,

will we be able to display the live view signal in full frame?

for example, could this be used as an 'lcd field monitor' with an android tablet such as Nexus 7 for example when filming video with the D800 ?

is the image resolution will be good enough for precise focusing?

if that is yes, then that will be really amazing and i will be HIGHLY interested to get it.

Because for the price of a nexus 7 tablet, you get an android tablet and an excellent quality lcd view monitor all in one and that for about $200

(a real good lcd field monitor for filming is at least $300-400 and more, and it is just a dumb lcd monitor with no other features ...)

looking forward to hear about Helicon Remote future...

or maybe other suggestions?

Re: D800 support?

Posted: 22.07.2012 21:46
by Stas Yatsenko
Nikon D800 is fully supported now and we use it for tests regularly now.

To our regrets, Nikon D800 has the same Live View resolution as older cameras - only 480px wide.

And it seems there is now way to get better image, only to make preview shots.

If you decide to purchase Android tablet, please make sure it has USB host support and Android 3.1 or higher.

As to remote Live View, you can connect your camera with HDMI cable to any HDMI capable compact player and you will get Live View image with 1080i quality.

Re: D800 support?

Posted: 24.07.2012 02:36
by harklee
Hi, I am a landscape photographer and I would like to automate my work process via Helicon Remote.

(1) Shooting Speed

I usually put the camera (D800E) in Av mode and run 3-5 image exposure bracketing with 2-4 different
focus settings (for stacking purpose). For this camera, I have to use the continuous-high-speed drive mode
and live-view for best results. When I fire a set of exposures, the camera shoots them rapidly and there
is about a few seconds of delay until the camera finishes saving the shots and gets ready for the next
set.

When I shoot in RAW only with Sandisk Extreme SDXC (45MB/S), it takes me a little less than 5 secs for
3-shot braketing, and a tad more than 7 secs for a 5-shot sequence, which gives me about 1.5 secs / shot.

But when I use Helicon Remote to automate this, it takes about 4.5 secs / shot, which is extremely slow.
And I'm not even saving any jpgs into my computer, just RAW files into the camera. So I was wondering if
it is possible to speed this up. When shooting rapidely changing scenes, such as waves in seascapes,
speed is critical.

(2) Braketing in Av

One more concern is that the exposure bracketing is only available in manual mode, whereas I prefer to
shoot in Av (typically 3 shot braketing (+-2EV), with exposure compensation).

(3) Histograms

I may be mssing something, but why is it that the remote only allows exposure braketing in manual mode
and doesn't offer any information about how well exposured your shots are. I wish there were some
features to check the histograms, it doesn't have to be live. The blown-out highlight feature is great, but
it's not enough to know the correct exposure, I end up switching between the Av and manual modes to
find out the right shutterspeed.

I am immensely enjoying your product and I think it's a great asset to all photographers, hope these
improvements are made in the near future. Thank you.

Re: D800 support?

Posted: 24.07.2012 13:09
by elegil
hello

i just bought a D800E
i already used helicon remote with a 5100 and it worked fine even if the resolution was cheap. But with the D800E, the live view give me just a black screen
is there something i forget to do ?

thanks :)

Re: D800 support?

Posted: 25.07.2012 14:24
by Stas Yatsenko
We are preparing new version of Helicon Remote and many bugs with D800 were fixed. Though we have never seen black Live View image so this might not be fixed.

harklee, thanks for your comments. The camera in remote mode is much more slower than it is normally. We just tested, it is possible to trigger continues shooting and exposure bracketing. So we will try to add this in the future versions.

Histogram - will be added soon.