Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

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Larry-Pollock
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Joined: 23.10.2013 19:02

Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

Post by Larry-Pollock »

Hi
I had this issue going on with 3.4.0. Thought .7 might fix it. Still the same.

On Mac, latest OSX. I can turn on the blue focus and set point A then move to point B with the arrows and set B. I then click to Start Shooting and the lens is moved back to point A and the shooting sequence begins. But the lens is no longer responding and all images are taken at point A.

I have tried changing the lens from AF to MF but no change. Canon Firmware up to date. Happens on my 24-105mm f/4, 100mm f/2.8 macro, 180mm f/2.8 macro. I have tried setting the first focus point with the AF tool then manually scroll to point B and set it.

I have shot with the Blue focus on and off.

I use to be able to shoot at will in 2013 by simply setting Point A , then Point B and shooting. All worked fine for over 1000 jewelry items.

Any thoughts? Ideas?
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Stas Yatsenko
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Re: Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

Disable image review (set Review time to Off) in the camera body settings.
Larry-Pollock
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Re: Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

Post by Larry-Pollock »

Nope, not working. I can still use the Focus stack settings buttons to move the focus to set A an B points but once I start the shoot the lens does nothing. No change of focus point.

Really need this next week. :-0
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Stas Yatsenko
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Re: Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

Then there must be another option that can cause this problem. Try resetting the camera body settings.
Larry-Pollock
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Joined: 23.10.2013 19:02

Re: Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

Post by Larry-Pollock »

Sorry, no joy. I reset the 5D MIII.

Now I have other strange behavior. I have restarted the Macbook Pro, I restarted Remote several times.

I have tried several lenses. The 24-105mm f/4 and the 100mm f/2.8 macro.

I can turn on the focus indicator (blue) and move to "A" and set it, then using the small buttons, move to "B" and set that. I turn off the focus indicator and click Start Shooting. Remote use to then move back to point "A" and begin the shoot. I could see the focus move between easy shot as it moved toward point "B". Then, once all shots where done, Remote would move back to Point "A" (could see that in Live View).

Now Remote, at the end of the static shoot (calling it that since the focus does not move during the shooting of a stack) moves off into some blurry place and out of focus.

I am going to download the app again and re-install and see if that helps.

I have also tried to use the Focus Button to no avail. Also turned the lens focus button from manual to auto focus and done all aspects of shooting then back again and try again.

Checked cable connections too.

At a loss.
Larry-Pollock
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Joined: 23.10.2013 19:02

Re: Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

Post by Larry-Pollock »

Reloaded a new download of Remote.

Now I set the starting and ending points and when I click Start Shooting Remote moves the focus back to "A" (I was at "B" after setting it) then starts the shoot. But still no movement during the shoot.

I reset Remote back to the original setting using the reset button. Only changed the Image Preview to off.

I tried shooting with Auto DOF, Infinity and To Camera.

Still no stack.
Larry-Pollock
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Re: Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

Post by Larry-Pollock »

Remote loses it's location in the stack since the focus point does not move during the live stack shoot. When I quit shooting manually or finish shooting the set Remote moves back to "B" but it is no longer the "B" I selected due the lose of where Remote is.
Larry-Pollock
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Re: Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

Post by Larry-Pollock »

Also note that I trashed the Helicon Preferences in the Library on my Macbook Pro.

All software, OSX, etc are up to date.
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Stas Yatsenko
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Re: Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

Disable image review in the camera body again, it has probably activated after you've reset the body settings.
Larry-Pollock
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Re: Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

Post by Larry-Pollock »

That's the first thing I did. We will have a second 5D MIII body in the studio today. I test with it and see if I get the same issue or not.

I am manually shooting stacks today with the EOS Remote Utility.
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Stas Yatsenko
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Re: Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

I don't know what else to try. We've had similar reports previously, but disabling review has always fixed it.
Larry-Pollock
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Re: Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

Post by Larry-Pollock »

Did a test today with a second Canon 5D MIII. Same issue. Can move lens with arrows in app but won't move lens during shoot.
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Stas Yatsenko
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Re: Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

Check live view AF mode (possibly, it's only accessible while LV is active). Make sure continous AF, servo, face detection are all disabled. Try both live mode and quick mode, but I think the live mode is what you need.
Larry-Pollock
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Re: Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

Post by Larry-Pollock »

Thanks for the help. I will give that a test over the weekend. I'm sure it's just one thing that is not set right.
SimonJASimpson
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Re: Canon 5D MIII and Remote 3.4.7 Not Creating Stack

Post by SimonJASimpson »

I have experienced the same problem and solved it as below. I hope this helps you Larry.

When Helicon Remote is taking a series of shots, after each shot is fired, the camera will attempt to display the picture on the back of the camera according to the ‘Image Review’ preferences set in the camera’s menu. In my case I had changed the time for the image review from 2 seconds to 8 seconds. What was happening was that the camera was still attempting to display the picture when Helicon told the camera it was ready to fire, so it fired the shutter but had not refocused at the new position (or it had told the camera to refocus but the camera was busy trying to display the previous shot and ignored it).

You can change the time between shots in the Preferences > Shooting > Canon > ‘Pause between focusing steps’ but in my case this wasn’t sufficiently long to allow the camera to refocus for an 8 second ‘Image Review’, but was long enough for a 2 second review.

Thus Helicon Remote worked perfectly satisfactorily until I changed the image review time. It is now back at 2 seconds and all is well. Or even better turn 'Image Review' off when using Helicon Remote.

Perhaps unrelated, but you might also like to check that there is no other software trying to control the camera. In my case I had Canon's EOS Remote Utility opening automatically on connecting the camera to my MacBook Pro as well as a spurious copy of Helicon Remote. In the latter case I moved it the trash, in the former I went to Apple's ‘Image Capture’ and set the “Connecting this camera opens:” to Helicon Remote (at bottom left hand corner of the Image Capture window).
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