The best way to shot and download pictures to computer

[jancoj]

I have two Canon A810 cameras. I have managed using CHDK remote triggering on them. I would like to know simple way how to download pictures to computer without removing SD cards. It might be immediately after taking pictures or just when scanning is finished. What is the best solution? Appreciate any ideas. I will be using computer with Windows running on that. Thank you.

[dtic]

Check out chdkptp
https://www.assembla.com/spaces/chdkptp/wiki

[jera2]

If you're using chdkptp, here are a few examples to help you; I find the documentation for chdkptp sort of scattered.

First, connect your cameras to your computer and find their IDs:

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chdkptp -elist

Next, using the unique parts of each camera's IDs, you can download all the pictures on the camera at once:

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chdkptp -e"connect ID-CAMERA" -e"mdownload -fmatch=.*JPG -rmatch=.* DCIM YOUR-LOCAL-DIRECTORY"

Replace ID-CAMERA with the IDs of your two cameras, respectively (and it can be just the unique part; it doesn't have to be the whole thing),
and replace YOUR-LOCAL-DIRECTORY with the directory on your computer where it should store the images. This example just downloads the JPEGs. If you are using RAW, you'll have to modify.

Lastly, if you want to delete the photos after downloading, use this:

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chdkptp -e"connect ID-CAMERA" -e"delete -fmatch=.*JPG -rmatch=.* DCIM"

Note that this will also remove the DCIM directory on the camera (but your camera will recreate it when the next shot is taken).

I use chdkptp on LInux, and I built my own binary with GUI support since I didn't feel I need the GUI anyhow, and it was a bit of a bear to find all the pieces necessary to make it build.

[dtic]

chdkptp can also capture images directly to your PC for cameras with filewrite support, which A810 has. The command looks like this

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chdkptp -c"-p=0x22d1" -e"rs 'C:\scan' -jpg"

where 0x22d1 is replaced by the p value for your camera, which you find with

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chdkptp -elist

[vitorio]

I have two Canon A810 cameras. I have managed using CHDK remote triggering on them. I would like to know simple way how to download pictures to computer without removing SD cards.

If you're using CHDK's USB-based remote triggering, you also have to turn that off before USB-based downloading will work. They're mutually exclusive. This is the case whether you're using a CHDK/PTP-based download, or using whatever your OS provides for camera downloading.

[jancoj]

Thank you for all your replays. It gave me a bit more light to that. I am totally new to this topic. Where should I write all those commands which you have written? Sorry if this question is too stupid...I will try.

To victorio> What does it mean to turn the CHDK off? I guess it is starting always when I switch my camera on.

Is it better to use Linux on my computer? Does it have better abilities for picture downloading? Many thanks.

[dtic]

There are two ways to trigger CHDK to take photos.

One is by making a custom usb remote as described here http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/USB_Remote . There is a setting to enable that in the CHDK menu on the camera, see the section "Enabling USB Remote operation" on that link.

The other way by connecting the camera to a PC over usb and use software on the PC like chdkptp to take photos by sending command line commands or pressing buttons in the chdkptp gui. For that to work you need to disable "Enable remote" in the CHDK menu mentioned above.

To try out chdkptp for the first time do these steps.
1. Download chdkptp to your PC and unzip it.
2. Put a SD card formatted for CHDK and with the right version of CHDK for your camera on it in your camera. See CHDK site for details on this.
3. Start the camera.
4. Press the play button on the camera. You'll see "alt" on the camera screen.
5. Press "menu" on the camera and navigate the the "Enable remote" setting and disable it if it isn't already.
6. Turn off the camera.
edit: 6B. install the libSUSB driver for your camera. Scroll down to "LibUSB Driver for Windows" here http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/PTP_Extension and follow the guide there.
7. Connect the camera to your PC with a USB cable and turn on the camera.
8. Doubleclick chdkptp.exe and click "connect" in the GUI and wait until it says the camera is connected.
9. You can now control the camera from your PC. Take pictures, zoom, download pictures, and so on.

The commands available in the chdkptp GUI can also be sent from the command line in Windows. See the file USAGE.TXT in the chdkptp folder for details.

[jancoj]

dtic,
Thank you for really nice tutorial. I have managed to connect my camera through chdkptp and I could control camera from my computer. Is it possible to connect both cameras at the same time? I am a bit confused about using chdkptp GUI and camera filewrite support . Could you send a brief tutorial please?

[dtic]

jancoj, I don't think you can control two cameras at the same time with the chdkptp GUI. But you can over command line. First make a copy of the whole chdkptp folder. Then the two chdkptp.exe copies can control one camera each. See the second and third post above for code examples. Once you have the commands you need you can speed things up by making a script in some scripting language that helps you send those commands when you press a hotkey or click a shortcut or you could even make a small GUI frontend. Here is a simple example for the autohotkey language that uses the space button as hotkey to shoot with both cameras and save the photos to the computer. It presupposes that you have already sent all set up commands for the cameras (put them in rec mode, zoom in, and so on). The p values must be changed to match that of your cameras.

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Space::
run, C:\chdkptp\chdkptp.exe -c"-p=0x22d1" -e"rs 'C:\scanR' -jpg"
run, C:\chdkptp2\chdkptp.exe -c"-p=0x46a3" -e"rs 'C:\scanL' -jpg"
return

[jancoj]

Thank you for your advice. I will try to run a script.