Gphoto2 Anyone?

[plupp]

I am thinking of carrying my pandora as my companion to my EOS 5D Mark II using gphoto2 on the pandora (gphoto.sourceforge.net).

But I am unsure as whether or not it is possible to control the camera using the pandora.

... So ... Craig or anyone else with a dev-board...

has the pandora been confirmed to be able to work (for remote shooting) with a camera teathered using the USB connector on the pandora?

The pandora would be nearly ideal in this capacity. USB2 port, small size, long-ish battery life (I hear the battery life is severely shortened when using the USB connector even if the connected unit does not draw much current). The pandora can easily fit in a camera bag and still provide the same features as a much larger laptop.

I think many professional photographers may find the pandora a very good tool if we can get a full featured gphoto to work on it.

If I could dream I would like some bencmarking with the pandora running from a battery connected to a camera in both shoot to memory mode and download mode to see if it is possible, how long the battery would last and how much latency the pandora would have when in download mode.

I realize this is a long-shot but perhaps there is a photographer with a dev-board out there somewhere?

 

[mafia-man]

Ah this is something I'd like to see too... and for the same camera

 

[rabidpoobear]

I am thinking of carrying my pandora as my companion to my EOS 5D Mark II using gphoto2 on the pandora (gphoto.sourceforge.net).

Nice camera. /green

But I am unsure as whether or not it is possible to control the camera using the pandora.

has the pandora been confirmed to be able to work (for remote shooting) with a camera teathered using the USB connector on the pandora?

Why wouldn't it work? Honestly I can't think of any possible reason it wouldn't. Can you?

The pandora would be nearly ideal in this capacity. USB2 port, small size, long-ish battery life (I hear the battery life is severely shortened when using the USB connector even if the connected unit does not draw much current).

What?! where did you hear that? I think you've been misinformed. Other than the (probably extremely small) amount of current drawn from the USB controller (which is probably drawn constantly anyway whether or not devices are connected), the only thing that will drain your battery is... well, draining your battery. Batteries store current, so more current out = more current used, obviously.
It sounds like the USB connection is largely for data (since the Canon has its own battery), so long as you can set the camera not to try to charge from USB, so it sounds to me like it will use an almost imperceptible amount of power. The LCD on the Pandora will probably be a bigger drain than the USB connection (if it's data only.) The big USB drain devices they've been talking about mostly have been hard drives, which actually use the USB as a power source, not just for data.
Unless you've heard something I haven't.
Which I'm happy to admit (with relevant links, of course )

The pandora can easily fit in a camera bag and still provide the same features as a much larger laptop.
I think many professional photographers may find the pandora a very good tool if we can get a full featured gphoto to work on it.

If I could dream I would like some bencmarking with the pandora running from a battery connected to a camera in both shoot to memory mode and download mode to see if it is possible, how long the battery would last and how much latency the pandora would have when in download mode.

This doesn't sound like a CPU-bound operation and will most likely be bottlenecked by the USB bandwidth moreso than the CPU. I'm guessing it will run as well as it does on your laptop, unless you use up all the RAM. This is the biggest thing you'll have to be aware of, most likely, with large picture sizes.

tl;dr:
This is all IMHO. I'm an amateur photographer/ hardware enthusiast and a professional programmer, so I could be way off on this, it's just speculation.
I've never used gphoto and I only vaguely understand what it's for (mostly for instant remote control of your camera, right?)

Are you one of the first orderers? I'm not one of the devs but I do have one of the first ~2000, possibly first 1000, Pandoras.
If you are waiting for Second Batch and your order is based on gphoto working, I'd be happy to test this for you. Just send me a reminder PM when the Pandora ships and I'll prioritize the gphoto test as it seems to have some interest.
I don't have a DSLR but I can probably get access to one just for a few tests, and I have a P&S that I can test the picture grabbing latency for you on, at least on my camera model.

 

[javaJake]

I've never used gphoto and I only vaguely understand what it's for (mostly for instant remote control of your camera, right?)

gphoto provides command-line access to the camera's photo storage, so it's kinda like remote control, except not.

Edit: Downloading photos off a camera is much more convenient (especially on a small device with a small keyboard like the Pandora) if you use something like F-Spot, which provides the same functionality and more.

 

[Pleng]

The pandora would be nearly ideal in this capacity. USB2 port, small size, long-ish battery life (I hear the battery life is severely shortened when using the USB connector even if the connected unit does not draw much current).

What?! where did you hear that? I think you've been misinformed. Other than the (probably extremely small) amount of current drawn from the USB controller (which is probably drawn constantly anyway

It has been stated elsewhere that even plugging a USB keyboard and mouse can pretty much half the battery life of the Pandora. The reason that the battery can last so long is not that it's a mahusive battery, it's that the OP team carefully selected components that are extremely energy efficient.

 

[kloplop321]

That, and you would be wasting both the batteries.. If you were recording, then if it is not a normal cam(which almost all now have video ability) it wouldn't be worth it.

 

[lulzfish]

Well, the keyboards and mice used in desktops power themselves from the USB port, and they're usually made for low cost, not for efficiency.

A camera, by contrast, will have its own battery pack and so shouldn't need any power from the USB port, other than to send data around.

 

[plupp]

Seems like people have vastly different views on this matter....


some say that it does not affect battery life, others say that it does....


This is why it would be SO great if one of the people with devboards did some tests.

As for the people commenting on the useful-ness of gphoto....

According to me, it is the best remoting software out there. It allows nearly any setting to be made from the command line.

I can set up a time-lapse sequence in just a few moments and get a high megapixel time lapse sequence with no hassle at all.
It really is as easy as pie.

As for movie sequences, ghpoto and other similar tools is the best way to do this. The movie feature of most cameras is limited to 2k resolution at most and otherwise limited for things such as time-lapse work. But it is a rather specialized usage scenario, something that the pandora may be really good at...

We just need someone with a devboard to test it out for us and tell how it affects the battery and if the pandora is fast enough to handle the work.

 

[gruso]

Detailed battery life info here: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/48259-so-what-is-the-pandora-battery-life/page__p__733993&#entry733993

Browse the entire thread, and read all MWeston's posts. I think some of his figures have been misread along the way, and made to sound more dramatic than they are. But he also points out that there is a reason not many portable devices have USB host ports... all that power doesn't come free! I think given the battery life of Pandora, even with a significant power drain on the USB port it's still going to outlast your average laptop.

 

[eregee]

So, has anyone tried gphoto2 on pandora yet?