In my day-to-day routine I often find myself having to do extensive photographic documentation of objects or locations, only there is often someone waiting to turn off the lights, or move objects, or any myriad of possible interruptions. This is one reason why using a camera tethered to a laptop can be a pain. The computer is a burden to travel with, takes five minutes to boot, the batteries run low, the ten minutes you had to get the job done just became five… It occurred to me that if I could somehow tether a DSLR to an instant-on device like an Arduino microcontroller I would have less weight to carry around and could get more work done. After mentally spec’ing out what I would need, I realized the solution was right in front of me – because I bring it with me for Mario Kart wireless races on long night jobs – (In the manner of John Lasseter’s slow epiphany voice): “Use-the-Nintendo-D-S.” Duh.
God bless devkitPro for providing an ARM9 c++ programming environment. Hooking the camera to the Gameboy cartridge slot took some figuring, but in the end it essentially involves strobing a pin connected through an optical isolation circuit to the camera’s cable release port. This method sacrifices the aperture control that using the Canon SDK allows when tethered to a laptop, however aperture is always the setting that never changes when taking HDR’s.
A funny cool thing happens once the camera is controlled by what is essentially a instant-on computer. Where the Canon 5D can do a bracket of three shots, spread two stops apart, and the latest 1DS MKIII series can do a nine shot bracket, the “DS-DSLR” can do any number of shots, and if I don’t like the way it does it, I can rewrite the software to do it better.
The DS can run in bulb-mode as well, so I can do automated exposures of several minutes beyond the thirty second limit of tethered laptop software, as well as allow for sensor cooling between bursts. This will come in handy when the Astrotrac I ordered from Richard Taylor at the P.A.T.S. show last week finally arrives from the U.K.
It also acts as a very precise intervalometer, which as Amazon kindly points out is a $120 value. But beyond just spacing out shots the timer can be set to run the bracketed exposure range at every timer interval instead.
The fun begins when you start to harness the play value of the DS in conjunction with the DSLR. This audio-based camera trigger function, for example, was trivial to add in, because of the DS’ built in microphone. One such device I found on the web sells for $350. As you can see I need to add a few niceties to this function, like the shot duration and an option for delaying the shot after the sound is recognized. I’m still in beta.
So here is the “first light” from the DS controlled camera. It was meant to be the start of a wide panorama, but when I finally noticed the tagger graffiti all around me, and the cars slowing to see what I was doing, I kinda got spooked and high-tailed it. This was a 16 shot range that was meant to expose for the full moon rising in the last frame of the pano.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:35 am
[...] DS homebrew here: when photographer Steve was searching for a less bulky [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 10:01 am
[...] hacking tech engadget gadgets ele. Really nice piece of DS homebrew here: when photographer Steve was searching for a less bulky alternative to tethering his Canon 5D to his laptop for remote [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 10:09 am
[...] has got to be one of the weirder hardware hacks in recent memory – Steve from Panocamera.com managed to build a custom interface from his Canon DSLR that is viewed by the [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 10:19 am
[...] has got to be one of the weirder hardware hacks in recent memory – Steve from Panocamera.com managed to build a custom interface from his Canon DSLR that is viewed by the [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 10:20 am
[...] has got to be one of the weirder hardware hacks in recent memory – Steve from Panocamera.com managed to build a custom interface from his Canon DSLR that is viewed by the [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 10:29 am
[...] has got to be one of the weirder hardware hacks in recent memory – Steve from Panocamera.com managed to build a custom interface from his Canon DSLR that is viewed over the [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Hey, dude. You really should put up some contact information if you want people to contact you. Just saying :p
Anyway, I would totally buy one of these, and would recommend it to all of my friends. It would give me a great excuse to buy a DS too
September 17th, 2008 at 10:38 am
[...] has got to be one of the weirder hardware hacks in recent memory – Steve from Panocamera.com managed to build a custom interface from his Canon DSLR that is viewed by the [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 11:24 am
[...] Awesome use of the DS by Steve who was looking for an alternative to lugging around his laptop to trigger his 5D. The camera uses a special to connect through the GBA card slot on the DS to control bracketing, custom interval shots, timed long exposures and even can use the built in mike to activate noise shutter release. You can read more about the story here. [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 11:26 am
[...] has got to be one of the weirder hardware hacks in recent memory – Steve from Panocamera.com managed to build a custom interface from his Canon DSLR that is viewed by the [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 11:52 am
I didn’t realize….
You can reach me at Steve@panocamera.com
September 17th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
[...] has got to be one of the weirder hardware hacks in recent memory – Steve from Panocamera.com managed to build a custom interface from his Canon DSLR that is viewed over the [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
[...] this is a pretty cool setup right here. A professional photographer was sick of lugging his laptop around to photo shoots, so he rigged up [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
[...] has got to be one of the weirder hardware hacks in recent memory – Steve from Panocamera.com managed to build a custom interface from his Canon DSLR that is viewed by the [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
[...] nice piece of DS homebrew here: when photographer Steve was searching for a less bulky alternative to tethering his Canon 5D to his laptop for remote [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
[...] Using a custom built cable connected to the lower GBA slot and a copy of Canon’s SDK, [Steve Chapman] has come up with a very clever way of taking pictures remotely with a Nintendo DS Lite. [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
[...] around a laptop to tether to your DSLR camera? Well [Steve Chapman] definitely hates it, so he did something about it. Using devkitPro, he was able to connect the camera through the GameBoy cartridge slot and control [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
[...] » Blog Archive » At last, my greatest invention is etc. etc. "It occurred to me that if I could somehow tether a DSLR to an instant-on device like an Arduino microcontroller I would have less weight to carry around and could get more work done. After mentally spec’ing out what I would need, I realized the solution was right in front of me – because I bring it with me for Mario Kart wireless races on long night jobs – (In the manner of John Lasseter’s slow epiphany voice): “Use-the-Nintendo-D-S.” Duh." Oh wow. (tags: nintendods camera remotecontrol canon intervalometer ds homebrew ) [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
[...] has got to be one of the weirder hardware hacks in recent memory – Steve from Panocamera.com managed to build a custom interface from his Canon DSLR that is viewed by the [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
[...] AT LAST, MY GREATEST INVENTION IS ETC. ETC. [Panocamera.com] (Thanks, McQueen!) [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
[...] has got to be one of the weirder hardware hacks in recent memory – Steve from Panocamera.com managed to build a custom interface from his Canon DSLR that is viewed over the [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
[...] at Panocamera has modded his DS to work with his Canon DSLR camera. It seems to be the perfect combination for portability and flexibility. … It occurred to me [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
[...] nice piece of DS homebrew here: when photographer Steve was searching for a less bulky alternative to tethering his Canon 5D to his laptop for remote [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
[...] nice piece of DS homebrew here: when photographer Steve was searching for a less bulky alternative to tethering his Canon 5D to his laptop for remote [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 5:26 am
[...] the inventor’s blog here. posted by sen at 10:26 pm [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 6:11 am
[...] Steves DS-Kamera-Controller [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 6:54 am
[...] was a pretty interesting hack. Links: http://gizmodo.com/5051117/homebrew-…non-eos-remote http://panocamera.com/blog/?p=26 __________________ Florida G35 Club General [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:20 am
[...] uninterested in using their innate DIY skills to make it happen, drop ole Steve an e-mail.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:20 am
[...] uninterested in using their innate DIY skills to make it happen, drop ole Steve an e-mail.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:21 am
[...] uninterested in using their innate DIY skills to make it happen, drop ole Steve an e-mail.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:21 am
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:22 am
[...] uninterested in using their innate DIY skills to make it happen, drop ole Steve an e-mail.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:23 am
[...] uninterested in using their innate DIY skills to make it happen, drop ole Steve an e-mail.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:24 am
[...] uninterested in using their innate DIY skills to make it happen, drop ole Steve an e-mail.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:26 am
[...] uninterested in using their innate DIY skills to make it happen, drop ole Steve an e-mail.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:30 am
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:32 am
[...] uninterested in using their innate DIY skills to make it happen, drop ole Steve an e-mail.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:35 am
[...] uninterested in using their innate DIY skills to make it happen, drop ole Steve an e-mail.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:36 am
[...] uninterested in using their innate DIY skills to make it happen, drop ole Steve an e-mail.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:40 am
[...] uninterested in using their innate DIY skills to make it happen, drop ole Steve an e-mail.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 8:15 am
[...] DS-DSLR – es ist immer erstaunlich, wofür ein DS gut ist Posted 18.09.2008 Filed under: Nintendo DS | Das wirklich coole an Homebrewsoftware ist, dass sie Dinge ermöglicht, an die sonst keiner gedacht hätte. Es ist logisch, dass man mit Handhelds spielen kann. An andere Dinge denkt man normalerweise nicht – wer würde schon seine digitale Spiegelreflexkamera mit einem Nintendo DS steuern wollen? [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 8:20 am
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 8:57 am
[...] The full article can be found here. [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 9:14 am
[...] Panocamera [via Reddit] [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 9:16 am
[...] hacker and photographer, Steve Chapman, has worked out a way to use his Nintendo DS as a wired remote control for his Canon DSLR. Sure, there are remotes that you can buy for most DSLRs, but bulb mode, in most [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 9:29 am
[...] http://panocamera.com/blog/?p=26 In my day-to-day routine I often find myself having to do extensive photographic documentation of objects or locations, only there is often someone waiting to turn off the lights, or move objects, or any myriad of possible interruptions. This is one reason why using a camera tethered to a laptop can be a pain. The computer is a burden to travel with, takes five minutes to boot, the batteries run low, the ten minutes you had to get the job done just became five… It occurred to me that if I could somehow tether a DSLR to an instant-on device like an Arduino microcontroller I would have less weight to carry around and could get more work done. After mentally spec’ing out what I would need, I realized the solution was right in front of me – because I bring it with me for Mario Kart wireless races on long night jobs – (In the manner of John Lasseter’s slow epiphany voice): “Use-the-Nintendo-D-S.” Duh. [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 9:58 am
[...] Read a2a_linkname=”Nintendo DS hacked to control DSLR shooting”;a2a_linkurl=”http://www.frenzytech.info/2008/09/18/nintendo-ds-hacked-to-control-dslr-shooting/”; This entry was posted on Thursday, September 18th, 2008 at 2:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 10:23 am
[...] För att göra en potentiellt lång post kort, får ni här en länk till Steves blogg, där han förklarar allt man kan göra med “Steve’s DSLR Control”, samt information om vad den kostar om man vill köpa en av honom. Klick klack, Kodak! [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
[...] Nikon y Canon por unos 100 dólares (69 euros al cambio).[Artículo en inglés]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments Puedes seguir lo que se comenta [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
[...] Nikon y Canon por unos 100 dólares (69 euros al cambio).[Artículo en inglés]Read | Permalink | Email [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
[...] Nikon y Canon por unos 100 dólares (69 euros al cambio).[Artículo en inglés]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments This was written by Alberto [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
[...] Nikon y Canon por unos 100 dólares (69 euros al cambio).[Artículo en inglés]Read | Permalink | Email [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
[...] Nikon y Canon por unos 100 dólares (69 euros al cambio).[Artículo en inglés]Read | Permalink | Email [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
[...] At last, my greatest invention is etc. etc. [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
[...] be put off if you’re a beginner, either — we have guides and a glossary for the newest of newbs.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
[...] Pues no cabe duda que la necesidad es la madre de todos los inventos y ¿por que no? de los hackeos…. Steve Chapman, Fotógrafo, cansado de llevar su laptop a todos lados para usarla como controlador remoto de su Canon, se dio a la tarea de idear la manera de usar otro aparato para estos fines, en una noche larga de aquellas en su trabajo con duras sesiones de Mario Kart escucho a uno de sus amigos…usa un DS…. Y fue así como se dio a la tarea de Hackear un Nintendo DS para estos fines, el mas que curioso hack consta de un cable que se conecta a la entrada del los cartuchos del GBA ( la DS tiene entrada para cartuchos de Game Boy también) y con ayuda de un software especial a logrado usar esta consola como controlador/disparador de su Canon, el único problema que ha encontrado hasta ahora es no poder modificar el diafragma, aunque comenta “que es lo que menos modifica” a la hora de fotografiar…. Si te quieres hacer de un disparador como este ( hasta el día de hoy Steve no ha publicado el paso a paso) puedes ponerte en contacto con el , esta pensando en comercializar este hack, por un precio de 100 USD ( no incluye el DS, claro esta), lo podría hacer tanto para Canon como para Nikon nada mal a decir verdad…. Vía | Panocamera. [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
It seems comments are broken. To the daring souls who have expressed interest, I’ll be getting in touch as soon as possible.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
[...] un programa en la nintendo ds para controlar la camara… y por ejemplo hacer disparos con la voz. Blog Archive At last, my greatest invention is etc. etc. __________________ 40D + Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X + Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM + Canon EF [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
[...] Nikon y Canon por unos 100 dólares (69 euros al cambio).[Artículo en inglés]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments Filed under: [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
[...] thought this was cool. Somebody jury-rigged a Nintendo DS to act as a remote for his camera. From what I gather [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
September 19th, 2008 at 3:22 am
[...] looks like a very interesting project! The guy has written some software on the DS to control his camera out in the field. I was considering using Arduino to make an intervalometer myself a while back, [...]
September 19th, 2008 at 3:37 am
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
September 19th, 2008 at 4:12 am
[...] Panocamera [via Reddit] [...]
September 19th, 2008 at 5:22 am
[...] nice piece of DS homebrew here: when photographer Steve was searching for a less bulky alternative to tethering his Canon 5D to his laptop for remote [...]
September 19th, 2008 at 5:52 am
[...] (via panocamera) [...]
September 19th, 2008 at 7:20 am
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
September 20th, 2008 at 2:43 am
[...] Beispiel der besonderen Art lieferte nun Steve von panocamera.com mit seinem kleinen Kabeladapter und der Software “PanoCamera DSLR Control”. Steve ist [...]
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:00 am
[...] about A Nintendo DS Controlling A DSLR Camera [Gadget Review] Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Photography | Digg this! [...]
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:10 am
[...] Link: Panocamera.com [...]
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:10 am
[...] about A Nintendo DS Controlling A DSLR Camera [Gadget [...]
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:20 am
[...] about A Nintendo DS Controlli­… [Gadget [...]
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:19 am
[...] shot bracketing or remote shots in bulb mode but Steve at PanoCamera has a solution: he’s hacked his Nintendo DS to handle those sorts of little tasks for his Canon [...]
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:01 pm
[...] Nintendo Gameboy мини-компьютер, который в дороге отвечает за руководство съемкой панорамы и последующее ее сведени…, причем результат тоже получается [...]
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
[...] http://panocamera.com/blog/?p=26 [...]
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:01 pm
[...] » Blog Archive » At last, my greatest invention is etc. etc. (tags: cool camera nintendo ds hack) [...]
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:33 pm
[...] – Man hacks Nintendo DS to control his Canon 5D [...]
September 24th, 2008 at 3:35 am
[...] Vamos, una idea muy curiosa: [...]
September 24th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
[...] Para quem quiser saber mais sobre o mod e se interessa pelo programa, visite a página do mod. [...]
September 24th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
[...] nice piece of DS homebrew here: when photographer Steve was searching for a less bulky alternative to tethering his Canon 5D to his laptop for remote [...]
September 29th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
[...] — not tethered viewing — of a Nikon or Canon DSLR using a Nintendo DS. Check out the details here. A very impressive piece of work. [Via zedomax.com and hackszine.com] Bookmark It [...]
October 1st, 2008 at 6:08 pm
[...] på Panocamera.com som har skrivit ett eget program till ett Nintendo DS som tillåter honom att koppla in sin Canon EOS 5D direkt till spelporten i DS. Detta är fruktansvärt smart för den som brukar länka ihop sin kamera med till exempel en [...]
October 3rd, 2008 at 7:12 pm
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments Link a la publicación original [...]
October 6th, 2008 at 10:23 am
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
October 7th, 2008 at 7:49 am
[...] http://panocamera.com/blog/?p=26 [...]
October 13th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
[...] Panocamera [via Reddit] [...]
October 20th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
[...] College on the Record (CollegeOTR.com), an “MIT PRofessor Debunks Eight Myths About Video Games”. This photographer replaced his laptop with his DS. [...]
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:02 am
[...] Per maggiori informazioni (in inglese) visita il sito dell’autore [...]
November 5th, 2008 at 10:30 am
[...] Panocamera [via Reddit] [...]
November 5th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
[...] Read more here – http://panocamera.com/blog/?p=26 [...]
November 14th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
[...] de Panocamera.com ha construido la interfaz definitiva para su réflex Canon con la ayuda de su Nintendo DS y probado [...]
November 16th, 2008 at 6:07 am
[...] uninterested in using their innate DIY skills to make it happen, drop ole Steve an e-mail.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
November 18th, 2008 at 3:17 am
[...] Pues es justo lo que ha conseguido Steve de Panocamera con ingenio y conocimientos. Según comenta en este post, la idea de usar la DS se debe únicamente al deseo de no tener que cargar con el ordenador [...]
November 19th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
[...] I’ve recently been very interested in hac.. um.. ‘modding’ my Nintendo DS, after reading about panocamera’s DS->DSLR mod [...]
December 4th, 2008 at 5:44 am
[...] de Panocamera.com ha construido la interfaz definitiva para su réflex Canon con la ayuda de su Nintendo DS y probado [...]
December 21st, 2008 at 12:04 pm
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
January 5th, 2009 at 12:32 am
[...] – A Few Rants saved by MonsterInTheBasement2008-12-27 – Testing… saved by cwhigham2008-12-23 – u00bb Blog Archive u00bb At last, my greatest invention is etc. saved by dens2008-12-22 – Election Day Liveblogs, Reaction and Analysis from HuffPost Bloggers [...]
January 13th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
[...] Steve Chapman has devised a way of taking pictures remotely with a Nintendo DS Lite. [...]
January 18th, 2009 at 6:59 am
[...] http://panocamera.com/blog/?p=26 [...]
January 25th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
[...] finished product, and not a DIY solution like my Bracketmeister, please visit Steve’s blog at panocamera.com. He is selling a very elegant Nintendo DS mod, that is working with a number of Canons and [...]
March 25th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
May 1st, 2009 at 3:08 am
[...] An Introduction to Time Lapse Photography Steve Chapman: Controlling your Camera with a Nintendo DS Jeffrey Friedl: Panning a Time Lapse with Lightroom and [...]
October 13th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I love what you have done here. Is it possible to do this with Nikon D60? Thank you very much, Randy
January 4th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
I’d like to test your software with my Canon G10 but I can not find the link. For now I use AHDRIA
January 11th, 2010 at 10:27 am
[...] At last, my greatest invention is etc. etc. – “Hooking the camera to the Gameboy cartridge slot took some figuring, but in the end it essentially involves strobing a pin connected through an optical isolation circuit to the camera’s cable release port. This method sacrifices the aperture control that using the Canon SDK allows when tethered to a laptop, however aperture is always the setting that never changes unless one is toying with combinez…” [...]
January 19th, 2010 at 12:03 am
Sorry, check on HDRlabs.com for more details