Control Olympus Digital Cameras from your PC

Wouldn't it be cool to be able to setup my pc so I can control my Olympus E500 digital SLR?

If I could do that perhaps I could use it as an awesome webcam, use the pc as a giant viewfinder or for time-lapse photgraphy.

Olympus provide an SDK for developers to do just that and more. It contains a camera control library in both ActiveX and Windows DLL versions, support files, full documentation, sample code for Visual C++ and Visual Basic.

Now that may appeal to the inventor inside of me but I found out that I would have to pay 29 euros plus VAT for the privilege. Not a lot you may think but maybe that's the reason why there aren't too many applications out there that others have developed using this SDK. If they gave it away, I can imagine it being downloaded thousands of times and being experimented with in all manner of strange and exotic ways, resulting in apps that range from useless to truly innovative. En route there would be more of a focus (sic) on Olympus which could result in more sales.

How about it Olympus?

Having said that, obviously quite a number have entered the Olympus Developer program because there are few decent applications. Pinetree Computing , in particular, have created a camera controller with most,if not all, the functions that I might need:

• Single shot capture

* Set your exposure settings and take pictures on demand. Each picture is downloaded to your PC automatically.

• Pan & Zoom

* Examine your photos in excruciating detail on the fly. Zoom a photo up to 2000% and pan around the photo using the arrow keys. Excellent for extremely tight focus

• LCD Video

* See the output from the camera LCD via USB - no video capture device required - at frame rates up to 3 fps

• Time-lapse Mode

* Intervals from 1 second to 24 hours or more
* Durations are only limited by the amount of disk space available on your PC
* Use the SlideShow tool to play them back at frame rates up to 32 frames per second - that's faster than live video!

• WebCam Mode

* Automatic FTP upload to your website after every timelapse capture
* Local webcam mode
* Use the WebCam tool SnapIn to automatically timestamp and compress the images to make them more suitable for the web.
* Save a local copy on your PC and see what your webcam viewers saw.

• Slideshow Tool

* Replay your timelapse sequences as fast as your PC will process them. Tested as fast as 32 fps - faster than live video.
* Browse forward and backward through your snapshots, show animations, open your photos in an editor, and more, all with simple keyboard shortcuts.
* Drag-and-drop your pictures to window explorer or other drop targets.
* Create animations from a series of snapshots and replay them.
* Open your pictures in the editor of your choice.
* Copy your slideshows to a CD and send them to your friends and family. They can replay the slideshow directly from the CD without installing any software. (requires Internet Explorer or other XML/XSL compatible browser)

• Multi-camera Support

* Control multiple cameras at once and command them all to take a picture at the same time. Use it for 3D modeling, taking panoramas with moving subjects, and a whole lot more.

• Motion detection (requires video capture device)

* Set one or several motion detection zones and automatically take pictures whenever movement is detected on a zone.
* Three detection algorythms for maximum flexibility.
* Detection frame rates up to 20 fps.

• Highly extensible via SnapIns

* Program Camera Controller to do nearly anything you want by writing simple, easy-to-write SnapIns that integrate seamlessly with Camera Controller.

• External shutter control

* Write your own program to make use of external events to take pictures.
* Control Camera Controller's shutter from another PC.
* Control Camera Controller's shutter using external switches or electronics. (additional hardware required)