Options to output my camera video to laptop?

[o3h1p]

Hello.

So if I want to run video from both my cameras to my laptop what are my options?

* A Easycap type device? http://easycap.co.uk/ (Though I heard easycap itself wasn't recommended? Any other recomendations?)
* Can I use PTP/CHDK with my A590IS and a preview to my laptop? Can someone explain this to me, I'm not quite sure how this works. Can it be used for remote control?

Thanks,
jack

[Anonymous1]

As always, I recommend GPhoto2. It's Linux/Mac OS only, but it can remotely trigger cameras, show you live previews of the viewfinder through the computer, and capture directly into the computer's HDD. Here's a link to the graphical version of the software (it's GTK+, so it's a lot harder to run on a Mac): http://www.gphoto.org/proj/gtkam/

[o3h1p]

Unfortunately Gphoto2 does not support my camera (a590), but I'm asking over at the chdk forum about alternatives, because a few people have seemed to get it working with PTP.

[Anonymous1]

Have you tried it? If it's not on the list, it just means that nobody put it there. It could still work.

[o3h1p]

Actually it's on the list of "NOT SUPPORTED". The reason I understand is that cannon's API (which gPhoto uses) is no longer supporting these features because Cannon wants people to pay for those features with the higher end cameras.

[daniel_reetz]

I swear Ben Varadi was controlling A590 IS cameras with gphoto2, but I have nothing but memory on this.

[o3h1p]

maybe... but at least the project page doesn't officially support it:

http://www.gphoto.org/doc/remote/

All Powershots released after mid 2009 are not capable of remote control anymore.
Statement from Canon SDK: As a reminder: PowerShots A410, A420, A430, A450, A460, A470, A530, A540, A550, A560, A570 IS, A580, A590 IS, A610, A630, A650 IS, A700, A710 IS, A720 IS, A1000 IS, A2000 IS, S10, S20, S330, SD10, SD20, SD30, SD40, SD200, SD300, SD400, SD430, SD450, SD500, SD550, SD600, SD630, SD700 IS, SD750, SD770 IS,SD790 IS,SD800 IS, SD850 IS, SD870 IS, SD880 IS, SD890 IS, SD900, SD950 IS, SD990 IS, SD 1000, SD1100 IS, SX 1 IS, and SX 10IS do not support remote control or video out operation via the SDK.
The same applies for libgphoto2 capture support.

[Anonymous1]

It's worth a shot I think Canon might have a program for this, like the EOS Utility but for PowerShots...

[daniel_reetz]

this is an ultra-super long shot, but i backed the OpenViszla USB sniffer project on Kickstarter, so at some point we'll have access to a USB sniffer to work on this kind of thing.

[benjamin]

sorry for the delayed response, I'm just returning to this project after a hiatus. we were/are using SX100's.