Kevin Shea Adams

Hi there, I am wondering specifically if it is possible to use jitter to send control messages to this camera, for example to simply have it take a shot. I wish to use jitter as an intervalometer for stop-motion and time-lapse effects. Nikon had originally built an intervalometer into the D90 but apparently removed it last minute. If anyone knows how to do this with other software, your help would be much appreciated.

nikon-d90-and-jitter

Don't know about the specific camera, my guess is that it's not possible but I could be wrong. However, if you have a video camera, you could utilize Jitter for stop-motion by simply having it record continuously, then every second (or however long) grab a frame and put it in a jit.matrixset. That way your camera can stay totally still and you won't have to record/pause etc.

Thanks for the suggestion, however the beauty of actually sequencing the stop motion with a still camera is the image quality which will look amazing compared to any DV CAM. The D90 does allow you to have a live view of video, and I do think I can get this into jitter to achieve what you are suggesting but I am really interested in just setting up a more traditional interval timer to capture stills, and sequence them into motion later on, so having some way for jitter to fire the shutter would be great. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

i gave some comments on the subject a few posts down,

https://cycling74.com/forums/index.php?t=msg&goto=154442

another popular trick is to fake an ir remote with the pc, or hack an

off-the-shelf nikon remote to expect triggers via serial,parallel etc.

On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 12:37 AM, kevin wrote:

> Thanks for the suggestion, however the beauty of actually sequencing the

> stop motion with a still camera is the image quality which will look amazing

> compared to any DV CAM. The D90 does allow you to have a live view of video,

> and I do think I can get this into jitter to achieve what you are suggesting

> but I am really interested in just setting up a more traditional interval

> timer to capture stills, and sequence them into motion later on, so having

> some way for jitter to fire the shutter would be great. Any other

i gave some comments on the subject a few posts down,
https://cycling74.com/forums/index.php?t=msg&goto=154442
another popular trick is to fake an ir remote with the pc, or hack an
off-the-shelf nikon remote to expect triggers via serial,parallel etc.

On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 12:37 AM, kevin  wrote:

>
> Thanks for the suggestion, however the beauty of actually sequencing the
> stop motion with a still camera is the image quality which will look amazing
> compared to any DV CAM. The D90 does allow you to have a live view of video,
> and I do think I can get this into jitter to achieve what you are suggesting
> but I am really interested in just setting up a more traditional interval
> timer to capture stills, and sequence them into motion later on, so having
> some way for jitter to fire the shutter would be great. Any other
> suggestions would be appreciated.
>

HDMI and a good capture card? Then you connect it up and the LiveView 

gets sent out the HDMI instead - should be a breeze going from there?

Other than that, yeah, buy (or borrow) the remote, "learn" its "take a 

picture command" and transmit that using an arduino or something. Not 

easy, but really cool - you could even connect it to a motion sensor and 

HDMI and a good capture card? Then you connect it up and the LiveView 
gets sent out the HDMI instead - should be a breeze going from there?

Other than that, yeah, buy (or borrow) the remote, "learn" its "take a 
picture command" and transmit that using an arduino or something. Not 
easy, but really cool - you could even connect it to a motion sensor and 
have motion-activated imaging, etc. etc.

Thanks Yair for the scripting tip using gPhoto, as well as your other suggestions (sending IR messsages from a computer, or hacking a Nikon remote to work via serial port). Creating an IR message transmitting patch in Jitter would be great.

But it seems to me that the easiest way is to use some of Nikon's proprietary capture and control software which has the ability to time the shutter release at a given interval, which would work fine for me right now. Problem is, they cost money (e.g. Camera Control Pro 2 or Nikon Capture NX 2).

Seems like I shouldn't have to spend money or hack too much to get this thing to fire the shutter automatically at timed intervals, I'm still looking for simple solutions, jitter integration would be nice....

Thanks Yair for the scripting tip using gPhoto, as well as your other suggestions (sending IR messsages from a computer, or hacking a Nikon remote to work via serial port). Creating an IR message transmitting patch in Jitter would be great. 

But it seems to me that the easiest way is to use some of Nikon's proprietary capture and control software which has the ability to time the shutter release at a given interval, which would work fine for me right now. Problem is, they cost money (e.g. Camera Control Pro 2 or Nikon Capture NX 2). 

Seems like I shouldn't have to spend money or hack too much to get this thing to fire the shutter automatically at timed intervals, I'm still looking for simple solutions, jitter integration would be nice....


Thanks Wetterberg, I hadn't thought of using the HDMI out. Not sure how I would capture that into the computer without buying a dedicated capture card but it is a good way to get around the 5min limit of HD record time on the D90 perhaps (the HDMI output in live view if I am correct is full 720p HD).

Exciting ideas here with the D90. I am still really interested in just using jitter as an intervalometer to fire the shutter. So far the IR technique seems to be the most appealing, but for my upcoming animation project I need something simpler, perhaps just buying more nikon stuff...

Why not build a physical intervalometer to mount on the camera? Hack the Nikon remote (or an aftermarket remote, even cheaper), an Arduino Mini and a battery pack.

The battery on the D90 lasts forever if LiveView is not on (and conversely, it runs out really fast with it enabled.)

If you have to do some kind of physical interfacing to get Jitter to control the camera, you might as well just put that effort into building an intervalometer.

Thanks everyone for your help. For this animation project I ended up just using the trial period of Nikon's Camera Control software to do the time lapse. This program works quite well, with no limits on the number of shots and offering an interval as small as 1 second. I am still looking for good ways to control and use the d90 with Jitter.

 for my D90 about a year now. It's free and its really nice. The great thing is that it downloads the picture directly to your computer so you can shoot in RAW the whole day and not filling your memory card.

I'm still looking for a way to control my D90 with Max but still no luck.

I use SofortBild http://www.sofortbildapp.com/ for my D90 about a year now. It's free and its really nice. The great thing is that it downloads the picture directly to your computer so you can shoot in RAW the whole day and not filling your memory card.

I'm still looking for a way to control my D90 with Max but still no luck.


Nikon D90 and Jitter