will helicon focus work with eos m cameras

#Will helicon focus work with eos m cameras zip file#
#Will helicon focus work with eos m cameras drivers#
#Will helicon focus work with eos m cameras manual#

Setup and align your camera and autofocus target as you normally would.Connect the camera to your computer via the USB cable.Then follow the steps for building the image stack.

#Will helicon focus work with eos m cameras zip file#

ProcedureĪfter insuring you meet the prerequisites and having the software installed, download the Zip file from the link in the box to the right, and extract it somewhere you can get to (like your desktop). As it stands it shouldn’t take more than about 2-6 minutes depending on whether you run the fine or course capture process.Īlso while you can’t calibrate those cameras with Live View but without AF Micro-adjusts (like the EOS 40D, or the newer Rebels) you can generate the image stack to see if they are focusing correctly. I’ve tried to make it as fool proof as possible, but there’s only so much I can do with these tools. Because this script emulates keyboard and mouse actions, if you start using the keyboard and mouse while the script is running it won’t be able to send the right actions to the right program.

The first 3 are pretty straight forward number 4 is a gotcha.

You can’t do anything else while the process is running.

You need AutoHotKey_L installed (tested with version 1.1.05.06).

You must have Canon’s EOS Utility installed.

It only works with Canon cameras, specifically those with Live View.

There are a couple of caveats with this whole solution. While AutoHotKey can’t do any form of image analysis, it could at least remove the work in capturing the images, and that’s enough for me for now.

#Will helicon focus work with eos m cameras drivers#

If it sounds familiar to readers of this site, it’s what I used to work around rather annoying problem I was having with my Wacom tablet drivers crashing. AutoHotKey is a generic macro program that mimics keyboard and mouse inputs following a script. Then I realized that the Canon SLR SDK is written in C not C# so instead of just getting down to business, I would have to write a wrapper then write the app. My fist thought was, hey I’m not a useless programmer, I can grab the SDK from Canon and just write up a nice little C# app that does all the camera control stuff for me.

#Will helicon focus work with eos m cameras manual#

The unassisted live view method is a slight improvement over the unassisted method, in that the live view method only requires one manual focus and AF operation, but requires you to manually advance the focus in EOS Utility (or whatever camera control software you use) and keep track of the number of times you click the button. The whole refocus to infinity and repeat is largely a product of not being able to simply command the AF system to move in small steps from the camera, which is what the live view solution does. However, the AF micro adjusts are essentially just saying to the camera, “when you think it’s in focus, move the lens x steps more”.

repeat 3-5 until you’ve either covered all the necessary adjustments or until you find one that works best.dig through menus to get the the AF settings, change the setting slightly.The traditional AF calibration process goes something like this:

I’m not one to get in the way of other people’s businesses, but with the economy and my business the way it is, I have more spare time than spare change if I can work out a solution that costs me time and not money well that’s what I’m going to do. Do note, as of the writing of this I haven’t actually tested FoCal. FoCal seems to be doing the same thing that Helicon Focus’s software did, though it seems to do it using a special target. Likewise, a new app has shown up on the scene Reikan’s FoCal. Unfortunately they seem to have removed that feature from their software. The key being that an AF micro adjustment step is the same size as the smallest step the AF can be directed to make (1/8th of a depth of field).Īt the time I wrote that article, there was also a tool available from Helicon focus that would do the same thing automatically and then use a contrast detection algorithm to determine whether the image was maximally sharp (i.e. Some time back I wrote about doing AF Adjustments using Live View at least in Canon’s EOS Utility while in live view mode you can manipulate the lens’s focus position using the AF control system in 3 step sizes from the finest the camera can make to something considerably larger.