Xsi images not being saved.

[Astrophoche]

I have been struggling to get BYE to save images with my Canon Xsi (450D).  Back in the trial days, it worked fine near as I could tell, but I have a "new" computer and a licensed version of BYE and I can't get any images to save.  I am using Windows 10 Pro build 19044.2965. Now I am using the BYE V3.2 (camera2) which I believe I was told would run independently from needing to run with the primary BYE instance. I just always use the 2nd instance with my Xsi out of habit. Camera is in the M mode for ALL scenarios. Camera running on AC or battery seems to make no difference. Camera FW 1.1.0

Two scenarios:

Scenario one: I diddled with the custom camera functions to provide live view, mirror up capability. I connected the XSI via USB with no issue. I could not see anything on the image display center. I tried taking a single frame, but I was having no luck getting pictures using the "imaging" function. Basically, the progress wheel states 13+ minutes to completion and after about 60 seconds the process times out with the General Camera error. No images presented or saved. 

So I switched to Frame and focus and things seemed to get better. With "auto focus" ON the lens, I could see the live view image and adjust the focus just fine with the focus controls on BYE. Cool beans, I think. So I take a shot or two adjusting the F stop and exposure times. The live view image in the image display center changes with each parameter change (f and t) appropriately.  So I take some shots but none load at the bottom of the Image display center. I look for them in the appropriate BYE folders and none are found. I look on the SD card separately, but nothing there either.  When I click the Snap Image button, the camera clicks and whirs just like it's actually taking a picture, but none seem to show up anywhere. I get "Image session completed successfully" in the log. I also see images in the BYE temp folder deleted. 

So I figure I set something up wrong and Clear ALL settings back to default. 

Scenario 2: I do nothing to change any of the default settings in the camera. And I skip Imaging altogether. Go straight to Frame and focus. Nothing for live view. BYE keeps my old parameters for taking the picture and I click Snap Image. Well, the Image Display center now shows a resulting picture!  Adjusting the F&T produces several different exposures but no thumbnails at the bottom of the Display Center. And sure enough, Nothing in the DCIM on the SD card either! Although I'm told the imaging session was successful each time. 

I've included a couple of log files just in case they are useful. 

I can disconnect the camera from the USB (and therefore BYE) and take pictures just fine. They show up on the SD card before or after the camera settings changes. 

I am having no trouble with BYE v3.2 (primary instance) with my Canon R. 

Suggestions? 

 

logfile-[20230526-13h45m15s271]-[4460]-2023-05-26.txt logfile-[20230526-14h01m58s444]-[20220]-2023-05-26.txt

[Astrophoche]

Thank you Astroman133 and Admin!  It all now works!  

So first, I set the camera to RAW only and maximum stability per Admin's suggestion. 

I got nowhere until I went into the camera and allowed Live view. I used the Frame and Focus and turned back on the AF of the lens and got a good focus image. I then turned off the AF on the lens and clicked Snap image. Got a pic in the Image display center. Nothing saved since I had not yet enabled "Save Snap" like Astroman133 suggested. 

I switched back to imaging, set the capture plan to 1 exp, light, 1/4 at F4.5 and hit Start Capture. Success!!! I got a thumbnail in the bottom of the image display window!  Now we're cookin'!  It was a bit over exposed, so I turned the AF back on, went to F&F and focused on something else and left the AF ON. I went back to Imaging and expected a failure, but there was none! More success!  and more and more!

The original intent of this test was to determine how long it takes between shots in a capture plan to take the image and download via USB from this camera. Somewhere around 12 seconds for the first shot and about 10 per shot there after (Based on only a couple of tries). 

I then went in and changed the live view mode to save the Snap and that, too, worked! I found all the photos and formats I expected in the BYE folders on the computer.  I checked the SD card and all of the imaging photos were stored on the SD card except for the F&F. And the formats RAW and L were there. 

I get the fact that the errors in the log said it was a focus problem, and I'll remember that if things go awry again. But right now it looks like I can focus my EF lens using BYE which will be a big help to me! 

Case closed and thanks for your help!

 

[astroman133]

I found the following in the first log file:

2023-05-26 13:49:16,169 [11] ERROR - Camera is unable to focus; auto-focus may be on

This means that the lens is in AF mode and when you ask the camera to take an image it tries to focus first, but cannot. It keeps trying for a while but is unable to focus and so does not take a picture. Finally BYE gives up waiting and fails the capture. This is typical of a low light shooting situation where there is not enough ambient light for the autofocus circuitry in the camera to ensure that the image is in focus before opening the shutter.  This would be true when starting a capture plan from the Imaging screen or when taking a Snap image from Frame & Focus.

There are 2 solutions for this:

1) Put the lens in MF mode, via the slide switch on the lens.

2) Move the autofocus function to a different button from the shutter. This is accomplished by modifying the camera's settings by changing the Shutter/AE lock button, under Custom Functions from 0: AF/AE lock to 1: AE lock/AF. This moves the auto focus function to the * button (also the Zoom - button). Your camera's user manual should explain this.

I would try 1) first to make sure that BYE is able to take, download, and display a picture, even if it is out of focus. The main drawback to this is that if the camera is pointed up or down, the weight of the lens can cause the focus to shift over time. If you adopt this approach you may want to consider taping the lens focus ring in place with painter's tape, once you have completed focusing, to prevent it from shifting while imaging.

2023-05-26 13:47:49,814 [16] DEBUG - TAKE PICTURE ::: Shutter(MANUAL) Cable(CameraUSB) Av(f/4.5) Duration(0.0) Iso(1600) Quality(IMAGE_RLF+) Mirror(0) SaveTo(PC)

I also can see in the log file that the exposure duration is 0.0. This will be a short bulb exposure, typically 0.1 seconds. Normally you would want a longer exposure. I also see that you are shooting JPG (IMAGE_RLF+) rather than RAW. For astrophotography you typically want to shoot RAW.

I would also suggest not trying to lock the mirror up before taking in image. For the vast majority of imaging workflows mirror lock is unnecessary.

I hope this helps.

[Astrophoche]

Thank you for the quick response. I tried these things.   When I checked, the camera lens focus mode was already manual. Additional information. I'm sitting at my dinning table, earlier with daylight, and now with lights on. There was never a setting on the program for 0.0 time despite what the log says. Also, there is no bulb with XSI. Only Manual mode. 

But I made sure the lens AF switch was in manual. stabilization is off. Also, I keep setting the camera image size to Raw+L and it shows up on the BYE camera Info center as such.  Now the exposure is set to 1/4 and F at 4.5 ISO 1600. I hit the "Snap Image" button and before the shutter snaps, the size is reset to Small!  I do get a very out of focus result in the image window, but again, no actual image is saved. "Image session completed successfully."

Toggling live view play button, does not actually provide a live view. 

More information. I have my Xsi hooked up via the USB mini connection provided by canon to a USB 3.0 port on my Windows laptop. How else could I run BYE except this way? How do I get Live view working again?

I suspect, something somewhere is seeing an old style USB cable but  I know other people that have used BYE for astrophotography on an XSI, so what else am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance. 

logfile-[20230526-20h47m07s747]-[4032]-2023-05-26.txt

[astroman133]

Your are incorrect. There is BULB capability with the XSi. I used to own an XSi. It was the camera that I used when I first started using BYE, in 2011. To shoot BULB exposures with the XSi, or any other model, from BYE you select BULB from the Shutter dropdown and then set the desired length of the BULB exposure in the Duration control. This is the same on both the Imaging and F&F screens. The units of Duration are seconds. While it makes no practical sense, you can set the BULB Duration value to 0. With my T5i, this results in an image with an exposure of 0.1 seconds. I discovered this by looking at the EXIF data in the JPG image file that was taken with a Duration setting of 0.

BYE does change the image quality to small JPG when shooting Snap images from the Frame & Focus screen. This is by the authors' design. However when you are using the Imaging screen, BYE changes the image quality, to whatever setting you have set for the quality on the Settings dialog window, before each image. Options are RAW, JPG, or RAW+JPG.

By default Snap images are not saved, but there is a BYE setting that changes this behavior. Look on the Settings screen in the LiveView controls area. Check the Save Snap Images control. Once this is checked, Snap images will be saved in the designated Download folder.

Does LiveView work when your XSi is not connected to the PC? If not, perhaps you do not have LiveView Shooting enabled in the camera's settings menu. This is discussed on page 96 of the XSi users manual. This configuration is also required by BYE to download and display LiveView frames. You must enable LiveView shooting yourself because BYE does not have access to that setting.

Since you are able to connect BYE with the camera I would not expect a problem with having a USB 2.0 cable connected into a USB 3.0 port on your PC. The PC should degrade to support the camera while operating at USB 2.0 speeds.

I hope this helps.

 

[admin]

Set the camera to RAW only and see if this makes a difference for saving images.

Also, go to "settings -> advance settings" and click 'maximum stability'.

 

[Astrophoche]

3 hours ago, astroman133 said:

Your are incorrect. There is BULB capability with the XSi. I used to own an XSi. It was the camera that I used when I first started using BYE, in 2011. To shoot BULB exposures with the XSi, or any other model, from BYE you select BULB from the Shutter dropdown and then set the desired length of the BULB exposure in the Duration control. This is the same on both the Imaging and F&F screens. The units of Duration are seconds. While it makes no practical sense, you can set the BULB Duration value to 0. With my T5i, this results in an image with an exposure of 0.1 seconds. I discovered this by looking at the EXIF data in the JPG image file that was taken with a Duration setting of 0.

BYE does change the image quality to small JPG when shooting Snap images from the Frame & Focus screen. This is by the authors' design. However when you are using the Imaging screen, BYE changes the image quality, to whatever setting you have set for the quality on the Settings dialog window, before each image. Options are RAW, JPG, or RAW+JPG.

By default Snap images are not saved, but there is a BYE setting that changes this behavior. Look on the Settings screen in the LiveView controls area. Check the Save Snap Images control. Once this is checked, Snap images will be saved in the designated Download folder.

Does LiveView work when your XSi is not connected to the PC? If not, perhaps you do not have LiveView Shooting enabled in the camera's settings menu. This is discussed on page 96 of the XSi users manual. This configuration is also required by BYE to download and display LiveView frames. You must enable LiveView shooting yourself because BYE does not have access to that setting.

Since you are able to connect BYE with the camera I would not expect a problem with having a USB 2.0 cable connected into a USB 3.0 port on your PC. The PC should degrade to support the camera while operating at USB 2.0 speeds.

I hope this helps.

 

Thanks for all the information. I was just thinking this morning that "Frame and Focus" might not be meant to actually save images. This is why I noted that I reset everything to default. I may not have been clear about what settings I had in BYE... But then, some of the ones you discuss, I wasn't seeing in F&F mode easily, but I'll look further. 

I don't mean to say Bulb mode doesn't exist. Just that the camera doesn't specifically have a "B" on the dial as you well know. And the setting in snap was not 0.0. I inputed several different times. 0.0 was never on the dropdown list that I was using in BYE F&F. So I'm saying it is impossible for ME to input 0.0. 

Live view doesn't work because I set the camera back to default. I'll get around to turning it back on as soon as I get an image to stick. I'll look for that save feature. Of course, I may have to enable it to get live view on BYE to work as you state, also. 

As for USB ports, I thought I had two 2.0 ports plus one USB 3.0 port, but apparently one cannot depend on standard color coding  or icons to determine that. The manual says all three are 3.0... which means no backward compatibility to 1.1.  

Things are making more sense now. I also implemented the two changes ADMIN suggested. 

Thank you both for your patience.  I won't get back to testing until later today. 

[astroman133]

The default behavior for Frame & Focus is to not save the images to your hard drive, but you can change that with the BYE Setting.

0 is not listed in the Duration dropdown, but you can type it into the control anyway. However it sounds like that is not something that you did. I am at a loss to explain why the log is showing a duration of 0.

If you did a factory reset on the camera, it may have turned off LiveView Shooting. It is a simple task to turn it back on.

One other thing that could be preventing BYE from downloading your images is if you have anti-virus software active on the PC. It may be worth testing BYE while the A/V software is temporarily turned off. If that allows the images to be saved, then you should figure out how to configure the A/V software to allow BYE to download and save images files.

AFAIK, USB 3.0 ports all degrade to operate with USB 2.0 or earlier devices. If yours did not do this, you would not be able to connect BYE to the camera. USB 3.0 ports have a blue tab inside the USB-A connector. This is an industry standard.

[astroman133]

Thanks for letting us know.