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Focus with Nikon D3


Bluester

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HI all, After having BYE for a while but not using it much as the camera I had was proving quite a limitation, I bought a license for BYN instead so as to use my wifes D3 (Officially unsupported in the matrix but appears to work fine, which I checked using the trial version first)

I am finding issues with using the focus feature in frame and foucs mode. The focus buttons control the camera perfectly if I have the camera in single autofocus mode, but when BYN commands the camera to shoot a frame after I return to imaging mode the cameras autofocus routine runs, undoing the focus work done. If it can not find focus then the software effectively hangs at that point.

 

I have spent some time looking but can not find any way to stop this behaviour, am I simply battling a limitation of the camera? It is not a major issue if so as I can put it in manual focus mode, but sometimes it is nice to be able to work from inside a nice warm house!

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Actually I just had a win, an hour trawling through the manual for the D3 gave me the answer in two parts. Firstly you can change from focus priority to shutter priority so it will open the shutter even when the auto focus system says it is not in focus. Secondly and in another submenu you can turn off autofocus when the shutter release is half pressed so it only runs autofocus if you press the AF button. I may not need that second setting, but certainly with both changed I am able to use the focus commands within BYN to focus it (Provided it will give small enough steps to get good focus, the next night I am able to test under the stars will tell me that) and secondly when BYN commands the shutter open, it just does it!

 

The next test will be as I said, under the stars, hopefully allowing me to keep tabs on it via Teamviwer from another PC inside the house.

(Edited for typo)

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You need to set it to manual focus.  This is the same for Canon cameras.  It counter productive to have to set the camera to auto-focus to user the focus button then set it back to manual focus in imaging mode :(

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A pity, the focus function within BYN would be nice as it would make for easy focus checks from inside the house if required but it is a bit pointless if the camera promptly undoes your work and tries to refocus, just a pity that the SDK obviously does not support focus commands with the camera in manual focus mode, of support blocking the cameras auto focus function.

I am no worse off than I was with the old 350D, which did not support focusing via BYE at all. From a trial run last night it does seem to hold focus with a normal lens adequately for many hours so not as much of an issue as it would be though a scope where thermal changes through the night might show up.

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You figured out what I was going to suggest...For Canon cameras you can use a custom setting to move the autofocus off of the shutter button to one of the zoom buttons. That allows you to keep the lens in AF mode.

Also, you CAN focus your 350D with BYE. You just cannot use LiveView to do it. With the 350D you need to use short Snap images to focus.

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I made the mistake of borrowing my wifes D3 one night when the fancy took me to try for a nightscape and I realised that even astro modified with the IR filter removed the 350D is far less sensitive and far noisier than the D3. Straight off the camera the D3 was producing more detailed images than the Canon was after stretching, not to mention correcting the colour cast that the lack of an IR filter produces.

It took a little bit of negotiation to be able to have the D3 outside at night! I just need to get a long network cable to run out there, I initially had BYN set to store images direct to a share on my NAS in the house that is mapped as a network drive on the laptop, giving me immediate access to the images on a desktop PC as they are written but wifi performance is too variable and images would sometimes be corrupted. That was with the Canon so the D3 would have been even worse with the much larger file size.

I will have to have a closer look at the Canon, I have probably got it set to full manual focus which is likely why I do not have the focus control buttons in BYN. I have set up a cheap laptop with BYN on it for my son (9 years old) to use with the Canon to see if he likes it, the more features it has the more he will like it.

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So long as I can find the same sort of options to disable the AF routine in the Canon I will re set it. I think it will be a lot easier to focus for my son than tweaking the focus ring manually, it is just more time consuming to do without live view. If I had known enough when I originally bought the 350D a couple of years ago I would have spent a bit more on a later camera with live view, but it should only take a couple of minutes to find best focus.

Now I will need to set up an ASCOM focuser for when I put either camera on my C925.

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Hmm, close but no cigar, I can turn off the AF function in the Canon settings so neither  of the release or a command from BYE triggers the AF routine but with the lens back in autofocus mode I don't get the focus chevron buttons in BYE ad I did for the D3 in BYN. Unless there is something I am missing it looks like the 350D simply does not support it. The camera will still serve to see if it generates interest in my son, if it does I will get him some newer hardware to exploit BYE capabilities better. If I want to chase it up any further with users who are using a 350D I will post the question in the BYE section instead of in here. I consider my original question answered, thankfully positively!

 

Thanks for the feedback.

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