[X-Apps] OS X remote control drivers for Nikon Coolpix cameras

[John Pariseau]

> Now that we've become a digital photography family, we wish we could 
> find OS X software to control our Nikon Coolpix cameras by way of the 
> USB port. Such software exists for Windows (and Unix, apparently). 
> Anyone know of any OS X programmers working on such a project?

You may want to check out photoPC, the Unix version can be compiled on 
the OS X end (it has a CLI). You will need to compile it. I was able to 
compile it, but I had to download and install Fink, and I seem to 
remember getting the program to work, but the USB camera could not be 
seen. One of the problems, with the 995 and up variants, is that the 
camera functions as a mass storage drive - meaning, in order to control 
it, you need to use the serial cable. There are serial cable to usb 
adapters, but this means:

you need a serial to usb adapter ($20 ~ $100)
you need the coolpix serial cable
you need to figure out if the serial to usb adapter will work with your 
mac

I have no clue if this approach will work.

libUSB is an open source USB project, which might be required. I never 
got into this after my failure to get the interface (hardware) to work.

And, you have to realize (which you may, if you have been researching 
this) that the Coolpix interaction (with software) is based on trial 
and error, and not all cameras will work if not listed, even if they 
are in the same family. I contacted Nikon, and they have no plans to 
develop or sell software to control the Coolpix cameras. If you are a 
software developer interested in the Nikon Coolpix SDK, you might be 
able to sign onto an agreement, with the proper codes. Problem is, 
people in the open-source community might not be interested in signing 
onto an agreement, as it is not open source. Also, USB has extremely 
slow bandwidth (1.1, not 2.0), unlike Nikons Firewire cameras, which do 
have control software (or so I've been told).

Also, the beta software, iStopmotion, interfaces with quite a few 
cameras. I pointed the Coolpix dilemma out to them, and pointed out 
some of the open source projects relating to camera control, and never 
received a response from them. I am extremely tempted to buy an iSight, 
get a license to iStopMotion, and forget using my nikon for some stop 
motion work I am tempted to fool around with. It just is too costly at 
this moment.