using tethered DSLR or point'n'shoot USB cameras?
Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 3:32 am
Hi, i'd swear I used to have an account here (and that I posted this before) but I can't find any record of either...
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Not sure if this best belongs in feature requests or not but last I checked you had nothing like this implemented.
Since as far as I know zoneMinder operates off of comparing still snapshots for motion (instead of a constant video stream) has any thought been given to using "proper" digital cameras, meaning either the point and shoot style, or full DSLR's as being a supported option?
Consider the following:
- Very high megapixel ratings are available
- Even older cameras can be available for reasonable prices (certainly compared to what an IP 1080p type camera seems to run)
- Even older point and shoot digital cameras often exceed the 2 megapixels of 1080 type cameras, which in the commercial market rapidly skyrocket in price for digital versions.
I do not think it should be very difficult to integrate this because there are already projects that support what is called "tethering" - this is when you plug the camera into USB and the computer can trigger things like taking pictures, exposure/aperture, zoom control and related. This itself might even enable other features, such as "HDR" style photos (taking a picture with maximum gain and one with reduced gain, the postprocessing to let you do things like reduce light bloom at night while still seeing shadow details) which might further help capture quality and motion flagging.
http://gphoto.org/proj/libgphoto2/support.php
To me this would seem like a great alternative for anyone wanting higher resolution capture such as to get larger areas outdoors with an acceptable resolution coverage and potentially using less cameras to do it.
Ideally the tethering should support more than one camera hooked to a single PC, like I could imagine a Raspberry Pi hooked up to 2-3-4 or whatever cameras to cover a wide range of area, simply snapping photos when needed and saving them down the Ethernet pipe.
'
Not sure if this best belongs in feature requests or not but last I checked you had nothing like this implemented.
Since as far as I know zoneMinder operates off of comparing still snapshots for motion (instead of a constant video stream) has any thought been given to using "proper" digital cameras, meaning either the point and shoot style, or full DSLR's as being a supported option?
Consider the following:
- Very high megapixel ratings are available
- Even older cameras can be available for reasonable prices (certainly compared to what an IP 1080p type camera seems to run)
- Even older point and shoot digital cameras often exceed the 2 megapixels of 1080 type cameras, which in the commercial market rapidly skyrocket in price for digital versions.
I do not think it should be very difficult to integrate this because there are already projects that support what is called "tethering" - this is when you plug the camera into USB and the computer can trigger things like taking pictures, exposure/aperture, zoom control and related. This itself might even enable other features, such as "HDR" style photos (taking a picture with maximum gain and one with reduced gain, the postprocessing to let you do things like reduce light bloom at night while still seeing shadow details) which might further help capture quality and motion flagging.
http://gphoto.org/proj/libgphoto2/support.php
To me this would seem like a great alternative for anyone wanting higher resolution capture such as to get larger areas outdoors with an acceptable resolution coverage and potentially using less cameras to do it.
Ideally the tethering should support more than one camera hooked to a single PC, like I could imagine a Raspberry Pi hooked up to 2-3-4 or whatever cameras to cover a wide range of area, simply snapping photos when needed and saving them down the Ethernet pipe.