DSLR Controller

[Rick W]

Somewhere on this forum there was some discussion about using DSLR controller to display the LCD info on a separate Android device such as the Nexus Tablet. I had found with ML installed it wouldn't work and wrote about that. But it turns out the problem was the cable. ML and DSLR controller work just fine together on a Canon T3i.

[softimage69]

Works great with my 60D and my Samsung Galaxy S3 phone as well.   

[Roman]

What cable do you guys use?

The only cables I can find are USB to mini, or USB to micro...

To get this working I'd need a micro USB to mini USB.

I've used the DSLR controller / Canon software on my PC though, and I found that the latency + low framerate made it pretty useless for video stuff. You certainly couldnt use it to gauge focus pulls or anything.

Using my TV as a liveview monitor via HDMI output from the camera is super sweet though!

Wish there was a more portable battery operated solution that didnt cost the earth.

If Tablets had a latency free HDMI input, would be such a perfect solution for a field monitor.

[softimage69]

My galaxy S3 is getting around 10-15FPS when connected to DSLR Controller, which, for me, is fast enough. What you need is a microUSB OTG (on the go) cable that converts the micro output of the phone into a female USB port.  FOr this to work, your Android device must support USB Hosting (ability to connect a USB mouse, thumb drive, etc.). 

I am using this OTG cable....

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX39724

Hope that helps.

[dude]

does anyone use this app with a galaxy s2? i am thinking of buying one, because the s3 is too big.
does peaking work?
and how can you deal with the lower framrerate during shooting?
do you think the s2 will have a lower framerate than the s3?
thanks a lot

[softimage69]

Not sure on the FPS on the S3 vs S2. I know that my S3 handles DSLR Controller ligtly better than my 7" tablet, so my guess is that the S3 would perform a little better (newer CPU and the like). 

If you are planning on getting an SII or SIII, consider getting one soon as Apple is trying to ban the sales of these two Samsung phones....

[matute_mayolo]

I have an Sony Xperia Neo V And it works fine. But is not a 100% reliable, in video mode, when monitoring without recording it works very good, even with the filters working (have a pretty good ones) and without lag.. BUT, in the moment I press the record button, the speed slows down.. there is some lag, and sometimes (very oftern) the speed slows down a lot, and even it freezes completly. Oh, and when recording I can't use filters at all, that makes the app to freeze.

I guess that it's for my smartphone. It's not the best. A newer and more powerful maybe works better. And would be great.
It doesn't shut down the main display, wich is awsome. And you can transfer the signal trough wifi to another smartphone or tablet.
I have even connected via hdmi to an LCD TV, and have three monitors working at the same time 
With a powerful device, I think it is an very useful tool and must have.

[1%]

Works on my chinese GPS (usb host)... 6D does full 24fps over USB... but DSLR controller doesn't seem too stable. 600D + 7D seem to output around 20 only and slow down or die when recording raw (7D)

[Africashot]

It worked fine for framing & stills on my Nexus 7 & 5D2, when recording raw it freezes though, also I broke the adapter cable the first day I used it in the field (the plugs connectors seemed to have cracked on the inside) I should probably spend a little more then 2$ incl. shipping on that...

[Africashot]

Turns out the adapter cable wasn't broken but this seems to be a common bug the app developer blames on the Nexus 7, it will simply stop recognizing the cameras for seemingly no reason until you reset the language to English US (!?) and reboot the device (btw it has to be Eng US to work so you'll reboot twice, first to something other then Eng US and then back...)
This is so sever that it turns out not to work more often then it does, also the reboot fix doesn't work every time so once it is off there is no way to know when or if you'll be able to use it... making it completely useless and a waste of time in the best case or a great way to look like an idiot in front of a client n the worst. That is on the 5D2, with the 600D it worked only once and has never since...
The developers know about it http://dslrcontroller.com/guide-2013-nexus-7.php but it doesn't stop them of highly recommending the app to work with the Nexus 7. I had send them a friendly email twice, even more of a perspective of bug reporting since they are still in public beta, but there was no reaction... 8$ may not be a lot, then again it is a little too much for an app that simply doesn't work, especially for me as I only bought the Nexus 7 for using it with the app! I would really hope there would be a way to fix this stupid bug as the app itself otherwise seems great and can be really useful.

[chris_overseas]

What cable do you guys use?

The best cables by far are the ones available from Lindy. Have a look at the cables section here for more information: http://dslrcontroller.com/devices.php

[aaphotog]

A few quotes of mine from a few different threads

Its more than 15fps with a 5d3.
real time playback, or VERY close to it.
Nexus 7 DSLR controller

I dont get a lag that I notice. If you have a lag, go into your dslrcontroller app. Change from 15fps to 30fps. also, theres another option to speed up the menu. I own an ipad so I only bought the nexus soley for this purpose and have no other apps or memory hogging items on mine... maybe you do???

I paid 170 for a nexus 7
Like 7 bucks for a OTG cable
I believe 8 dollars for 'dslr controller' app
Works without issue.
Real time viewing. No long, no stutters
It just works!
Only problem is, since its usb as opposed to hdmi, you don't see what you see on the camer(ie recording raw in crop mode, you won't see the cropped image if you are seeing it on the cams lcd)
Other than that... NO ISSUES!
seems pretty cheap to me.
App has focus peak and controls for the camera(focusing, shutter, iso/f-stop/shutter speed / White balance settings);

[paulleavitt]

I just got it working on my Nexus 7 (1st Gen)! It's hooked up to my 60D on a shoulder rig, and I'm using it for my viewfinder. I Chainfire's recommended cable, which is a LINDY micro USB to mini USB (read, no adapters!) and it works great! I haven't done much experimenting with it yet, but it looks promising! The only feature that seems to be lacking is focus peaking. I noticed a few people seem to have it working (or maybe I'm calling it by the wrong name), how do I enable it?

[aaphotog]

I just got it working on my Nexus 7 (1st Gen)! It's hooked up to my 60D on a shoulder rig, and I'm using it for my viewfinder. I Chainfire's recommended cable, which is a LINDY micro USB to mini USB (read, no adapters!) and it works great! I haven't done much experimenting with it yet, but it looks promising! The only feature that seems to be lacking is focus peaking. I noticed a few people seem to have it working (or maybe I'm calling it by the wrong name), how do I enable it?

Do you mind posting a photo of the setup? I'd like to see how you've got the nexus situated on your rig

[Datadogie]

And did you know if you have two android devices ( for me S2 and ASUS transformer 101 ) you can go WIFI with a fair bit of lag.

[melia]

Live preview gets disabled when I try to shoot raw. It's just blank/black. I got 5D3 and 7D with Nexus 7.

As far as I can see some of you guys are able to shoot raw vid with LP on dslr controller. Any tips around this?

P.S. I'm sure it's not about cables because LP worked as soon as I disabled raw_rec/mlv_rec.

By the way same happens with ML controller app so it should be ml related bug

[vnguyen972]

Live preview gets disabled when I try to shoot raw. It's just blank/black. I got 5D3 and 7D with Nexus 7.

As far as I can see some of you guys are able to shoot raw vid with LP on dslr controller. Any tips around this?

P.S. I'm sure it's not about cables because LP worked as soon as I disabled raw_rec/mlv_rec.

By the way same happens with ML controller app so it should be ml related bug

I got the same problem, have you found a way to get it to work?

[garry23]

I have promote remote and CamRanger. Plus, I just got a Dell Venue 8 Pro. This allows me to tether to my 5DIII in the field and control the camera from the Canon EOS Utility.

Of course my dream is to control ML as well.

[Brawl]

I have not any tablet. For work I need to buy one LCD (maybe lilliput), do you suggest me to buy the tabled insted of the lilliput? thanks.

p.s. how do you rig it to your tripod?

[Africashot]

The lilliput will do a better job, the tablet is only a workaround, I have a nexus 7 with 5d2 and it doesn't work 90% of the time for one reason or the other. You need a friction arm or similar to mount it, ironically most mounts and friction arm solutions already amount to more then buying a tablet or even monitor...

[Brawl]

The lilliput will do a better job, the tablet is only a workaround, I have a nexus 7 with 5d2 and it doesn't work 90% of the time for one reason or the other. You need a friction arm or similar to mount it, ironically most mounts and friction arm solutions already amount to more then buying a tablet or even monitor...

bad news I'm afraid it doesn't work propely (it's not a free app after all). do you have nexus 7 first model or the 2013 model? I yesterday while serching info on this app over internet I ear somewhere that it should work well with the first nexus so I'm surprised (I do not know how does it work with the second generation of nexus 7 so yesterday night I contacted the seller of the app to ask about it).
My problem is that my budget is really small at the moment and I cannot go wrong with my target.
Also there is another problem, there are so much (for my opinion) models of lilliput monitor and (maybe is this) I'm really tired about serching on the web "which to buy". to be honest I have done a research to try understand which model of lilliput to buy for my 7D but I was more confused that before, and from what I have understand people do not know exactly which model is the best for a specific camera (in my case it's a 7D).
I wish something chep, high resolution, and that I can watch in full screen without loose a portion of the image (I know that some models crop the image, so there is some kind of hidden part of the picture not displayed on the LCD).
I would be really grateful for any advice and sorry for OT at this point.

[sqd]

I'm sitting here, trying to get this to work, but it won't :/ Maybe I'm missing something.

First things first:
5D3 with ML 2.3 build Feb 03 2014
Samsung Galaxy S3 and also a Cube android tablet (tried both)
Latest version of DSLR Controller

To connect the devices, I use this in my android device:

Then a normal USB male to mini USB (just like the one that comes with the camera) to the 5D3.

So I've tried the devices mentioned above and two different cables, but DSLR Controller won't find the camera. What am I doing wrong? Am I supposed to have an adapter like that on the other end instead of the android device-end?

[engardeknave]

http://dslrcontroller.com/devices.php

[odlan]

My setup is a 5d mark iii + Nexus 4 with dslrcontroller and TP-Link MR3040. I can control my camera wireless. It would be very useful to control ML..

[eyeland]

8$ may not be a lot, then again it is a little too much for an app that simply doesn't work, especially for me as I only bought the Nexus 7 for using it with the app! I would really hope there would be a way to fix this stupid bug as the app itself otherwise seems great and can be really useful.

+1