I am trying to program an Arduino to control my canon R5 camera in preparation for the total solar eclipse in April 2024.
at first i tried computer software options like eclipse Orchestrator, capture eclipse, solar eclipse maestro, SET nÇ, and even programing the Canon camera from the SD card using magic lantern.
all these options have issues so i thought i could try to control the camera via USB using an arduino. It would be really nice to create a programable remote trigger. I am not talking about triggering an exposure (like pressing the shutter button), I am talking of controlling exposure time, ISO and triggering the exposure. This is necessary for solar eclipse photography because we need 20-30 bracketed exposures, while most canon camera can do 5 (the R5 can do 7) but it's still not enough.
Last night i got SET nÇ to control my camera and tried to sniif packets going through USB but it's too complicated to interpret (at least for me).
If someone could point me in the right direction (I am sure I am not the first one to try) it would be much MUCH appreciated.
If this this level of control is at all feasible, Canon will have already provided for it in their proprietary remote control software. You don't mention that you have tried it, or what it's shortcomings really are.
If you really need that much bracketing, an eclipse isn't so short-lived that there is no time to move seven stops and shoot again.
There may be some 3rd party softwares that allow this level of control to be achieved without an Arduino. I had in the long past used such softwares for a Canon PnS camera that gave me control over shutter intervals, EV &c for some time lapse work.
On reflection, I now recall somebody using an Arduino to control shutter speed using the bulb setting and remote shutter cable. Nothing fancy, but the scope would be limitless. With that in mind, I guess the main exercise is to ensure that any full-bottle WiFi remote operation can be overridden by the remote cable. Check the Cloudy Nights Forum.
So, what I referred to earlier was CHDK, Canon Hacker's Development Kit. Took a while to remember the name. Prolly not all that useful these days, but 15 years ago it's what was out there.
CHDK was for Canon point-and-shoot cameras. It was later ported to their DSLRs as Magic Lantern. Both allowed scripting, which can let you do neat things like high-altitude balloon flights. But so far as I know, it never got to the Rx mirrorless cameras. But if a 5D Mark III would work for you, you might look into Magic Lantern.
Edit: There appear to be several Magic Lantern scripts for eclipses. Here's one:
I downloaded Canon CHDK, but it’s not user friendly. Needs visual studio or equivalent to open, I don’t have the experience to do it. I can share the file if you want to look into it (without having to create an account with Canon and wait for them to approve the download)
It was the CHDK I had in mind. You are correct, I recall it being quite a challenge to get it going, but somehow I did. Best of fortune in your endeavours, and look forward this April to perhaps seeing one of your photos here.
Again, CHDK only works with Canon point & shoot cameras. The concept was extended to Canon DSLR cameras with the Magic Lantern software. But so far there's no port for the new mirrorless cameras like the R5. The exception is the M models.
