Laptop as viewfinder

Does anyone know if there is a way to use your laptop as a viewfinder while taking portraits? Or even just to have the laptop automatically view immediately after you snap the picture would help.

Hi and welcome

Its worth searching the forum before posting, there was a discussion a few months back, check out the link below

https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6185

Steve

In a round about sort of way you can do it with Adobe Lightroom I think, though I've never tried. You'll need Pentax Remote Assistant software and a USB cable. Then when the image is captured, have it stored in Lightroom's watched folder. It should then 'suck' it in to its catalogue and display it on screen.

Thank you Mannesty! I tried searching the forums before but couldn't locate any information about it. I appreciate your help.

https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6185

The discussion in the above would seem to indicate that it can be done on a PC with either
Pentax Remote Assistant and Capture 1
Pentax Remote Assistant and Picassa 2

but not Lightroom

If you have a MAC then it can be done with
Pentax Remote Assistant
Aperture + plugin

Steve

Sounds like a challenge to me. I'll have a go later.

I'll be back . . . when I've found my USB cable for the K10D . . .

I hope you find a way to make it work, I use Lightroom but neither of the other two.

Steve

This works best with firmware version 1.3 and the latest Pentax Remote assistant.

It also allows you to control the camera settings.

Transfer Mode on the Set-up menu will need to be set to PC.

if your computer has a video in (ie...camcorder in vcr mode, video capture card or box etc) you could use your video out cable from the camera. (works a treat with a portable dvd player or flatpanel tv.)

I got this working with single images in Lightroom. You seem to have to make sure that the folder that Lightroom is watching contains no images before you start the process.

1. Connect camera to PC
2. Start PRA
3. Set up folder to save images (this is for temporary storage)
4. Start up Lightroom
5. Enable Auto import from File menu
6. Point watch folder to that selected in step 3.

I can't seem to find an option to set how regularly Lightroom auto imports from the watched folder.

If I start Lightroom and shoot the first image is imported OK, but subsequent images are not.

If I shutdown and then restart Lightroom then all images are shown.

Steve

That's pretty much what I have found. Lightroom works once or twice, then needs to be restarted.

I find this really strange because for the last few weeks I have been scanning my slide collection and placing the resulting images from my Minolta Scan Dual IV into the Lightroom watched folder. It has all worked well.

That's mainly why I was so quick to say that it should work, but it doesn't. Try it for yourself, simply copy photo images into that folder, one at a time, and LR will import them. It makes me think that the PRA software is perhaps not finishing writing the file properly.

More investigation needed I think.

After some tests I have concluded that there is a problem with Pentax Remote Assistant (PRA) version 3.01

Using PRA standalone to simply dump image files into a folder doesn't seem to work consistantly.

Using the PRA application to fire the shutter is more reliable than actually pressing the shutter button, but both methods should work.

What I find is that after taking a number of PRA triggered shots, if I then press the actual shutter release on the camera, PRA locks up and the progress bar keeps cycling from left to right, but no file name appears in the information bar at the bottom of the main image window.

My conclusion so far is that Lightroom, or any other image capture software, will not work reliably as an 'instant view' application when using Pentax Remote Assistant version 3.01.

I am unable to find a copy of the original version 3.00 release to try it out. If any of you has a copy you could send, please PM or email it to me.

Update

I find I can fire up to 6 shots singularly or continuously (no more than 5 second delay between shots) and Lightroom will auto import OK. I think this limit is a PRA issue.

After that it needs to be restarted. If there are still images in the target folder it will import them, but will not then auto import any new shots.

Lightroom online help mentions that the target folder should be initially empty empty. I wonder if Lightroom has a problem resetting the target folder flag when it moves images over to the destination folder.

I don't think this is a Lightroom issue Steve. I've been using this method for weeks with hundreds of slide scans and zero problems, it works like clockwork . . . reliably.

What's new, to me, is the PRA software, which I think is flakey. Sorry, that's a technical term I use quite often, meaning: It ain't no good.

You are right, it looks like a PRA issue.

I put some files into a new folder let Lightroom import them and then immediately pasted more files into the same folder. Once again Lightroom imported them with no problem.

To be honest Instant View is not something that I would use much, so not so much of a problem for me.

Maybe a better featured version of PRA will be made available with the K20, fingers crossed it may even work with the K10