2015, my experience(bug report) of timelapsing with qDslrdashboard

[Willyao]

Hi everybody,
I'm writing this post to share my experience as a timelapse photographer, using the method of qDD's LRTimelapse tethered to my Sony mirrorless camera via wifi exclusively for a year now, started from version 0.26 and recently 0.3beta10, having been through plenty kinds of situation, i have some words for Hubaiz the developer and whoever find this information useful.

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First of all, qDslrdashboard is a great application, i couldn't find any app on this planet that functions like it, it has been a great helper for my timelapse production with full control over the whole situation.
I appreciate the fact that its a freeware, but life is hard. without enough financing support, i don't see a point for the developer to continue refining and such, and i'm afraid after the long silence on regular updating, there won't be any future support anymore. So Hubaiz if you're reading this, why not make the application a paid-ware? People who do professional works that look for stability and support will always pay for great tools like this.PLEASE CONSIDER THIS and hopefully get back to us soon.

and now, some bug report

starting from 0.2.6
I preserve the principle of not updating until i find bugs that i can't get around with, so by the time 0.3 is out, i'm still using 0.2.6 until i find out that the application crashes every time when its trying to change exposure in AHG mode, the reason why it crashed is ----i bought a new lens that is manual--those who have no aperture info communicated to the body, the modern electronic lense i used before that didn't had this problem, since shooting TL with a manual lense is essential, i upgraded to 0.2.9
(BTW, at the version of 0.2.6, qDD's LRT menu had this max ISO/shutter speed menu info not displaying bug,but it can be easily fixed by reopening the LRT menu , so it wasnt a big deal... at that time)

0.2.9 fixed the CTD when using manual lenses, thanks god for that. However i found out a new bug that is VERY DEADLY and didnt happend on 0.2.6.

"The inconsistent intervalometer interval time and random pauses on timelapses"
i have some screenshot from my LRTimelapse workflow here to show you the problem.

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I called it deadly because that long pause in between frames will simply ruin the shot. It's unexpectable, not every shots have this problem. But this bug really frustrate me and i couldnt find anything to prevent it from happening, the only thing i can do next to praying is to pay full attention to the intervals each time when i'm shooting.
(max shutter speed & iso menu info not displaying bug is still present, but still avoidable at this time)

so without many hesitation,
i updated to 0.3beta 10, hoping for a surprise like what i had when i upgraded from 0.26 to 0.29,
but this time, no.
0.3 continue to suffer the random pause and inconsistent interval bug, and with the new UI introduced, its now impossible to avoid the 'max iso&SS not displaying bug" by reopening LRT menu anymore, hitting exit will either terminate the connection between the app and the camera, or it will just shut down qDD completely.

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So for now, the only option for me to shoot timelapse realible is via Sony's timelapse camera app, a app thats running inside the camera... after a year with qDD,i'm back to the place exactly where i started.
Like i said... the qDD offers full control of every settings, aperture ramping, interval ramping, you name it. The sony app is jsut way too simple and amateur compared to qDD's LRT function, so counting on all the good experience i had with qDD, other than just hoping...i decided to write this post and let everyone especially the developer know, people really love your work... we really wish if you could get back to qDD in the future.

Thanks for reading, forgive my esl.

[jbrookfi]

I too have seen the erratic intervals when using the interval timer inside the LRTimelapse option.

I believe I have found a workaround - at least it has worked for me in the 7 time lapses I have taken recently (all using iOS)

Use the Interval Controller option that came with 0.3 This is opened by the IC button on the top row of icons. The network icon is the leftmost button and the stop button is on the right.

Not only have my intervals been consistent but I have been able to ramp the interval (starting at 8 secs when the sun is up to 30 secs after dark).

Although it is not obvious it is possible to use AHG with the IC dialog.

Setup your AHG options as before , capture a sample and then press the AHG button
Close the LRTimelapse option and select the IC button (from the options bar at the top of the screen). Try not to accidentally click the "stop qDslrdashboard" button http://dslrdashboard.info/phpBB3/postin ... &f=6&t=640#

Then setup your interval here. There are a few tricks that are less than intuitive.

1. You should (indeed must) see a red text string with the model of you camera. Drag this string to the large, middle of the window with the vertical time lines. This should produce a red horizontal line that would allow you to determine the blocks of time when the camera should capture images. The default is NOT to capture. So click on the camera model text that is now at the top of the screen and click the "capture" option to ON.

2. Now click on the yellow "Interval" text string. Set the starting interval to whatever value you want. The default is 1000ms. For sunsets I typically use 8000ms.

3. Now drag the yellow "Interval" text string to the yellow horizontal line. I drag it to the left hand of the line. Double click the yellow circle and set your final interval (I use 30secs if I want to capture stars). Set the time it will take to ramp from 8s to 30s. The trick is to ensure that the interval will always be adequate for whatever AHG decides the exposure time should be. Recently I was shooting in a dark sky environment at 30 degrees North. It gets dark very quickly so I need to be on 30secs no later than 30mins after sunset. If you ramp too slowly you will miss frames. You can choose whether the ramp will be linear or smooth. I use "outQuad". If you don't want to ramp then simply set the initial interval to 30s (or whatever)

4. The graph will look strange until you set the total time for the time-lapse.

5. Now start the time-lapse sequence from this (IC) dialog. You can close the IC dialog and move back to the LRTimelapse dialog if you wish. I flip backwards and forwards between the two dialogs at the beginning of the TL to check that everything is behaving itself. The IC dialog shows a time countdown to the next interval. I do see variations but this are typically less than 0.5 secs - which is acceptable for my purposes.

The IC dialog supports the Dynamic Perception NMX controllers but, although I can set the start and stop correctly, the values for the "current position" are strange and consequently the ramping does not work.

Has anyone managed to use IC and NMX together?


Jeremy











P.S I fully agree with your suggestion that qDslrDashboard be a paid product if that would mean that the bugs are ironed-out.
It is incredibly powerful - when it works.