[Markarian421]

Does anyone know of a program (command line is fine) that can be used to control serial port only cameras from OS X? (Using a USB to serial port adapter.)

I have an old Linux (as in 10 years) PC (held together with strapping tape) that uses gphoto2 to control a Nikon CoolPix 800 over the serial port, and I'd love to get the same thing working under OS X so I could get rid of that computer. I was hoping gphoto would just compile on OS X, and maybe someone (like Fink or Darwin Ports) would have a binary even, but no luck on either count. (If you can point me to a working port of gphoto you would make me very happy.)

So I went looking for something easier. It looks like Cameraid used to do this sort of thing under OS 9 but dropped serial port camera control under OS X.

So, anyone know of a current solution? What I would really love is something that does for serial port cameras what EvoCam does for my iSIght. (In my dreams.)

Thanks.

-- Brian

[Markarian421]

Originally Posted by Markarian421

Does anyone know of a program (command line is fine) that can be used to control serial port only cameras from OS X? (Using a USB to serial port adapter.)

I found an answer: photopc (http://photopc.sourceforge.net/)

It's older and less general than gphoto, but for my particular camera (a Nikon CoolPix 800) it works (and may even be better since it has a number of very specific camera control commands). And DarwinPorts (soon to be MacPorts) has a port of it, so I didn't even have to try and compile it myself. Just now I was running the Nikon from my iBook over a Keyspan serial port adapter. So it looks good. (Unless you happen to be my 10 year old Linux PC which is about to be replaced by a Mini.)