LRTimelapse Forum

Full Version: 2015, my experience(bug report) of timelapsing with qDslrdashboard
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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.

[attachment=1217]

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.

[attachment=1218][attachment=1219][attachment=1220]

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.


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.

If you have similar experiences, please head to qDD's offcial forum and share your thoughts here
http://dslrdashboard.info/phpBB3/viewtop...2423#p2423

Thanks for reading, forgive my esl.
I suspect those problems being related to the implementation of Sony support in qDDB.
With Nikon it works mostly very reliable and I use qDDB for production work on my Nexus 7 with the D750 connected via internal Wifi. The last versions work very reliably for me. Currently however there seem to exist some problems with some Canon cameras and Sony support is still experimental, I guess.
I can confirm some oscillation in the intervals when using the internal timer, thus I mostly use an external trigger (either motion controller or pixel timer).

I do not think Zoltan will abandon this project. But I'm with you - I too would vote for him to charge for the app an make a good living from it. But after all, that's his decision.

I will point him to your post. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I share your experiences with qDSLRdashboard, but in my case I use a canon 7D and nexus 10. For the time being, I've given up using the app for timelapse as it still has a number of issues that prevent a good, steady workflow. That said, my hat is off to Zoltan for all his efforts, and agree he should charge (a little for the beta versions) for  the app. I hope he will continue to improve it, as it has true potential.

Bob
I'm testing the program at the moment with a Canon 6d. I'm also noticing that any time programmed less than 4 second only works at intervals of 4 seconds. You can also hear inconsistencies in time as it is running. It even says the interval is 4 seconds even though the setting is less in the programmer. Not really ideal really. Also cannot connect via WIFI.

I have none of these issues with DSLRcontroller which I also have installed on my Nexus 7. The camera is clicking away quite happily at 1 second intervals at the moment with DLSRcontroller as I type this... It is a real shame, as I prefer the layout and display on Dashboard.
Zoltan told me, he is working on the Canon issues.
Thank you Gwegner.

I do appreciate the work you lot put in!

I tried searching the DSLRdashboard forum, but for some reason, whatever words you type in the search box come up with 'word too common', which isn't too helpful!

Thanks again Smile