The Framers Forum

I asked this question a couple of years ago, when I was considering PreView, I may well still consider Preview but at the moment I just want to get a camera to mount on the ceiling again.

Years ago I setup a Canon Powershot on the ceiling and linked it with a cable to my PC, the Canon software allowed me to zoom in with the lens and take pictures whilst viewing the picture on screen, I no longer have this camera but saw a similar one in Currys , a Canon Powershot SX540, pretty reasonable as well, which I hoped my do the same thing, does anyone use anything simlar that they control via their PC ?

Thanks,
Adam/Bagpuss

Can you actually control the zoom function on your pc using the supplied Canon software for this camera? I also want to mount a camera on the ceiling to photograph artwork and controlling the zoom remotely has been the thing I can't seem to find out even on Canon's own website.

I downloaded the demo of Pre-View with high hopes but was very disappointed with it. I would be interested to hear from anyone using it.

Canon stopped supporting the tethering of their compact cameras several years ago. We now use an EOS as our ceiling camera, sadly no remote zooming.

I always thought that Pre-View was pretty nifty though.

I got one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00 ... UTF8&psc=1

you can link via wifi to a tablet of phone, to down load your images, plus you can control the camera from the tablet including the zoom, but it would mean climbing up each time you wanted to the the camera

Steve N wrote:I got one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00 ... UTF8&psc=1

you can link via wifi to a tablet of phone, to down load your images, plus you can control the camera from the tablet including the zoom, but it would mean climbing up each time you wanted to the the camera

Cool, thanks for this, I like the idea of controlling it via wifi from a tablet, that'll impress the customers ! I didn't follow the last comment about climbing up on the bench Steve ?

Well if you have the camera fixed to the ceiling, you will have to climb up to switch it on, also press a button on the back of the camera to activate the wifi link to the tablet. The camera has rechargeable battery , but it's a little bit like the ones on a phone in shape , square and flat and it has it's own charger, so you will need to take it out of the camera to charge it, but saying that it last a long time. i have charged mine about 4 times this year, two holidays and most weekends of use, so not bad

Steve N wrote:Well if you have the camera fixed to the ceiling, you will have to climb up to switch it on, also press a button on the back of the camera to activate the wifi link to the tablet. The camera has rechargeable battery , but it's a little bit like the ones on a phone in shape , square and flat and it has it's own charger, so you will need to take it out of the camera to charge it, but saying that it last a long time. i have charged mine about 4 times this year, two holidays and most weekends of use, so not bad

Thanks for clarifying this Steve, when I used to use my old Canon Powershot I think I had a power cable and a USB cable connected to it so I could control everything from the PC, I'll give this some more thought I think ...
Thanks, Adam /Bagpuss

Don't you want some sort of a webcam then?

Why not go here and ask what they recommend: https://www.dpreview.com/forums

Why not just stick with the powershot, there's plenty on ebay?