capture (c) 2004 Petr Danecek
A simple tool for remote/periodic capturing with Canon PowerShot A60/70/400/etc.
Based on 
      ptpcam (c)2001-2003 Mariusz Woloszyn <emsi@ipartners.pl>
      ptpcanon (c) 2003 Nikolai Kopanygin

===========
* INSTALL *
===========

1) Download libptp2-1.0.1 library from http://sf.net/projects/libptp
and install it. Note: most Linux distributions will have a package for this.

2) Optionaly comment out

      HAVE_GTK      = -DHAVE_GTK
      HAVE_READLINE = -DHAVE_READLINE

if you don't have GTK-devel or readline-devel installed.

The perl script `job' included with the distribution uses perl module
ParseDate.pm. You need to install it if you want to use the `job' script.
(For your convenience, it is included with the capture distribution - copy
it to your PERL_PATH/Time path.)

3) Type `make' to compile `capture'

4) Run ./example.sh, ./job or ./capture and see what happens.

5) Type `su -c "make install"' to install


================
* NEW IN 1.0.3 *
================

* New SourceForge web site, new mailing lists.
* More complete Makefile
* Ability to build with/out HAVE_GTK
* Added 'vftrans' and two new 'vfalign' modes
       transparent        (true transparency)
       pseudo-transparent (pixel interpolation)
* With 'vftrans', you can adjust opacity for 'transparent' mode.
* Viewfinder won't close anymore while shooting.
* New 'debug' command.
* SIGTERM handler for server
* Quicker image resize with vfalign
* Possibility to change image (after each shot, with the previous one,
  for example), with 'vfalign'. Also, 'vfalign' won't reload an image
  if you give it the exact same filename (so you can switch combine
  mode).
* New command 'vfsave' for saving viewfinder images when viewfinder
  window is on:
    vfsave some-path/prefix     (save images under the given prefix)
    vfsave off                  (stop saving images)


http://capture.sourceforge.net/

=====================
*About this software*
=====================

The latest version of this software is available at
http://capture.sourceforge.net/. You can also see the original website at:
http://www.pdesign.cz/plantgrowth.

"capture" is a tool for remote capturing of Canon cameras. 
Commands can be specified as command line parameters (useful for scripting) 
or can be entered in an interactive mode. It can 
      - take a shot
      - set various properties of the camera 
      - query current settings of the camera (write the name of the setting with no parameter)
      - open a viewfinder window (works like a webcam)
      - save viewfinder images 


"job" is a sample perl script which i use for long-term periodic capturing of
plant movement and growth. It takes shots in periodic intervals and
saves the images in a specified directory. It supports automatic turn-off and 
turn-on.


For more details on implemented commands type `./capture --help' 
and `./job --help'.


===================
*Supported Cameras*
===================

These cameras where reported to work with capture:

      Canon PowerShot S50
      Canon PowerShot S60
      Canon PowerShot A60
      Canon PowerShot A70
      Canon PowerShot A75
      Canon PowerShot A80
      Canon PowerShot A85
      Canon PowerShot A95
      Canon PowerShot A310
      Canon PowerShot A510
      Canon PowerShot A520
      Canon PowerShot A640
      Canon PowerShot G5
      Canon PowerShot G6
      Canon PowerShot G7
      Canon Digital IXUS 400 (aka PowerShot S400)
      Canon PowerShot S410
      Canon PowerShot S500
      Canon PowerShot S2 IS
      Canon PowerShot S3 IS

These cameras were reported NOT to work with capture:
      Canon PowerShot A10
      Canon PowerShot A460
      Canon PowerShot A540
      Canon PowerShot S45
      Canon G3
      
Send a report if you want to have your camera included in this list!


========
* BUGS *
========

1) After a long series of capture commands (like 400-1000 images) the camera
gets into an unknown state and needs to be restarted manualy.

2) On some systems, viewfinder window does not work. Please try the following 
workaround which has been suggested by Rafal Bosak: 
    "I added -lpthread at the beginning of the library list in Makefile and 
    now it works."
If you have some programming experience, you may try to look at
the viewfinder.c code - the viewfinder_refresh_handler is not called
periodically as it should, no idea why.

