meklarian

snippets and transits

GitHub - meklarian/MekNikon: .NET Nikon SDK Wrapper, Intervalometer, and maybe other things
.NET Nikon SDK Wrapper, Intervalometer, and maybe other things - meklarian/MekNikon
GitHub

Hi friends,

The eclipse is nigh and I made a thing to try and make the best of the upcoming event.

If you are a Nikon user like myself, you might have noticed that the onboard intervalometer is useful but not really programmable in ways that we would like when it comes to bracketing exposures. This is especially problematic for eclipses, where the amount of time we have to shoot is limited and the capture settings are too broad for what our cameras support.

Hence, I made the aforementioned to address these limitations. I tried my best to find a COTS solution, but I couldn’t get enough detail out of any sales material to be sure that they could do what I wanted. In addition to shooting wide brackets (7+ exposure sets), I wanted to be able to shoot at least two cameras for the event.

The source code provided above addresses the issues I’ve mentioned (but really the minimum, too), but it needs to be compiled to be useable. One will also need to download the SDK materials from Nikon that match one’s cameras. I feel I’ve made enough progress that I feel I can throw this out there in the hopes that maybe someone else who also needs this can put it to some use. There are lots of cut corners and some shabby roofing and flooring, but enough framework is there to get the job done.

Thanks for following along and thank you all in general for all the attention you’ve given the content I’ve posted. Hopefully this upcoming adventure also affords the opportunity to get some quality shots of the solar eclipse.

See you on the other side,

- Paul / meklarian

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Annular Solar Eclipse
as seen from Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
October, 2023

Images shown here in reverse order (Peak - Start), except for the full sun which was shot after the eclipse incidence had ended.

A huge thanks to my friend Roma for allowing me to shoot from her family’s yard during the eclipse.

Plug: Roma sells southwestern jewelry and objects, click through to see her shop.

(more eclipse stuff here / forthcoming)

lesbian-pangoro:

fellow artists, what software do you use?

My hands (strictly traditional artist)

Photoshop

Procreate

Clip Studio Paint

Paint Tool SAI

Krita/Medibang/Ibis/some other freeware

MS Paint (why)

Illustrator (WHY???)

Something else (put it in the tags)

Not an artist/show results

See Results

In case anyone is wondering, here’s what I use and the gear in my workflow:

Capture:

Cameras: Nikon D500, Nikon Z7 ii, Nikon D800E (rip)– looking to get whatever succeeds the D500 and/or the next ultra-high res body (hopefully 60mp+); Tablet: Wacom 16 Cintiq

Presentation:

Monitors: Asus ProArt 328C, Asus ProArt 328Q

Edit:

Stills: Capture One, Video: Adobe Premiere, Screenshots/Other: Paint.Net, Adobe Illustrator

Preprint:

Photo Prints: Adobe Photoshop, Graphic Prints: Adobe InDesign

Print:

Epson Surecolor P800 (looking at buying a P5000 (speed) or P900 (color upgrade) soon)

Paper: Canson Infinity Platine Fibre Rag, Epson Ultra Premium Lustre

~

Starting out, I used to be solely on Paint.Net and Nikon Capture NX, but exporting and editing TIFFs from NEFs was so painfully slow I eventually had to get Capture One just to be able to keep up. The first time I opened Capture One and it did 2,400 previews in 90s with hardware acceleration (on my old geforce 1060), I was sold.

Everything else after that kind-of snowballed. Almost all my hardware and lenses were bought used/refurbished from ebay, craigslist, and FB marketplace (vetted by private group, open listings are garbage). The only mandatory recurring expenses are the Adobe suite and Capture One.