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General discussion

Point and Shoot SDK's

Jun 26, 2008 12:17AM PDT

I hope you can point me in the right direction. I have talked to just
about every major digital camera manufacture and have not come up with a solution to my problem. Canon was where I started because up until now, they actually had a solution I could use. Please let me explain what I am trying to do in general terms:

I work for a very large retail company that visualize a product on a
computer. This product is flat, and comes in many different sizes. The customer would bring this product in and place on a worktop area. A camera, or video capture device, would be mounted above the worktop
about 8' from the ground (So it is impossible for the employee to
manipulate the device). The employee would go a computer, and through
the computer be able to zoom, adjust the lighting, focus, capture and
save the image of the product. Once taken, the employee would make
changes to display a final form of the end product.

Canon had a SDK that worked on their S5is model, which would have been perfect. However, they are "end-of-life"ing this camera, and the decision from Japan is the SDK will no longer work in Point and Shoot camera's in the future. A regular SLR won't work for us, as I can't control the zoom, and the cost would be to great (we are talking about 2,000 image capture devices in total). The resolution would have to be greater than a web camera, camcorder or security camera would currently allow, so a digital camera is ideal. The specifications for a camera would be as follows, I think:

At least 6 MP

A/C Adaptor

Point and Click type camera

Tethered to a PC through USB or Firewire

Zoom-able

Adjustable White Balance

Shutter release

Image transfer

And of course, affordable (under $500 per device)

Do you have any ideas for me? If you need more information I would
more than glad to discuss with you.

Thank You for your time,

Discussion is locked

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huh?

End of life means that they will no longer produce the camera, but Canon has not even announced a replacement for the S5IS. I don't see them stopping production on a camera with no viable option for customers to choose.

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Also

Here are some cameras that can do remote capture:

A640
G9
G7

Those are the last of your options besides the S5IS. There are other cameras, but they are no longer in production.

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Other issues
Jun 26, 2008 2:14AM PDT

Thanks for the model listing, however my largest concern is I've been told by Canon that they will stop supporting SDK API's on all point and shoot camera's in 2009. The S5is model replacment is coming out in July. (or so I've been told). As we will be opening stores after 2009 with the need for a point and shoot camera with API's, this is not good for the company.

Steve

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correct

Their list of cameras that could be used for remote capture was quite large, and now only a handful have it. I think the found that people don't use it and finding ways to cut costs. Unfortunately that will hurt some that actually use the feature.

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A resource
Jun 26, 2008 7:24AM PDT

Here is a link to a company that sells software for remote capture.
http://www.breezesys.com/

They have primarily dealt with Canon cameras but they are branching out to other brands now.

They have a complete list of cameras that can use their software.
That should help you find the type of camera you need.

If Canon does stop support for remote capture, they would be concerned for sure. You might discuss the problem with them.

...
..
.

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Any Luck?
Sep 2, 2008 5:44AM PDT

I have near the exact same requirements, with the addition that I need Vista compatibility. Our current Canon based software is near its end of life, since finding compatible cameras is now an eBay-centric task.

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Need help
Mar 17, 2010 4:32PM PDT

I am also doing roughly the same kind of work, can you help me out. Were you able to find any solution to your problem, any good camera with same specifications. If yes, can you give me the name.

Thanks in advance.

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Same Problem - IPEVO P2V Webcam Possible Solution
Sep 13, 2010 5:01AM PDT

Same problem: I am working on solving the same problem. We are a small company and work with a stores who want to upload their inventory the web as they receive it. The goal if for the user to be able to snap a picture of the item with a digital camera connected to the computer, and then have the image associated with that item, and upload both to be sold online.

Cost: Using DSLR cameras for this purpose will be overkill in terms of features and way too cost-intensive. But it seems unwise to develop products/systems around an outdated camera, like one of the now unsupported Powershot models, which might end up being $800 on ebay in 4 years, or just not available.

Current solution: We're using the 2.0MP IPEVO P2V webcam (http://www.ipevo.com/Point-2-View-USB-Camera_p_70.html), which has a shutter button on the webcam itself. It comes with a utility that does a live preview, and when you click the shutter button on the webcam, it saves the image to a certain folder. A program we have developed then takes those images and associates them with an inventory item for uploading for sale online. It works, and the picture quality is much better than but the major drawbacks are the same as with any webcam: picture quality is lacking and focus is sometimes off. It's just not going to produce pretty pictures. But we're working with it for now as our large-scale solution , and then if we have a store that wants to pay the extra money, we'll set them up with a Canon Powershot from eBay and buy the PSRemote from BreezeSys for $100/computer (http://www.breezesys.com/).

If anyone comes has a better solution, please let me know!

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There is an option to control array of cameras
Sep 5, 2011 1:21AM PDT