Basic support for Nikon cameras

I’ve been wanting to test these cameras for a while in our software, and even if there would be a lot of work to do our end to provide full support, we can confirm now that it is a potential option for multi-camera work through Xangle. USB triggering is not working at all, but by using our XangleBoard, we’ve been able to measure a quite surprising precision, which might actually be the most accurate camera we’ve ever tested (in analog).

What works?

• Connection through Raspberry Pis (network architecture, up to 250 cameras)

• Settings change (iso, white balance, shutter speed, f-stop, etc)

• File download

• RAW support

• Trigger via the XangleBoard (Esper triggerbox would also work)

What doesn’t work?

• Connection directly to a computer (would require a full integration with Nikon SDK)

• USB triggering (could potentially work)

Conclusion

Our tests were mostly technical and we didn’t have enough cameras to do a real field test, but at least, we know a bit more what are the possibilities for these newer Nikon mirrorless cameras. Doing these tests helped us to do minor changes to bring basic support to Nikon cameras (DSLRs and Mirrorless). As always, a real test would be to set up at least twelve units and experiment either on a bullet-time or a photogrammetry configuration.

Thanks Nikon Canada / Gosselin for letting us play with four Z6ii today!