What is the Software?

First off I'm new and I'm an inspiring photographer.

Well, I went to the swap meet and had my little neice take pics w/ santa claus. the photographer used a laptop to actually take the picture. Like his camera was the remote for it. What kind of sofrware was he using and where can I get it. Also he had a Sony printer that did the pictures almost instantly. It was maybe the size of a normal computer tower. I tried searching it but didn't come with anything.

Depend on the make and type of Camera. Canon EOS comes with S/W to link up to the PC via USB for remote capture.

sh1bby69 wrote in post #2383273
First off I'm new and I'm an inspiring photographer.

Um...it's aspiring.

It sounds like he may have even been using some sort of dye sublimation printer if it printed that fast. Likely it was a proprietary s/w package with camera tethered to the laptop.

The laptop was not the remote. He may have been saving directly from the camera to the laptop's hard drive for faster processing and printing. Perhaps he was "inspiring" you to become an "aspiring" photographer?

There is an EOS Capture program in DPP that I believe allows you to download images directly to your computer and control various camera parameters.

haha sorry for the incorrect spelling....I have a Canon 10D.

He took the picture from the laptop. He didn't even get up to push the button on the camera. Scott, what does DPP mean? Also do I need special cables to do this or can I just use the digital wire? I see there is a spot for a video output...

Sorry for all these question

Canon's Remote Capture, which comes with Zoom Browser or Eos Viewer Utilities (the standard software for Canon's digital cameras) does allow you to take the picture from your laptop. It won't let you view the "before" on the EOS DSLRs however. Only a camera that permits previewing on the LCD would be able to preview on the computer; your 10D doesn't. But if you know what the camera's framing you could watch from anywhere else and click when you see what you want. And you would use the camera's standard data cable.

DPP - Digital Photo Professional. IIRC it wasn't shipped with the 10D; RAW in the 10D was handled by ZB. You can, howwever, update to DPP and the EOS Utilities, which have supplanted ZB.

As I've mention before its usually connected via USB cable unless its Pro-DSLR or a Digital Medium Format Back then it could be firewire. W/ some DSLR it is also possible to dump via WiFi so no wire is needed.

Live preview might be possible w/ some Oly DSLR w/ live preview back, but ZLR and P&S will allow you live preview while it is teather to a computer.

While teather and camera connected to ext power source it can also take time interval images to capacity of flash memory or HDD as long as the camera is set to never turn itself off.