Tethered shooting on a very low budget: Is it possible?

I'm looking for a low-budget camera which allows tethered shooting. Does such a thing even exist?

Just to clear up a few things. Are you talking about just connecting the camera to a computer and have the pictures transferred to the PC? Or are you talking about remote controlling a camera from the PC also? Just taking pictures from the PC can be done with a web camera and many compact and some DSLR cameras. But if you are talking about controlling zoom, elevation and azimuth then it will cost you a few hundred $.

cojadate wrote in post #8892197
I'm looking for a low-budget camera which allows tethered shooting. Does such a thing even exist?

Yes.

Breeze Systems, which makes very good software for remote control of Canon and Nikon cameras, sells PSRemote, a US $75 program that allows tethered shooting with most Canon point and shoot camera. The Breeze Systems web site has a long list of the cameras that work with this program, including several of Canon's inexpensive A-series point and shoot models.

If you check the specifications for those cameras on the Breeze Systems list, you'll probably find that some of them are bundled with software that will allow tethered operation without buying a third-party program.

Apologies for the late reply. Many thanks to both of you for getting back to me.

blue9 wrote in post #8892270
Just to clear up a few things. Are you talking about just connecting the camera to a computer and have the pictures transferred to the PC?

Nope, not that. I realize I can do that with any digital camera

blue9 wrote in post #8892270
Just taking pictures from the PC can be done with a web camera and many compact and some DSLR cameras. But if you are talking about controlling zoom, elevation and azimuth then it will cost you a few hundred $.

I don't care about zoom, elevation or azimuth. A webcam that could take high-quality stills would be perfect. But does such a thing exist? A compact or DSLR camera less than $300 capable of such things would be good too. But do they exist at that price range?

DC Fan wrote in post #8892920
Breeze Systems, which makes very good software for remote control of Canon and Nikon cameras, sells PSRemote, a US $75 program that allows tethered shooting with most Canon point and shoot camera. The Breeze Systems web site has a long list of the cameras that work with this program, including several of Canon's inexpensive A-series point and shoot models.

If you check the specifications for those cameras on the Breeze Systems list, you'll probably find that some of them are bundled with software that will allow tethered operation without buying a third-party program.

Thanks very much! I shall investigate them. Although now blue9 has got me thinking about the possibility of webcams that can take high-quality stills so I will check that out first I think.

I've been investigating the BreezeSystems-compatible cameras but realized my situation is complicated by another issue: I want to use it via a MacBook (Intel) Mac OS Tiger 10.5.11. So it needs to be compatible with my OS, compatible with intel macs and allow tethered shooting via USB.

Very difficult to find all this info out, which is why I continue to be tempted by the webcam option, since at least then I can easily make sure that everything will work together. Problem is I don't quite trust webcams for taking still photos, no matter how many MP they have, since that's just not what they're mainly designed for and the advertising bumf never talks about it much.