Canon EOS 500D - image transfer time too slow

[RobertoV]

Hello, this is my first post, my question is:

I'm using the DSLR CANON EOS 500D along with ASCOM DSLR driver running on my Windows 10 laptop (Intel Celeron CPU N3350 @ 1.10GHz - 4GB RAM) and Sharpcap PRO 3.2 and/or 4.0, I'm successful fully controll the camera (ISO, shutter, Live view and Still mode)

The problem is that I have to wait about 10-15 seconds before Sharpcap complete the transfer process (throught USB 3 port) what I can do to speedup the download process? as it is now the software is unusable.

Thanks for reply, cheers.
Roberto

[admin]

Hi Roberto,

sadly I don't think there is much that you can do - the camera itself is USB2 only, so using a USB3 port will not help. The transfer rate is determined by a combination of the USB2 maximum speed and the ASCOM.DSLR driver (how that driver talks to the camera, and how efficient it is).

Having said that, the 10-15 seconds does sound longer than usual (even for a DSLR). Is there anything that could be slowing down the communications like very long USB cables, hubs, other things connected to the same USB port, etc?

cheers,

Robin

[RobertoV]

thanks a lot Robin, so I have to investigate about the ASCOM driver, hoping to find a solution
Cheers
Roberto

[iamhondo]

Roberto,

You didn't specify how long your exposures are -- only the delay time. If you have the LENR (long exposure noise reduction) feature turned on and you're taking 15-second exposures, you have to wait another 15 seconds after the shutter closes. That's because the camera is capturing a dark frame to correct hot/cold pixels and other defects in your original image. On the other hand, if you're taking 1-second exposures and you still wait 15 seconds, that's not due to LENR. You can find the on/off control of the LENR feature in the settings menu.

You can provide more details to help troubleshoot. For example, if you capture an image at different sizes for a fixed shutter length (say 10 seconds), you might see the larger images taking longer than the shortest images. Generally, image size doesn't linearly impact download times. But if your computer is slow (and busy) or your have an unusually slow USB setup, that could increase download time. Also, if you're capturing to an internal card on the camera, the speed of the SD card might be too slow.

Joe