Customer Reviews

Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 Software Full Version for Nikon DSLR Cameras

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I wasn't sure about this. I shoot portraiture photography and have seen how other similar software, Leaf Capture and Canon's Remote Capture performs. What captured my interest (pardon the pun) was of course the advantage of being able to see the images on PC immediately. To finally have the ability to verify 100% of the time that focus, exposure, lighting, and of course composition were all the way I wanted them.....which means great shots all the time, ditching the bad ones immediately, and little to no time in post processing.

The Leaf and Canon software I have seen in use ran very fast which is absolutely important here. How useful would any of this be if when shooting tethered to the PC the pictures started stacking up or heaven forbid froze the computer?

So I downloaded a trial copy from Nikon first. I am pleased to say it runs fast. Previews pop up on screen in no more than one second, even when shooting tif on my D300 which are 35MB files. What pleased me even more is that it ran equally fast on my notebook computer which does not have near the processor or graphics power of my desktop PC.

You are managing 3 windows when working with your camera tethered to the PC. There is a preview window that is resizable showing the images very quickly. It can be configured for different magnifications, single frame view or filmstrip view. A second, smaller, window shows a histogram and download status of the files as they are coming in. The third window is a camera control window that allows remote triggering and access to all on camera settings and menus. If you have a Nikon D3 or D300 you can also work in Live View on screen in both the handheld and tripod modes. Finally found a use for the Live View I suppose; which up until now I have found to be an extremely over hyped useless feature on the new Nikons.

So........what's the "but" all about in the title of my review you ask? Leaf and Canon give their remote capture software to their customers when they lay out thousands of dollars. This seems to be a notion that Nikon hasn't seen fit to subscribe to, yet.

So that is my complaint. I can really use this software or I would never have purchased it. It performs very good and is very useful, but Nikon customers should not have to purchase something like this after they laid down 2000 to 5000 dollars for a camera.

Paul Stewart
Hendersonville, TN

I bought Camera Control to shoot Santa Pictures for an event. I put my camera on a tripod and did all focusing and shooting through live-view mode on my laptop screen. I think I touched the camera once in two hours (to change the battery, as shooting tethered in Live View sucked the juice... need an MB-10, I guess). From the capture, I printed to a Canon Selphy and handed the picture to each kid in about 1 minute. I can also see myself using Camera Control Pro when doing portraits, as the ability to instantly see the image on a high-definition 17" laptop screen makes adjustments and feedback a whole lot easier than just relying on the 3" sceen on the back of my D300. So, a lot of upside, including a great feature set for your Nikon, but I would think something like this would be more like $99 and not $150 - $180.

I bought Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 to use with a Nikon D700 to shoot tabletop projects and portraits. I installed it on a 17-inch laptop running Windows 7. The installation was a bit strange for a current software package. First, I was amazed by the "unknown publisher" on the installation - Nikon can't afford a digital certificate? Second, it seems to install twice, but the first pass installs an older version of Microsoft C++ redistributable.

The user interface is the first MDI application I've seen in more than ten years and it is really clumsy, with multiple windows doing sort of the same thing. The design shows no evidence of stepping back and thinking about how a photographer would actually use something called Camera Control.

To be fair, software's functionality is pretty much as advertised. You can shoot tethered and control the camera from a computer. However, the capture and rendering of RAW files feels very slow, which will limit its application.

Bottom line, the software has a $5 amateur 1992 Windows 3 shareware look and feel, not a $199 from one of the top professional DSLR makers. As other reviews have noted here, Camera Control should be given away with the DSLRs. I feel a bit of a chump paying even the excellent Amazon price for such an unrefined package.

Camera Control Pro 2 is a big step up from the previous version, it's much faster and more robust.

I use this product every day in my studio, shooting product photos, and there is nothing like the immediate feedback of seeing the pic in high-res on my monitor. If you have never shot tethered, you are missing out.
The $150 I spent on this product was a great investment! It paid for itself with the first photo session after installing it. I could NEVER go back to swapping mem cards to see what I was getting.

Considering I use this product every day, I find the cost of it negligible. Sure, it would be nice if Nikon would just give this away with every camera body sold...it would be nice if they gave away Circular Polarizers with every lens too. Hell, it would be nice if they threw in the AC Power Adapter for my camera also, but that's the way it goes.

All things considered, I'm a very satisfied Nikon owner.

This is the only way to shoot in studio situations. Live view would be even better but i use a D200 right now. Still, to see what you are doing on a laptop instead of twiddling the camera is great. Also you can run longer on a set of batteries if you don't use the screen. Third you dont mess up your camera setup by touching it between shots. This is great for product or still life.
The reason it's not included with the camera is that not everybody wants it or needs it, so why would they want to pay for it.
Bulb exposure is possible by the way, but you need the remote control to do it.
it's also useful for setting camera defaults and time etc. By all means, if you do studio or controlled shooting, it is a most useful tool.
By the way, it allows you to shoot direct to the computer without using cards in the camera.
Just shoot, and burn to disc while the customer is looking at the shots, perfect results and you are done. no post process etc. it's great.

carl

A $150.00 software that worst probably less than $10.00 or you should have receive it free from Nikon.

I have a Nikon D300 Camera. I purchased this software after learning about the product in my photography class. I am a photography student for over two years. The product was a great idea, great software, but not worth $150.00.

For about the same cost, you can purchase Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 and get 100 times more software. Check out Photoshop Lightroom 3 in the Adobe website. The function of Camera Control Pro 2 is included with Lightroom 3, called Tethered Capture. Tethered Capture does the SAME function as Nikon Camera Control.

Not only that, you gain a library system for archiving your images, an editing software for touching up your images, a great printing software to include an ability to print contact sheet, a slideshow module, and a module to package your images for the internet.

Like i said.. I am NOT a promoter for Adobe... I am just a photograhy student with over two years experience. I have use various photography products. I can tell you that Camera Control Pro 2 is a WASTE of $$.

After all that.... If you still want Nikon Camera Control Pro 2, you can have my unopen copy.

It works fantastically well! Really nice to be able to see image on laptop as I shoot tethered. Also, I save the images onto a Rugged Lacie external hard drive, so it makes it easy afterwards to review images on my desktop computer.

I downloaded the trial version from Nikon, installed it, checked for and applied the latest updates for both the control software and my MacBook Pro running the latest version of OS X Leopard, and my experience is that it's a total waste of time.

The software simply will not recognize either of the two (supposedly supported) Nikon D70s bodies I've connected via the USB port. After an hour of uninstalling, reinstalling, rebooting my MacBook to start with a clean slate -- I get a message saying "no camera detected". Next, I tried these same steps in conjunction with setting the port communication type (USB or PTP) via the menu system in the D70s bodies. The software responds with "no camera detected".

Refusing to give up, I tried all of the previous steps in conjunction with a different USB cable to ensure there weren't any cable-related communication problems. But the software responds with, you guessed it -- "no camera detected".

Looking for any menu item that would allow me to tell Camera Control Pro to rescan to discover attached cameras was an exercise in frustration. Throughout this one hour ordeal, my MacBook recognized the attached camera without any problems so the fault is definitely in Control Pro.

The straw that broke the camel's back is the (so called) help system. I've been a computer programmer for 25+ years and have far more technical writing experience than I ever really wanted. I've seen some great documentation and some poor documentation -- Camera Control Pro's help and documentation are so inadequate that I'd be ashamed if it came from me. There is nothing more than a series of screen snapshots labeling the various parts of the user interface. I'm talking about the very same user interface the software refuses to show me because all of the menu items are disabled.

So Nikon wants me to pay between $150 and $200 for Camera Control Pro? Forgive my frustration-driven sarcasm, but I'm laughing so hard at the thought of paying for this software that I'm having a hard time clicking on the "uninstall Camera Control Pro" icon to wipe it from my disk.

I bought Camera Control Pro 2 and inserted the disk into my macbook Pro with snow Leopard, clicked on install and a few minutes later it said it was installed. I looked for the program and it was not installed. I spent 2 full days downloading form nikon site and trying to get it to work. I finally found the right program for snow leopard and then had to get the right update to go with it. Once installed and working good the program is great, it is fast and gives you a good picture to work with. My Camera is a Nikon D700.

I would rather give this product ZERO stars, but Amazon won't accept that.

I have tried everything to get this piece of junk software to recognize my fairly new D300s Camera. The computer recognizes in as soon as I plug it into USB port, and even opens Camera Control Pro for me, but CCP immediately displays a message "No Camera Was Detected" and shuts down.

It won't even open to a program window! All I get is the little message window! I can't even sit and look at the user interface in a non-functional environment!

I have looked through the help and tutorials, and find nothing. The NIKON Tech Support online window won't register me, because it has a "Javascript Error", when I try to submit a registration (necessary for help).

So the program doesn't work, the tutorials don't help, and the Tech Support Site has a Javascript error that keeps me from getting help.

This is using a new Toshiba laptop with Windows 7, by the way. I don't see Windows 7 listed in the supported OS's, so that may be the problem. I checked, however, and Nikon hasn't seen fit to acknowledge the existence of Windows 7 yet.

I am starting to seriously wish I had gone with Canon. Then, I would not only have working software, I would not have had to pay $149 for it!

Don't buy this junk software! It's a rip-off!