I'm hoping to set up a small studio for photographing small objects in a light tent, but would like to capture images from a digital camera via USB straight onto the computer, rather than onto a memory card (it's important that the pic is taken, and the database filled in with each photo). Does anyone have any experience with such as setup? I'm not sure which cameras support this. The Nikon Coolpix 4500 I have can support remote photography via USB (and image capture on OSX), but as soon as you plug in the USB lead, the viewfinder turns off so you can't see what you're taking..! Any advice gratefully received :-)

It depends on the camera. My Canon G6 can be controlled with the included ZOOMBROWSER software! You can change pretty much ALL the camera setting and also focus/zoom! The view of what the camera is seeing comes up on the monitor! Haven't had time to explore this functionality, but it would be great for studio, product type shots and macro work! A laptop would really be handy for this as you could use it "out in the field" in some situations! A mobile studio in a sense! L8r! Joe

Hi Joe, That sounds great - just what I'm after. Since we're potentially in the market for a new camera, I'll have a look at it! Has anyone else looked at a setup like this, or used Zoombrowser? Cheers, Tom

As above used G6 - however I don't find it to be sucessful. The image is transfered via a utility that comes with the camera called Remote Capture. All camera controls can be accessed. However the display on the pc screen is limited in size. This is fine until you use the zoom you then lose a % of what is visable in the viewfinder. The display gets more and more pixellated until it is virtually useless. Connecting to the pc switches off the camera lcd. In conclusion yes it does control all camera functions but you have to use the cameras viewfinder to compose your shot. If I am doing something wrong or anyone knows how to overcome this problem I would be interested. I have read and re read the help files and no joy there.

I can control my camera (Nikon D70) with Nikon Capture. It'll store the images directly on the computer and you can set the camera settings from the PC as well. Ofcourse, since it's an SLR, you won't see a preview on screen, just as you can't see a preview on your lcd screen. Other than that it's totally controllable.