[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] marcbkk:
Workflow Issues

I used the DSLR Controller app on my Samsung Tab 2 7.0 the other day for the first time on a commercial shoot with my client present. Even though the program worked as it should with only a few crashes where I needed to unplug the camera from the tablet and restart the app, the workflow of the app itself was a bit disappointing and frustrating at times. Needless to say my client wasn't so impressed with the DSLR Controller setup I was shooting with.

First, every time I took a shot using the app the screen changed to a second screen just to show me the preview of the image. I don't see why a second screen is even needed? Simply to make space for the thumbnails?

Then, after I am done looking at the preview image of the shot I just took, I am forced to go back to the first screen by pressing the back button on the tablet to return to the first screen before I have access to the shutter release button again. That is a waste of time. Even if it isn't possible to change all the camera settings from the second screen, you should at least have the shutter release button there so you can take another shot immediately and so you don't have to go back to the first screen again before you can take another picture. It is a waste of time having to go back and forth between the two screens just to take another picture each time.

Also, once you take a photo, and go back to the first screen to take another photo, then the thumbnails of the shots you just took previously all disappear on the second screen and you are left with only the single thumbnail of the most recent shot. That is also very inconvenient as I often want to compare my last 4-5 shots, but I can't. They are gone! The only way to avoid having to go back to the first screen and losing all your recent thumbnails is to release the shutter from the camera instead, but that defeats the purpose of tethered shooting. But if you do this then you are at least able to stay on the second screen all the time and you are also able see the thumbnails from the 4-5 last recent shots. Again, a shutter release button on the second screen would be one way to fix this problem. Also, the thumbnails of your previous shots shouldn't disappear when you go back and forth between first screen and second screen.

I also noticed when you take multiple shots using the shutter release on the camera that the thumbnail selection on the second screen stays placed on the last thumbnail you were viewing and doesn't automatically advance the thumbnail selection to the most recent shot you took. The highlighted thumbnail should advance to the most recent shot you took. This is just common sense.

The last thing I noticed is that the directory where the captures are saved onto the tablet is considered a hidden folder for some reason by the tablet. I am not sure why this is. But when I opened a couple of different graphics viewer apps after the shoot in order to go through all the shots with the client, the graphic viewing apps weren't able to find the directory with the image captures from DSLR Controller until I enabled the apps to show hidden files and directories. Why is this?

I have another shoot with a client on Monday. I don't think I will use the app with the client present again until a release comes out of this app which addresses these workflow issues and corrects them to make them more workable for the photographer. And after seeing these issues it kind of makes me wonder if the developer of this app ever sat down and really used the program for any period of time because just using the app once on a full day shoot and the above issues I raised stand out right away.