Sofortbild v1.2.9 is now available as download on the website. It finally fixes the D800(E)/D600 issue and also adds support for the D5200.

I am having some difficulties submitting the same version to the Mac App Store. That is why the version on the Mac App Store is older.

PS: I still get a lot of requests for D3X00 support. Nikon does not provide camera drivers for those models. As long as Sofortbild relies on these camera drivers, I won’t be able to add support for these models. Sorry about that.

I received several reports from users having problems with a D800 or D800E. The camera seems to toggle between “PC” and normal mode after the camera has been detected. I am not sure why this is happening (and I don’t have a D800 yet to debug it myself). Is there anybody with a D800 or D800E who does not have this issue when using Sofortbild?

It would also be interesting to know whether people having this issue with their D800(E) see the same when using Camera Control Pro 2.

Update: It seems like the D800(E) firmware update does not solve this issue.

Update 2: With the latest update the issues on the D800(E) and D600 should be fixed.

Sorry that it took such a long time to fix that issue. I did not get my D800 until very recently and I was not able to debug bug this issue remotely.

Sofortbild v1.2.5 is available now on the website and the Mac App Store. Sorry for the delay, but I started to work full-time in the meantime (for a well know company in Cupertino) and am not allowed to add features to Sofortbild myself anymore. So instead a friend a mine added the support. Anyway, you can now use Sofortbild with your brand new Nikon cameras.

I updated the website including the screenshot to reflect the latest version. I also created a new build of Sofortbild (v1.2.4) that includes all the features that have been available in the Mac App Store version for a while now.

This version still supports Mac OS X 10.5 and includes support for all camera models mentioned on the website (for older models you have to enable legacy support in the preferences window and then relaunch the app though).

I have released Sofortbild v1.1.1b1 which adds support for Nikon D7000.

Download: Sofortbild Beta

The single most frequently asked question about Sofortbild is: “Does Sofortbild support my camera?” or “When will Sofortbild support my camera?” “my camera” is a placeholder for any not yet supported Nikon or any Canon, Sony, etc. DSLR on the market.

The Sofortbild website lists all currently supported camera models. These are most of the Nikon DSLR that exist. Sofortbild right now relies on the official Nikon camera drivers which Nikon releases to third party developers as the Nikon SDK.

As you can see yourself on the SDK Website Nikon does not provide camera drivers for the older models. I was able to use the camera drivers that come with CCP2, but since there is no documentation available Sofortbild does not always work correctly with very old models like the D1 series.

Nikon has also not released camera drivers for the latest models yet, which is the reason why Sofortbild does not support the D7000, D3100 or D3000 yet. Unfortunately Nikon does not have any support for third party developers so there is no way I can tell you when I will be able to provide an update for those models.

That’s it for the Nikon DSLRs.

Since releasing Sofortbild (and Nikon Control before renaming the software) I think I got emails asking for support of basically every other DSLR ever released. As mentioned above and in other posts in the past, Sofortbild currently uses the Nikon camera drivers exclusively.

Canon provides SDKs for third party developers as well. Both SDK do not have much in common which means I have to rewrite most of the code to add support for Canon cameras. Adding support for Sony and other DSLR is even harder.

I am and have been the only developer of Sofortbild. I am a full time graduate student and still work part time. This means there is not much time where I can work on private projects and Sofortbild is not my only private project.

Although Sofortbild has become one of the most used applications for tethered shooting, I have not made much money with it at all. A few people have donated some money, for which I am really grateful, but it is not enough to invest a lot of time into Sofortbild. With that said, I am still actively developing Sofortbild, adding features and supporting new Nikon cameras as drivers become available, but I can not give any details on when I will be able to add support for Canon, Sony, … DSLRs.

(I am currently thinking about options including making Sofortbild Open Source.)

Another frequently asked question about Sofortbild is: “Is there a Windows version?” or “When do you release a Windows version of Sofortbild?”.

Although I have done Windows programming in the past and would do it again if there is a project that would need to run on Windows, I am a Mac OS X user and thus primarily develop for Mac OS X or iOS.

There is basically not a single line of code in Sofortbild that could be shared with a Windows version. So a Windows version would be a completely new software project. This is why I am not going to provide a Windows version of Sofortbild.

You could switch to a Mac of course if you want to use Sofortbild. Otherwise I usually recommend trying out DCamCapture which has a similar feature set.

I get a lot of emails asking the same question: “When will you publish an iPhone or iPad version of Sofortbild?”. I also get emails of people having an idea for the next big thing: “iPhone or iPad version of Sofortbild”. I usually respond to those emails with the same answer. So here is a longer version of my answer.

When I started writing Sofortbild about two years ago I just got my first DSRL (a Nikon D90). One of the reasons I bought a DSLR was HDR imaging. Unfortunately the Nikon D90 only captures three images with the built in bracketing functionality.

Around that time a developer wrote some software that would allow him to record a movie with a Nikon D300 which did not have video recording itself. The developer was using the Nikon SDK to grab the Live View images from the camera to create a movie.

Since the weather was not that nice outside back then, this got my attention. I downloaded the SDK and played around with the sample project for a few days until I had it running natively as a Cocoa application on my Mac (which was a pain due to the lack of documentation).

I had already done iPhone apps at that time and since I did not want to carry around a MacBook (Pro) when doing bracketing for HDR images I looked into making an iPhone bracketing app. Unfortunately back then there was no way to talk to accessories without jailbreaking the device. So there was no way to write an iPhone app that could be distributed over the App Store.

Instead I began writing a desktop version which got a lot of (media) attention and me a lot of feedback. After several beta version and adding more features this desktop application ended up in being what Sofortbild is today.

But all the time since then I never gave up the wish to write an iPhone/iPad version. When iOS 3.0 came out with the Accessory.framework it became technically possible to do it. Unfortunately it is more complicated than you might think. You can not just use a USB cable with the right plugs and connect your camera to an iPhone or iPad.

The Accessory.framework (which is the only way to communicate with external devices without using a webserver and WiFi which is not an option in this case) requires developers to provide additional hardware to make it work. You basically need to build the iPad Camera Connection Kit USB Adapter yourself because as a third party developer you can not use this accessory.

So to sum this up: I do not have the resources to build this hardware, let in manufacture somewhere in China and sell it myself. But having this hardware is crucial for an iOS version of Sofortbild. So this is the reason why I did not release an iPhone/iPad version of Sofortbild yet (and probably not very soon in the future).

I have released a new beta version of Sofortbild v1.1 today. It is based on Beta 2 which added support for Nikon D3s and D300s and LiveView. The new beta version has a new popup in the settings bar for exposure compensation.

Download: Sofortbild Beta