Frequently Asked Questions

Cameras

SLR Booth has been designed to work with the most powerful and popular Canon and Nikon SLR cameras on the market today.  Our supported cameras list is where we add cameras that we have tested with the app here at SLR Booth HQ.  If your camera that you are interested in is not on the list, the best thing to do is download the app and try it out! If it does work, we’d love for you to let us know (info@slrbooth.com) so that we can add it to our test list and share it with the SLR Community.

I have all of the supported hardware, but my app can’t seem to control the camera. What’s up?

Make sure you grant permission for the app to use the camera when you plug it in, and don’t let the gallery or any other app have control of it.

Can I use the app without a camera?

SLR Booth was designed to control your powerful, high-end DSLR camera to vastly improve the quality of the photographs taken during an event. If you don’t have a stand-alone camera and want to use the camera in your device, there are many photobooth style apps that you can use, likely already installed on your device from the factory. These are lots of fun, but we love the control and photo quality we get from using our DSLR cameras.

Will this work with a camera using a Eyefi card?

You can certainly use an Eyefi card in the camera while shooting, but the communication between your tablet and the camera has to happen over USB, not wifi.

Special Considerations for Canon Owners

If your Canon is 40D or higher (ie, is not part of the Rebel series), the  LiveView silent shooting setting needs to be disabled in order for the flash to fire through the app. On the Rebel, the non e-TTL flash won’t fire in live view, so you may need to investigate using e-TTL compatible triggers, or using an onboard flash as a wink light to trigger an optical slave off camera.

You need to have a USB OTG adapter to plug your camera into your tablet. On some Canon Rebels you need to enable live view in the menu system on your camera.

Tablets

I am concerned about the battery life of an android tablet while using the app for a few hours. Any suggestions?

If your device only has a single USB port, you might not be able to charge at the same time. There are custom USB-OTG adapters for some Samsung devices that allow this, but if  you are looking for something that can run for hours on end, something with a USB port and separate power port will be your best bet.   AOC, Acer and HP all make 21-24″ all in ones with multiple USB ports and dedicated power.  An USB OTG Y cable would allow you to charge and connect to your camera at the same time. Support for simultaneous USB and charging is heavily dependent on the device, so be sure to research which cable/hub might work for your specific tablet.

Why can’t I use the app with my Samsung Galaxy Tab 4?

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7″ tablet does not have USB-OTG support, so sadly it can’t control an SLR camera via USB. Most new tablets have USB-OTG support these days, but this particular one is quite popular, and doesn’t have that feature.

Do you have any recommendations on a low cost large screen tablet?

Acer, AOC and HP all made 21-24″ android all in ones, but they are becoming more and more rare. Here at SLR Booth HQ, we have an AOC A2272PW4T running Android 4.2.2 that we are really happy with.

What is the lowest version of Android that the app works with?

Version 4.1

Printing

Do you know if the [insert printer name here] is supported?

If a printer supports AirPrint, it should be supported. You can usually check this in the online printer documentation, such as this one for the HP6100: http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-Officejet-6100-ePrinter-series—H6/4322969/model/4323174/document/c03116917/. 

We will be supporting Google Cloud print very soon (early 2016).

Can an earlier Canon Selphy printer (without WiFi) work, with a USB OTG -splitter (one USB to support the camera, one to support the Selphy 800 or 900?

The Selphys all require custom drivers to print via USB. If you want to print to an older Selphy that doesn’t have AirPrint support, you’ll have to plug it into a computer and share it over the network.

My venue does not have wifi … can I still print from the app?

If you are using a Canon Selphy, it has a built-in access point, so you can connect your tablet to it directly (of course you can’t email or share files through that connection, just print). You could also use your mobile phone as a wifi hotspot to connect your tablet and printer together.

I want to use a high-quality dye-sub printer for my events to support on-demand printing. Can I print over wifi from the app?

Most professional dye-sub printers don’t support wireless printing via AirPrint, so they need to be connected to a laptop or wireless print server to share them, so the SLR Booth app can find them. We use a Mac laptop to share a HiTi P510L printer at our larger events, and it works great. You could also use a Linux computer running CUPS to share the printer, or a wireless print server like the Lantronix ones (although device support on these is a bit spotty). The app has some very basic USB printing support built in (you can try it out – we have it working with the injket and laser printers in our office), but most high-end dye-sub photo printers need custom driver support. We are definitely looking at this for a future release.

My Bluetooth printer is not showing up … what’s wrong?

SLR Booth does not support Bluetooth.  We support AirPrint, and will support Google Cloud Print very soon (early 2016).

Backgrounds and Templates

Can I add a logo to any template?

You can add a logo to the built-in photo strip template. Otherwise, you can add a totally custom template with whatever logo you like.

I see that there is an option to add more templates, are there instructions on how I can make my own?

Yes! You can add custom templates – you just need a .png file with the photo placeholders as transparent areas. Take a look at our “Custom Templates” page – we are constantly updating that with new information and how-tos.

Troubleshooting

I’ve set everything up and I think that all of my devices are supported, but I’m getting an error message telling me that a compatible device is not connected. What’s up?

Often, this error is due to the camera not being started before the app.  Try these steps:

1.  Unplug

2. Exit SLR Booth app

3. Restart your camera

4. Plug back in and try again.

To find out for sure if your device supports USB host mode, download the app “USB Host Diagnostics” from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.usbhostdiagnostics

When I took some test shots, I noticed that the files were saved on the Android, not the camera’s SD card. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a setting I missed?

You are using the free version of the app, which will only store downsized images with a watermark on your tablet. The full version will keep the full size originals on the camera.

I’m using a regular multi-photo template (not a filmstrip), but the photos are duplicated?

Check your camera settings – if you’re shooting RAW+JPEG, but don’t have the option to skip RAW file downloads, the app will get two photos downloaded for each photo you take.

I’m using a regular multi-photo template (not a filmstrip), but the photo placeholders are all white?

The graphics processors on some devices can’t handle large image sizes – try setting your camera to shoot a S or M sized jpeg file. Those are still large enough for populating templates, and as a bonus they transfer faster and take up less space on your device!

My photos aren’t showing up in the Gallery app

The default android gallery app periodically scans for new folders with images to display. So the first time you use SLR Booth (or switch to a new album), the gallery app may take time to notice it. You can force the gallery to update itself by doing the following:

Go to settings – apps – gallery
Clear cache, clear data, force close

Go to settings – apps – media storage
Clear cache, clear data, force close

Hard reset your device, and when you load the gallery app again, it will scan for new folders.

The app takes a few seconds to display photos after they’re taken

When a photo is taken, the camera first writes it to the local memory card and then SLR Booth downloads the photo from the camera over the USB cable and displays it. For large RAW images (which can be 10s of megabytes each), this can take a few seconds. To speed things up, consider shooting smaller sized images, or shooting JPEG images as these will transfer much quicker. You can also set your camera to shoot RAW+JPEG, but tell SLR Booth to only download JPEG images in the app settings.

The countdown doesn’t match up exactly with when the camera takes the picture

There is an option on the settings screen where you can configure the delay between when the shutter signal is sent, and when the camera takes the picture. This will be different for every combination of camera, focus mode (manual vs automatic), and ambient lighting. For example, a Canon 60D using “Quick” live view autofocus under indoor lighting takes about 1200ms (or 1.2 seconds).

The camera wasn’t able to take a picture, and now the screen is frozen

There are a variety of reasons the camera might fail to take a photo:

  • Unable to autofocus due to low light or subject being too close
  • Missing memory card
  • Low battery

When this happens, the app will wait for 30 seconds, and try again. If it was an autofocus issue, it may be successful. If it was a battery or memory card issue, it will stay in this loop until the issue is addressed.

The app won’t connect to the camera, I get a CP -1 12 error.

This generally means another app on your tablet is using the camera. Often this will happen when the gallery asks to use the camera when you first plug it in. Unplug the camera, turn it off and on again, and plug it back in. If the gallery asks to use the usb device, hit the cancel button. If the SLR Booth app asks for permission to use the usb device, grant it.

 

 

338 Comments

  1. Ok I haven’t had a chance to use this yet but it looks great. I have just recently purchased a Canon t5..Now I’m just figuring out how to connect it to my tablet. Do I need a special Cord or something?

    • You need to have a USB OTG adapter to plug your camera into your tablet, and I’m not sure about the T5, but on some Canon Rebels you need to enable live view in the menu system on your camera.

  2. Great App. I see there is some set top box support but not the Nexus Player… Would it be possible to add support for Nexus Player in the near future? Another great addition would be the ability to use the Android Cast functionality to automatically cast a slideshow of photos that have been taken during the event!

  3. The venue for my upcoming event will not have wifi available. If I buy a Canon Selphy 910 printer and use it with my Nexus 10 tablet and my Canon 60D, can I connect both the camera and printer to the tablet with a Y split-OTG-USB and be able to print without an internet connection??

    • The Selphy has a built-in access point, so you can connect your tablet to it directly (of course you can’t email or share files through that connection, just print)

      • Greg,
        The free version was working fine, so I bought the full version… immediately upon opening it crashes. I have uninstalled an re-installed several times to no avail. I am using a nexus 10. Help please!

  4. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I purchased an OTG-USB to use this with my Samsung Tab 3 7.0 but still getting a message that saying a compatible device is not connected. I’m trying to use this app with my Samsung Tab 3 7.0 and Nikon D5000. Please let me know what I need to make this work, I’ve already purchased HDMI cords, OTG cords and it’s still not working. 🙁

    • Those both look like excellent printers, but using them will require a bit more equipment. Most professional dye-sub printers don’t support wireless printing via AirPrint, so they need to be connected to a laptop or wireless print server to share them, so the SLR Booth app can find them. I use a Mac laptop to share a HiTi P510L printer at my larger events, and it works great. You could also use a Windows or Linux computer running CUPS to share the printer, or a wireless print server like the Lantronix ones (although device support on these is a bit spotty)

      • Thanks Greg for quick answer! So there is no easy way how to connect my android computer with this app to these printers via usb cable? 🙂

        • The app has some very basic USB printing support built in (you can try it out – I have it working with the injket and laser printers in my office), but most high-end dye-sub photo printers need custom driver support. I’d like to add support for those, but it’s a big undertaking.

    • Hi Mark!!! Just noticed your message, I’m trying to get this to work with my Samsung Tab 3 7.0, were you able to get this to work with your device?

  5. I’m trying to connect my D7100 to my Samsung tab3 tablet and have connected a cable which fits my camera to a cable which fits my tablet using a female back to back connector. However the table is not seeing my camera, can you advise what cable I need? I also have a wifi adaptor wu1a, will slrbooth connect to this?

    thank you

    • Make sure you’re using a USB-OTG adapter. A regular USB-micro cable won’t work, as it is missing a pin that the OTG adapter has. The app doesn’t support wireless connections at the moment.

  6. Love the app for simplicity and quality! Is it possible to use the front camera on the tablet for the preview and use the DSLR to take the picture? This would help for the potential heat issue using live mode all day.

  7. Can you direct me on how to add my logo in the custom settings?
    It said image was downloaded but nothing shows up on photo.

    Is there specific size requirements?

    • Hi Johnny – the logo only works with the built-in photo strip template. Otherwise, you can add a totally custom template with whatever logo you like.

  8. Hello, I love your app and it´s working great for me, I was just wondering, is there a way to save the images from the camera in a separate folder from the images generated by the app? Also, is there a way for the app to return immediately to the start screen after the photos are taken? Or for the app to return to the start screen after some time has passed without the user choosing to print or send to facebook, etc. So that the next user is greeted with the start screen.

  9. Hi,
    I‘m not able to select a printer in settings menu. It remains at “Loading …” forever :'(
    I have a Canon Selphy Cp900 and also Canon Print for Selphy app installed were printer is detected on wlan.
    What do i need to consider to get it connected in SlrBooth?

    Furthermore, i’m also struggling with templates. Especially when i try to use rotated empty areas it identifies several more and takes a lot of pictures. Is this supported at all using rotated areas or is there a config file/db for the templates that can be “hacked” manually?
    Thx in advance,
    Uli

    • Hi Ulrich, unfortunately the CP900 doesn’t support AirPrint, only the CP910 does, so the SLR Booth app can’t find it. As far as templates go, right now the auto-detection can only find non-rotated rectangular areas. We’ll look at adding rotation support in a future version.

      • Hi Greg –

        I have a Selphy CP910 and AirPrint works fine through the Canon Selphy App. Although, I can’t seem to get it to find the Selphy Printer in your app…it just shows “Loading”. Might you know why?

        Also, I would much prefer to use the USB…so that the Wi-Fi is freed up to e-mail and I don’t have to switch between WiFi connections to print and e-mail. I tried a USB OTG hub…but no luck for me. Do you have any suggestions to help?

        Thank you,

        Chad

        • Hi Chad – I’d suggest getting the Selphy to join your wifi network, rather than using it’s built-in access point. That way, you can print and share at the same time.

          • Leaving this here in case others find their way here stuck as I was. I joined my Selphy CP1200 to the wireless network and I have my Nexus 7 tablet joined to the same network. Downloaded and installed the Canon PRINT Inkjet/Selphy app from Google Play as the Canon site advises to do. This doesn’t work at all. Search the Canon Print Service from Google Play. Then go to settings on the Android / Printers and enable Canon Print Service, tell it to scan the network. It will find your Selphy and it will show up in slrbooth. Now you can print, email, QRCode scan, etc. all while connected to your wireless network.

        • If using a samsung Tablet, make sure the Canon Print Service is enabled in the device printer settings. Also once in the SLR app, I find that once I click on Photo Size then go back to Choose Printer it pulls up a list when the first time it stalls on choosing.

          Just some of my troubleshooting steps that I play with during trouble shooting.

  10. Hey guys!

    I would like to ask you, if it’s possible to improve kiosk mode for future versions 🙂 When I turn Kiosk mode on, there are still home buttons, so everybody can press the home button and go to my android device..it would be deeply apreciated if you can somehow disable these hardware buttons and make Kiosk mode indestructible B-) Thank you very much for your great work!

    • Hi Jim – the app supports “immersive mode” where the buttons disappear on the main screen, but it only works on android 4.4 and up.

  11. It is the best photobooth app on android by far. Only thing, the auto printing feature don’t works on my tablet. When selecting the prinying, it reads loading but nothing happens, once cancelled and reopen the printer is here and can be selected. Same happen with the paper option but the paper options don’t show in any case. All is working great except this feature. My printer is anEpson Workforce 2630

    • Hi Jean-Francois, there’s a little bug fix around the paper size dialog which is fixed in the upcoming version. (Should be out this week). In the meantime, try choosing your printer, exiting the settings, entering the settings again, and wait a few seconds before opening the page size dialog. Some printers also only support one size and don’t need a size specified.

  12. Hi!
    First of all, thank you for this app!

    I have one question regarding the liveview feature:
    Leaving my camera for a night in the photobooth with liveview on the whole time gives me some worries about my sensor because of the heat which is created by having the mirror up for a long time.

    Would it be possible to use the app also without liveview?

    Or maybe you could add a feature, so that the mirror is closed usually but the user can press on the screen to wake up the camera and start liveview and then press again to start the photo countdown.

    Thanks a lot for your feedback and greetings from Germany

    Fabrice

  13. Hey guys,

    last month I bought your app and it’s absolutely awesome, I love it! 🙂 Keep the great work with that! And I have three questions for you:

    1) Is there any way how to upload pictures automatically to my facebook fanpage, or the only way is to upload it to my personal facebook profile? And if so, are you preparing support for facebook pages? :o)

    2) I have Nikon D90 and I would love to take pictures with your app and a remote control of my nikon. But when i attach my camera to my tablet, camera is blocked to take pictures itself and it works only when you press the camera icon in your app and pressing the tablet screen. Is it possible to make some option in settings, which allows me to take pictures with button on my camera or with my camera remote control? I found that people love to hold remote in their hands it’s more fun for them on my party! :o)

    3) Is there any way how to disable my android “hardware” buttons (http://images.pocketgamer.co.uk/FCKEditorFiles//android-4-ice-cream-sandwich-virtual-buttons.jpg? ) The app is fullscreen but still there are those three buttons which can quit the app even when the kiosk mode is on.

    Thank you very much guys, you’re the best!! 🙂 Looking forward for any answer and have a great day!

    Greetings from Czech republic,

    Jakub Misík

      • Thank you, Greg! I got it working perfectly as long as each transparent area is 2 : 3 but now I’m wondering if there’s a way to create a 2×6 layout which would print twice on 4×6 paper, and if there’s a way to make pictures fill up an entire transparent area, something like a circle or a square.

        • For the green screen, just use a PNG file for your template with no transparent areas. OTG splitter should let you plug in both a printer and camera, but not every USB printer will work without a driver.

  14. Hi, Is it possible to use the application on android but without camera (only using the tablet camera)?
    Thank you in advance,
    Kind regards,

    Sylvie

  15. I saw in the change log that you added support for a kiosk mode. Can you tell me more about that? And is there a way to disable printing and just enable posting to social media? Thanks!

    • The kiosk mode allows you to enable/disable each of the sharing features (printing, social sites, email etc.) independently of one another. When kiosk mode is on, users aren’t able to change settings, view the gallery, or exit the application without entering a PIN.

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