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. Hi Greg,

    Everytime I try to print from gallery the app crashes. Is there a way to fix? I print to a Canon CP910.

    Thank you,
    Anthony

  2. Used your app as a tester at party before using for weddings and parties for my business. Its a fantastic app except if for example my printer went wrong and we needed to ‘reprint’ from the gallery it would show an error code and then the app would shut, every time.

    Help?

  3. Hi Greg,

    Does SLR booth work with a Canon G10? It is supposed to have live tethering but I can’t see it on your list of supported cameras.

    Cheers,

    Alex

    • Hi Alex, it hasn’t been tested with that camera, and the app hasn’t been developed with point and shoot cameras in mind. However, you can always download the free version and try it out!

  4. Hi Greg,
    I love your app. Just bought it few days ago and it already is a hit. I see some much possibility for it. The only thing that worries me is the constant live view “on” and possibility of sensor overheating/being damaged on my camera. Would you consider adding a custom “welcome” screen in between pictures with mirror back at its “safe” regular position? Another idea of some kind of “sleep” mode or “screen saver” option in between pictures ?

    I very much appreciate your work.
    Thank You
    Kamil F

    • Hi Kamil,

      A screensaver is in the works. There’s a “beta” version included as of version 1.5.1, but there are still a few kinks to work out – maybe try it out and let me know your feedback!

      • Is the screensaver already implemented? I am also concerned my DSLR’s sensor might “burn through” and therefore switch the camera off when nobody is using my photobooth.

        Also, I would like to offer you my help in translating the app’s German language strings, as the German translation is not really good. Maybe you can get in touch with me via the email address I’m using to leave this comment?

        Greets,
        Toby

  5. The one issue I’m having is that my off camera strobe won’t fire via pc cable when the app tells the camera to take a photo. The on camera flash works just fine (when the camera determines it needs it) but the app never fires the strobe. Is there something I’m missing?

    • Hi Mitchell,

      This issue has to do with Live View on Canon cameras. If you have a mid-range Canon (60D) or higher, make sure the live view silent shooting setting is disabled. If you have a Canon Rebel, it won’t fire a non e-TTL flash in live view (which the app uses for the preview). If that’s the case, you might need to look at e-TTL compatible triggers, or using an onboard flash as a wink light to trigger an optical slave off camera.

  6. Hi,

    Your app looks amazing! I am trying to set up a booth for the weddings of a couple friends this year. Do you recommend using an android tablet or a monitor? I’m wondering how the battery life of an android tablet holds up over a couple hours..There’s no way to charge AND use an OTG cable at the same time, right?

    • 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 however. If you’re looking for something that can run for hours on end, something with a USB port and separate power port will be your best bet.

  7. I’m having an issue of printing with the canon selfie 910. It is not spooling the pictures? Is this a limitation or am I doing something wrong. Secondly I love the software so far, and my current gear hat I am using is an alien bee 800 with any of my Nikon’s (d200, d5100, d700, j4, all work some with limitations because of no live view) and a dragon touch tablet from amazon running the software.

    • Hi Robert, I have a CP910 I use for testing, so it is most certainly compatible. Can you see it from the settings menu? What happens when you try to print?

  8. Hello, I’m trying to purchase the app but I keep getting an error saying order declined because its considered high risk, please try again in 30 min. I’ve tried 4 times already. any suggestions?

    thanks

    • If you’re using the full version, there’s an option to delete JPEGs from the camera – try turning that off.
      If it’s the free version, that’s a limitation of the app.

  11. I cannot get the email sent through SLR Booth app. I configure the setting from the information in this site but still could not get it to work. Please advise.

  12. Hola, estoy muy interesado en utilizar tu aplicación, pero quiero saber con ella puedo hacer fotos como la que te dejo en el enlace, donde se toman tres fotos y en un recuadro se deje libre la poner un logo o información del evento. Tengo claro que yo tendría que preparar la template en un programa de edición, pero me gustaría saber si esto es posible.

    Ejemplo: https://goo.gl/photos/ZsD9bKLhKKMAYP3Q7

    • Hola William , sí se puede crear una nueva plantilla con marcadores de posición para las fotos y la información de eventos como en el enlace que nos ha facilitado . Todo lo que necesitas es un editor que puede crear archivos PNG transparentes .

  13. Hello,

    Looking forward to using your app. Just updated our Nikon 3100 to a 3300 so we can use it, and new lens based on your blog entry. Now looking to get a larger dedicated tablet to run the software.

    What is the lowest version of android the software will work with?

    Also, do you have any recommendations on a low cost large screen tablet?

  14. Will your app work if there is a second camera in the booth, is there a way to have your app take the 4th picture from a second camera? I’m looking to purchase SLD booth and wanted to know if this is something your program can do.

  15. Oh yeah, I just made it smaller for this. haha but it was 1800×1200.

    I will try it again and see if it works. Ill keep you posted. thanks! 🙂

  16. Great app! I have a questions about custom layouts…

    1. I made this custom layout (red just for exmaple, its transparent) and works great!
    3:2 Aspect ratio
    http://s12.postimg.org/l123vp92l/image.png

    I also made this layout, but the app crashes (or gets confused), still kept the 3:2 aspect
    http://s12.postimg.org/y6hm1t2y5/image.png

    Am I doing something wrong for the 2nd one to work? Or does it only work with one size for all squares?

    Also, the option to post to facebook fan page would be great!

    Thanks for your help! 🙂

    • Hi Vic,

      I tried out that second template (replaced the red squares with transparent areas) and it worked alright for me, although it was a bit small at 800×533. If you want to share your transparent version with me at info@slrbooth.com I’ll see what the issue is.

      Some good news – the upcoming version will feature a template editor and the ability to post to Facebook pages.

      • Looking forward to the template editor…
        Primarily to add logo/text to the 1-up and 4-up templates and adjust the “borders” between and around images.

        • There’s a simple template editor that allows you to adjust the borders in the current version. – Long press on your template in the template selection screen to check it out

  17. Love the app two questions is there a way to change the location of where it stores files and i get
    an error when using the email funtion i get an authentication error.

    • Unfortunately Google makes it really hard to store things to an SD card if that’s what you’re looking for. Hopefully new versions of Android will improve this. As for the email error, shoot an email to info@slrbooth.com, and we’ll help you sort out your settings.

  18. 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) ?

    • Unfortunately the Selphys all require custom drivers to print via USB (which Canon doesn’t release for Android developers). 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.

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