EOS Utility and Mode Dial

[Davoud]

5D III, 6D. Can the function of the Mode Dial (P, Tv, Av, M, B, &c.) be changed from within EOS Utility version 3.4? It seems to me that I used to do this with earlier versions of EU, but it has been a couple of years since I used DPP or EU. The mode selected on the camera is shown, but it is grayed out in the software, not selectable as other camera settings are.

Thanks!

Davud Illig

[Davoud]

No, I don't argue that I should be able to change the mode dial remotely in the sense that I am entitled to that, only that it would be convenient for me to be able to do so. And I argue that, since this is nothing more than an electrical switch like all the other controls on the camera, to make it that way would not be unreasonable.

The most likely reason the mode switch is not controllable remotely is that it is an electrical switch that mechanically locks into a position. If it were in P, for example, and one remotely changed it to Av, a look at the camera would give the wrong impression as to what mode the camera is in. I concede that would be Bad. It would, of course, be possible to have the camera automatically return to the mode set on the mode dial when the remote connection is broken.

Here is an example of a case in which I would like to have been able to change the switch remotely. A couple of nights ago I had my 6D riding piggyback on a computer-controlled astronomical telescope. The camera was not within easy reach, particularly in a darkened observatory. It was under the control of EU. The mode dial was set to M because I believed that a series of 30-second exposures would be adequate. As it happened, 30 seconds was insufficent so I had to get on a low step ladder with a red flashlight to set the mode dial to Bulb while being careful not to bump the telescope, the mount, or other attached hardware. Huge, life-rattling thing? Nope. Unnecessary inconvenience? Yep.

[Waddizzle]

"No, I don't argue that I should be able to change the mode dial remotely in the sense that I am entitled to that, only that it would be convenient for me to be able to do so." 

I dunno.  You made a pretty emphatic argument that you should be able to make any remote change.

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"The mode dial was set to M because I believed that a series of 30-second exposures would be adequate. As it happened, 30 seconds was insufficent so I had to get on a low step ladder with a red flashlight to set the mode dial to Bulb while being careful not to bump the telescope, the mount, or other attached hardware. Huge, life-rattling thing? Nope. Unnecessary inconvenience? Yep." 

You nearly paid the price for your own lack of vision and foresight.  It was a close one.  Don't blame the camera software.

[Davoud]

I take issue with the term "hard-wired" to contrast the mode dial with the other electrical switches on the camera. All of the switches on the camera, whether momentary contact or rotating dials, are "hard-wired" to the camera's processor(s) in some way. Consider ISO. First press a momentary-contact button and then spin a dial. But the setting is controllable remotely. And so could the mode dial be controllable remotely if Canon wanted it to be so.

I repeat from my earlier post: The most likely reason the mode switch is not controllable remotely is that it is an electrical switch that mechanically locks into a position. If it were in P, for example, and one remotely changed it to Av, a look at the camera would give the wrong impression as to what mode the camera is in. I concede that would be Bad. It would, of course, be possible to have the camera automatically return to the mode set on the mode dial when the remote connection is broken.

Most windshield wiper switches are electromechanical switches that provide digital state information to a wiper controller, not analog data.  Connecting a monitoring and diagnostic computer to the vehicle will most llikely not allow you to directly control the state of the windshield wipers.

Not the best analogy, I think. The wipers on my car are connected to a remote sensor that automatically turns them on when it detects rain. Works very reliably. In other words, the electro-mechanical wiper switch to which you refer can be bypassed by a remote command. Look at the switch and it reads Off. But the wipers are on.

[Davoud]

You nearly paid the price for your own lack of vision and foresight.  It was a close one.

That's a bit melodramatic! If you think that exposure time in astrophotogrpahy is set purely on the basis of vision and foresight, you haven't done much astrophotography. The price wasn't a patient dead after a failed neurosurgery; it was a 30-second camera exposure that was not as good as it might have been. With the cost of film and developing these days, that's not a very steep price. And I didn't blame the camera. Please don't begin ad hominem attacks over a minor feature that I would like to see in Canon camera software.

[Waddizzle]

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@Davoud wrote:

Please don't begin ad hominem attacks over a minor feature that I would like to see in Canon camera software.

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Excuse me, but I am not the one who started this ad hoinem thread of wishful thinking.  I am not the one who waxed melancholy about the inconvenience of having to climb a step ladder, either.  Good luck, with your future trials and tribulations.