[Radiance-general] USB?linux remote shutter control of Nikons ?

[Peter Apian-Bennewitz]

Dear folks,

out of curisosity: has someone got a Nikon (model 8400/880/4500) 
remotely controlled (shutter speed etc. for HDR) under Linux  ?
Paul's informative posting from March 2005
    
http://www.radiance-online.org/pipermail/radiance-general/2005-March/002512.html
mentions hacking the firmware to get a remote controlled sequence of 
shutter speeds on a Nikon.

Linux USB pages say that most Nikons are supported by gphoto2:
    http://www.qbik.ch/usb/devices/showdev.php?id=1353
    http://www.teaser.fr/~hfiguiere/linux/digicam.html
Reading images on a 4500 with PTP mode works, remote trigger works, but 
mostly likely the firmware doesn't support setting of the shutter speed:

Nikon Europe support tells me that only the 8400,8800,L1/L101,S4 support 
remote control via USB (firmware of the 4500 at hand is 1.2, most recent 
one at Nikon is 1.3, which they say differs only in flash control). Has 
someone info on the inofficial side to this ?
(If you are not aware of it, holding the 'menu' button at power-on 
displays the firmware version)
Someone I talked to mentioned  some undocumented pins on the 4500 USB 
connector, which  are supposed to be RS232 with remote control 
features.  Apparently he'd be testing this soon.

Anyone aware of 3rd party companies selling something like an HDR 
firmware for NIkons (or other cameras) ?

Info on positive experiences with other brands and HDR control via USB 
on Linux would also be much appreciated.

TIA
-Peter

-- 
 pab-opto, Freiburg, Germany, http://www.pab-opto.de
 [see web page to check digital email signature]