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Papywizard Tips and Tricks

Global usage

TODO

Geometric head setup

When the Merlin/Orion head is turned on, its internal electronic sets the position of both axis to zero. Be aware that in preset mode, the pitch axis positions assume that the zero is the position where the camera is horizontal; if it is not the case, zenith/nadir won't be real zenith/nadir.

In order to set a correct zero, you should first put the pitch axis so the camera is horizontal, using a bubble level in the flash connector, and then press the Home button, to tell Papywizard to use that position as origin.

Shooting sequence

Dureing the shooting sequence, Papywizard executes the following steps:

• move to the requested position
• wait stabilizationDelay sec.
• if mirror lockup flag is set, trigger the camera shutter for stabilizationDelay sec.
• trigger the camera shutter for timeValue sec.
• move to the next position

The stabilizationDelay value mainly depends of the camera/lens weight, and the size of the tripod. Using heavy camera and small tripod will take longer to stabilize than light camera and strong tripod. In practice, 0.1 to 0.5 sec. should be enough.

The timeValue param should be computed so that the entire shooting sequence can complete. This includes:

• AF cycle
• if mirror lockup flag is not set, time for mirror to lockup
• exposure time
• time for mirror to go back to initial position
• time for writing buffer image to card

The last 2 sequences can be included in the next move, but be sure that the camera is ready when the next shoot sequence begins!

Shooting direction

The default Papywizard scanning scheme is to shoot row by row, reverting the direction at each row (to avoid too much moves). But it is possible to configure it so it shoots column by column, and ask it to always ask it shooting from the begining of the row/column.

The best configuration mainly depends of the subject you are shooting. For example, if you have fast moving clouds, it is best to let the default configuration, to shoot the entire sky as fast as possible. But it also depends of the orientation of the head; if it is mounted on an horizontal pole, then choose column as first shooting direction.

Testing positions

If the Time value parameter is set to 0, the head will skip the shooting sequence. This can be used to check all positions (new in 1.9.4).