Trouble connecting to Canon EOS Rebel XS (Vista HP)

[Caroline S]

Hi Chris,
We've been chatting over email and I was hoping this would be easier.

I have a Canon EOS Rebel XS and downloaded the DSLR Remote Pro (recent trial version and also tried the Beta version). My computer is running Vista HP. DSLR Remote Pro is not connecting to the camera. I uninstalled all of the canon software that came with the camera, and re-tried and it is still not connecting to the camera.

Also, the canon software that came with camera was connecting to the camera without any problem.

Please help!

[scalesusa]

Uninstalling all canon software would cause a problem, since the canon camera drivers are needed for the PC to recognize your camera. When you plug your camera into the pc, a connected message should pop up.

[Caroline S]

Really? Which Canon software needs to be installed and which ones should be disabled for the DSLR Remote Pro to work with my camera?

[Caroline S]

Sorry one more thing -- is my camera supposed to be set to specific settings to be able to work with DSLR Remote Pro? I saw a note on saying no to My Colours, but not sure where to do that... any others or recommendations?

[Chris Breeze]

You don't need to install (or uninstall) USB drivers for recent cameras like Rebel XS on Windows XP or Vista. Simply connecting the camera to the PC and turning it on will load the necessary drivers (this may take several seconds). No special camera settings are required for recent cameras (30D, 400D/Rebel XTi and later models). However, please check that no other software is connected to the camera as only one app can access it at any given time.

I've just released DSLR Remote Pro v1.7.2 beta 2 which has improved support for the Canon EOS 50D and 5D Mark II and should also fix the problems you're having with the Rebel XS.

You can download the beta from: http://www.breezesys.com/DSLRRemotePro/index.htm

[Caroline S]

Hi Chris,
I downloaded the new version of DSLR Remote Pro today and it is still not connecting to the camera. When I choose "Connect to Camera", the camera screen flashes on and then goes black again and it does not connect. I tried to manually take a picture with the camera while it was plugged in to the PC and it says "Busy" in the viewfinder.... do you know what might be causing this? Anything else that I can try? Hoping it's a quick fix!

Thanks...

[Chris Breeze]

The only thing I can think of is some other software must be connected to the camera and is preventing DSLR Remote Pro from connecting. You could try uninstalling Canon's software to see if that makes any difference. It's also worth trying plugging the camera into a different USB port the PC.
Do you have another computer you can try it on to verify that the camera, USB cable etc. are OK?

[Caroline S]

Hi Chris,
Just as an FYI... The DSLR Remote Pro definitely does not support Canon EOS Rebel XS. I finally just returned my camera b/c I was having so many problems with it and got the Canon EOS Rebel XSi and it works fine with DSLR Remote Pro.

[Chris Breeze]

I've found the problem: there was a bug in the code which checked the model name and it failed to distinguish between the Rebel XS and the Rebel XSi (1000D and 450D respectively in Europe). I've fixed this and released a development version which should work fine:
http://www.breezesys.com/downloads/dslrp172dev20081126.exe