Lots of changes in what may be the last version of 1.5

• Compatibility with more ZWO optical cameras
• Update to ASCOM support to use ASCOM 6.1
• Improvements to ASCOM camera handling - gain control available, more cameras will work correctly (not QHY yet, sorry)
• Fix various bugs and crashes
• Pause capture functionality added (only available for direct show cameras so far). The preview will continue to run and frames will be counted but not written to the output file.

1.5.328

• Remove accidental dependency on having ASCOM 6.1 installed, sorry!
  

As usual head over to the download page to get the latest version.

New version provides the following

• Better handling of autoconnection to camera at startup (will no longer autoconnect if SharpCap has crashed previously)
• Ability to turn autoconnection off altogether
• Improvements for the ASI1300 MM/MC cameras (better exposure control, better ROI selection - get the latest driver : http://www.zwoptical.com/Eng/G/)
• Fix to possible crash when loading capture profile for a different camera

Download 1.5.310

Changes since .304 include

• Multiple minor bug fixes and code cleanup
• Default Cancel button on the interval wait form
• Avoid stopping preview when showing video capture filter dialog under some odd circumstances
• Show frame progress bar on long (>1s) frames on DirectShow cameras
• Better error handling for DirectShow devices
• Fix colour space name for Mono DirectShow cameras
• Save and restore width of settings panel when app closed and reopened
• Fix vertical axis of pan/tilt control being inverted
• Do not crash if initial preview fails when starting app

Download 1.5.307

Here's what is new in 1.4 :

• Long exposure support for Basler cameras (unlimited exposure time)
  
• Parallel port control support for LX modified webcams
• Automatic USB serial port selection for LX modified webcams - chooses highest numbered serial port.
• Frame progress bar shown for all cameras in LX mode to show how far through the current frame you are
  
• Single frame capture support for all supported cameras types
  
• Multiple output formats supported  - SER, PNG, FITS for non-webcam cameras
• Experimental support for any camera with an ASCOM driver
• Improved capture file handling - formats that produce multiple files like PNG and FITS create a folder and save them into it
• Many bug fixes

Get the release build of 1.4 from the downloads page.

Fixes two minor bugs

• Default output folder not correctly set on new installations
• Crash with cameras that have no IAMStreamConfig interface while trying to work out frame rate.
  

[Update 1st May 2011 - new beta build uploaded - follow download link below]

SharpCap has become too big now for me to quickly test every feature and combination of features before shipping a new build, so I'm going to start making beta builds publicly available for people to test. The beta builds are deliberately time limited - in this case it will stop working on the 1st May.

You are very strongly advised to try beta builds out indoors before trying to use them during an imaging session.

New Features in 1.4

For those that actually would like to know what's new in this build, here's the list...

• Long exposure support for Basler cameras
• Parallel port control support for LX modified webcams
• Automatic USB serial port selection for LX modified webcams - chooses highest numbered serial port.
• Frame progress bar shown for all cameras in LX mode to show how far through the current frame you are
  
• Single frame capture support for all supported cameras types
  
• Multiple output formats supported  - SER, PNG, FITS for non-webcam cameras
• Experimental support for any camera with an ASCOM driver
• Improved capture file handling - formats that produce multiple files like PNG and FITS create a folder and save them into it
• Various bugfixes

Download

You can download the beta using this link. (Updated link to build 212)

[Edit: download updated to hopefully fix problem if ASCOM not installed]

Reporting Issues

Please report any problems you have via the AstronomyShed or StargazersLounge forum threads.

Fix for Basler cameras to allow use of Basler Pylon drivers 2.3.3 (and any other minor updates in the 2.3.x series).

Fixes an annoying bug where sometimes black frames would show in LX mode instead of the LX images (this was often intermitent - i.e. some frames would be fine, others black).

Download

Fixes two crashes :

• Crash using ToUcam in LX mode
• Crash when changing to another camera with no Camera or ProcAmp controls available after using an SPC900NC camera
  

Download

Fixes an crash when selecting a camera in LX mode if the LX mode configuration was incorrect or incomplete.

Download

(Note - the previously uploaded version 1.3.111 did not fix the issue correctly and has been withdrawn).