Nikon Photo Secretary or Soft Talk?

physi28 · Mar 31, 2009

Hi everyone! Anybody has an idea where to get the Nikon Photo Secretary with MC-31 cable or the Soft Talk with Har Talk cable or anything in the way which might connect the F90X to a PC??
thanks so much for all the valuable help provided up to now!
Joan

rwyoung · Mar 31, 2009

Not in this BBS! APUG = Analog Photography Users Group.

Moderators please lock thread.

Jeff L · Mar 31, 2009

I googled it and a few sites came up with cables that allow you to connect your analogue Nikon to a PC or MAC. Har Talk and Soft Talk. What are they for?
Jeff

jinx · Mar 31, 2009

Hi
Nikon stopped the production of the cable. Your only chance is ebay or you can build the cable yourself.
(look for the MC-32 too, it is the MAC Cable, you only have to change the connector to the PC)

Soft Talk can be downloaded and used for free.
http://www.cocoon-creations.com/COCOON-NiCommSoftTALK-98.shtml

Marc

mudman · Mar 31, 2009

rwyoung said:
Not in this BBS! APUG = Analog Photography Users Group.

Moderators please lock thread.

He's not asking how to digitize his camera, he's asking how to get information off of it. If you're offended by that, then I guess this board shouldn't talk about any camera with built in CPU's.

Pupfish · Mar 31, 2009

Don't sweat it, it's only film capture data

The later film Nikons stored a few rolls worth of data but it's only for the metrics of the images, exposure settings and so forth (somewhat like EXIF in a digital image). Can be accessed and uploaded through the 10-pin connector of the F5, maybe the F100, don't know about the N90 but do remember hearing there's another camera connector besides 10 pin for one of the bodies. The PC cable mates up with an RS-232 serial port connector, or DB9 serial port via adapter. The Mac version might have used the ADC port. No recent computers are likely to have either port so it likely won't be plug and play on your laptop.

One interesting feature that the original PhotoSecretary software supposedly facilitated was to dial in a delay of X milliseconds on the camera, so that one could slightly lag and synchronize an F5 with an N90 daisy chained together, for simultaneous use of one set of strobes. There are also other user customizable functions on the F5, at least, which cannot be accessed any other way (i.e. not through the usual menu on the camera alone). There apparently was a cable and perhaps a little program for reprogramming the F5 from a Sharp Pocket Wizard, an older pocket secretary (a Palm-sized organizer) from the early to mid 90's. But then that device was eclipsed by the PC software version, Nikon PhotoSecretary.

The original Nikon PC software also allows for shooting (on film) while tethered to a computer and adjusting the camera settings remotely via a PC or Mac. Don't know about Hartalk and Softalk. Only recall they seemed to have no further tech support once they offered free D/L.

Please let us know what you find, I might need to lag my F5 sometime.

Barry S · Mar 31, 2009

I have a HarTalk cable set including the palm device adapter and the SoftTalk software. I'm no longer using it since I sold my F100, so PM me if you're interested in buying it. I was planning on listing it in the classifieds.

airgunr · Mar 31, 2009

SoftTalk has stopped being produced but they have offered it free. You can check them out.

http://www.cocoon-creations.com/COCOON-NiCommSoftTALK-98.shtml

I haven't been on the site in a long time so I'm not sure if the link is still open or good.

If you can get a cable to work with your camera contact me and I may be able to get you the SoftTalk software if you can't get it from the site. They offered the software and key code open to the public so anyone can run it and you don't have to buy the software anymore. There will not be any support though.

I use it with my F5 and databack to download shooting data.

Lee L · Mar 31, 2009

rwyoung said:
Not in this BBS! APUG = Analog Photography Users Group.

Moderators please lock thread.

The camera is a film camera, as in analog. The data cable is to transfer exposure info logged by the camera to a computer, like keeping exposure notes, but automated.

Lee

David A. Goldfarb · Mar 31, 2009

Just to confirm, there is no problem with this topic on APUG.

Kimberly Anderson · Mar 31, 2009

David A. Goldfarb said:
Just to confirm, there is no problem with this topic on APUG.

Cooler heads have prevailed!

physi28 · Mar 31, 2009

look, the F90X is an analog camara! Digital camaras don´t need the mentioned device.
greetings
Joan

physi28 · Mar 31, 2009

Jeff L said:
I googled it and a few sites came up with cables that allow you to connect your analogue Nikon to a PC or MAC. Har Talk and Soft Talk. What are they for?
Jeff

they allow you aming oter thinsg to get shooting data (about 12 different ones)

physi28 · Mar 31, 2009

thanks, the problem is I need a cable for PC,
Joan

Lee L · Mar 31, 2009

physi28 said:
thanks, the problem is I need a cable for PC,
Joan

You might want to check further on the offer of the Hartalk cable. IIRC, he made one basic cable that used adapters to connect to various computing hardware, and multiple adapters, including one for your PC might be included in the offer you've gotten.

Lee

Barry S · Mar 31, 2009

Yes, I have the basic cable and module that attaches to the F5/F90/F100 and the DB-9 serial adapter cable that plugs into a PC serial port. It would probably be simpler to also buy a serial to USB adapter. I also have the Palm Pilot adapter that allowed the use of various Palm programs to control and collect data from Nikon cameras.

physi28 · Mar 31, 2009

Yes, as it has been said; I am not interested in any manipulation of my F90 via a computer but to get the shooting data, as I personally consider them extremely helpfull to learn of my errors. thanks to all!
Joan

physi28 · Mar 31, 2009

Barry S said:
Yes, I have the basic cable and module that attaches to the F5/F90/F100 and the DB-9 serial adapter cable that plugs into a PC serial port. It would probably be simpler to also buy a serial to USB adapter. I also have the Palm Pilot adapter that allowed the use of various Palm programs to control and collect data from Nikon cameras.

So far I have downloaded the software offered by Cocoon, "soft talk", what I am not sure about is if this software will work only with the correspondent "Har Talk" cable or with the MC-31, MC-32 cables which where supposed to be used with Nikon Photo Secretary.

Barry S · Apr 1, 2009

I believe that either cable (MC-31 or HarTalk) will work with either software package (SoftTalk or PhotoSecretary).

rwyoung · Apr 1, 2009

Yep, you are right. My bad.

Chaplain Jeff · Apr 2, 2009

Hello,

I had Photo Secretary with my F5 many years ago. As cool as the option was, I discovered that I rarely went through the trouble it was to actually use the software. The software and user interfacee was old and outdated even when it was "current".

I sold my cable years ago, but would think you can find on on ebay - probably for pennies on the dollar to what I paid for a new one.

Good luck!

Jeff M

lhaggman · Apr 10, 2009

In 2008 I bought a program, Camera Companion, from Holy Moose! ( support@holymoose.com ) and a DataCable2 from SchneorDesign, (auctions@SchneorDesign.com ) to record data from my Nikon F100.

This combination has functioned splendidly and I can highly recommend them.

Some time ago I bought another F100, but now the program did not accept the second camera. The very helpful man at HolyMoose told me to open a new file for storing data from the second F100. That helped, everything works well now.

The cable came with a D-9 computer connector, which did not suit me, so I bought a D-9 to USB adapter cable.

As I said earlier, this is a highly recommendable system, at least for F100

okto · Oct 18, 2012

Barry S said:
the Palm Pilot adapter that allowed the use of various Palm programs

Necroing a thread I realize, but info is thin on the ground on this topic.

What Palm software did you use? The only thing I've been able to dig up on the net is Jen Hancock's N90 Buddy, but he explicitly states that it will not work with the F100/F5.

Nikon Photo Secretary or Soft Talk?

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