Control your Canon Camera wirelessly | Hacker News Reader

Control your Canon Camera wirelessly

github.com

94 pointsnklswbr22 comments

I am not a Canon shooter but I welcome really any open source efforts on this front; this is one area of tech where open source is really held back by various vendors' intransigence, API and protocol shenanigans (I'm looking at you Sony)

Olympus (RIP) published open documentation of their command protocols, which are just HTTP endpoints with URL parameters.

This is kinda cool, but it's similar in function to the canon connect app which feels a little superfluous.

Maybe it connects better - I have a 70d and the connection process is annoying. Iirc it's WiFi direct but you have to connect and manage it yourself, and your phone will get cross there's no internet and disconnect you every so often.

My main camera now is a 90d which uses Bluetooth to connect first and then setup WiFi. Much easier process that makes the app much more useful. Although I've actually got an "unleashed" device that uses usb and hdmi for control, lets you do ramped time lapses and connect multiple cameras. No live view, but I can connect to both the 90d and 70d very smoothly which is more useful in general.

Your "superfluous" comparison is kind of apples vs oranges.

I looked at the canon app on ios, and they have continually eroded all your privacy.

At first, you could give it limited privileges to add photos from your camera to your camera roll.

But updates changed the app, so it refuse to work unless you give full access to every photo on your phone.

this is why we need alternatives.

I actually had to downgrade the Canon app on my Android phone because all of a sudden it required an account to connect to my camera.

This is related, but not wireless, and works only for the Powershot series of cameras:

https://chdk.fandom.com/wiki/CHDK

It is used for DIY book scanners.

I find the smartphone controller options for my Canon t6i so frustrating and dodgy, I gave up on them. The IR remote works for about 20 seconds and then the receiver shuts off for some reason. Practically useless for family portrait selfies.

Instead, I have a shutter release pedal, connected via a 50 foot audio extension cable, to the wired remote port on the camera. It's not compact or elegant, but it's easy, fast and reliable.

FWIW, the venerable Yongnuo RF-602 flash triggers can do this well with the right camera cord connected to the receiver; I think it may even do half-press AF.

I kept a set around with cables for my Nikon D700 and D7000.

Thanks, will look into it. For some reason I thought all the RF options were super expensive, maybe not.

The camera control API (free, but requires registration) that canon offers obviates the need for reverse engineering in my opinion. I wrote something very similar to this using the API, but with added features like those from Magic Lantern (false color, AI autofocus, etc) hope to open source it soon if there's interest.

You bet, I'm still using Sparkocam from way back when.

I wrote an iOS app like that, for Nikon cameras, many moons ago. It was a real pain, but I did get it working. The biggest issue, is the streaming video.

If they use PTP-IP, you can do quite a bit.

as someone whos been interested in this myself and I own a nikon. what resources did you use to figure out how to do it?

Long story, lots of tears. I am not at liberty to disclose the exact resources, but let's just say that I had an "inside track."

since entangle/gphoto2 works so well, I wonder if a clunkier but ultimately easier way to do this would be to use very small form factor embedded Linux system that plugs into the side of the camera and has WiFi. Would need a battery and to be charged and such, and it's overall silly because the camera can do everything this dongle would itself but...

Is the underlying API same as Canon Connect App

someone make this for Sony Alpha please...

It is ridiculous that such simple functionality is locked up.

I use their IEM app to dump a few photos at a time directly to my phone but it’s very slow and limited. I’d love for it to be a proper remote control, with direct upload and other obvious things like that.

I mean, really, how hard can it be? And if they don't want to do it just open up the spec. But no, you have to use their crap software on a platform that I'm not using. Oh, and wait until you look at what the nifty USB connector really is. It just looks like USB, it uses a USB connector but there is a whole raft of secondary connections in there! You'd never know until you look at the plug with a microscope, it's that small.

Yes, it's the "multiport" connector; both USB micro-B and wired shutter release socket.

Never quite understood why (considering the A7II, for example, is an Android device!!) they didn't make that port a USB-OTG setup and make the shutter release a proper USB peripheral. But they didn't.

Yep. And more annoyingly: the people that sell this stuff don't even realize it, they think it is USB.

It's really not a good app. Not so bad on desktop now though.

Cascable is said to be better on iOS for Sony but I think you need the pro version for certain features; then again it can also do wired tethering with USB-C which is IMO more practical.

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