gPhoto

Libgphoto2
is the core library designed to allow access to digital cameras by external (front-end) programs, such as digiKam and gPhoto2. List of officially supported cameras is available on the
official website
(though more may work).
This article documents the configuration of
libgphoto2
to access digital cameras. Some digital cameras will mount as normal
USB storage devices
and may not require the use of libgphoto2.
Installation
Install
the
libgphoto2
package, and optionally
gphoto2
to have a command line interface.
Mount
gphotofs
—
Fuse
module to mount camera as a filesystem.
http://www.gphoto.org/proj/gphotofs/
||
gphotofs
AUR
gvfs-gphoto2
— GPhoto2 backend for GVfs to mount camera as a filesystem from a file manager that supports GVfs such as
GNOME Files
,
Nemo
,
PCManFM
and
Thunar
. Part of
gnome
.
https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/gvfs
||
gvfs-gphoto2
Kamera
—
KDE
integration for gPhoto2 cameras. Provides a configuration tool and a KIO worker to read and write to camera devices. Part of
kde-graphics
.
https://apps.kde.org/kamera/
||
kamera
Frontend applications
Darktable
— Utility to organize and develop raw images.
https://darktable.org/
||
darktable
digiKam
— Digital photo management application for
KDE
.
https://www.digikam.org/
||
digikam
Entangle
— Provides a graphical interface for “tethered shooting”, aka taking photographs with a digital camera completely controlled from the computer.
https://entangle-photo.org/
||
entangle
AUR
gThumb
— Image browser and viewer for
GNOME
.
https://help.gnome.org/users/gthumb/stable/
||
gthumb
GTKam
— Graphical
GTK
2 front-end to gPhoto2.
http://www.gphoto.org/proj/gtkam/
||
gtkam
AUR
Pantheon Photos
— Image viewer for Pantheon.
https://launchpad.net/pantheon-photos
||
pantheon-photos
Rapid Photo Downloader
— Download photos and videos from cameras, memory cards and portable storage devices.
https://www.damonlynch.net/rapid/
||
rapid-photo-downloader
Rawstudio
— An open source raw-image converter written in GTK. Supports tethered shooting with gPhoto2.
https://rawstudio.org/
||
rawstudio
AUR
Shotwell
— Digital photo organizer designed for
GNOME
.
https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Shotwell
||
shotwell
GPhoto2 usage
GPhoto2 is a command line client for libgphoto2. GPhoto2 allows access to the libgphoto2 library from a terminal or from a script shell to perform any camera operation that can be done. This is the main user interface.
GPhoto2 also provides convenient debugging features for camera driver developers.
Quick Commands
gphoto2 --list-ports
gphoto2 --auto-detect
gphoto2 --abilities
gphoto2 --summary
gphoto2 --list-files
gphoto2 --get-all-files
gphoto2 --capture-image-and-download
gphoto2 --set-config datetime=now
- sets the camera to the current time
For advanced file manipulation, use
gphoto2 --shell
Tip
With
gphoto2 --capture-movie
it is possible to use supported cameras as a webcam. See
v4l2loopback#Using a photo camera as webcam with gPhoto
for details.
Example usage with GVfs
Auto detect the connected camera and list the required port:
$ gphoto2 --auto-detect
Model                          Port
----------------------------------------------------------
Canon Digital IXUS 980 IS      usb:006,011
Now open your favorite
file manager
and enter the address with the found port detail
gphoto2://[usb:006,011]
.
File manager functionality#Mounting
will use
gvfs
to get the camera mounted and manageable with the file manager.
Troubleshooting
Permission issues
Users with a local session have permissions granted for cameras using
ACLs
. See
General troubleshooting#Session permissions
if it does not work.
Claimed device
Your system might automatically mount the camera as a file system and then some gphoto2 commands output the error message "cannot claim device". In this case unmount the camera using your file browser or run:
$ gio mount -s gphoto2