Digital Cameras

Summary

This document attempts to configure libgphoto2 so that the members of the camera group can access a digital camera over USB. The aim was to keep this document simple and thus special cases were not covered. I would like change this so that we can work out any bugs and have a more streamlined configuration for the community. So feel free to post problems and solutions into the talk page and they may be added under a troubleshooting section. With that in mind, not all cameras are detected with --auto-detect(in gphoto2). Some cameras may show up with a generic name, or others with the wrong model name. If it works, don't try and fix it.

Libgphoto2

About

Libgphoto2 is the core library designed to allow access to digital cameras by external(front end) programs, such as Digikam and gphoto2. The current 'officially' supported cameras are here though more may(probably) work.

Installation and Configuration

As root, type in:

# pacman -S libgphoto2

Now this:

# gpasswd -a $yourusername camera

Note: $yourusername is whatever NON-root account you want to add to the camera group.

Permission issues

If you receive permission issues type this in as well, still as root:

# /usr/lib/libgphoto2/print-camera-list udev-rules mode 0660 version 0.98 group camera > /etc/udev/rules.d/90-libgphoto2.rules

If after following all of these steps you still have access issues, try editing /etc/udev/rules.d/90-libgphoto2.rules and change the PROGRAM= line near the bottom to the following:

PROGRAM="/lib/udev/check-ptp-camera", MODE="0660", GROUP="camera"

If your camera is not present in any udev rule, you can check vendor and product id and add it. To check it just run:

# lsusb
...
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 04a9:318e Canon, Inc.
...

I prefer to put any local udev rules to /etc/udev/rules.d/90-local.rules to make sure it wouldn't be overwritten by new packages.

To changes take effect you need to restart udevd

# killall udevd && udevd -d

Now after plugin your camera you can check if permission looks okay by running:

# ls -lR /dev/bus/usb

Tip: It may be easier to reboot.

GPhoto2

About

GPhoto2 is a command line client for libgphoto2. GPhoto2 allows access to the libgpohoto2 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.

Installation and Configuration To get Gphoto2, type this in as root:

# pacman -S gphoto2 gvfs-gphoto2

Quick Commands

• gphoto2 --list-ports
• gphoto2 --auto-detect
• gphoto2 --summary
• gphoto2 --list-files
• gphoto2 --get-all-files

Frontend(external) Applications for GPhoto2

• Darktable
• Digikam
• F-Spot
• GPhoto2
• Gthumb
• GTKam

Miscellaneous Troubleshooting

Groups

You should make sure the user to which you'd like to grant access to the camera is part of the storage group.

Wiki Articles Relating to Photo/Cameras

• Jalbum - Freeware for creating professional albums/galleries.
• HCL/Digital Cameras - Partial list of supported cameras for gphoto2