matlab-sonyalpha

Control a Sony Alpha Camera

⚠️ This project has been moved to Gitlab at https://gitlab.com/astrophotography/matlab-sonyalpha This Github repo will be kept rather inactive.

SONYALPHA: A class to control a Sony Alpha Camera (NEX, Alpha, ...) compatible with the Camera Remote API by Sony.

Usage

>> camera = sonyalpha;
>> plot(camera)
>> capture(camera)

The LiveView image, that is shown with the "plot" method, is updated continuously, and is rather slow (e.g. every 2s).

Connecting the Camera

Start your camera and use its Remote Control App (e.g. Play Memories App) from the Camera settings. This starts the JSON REST HTTP server, used to control the camera. The Network SSID is shown on the Camera screen. Connect from your PC on that network. The usual associated IP is then 192.168.122.1 (port 8080)

The connection must be a dedicated ad-hoc, e.g. can NOT use an intermediate router. If you are already connected to the Internet, you have to drop your current connection, or use an additional Wifi adapter (e.g. USB-Wifi).

If you need to specify the camera IP, use:

>> camera = sonyalpha('http://192.168.122.1:8080');

You may as well use the simulation mode with: camera = sonyalpha('sim')

Using the Plot Window

The Plot window is shown when shooting still images or updating the LiveView. It contains the File, View, Settings and Shoot menus. It also shows the main settings, as well as a focus quality measure (higher is better).

The View menu allows to add Pointers and Marks on top of the current image. These can be used for e.g. alignment. You can equally add Pointers directly right-clicking on the image.

The Settings menu allows to change the most important camera settings, including the zoom level (when available).

The Shoot menu allows to take a single picture, update the live view (lower resolution), as well as start a continuous or timelapse shooting. To stop the continuous/timelapse session, select the Shoot item again.

Methods

• about Display camera settings in a dialogue window.
• addlistener Add listener for event.
• api Call the camera API with method.
• capture Capture an image with current camera settings (in background).
• char Returns a string that gathers main camera settings.
• close Delete the SonyAlpha connection and its timer.
• continuous Take pictures continuously.
• curl Prepare curl command.
• delete Delete a handle object.
• disp Display SonyAlpha object (details).
• display Display SonyAlpha object (short).
• exp Get/set the Exposure Compensation.
• findobj Find objects matching specified conditions.
• findprop Find property of MATLAB handle object.
• fnumber Get/set the F/D number (apperture) setting (A mode).
• focus Get/set the focus mode.
• get_state Return the camera state, e.g. BUSY, IDLE.
• getstatus Get the Camera status and all settings.
• help Open the Help page (web browser).
• image Take a picture, and display it.
• imread Take a picture, read it as an RGB matrix, and delete any local file.
• iso Get/set the ISO setting as a string (can be 'AUTO').
• isvalid Test handle validity.
• lastImageFile Return the last image file name (or URL).
• mode Get/set the shooting Mode (e.g. PASM).
• notify Notify listeners of event.
• plot Get a live-view image, display it, but does not store it.
• quality Get/set the image quality.
• shutter Get/set the shutter speed setting (S mode).
• start Set the camera into shooting mode.
• stop Stop the camera shooting.
• timelapse Take pictures with current settings every 'wait' seconds.
• timer Get/set the self Timer setting.
• urlread Take a picture and return the distant URL (no upload).
• urlwrite Take a picture, and download it as a local file.
• waitfor Wait for the camera to be idle.
• white Get/set the white balance setting.
• zoom Get/set the zoom value.

Monitoring the camera

The captureStart and captureStop events are triggered when a capture is initiated/finalised. You may then monitor these events with e.g. so = sonyalpha; addlistener(so, 'captureStop', @(src,evt)disp('capture just ended'))

For instance, for astrophotography you may automatically annotate new images:

• install https://github.com/farhi/matlab-astrometry
• as=astrometry('null','autoplot');
• addlistener(so, 'captureStop', @(src,evt)local(as, so.lastImageFile, 'scale-low', 0.5, 'scale-high',2));

Requirements/Installation

• Matlab, no external toolbox
• A wifi connection
• A Sony Camera
• curl (for wifi connection). Get it at https://curl.haxx.se/
• ffmpeg (for liveview with Wifi). Get it at https://www.ffmpeg.org/

Just copy the files and go into the directory. Then type commands above, once the camera is configured (see above).

The list of officially supported Sony cameras is:

• Alpha 7, R 7S, 7RII, 7SII, 5000, 5100, 6000, 6300, 6500,
• NEX 5R, 5T, 6

You may alternatively control the camera via a USB connection with the GPhoto2 interface from https://github.com/farhi/matlab-gphoto

Credits

• https://github.com/micolous/gst-plugins-sonyalpha
• https://github.com/Bloodevil/sony_camera_api
• https://developer.sony.com/develop/cameras/#overview-content
• https://developer.sony.com/file/download/sony-camera-remote-api-beta-sdk-2/

(c) E. Farhi, GPL2, 2019.