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How to use your DSLR from 2008 as a webcam in 2022 (NixOS)
- mrkeen 4y agoAny restrictions about how long you can keep it turned on? I tried to do this but found I'd need to flash the cam's firmware to override the 10min recording limit. (I read that cameras which can record longer are taxed as video cameras, so they're deliberately crippled)
- formerly_proven 4y agoNormally you can leave live view (768x512 resolution, 0.4 MP in this case, usually not much higher for modern cameras) running indefinitely. Besides the low resolution especially on older cameras the readout for live view will use pixel skipping to conserve power at the expense of quality. This is why "the pro streamers" don't use the live view image, but instead go the HDMI-to-UVC route using the camera's video mode.
- throwaway294566 4y agoUnfortunately most cameras do not provide "clean" HDMI output. That is, the HDMI output contains camera UI symbols like focus points, battery state, lighting, etc. Configuration options to disable those UI symbols are generally not available, at best one can disable some of them. A model with "clean" HDMI is usually more expensive and you have to explicitly look for it as a feature. Live view readout via USB is something that works far more often than HDMI.
- formerly_proven 4y agoI’d expect pretty much any system camera from the last decade should include it
- throwaway294566 4y agoYou are definitely expecting something that the camera makers' market segmentation does not provide. If you need clean HDMI, you can buy a camera that has it, but I estimate only a quarter of currently available DSLRs do.
- gsich 4y agoMost cameras do? Especially if bought in the last ~5 years. Nikon D750 also can do it, 2014.
- philsnow 4y agoYou can sort-of "clean" whatever output you get from your camera because the symbols are typically around the periphery. Adjust focus+zoom so that your subject is within the rectangle that doesn't have symbols, take the camera output and put it through OBS with a crop filter and you've got something that's clean.
- borissk 4y agoDid you read the article? The author's camera can't record video at all. He uses software that creates video from static images taken by the camera.
- rhapsodic 4y ago
- revilotom 4y agoEven on long video calls (1-2 hours) I haven't had any problems but have not tested anything longer than that.
- BirAdam 4y agoMagic Lantern will take care of that. To accomplish what the OP does, I use a USB HDMI in, a mini HDMI to HDMI cable, and Magic Lantern on my Rebel. It works well. Magic Lantern allows me to leave the camera in preview without overlays for indefinite time periods. It can also provide video this way, but heat can be an issue there…
- Xeoncross 4y agoMagic Lantern was a game changer that really helped expose thousands to amateur videography. The Canon 5D MkII was the start of a revolution (an to a lesser extend, the T3i+) and the Panasonic GH4 and then Sony Alpha lines really played a role in pushing those young people from hobby to actual product videos and commercials.
- gsich 4y agoWhy recording limit? Leave it in live view, no need to record. Or is the HDMI output not active then? I don't think this tax applies anymore.
- SECProto 4y agoLive view turns itself off after a period of time. I believe with my Nikon it's 30min. For me, having to press the LV button twice an hour seemed more preferable than flashing the firmware.
- gsich 4y agoCan be disabled
- SECProto 4y agoLive view auto shutoff can be disabled? No it can't[1], not without modified firmware that either doesn't exist[2] or is only available from sketchy mega uploads[3]. There are other[4] hacky workarounds, but nothing clean. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Nikon/comments/c5wjg6/how_to_turnoff_autooff_timer_on_d3300/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Nikon/comments/c5wjg6/how_to_turnof... [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/Nikon/comments/hqp2wu/any_way_to_turn_off_auto_liveview_timer/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Nikon/comments/hqp2wu/any_way_to_tu... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKSY0eEC5gM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKSY0eEC5gM [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUrPd4b22Y4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUrPd4b22Y4
- evgpbfhnr 4y agoNote if the author reads this (perfect is the enemy of good, feel free to ignore): You can make udev run systemd services directly, replacing RUN=... by e.g. TAG+="systemd", ENV{SYSTEMD_WANTS}+="foo.service" That might require you also remove the 'enabled = true' for the service, and make sure gphoto2 dies when the camera is unplugged? Anyway, it was a nice read :)
- revilotom 4y agoWow thanks for the suggestion! I knew there must be some way to do it with fewer steps but didn't quite figure out what it was so I really appreciate this comment. When I get a chance I'll test what you said out!
- Filligree 4y agoMake sure it doesn't end up stopping the service on system activation, if you do that.
- yrro 4y agoIs BindsTo= the right way to have systemd shut the service down if the device disappears?
- evgpbfhnr 4y agoIt's been a while but yes BindsTo is a good idea if you can express the device in a reliable way. Unfortunately for USB devices the path will look like something that depends on the USB port it's been plugged in (I only have a sound card on my hands, but something like these two alternatives on two different ports): sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:14.0-usb1-1\x2d4-1\x2d4:1.0-sound-card1-controlC1.device sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:14.0-usb1-1\x2d1-1\x2d1:1.0-sound-card1-controlC1.device notice the usb-`1-1:4` became `1-1:1` That makes BindsTo unpractical unless you're sure you'll always plug in the camera on the same port everytime, so it might not be best. This made me look up how I'd do this if the needs arise, so I haven't tried, but `StopWhenUnneeded=true` in the service definition looks like it would stop it properly when the device "wanting" it is gone? cf. https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/528803/systemd-doesnt-stop-the-service-when-the-device-is-removed https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/528803/systemd-does... I learned something new :)
- sjs7007 4y agoIf you have an iPhone+mac you can use continuity camera which is pretty seamless in comparison: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213244 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213244
- dognotdog 4y agoI've created PTP Webcam [1] during COVID to get DSLRs working for video conferencing on the Mac. [1] https://ptpwebcam.org/ https://ptpwebcam.org/
- codazoda 4y agoThis works better than the Canon EOS Webcam utility for me, even though my DSLR isn't officially supported. It works fine in Zoom. Unfortunately it doesn't work in Quicktime. I'll take a look at some of the code signing info in your docs and see if I can fix it.
- dognotdog 4y agoMy understanding is that Quicktime Player has been in the SIP domain for recent OS releases, so it just won't load 3rd party libraries at all :/
- ycombinete 4y agoIf you have an iPhone and Windows PC, iVCam works great.
- filoleg 4y agoSimilarly, I can recommend Reincubate Camo, works on macOS/Linux/Windows. It also has plenty manual camera settings to play around with to get the exact view you want, including focus/white balance/exposure/cropping and tons more that the Apple's official continuity functionality lacks. Disclaimer: zero affiliation with the product (outside of being their happy customer). I simply found it way before the official continuity feature was even announced for macOS+iOS.
- codazoda 4y agoI literally tried this yesterday (with official Canon Webcam software) and gave up. I think I’ll give it another go.
- moooo99 4y agoI've also heard colleagues struggling with the manufacturer software. Many of them resorted to buying HDMI capture cards which seem to be working a bit more seamless (also a nice plus if your software installation abilities on your work laptop are limited)
- Markoff 4y agowhole guide about using some gphoto software, yet not a single link in article btw it's only for Linux, so don't even bother reading the linked web, if you are in windows http://www.gphoto.org/ http://www.gphoto.org/ Correct title: How to use your DSLR from 2008 as a webcam IN LINUX in 2022 (NixOS) I wished people would not omiss such important information in title when writing articles or linking them wasting everyone's time including server traffic
- seabea 4y agoNixOS is Linux
- palata 4y agoWhich may someday replace Arch in the saying that Arch people never forget to mention they are using Arch :-).
- thomastjeffery 4y agoThroughout the article, they use NixOS specific features. You can't really follow this in Arch without installing Nix and changing some parts of the instructions.
- palata 4y agoYes but those are fairly straightforward commands that are not really relevant (the post is about using v4l2 and gphoto).
- Markoff 4y agoHow am I supposed to know that? I assumed it's some special custom firmware/OS for Nikon cameras before opening the link. You way overestimate popularity and general knowledge of some rare Linux distros even among IT guys.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- stavros 4y agoI've been using an old Android phone as a webcam for a while, it's very good and latency is minimal, but conferencing software will just kill your stream. There's no reason to have even an HD webcam when your fellow participants will see a very compressed 0.4 Mpixel stream.
- throwaway46829 4y agoI don't think resolution is everything, I can definitely notice that the image is "better" in other ways when people are using proper cameras (whereas for a phone camera the resolution is a bigger part of what makes it better than a webcam), I'm quite happy with my own webcam being clear but not too clear though, it's a meeting not Instagram.
- vouaobrasil 4y agoA normal lens in the 50mm to 85mm range farther away will show your features much less distorted than the typical wide-angle lenses of webcams. Wide-angle lenses close to your face will make your closer features like your nose look bigger. It's basically very ugly. Doing this is less for the image quality and more for the natural representation of your face.
- arriu 4y agoThis should work with a ton of other cameras from roughly 2008 onwards. So long as it supports live view over usb with gphoto. The camera from this article is also known as the Canon 500 or 1000D in other parts of the world.
- 1MachineElf 4y agoCoincidentally, I read about the v4l2loopback driver which enables this yesterday. It was in an article about how it it a PITA to get working on Fedora due to the requirement for signed kernel modules. Glad to see it's easier on NixOS. https://dev.to/archerallstars/i-am-no-longer-use-fedora-36-too-restricted-to-be-useful-42nc https://dev.to/archerallstars/i-am-no-longer-use-fedora-36-t...
- FeistySkink 4y agoIt's in rpmfusion, so pretty much plug and play.
- Havoc 4y agoAlso - discovered you can make an old iphone stream rtsp via app periscope HD. Only gotcha is thermals...don't think it can run like that long term without active cooling
- nottorp 4y agoHmm but what's so wrong with a DSLR from 2008 that he wants to throw it away? Recent cameras may have a lot more pixels but the optics should still be just as good.
- SSLy 4y agoMILC's have shorter flange distance therefore more weird lenses can be created. Also they're smaller, lighter, and quieter due to the elimination of the moving mirror.
- quixoticelixer- 4y agoNew cameras are much much better. There's a lot more to quality than just optics and pixels
- thisisben 4y agoUsing a DSLR as a webcam is pretty straightforward with other Linux distros: https://www.crackedthecode.co/how-to-use-your-dslr-as-a-webcam-in-linux/ https://www.crackedthecode.co/how-to-use-your-dslr-as-a-webc... I've been using this for ~2 years now, and it's been rock solid.