vcam

This is a PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) responder that reimplements the proprietary vendor extensions found in digital cameras. Everything from filesystem access to remote capture, vcam tries to mimic the exact behavior of a camera. It also replicates the USB and WiFi stack well enough that it can spoof official camera software:

All of this can be easily run on Linux - see below on instructions on how to run it.

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This started out as a fork of gphoto's vcamera regression tester. Since then it has been heavily modified and improved to more closely replicate the PTP responders found in camera firmware.

Why

• Regression testing - Do extensive client testing in CI that can check for runtime bugs
• For easier prototyping - vcam can be used instead of a physical camera (no need to wait for a camera to recharge or reconnect to continue testing)
• Black box testing - test against vendor software without disassembling
• Reference - vcam tries to be a reference implementation of proprietary vendor functionality, showing what is happening behind the scenes (and sometimes why)

Roadmap

• Basic PTP responder implementation (thanks Marcus Meissner)
• Canon EOS implementation (WIP, Digic 4+, see canon.c)
• libusb and vhci backends - see usb/
• PTP/IP packet support
• Fujifilm X TCP implementation (2015-2020)
• Spoof Fujifilm Camera Connect
• Spoof EOS Connect
• Spoof Windows 11
• Complete ISO MTP implementation
• open-source extensions (chdkptp, ML)
• DX + other mirrorless EOS implementation
• Canon Powershot (non-EOS) implementation
• Sony implementation? pmca

Compiling

sudo apt install libusb-1.0-0-dev libexif-dev
make vcam

VHCI backend

This will connects the camera to your Linux PC through a virtual host controller:

sudo modprobe vhci-hcd
sudo ./vcam vhci canon_1300d

libusb backend

The libusb API is hardly implemented, PRs improving this are welcome.

make libusb-vcam.so

Running an access point

sudo apt install haveged hostapd

Power saving mode can make the TCP handshake way too slow:

# Doesn't last a reboot (I think)
sudo iw dev wlan0 set power_save off

See the makefile for more info on starting access points.

make ap-canon WIFI_DEV=wlan0

Credits

Original Author (vusb): Marcus Meissner [email protected]
Forked from https://github.com/gphoto/libgphoto2/tree/master/libgphoto2_port/vusb
create_ap scripts from https://github.com/oblique/create_ap
Licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1