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DSLR Timelapse gphoto RaspberryPi

Controlling a DSLR with the gphoto library (RaspberryPi) for timelapse shots

Prerequisites

Installation gphoto library

#####1. Install gphoto prerequisites Connect to your raspberryPi via SSH and install the following librarys, required to install gphoto.

# the -y flag auto-completes yes/no prompts with 'yes'
sudo apt-get install libpopt-dev -y
sudo apt-get install libltdl-dev -y
sudo apt-get install libusb-dev -y
sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev -y

#####2. Download gphoto Download the gphoto source files from sourceforge.

wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/gphoto/files/libgphoto/2.5.3.1/libgphoto2-2.5.3.1.tar.gz
wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/gphoto/files/gphoto/2.5.3/gphoto2-2.5.3.tar.gz

#####3. Install gphoto Now you need to compile gphoto from the downloaded source files. Make sure you are superuser. This may take some time.

cd ~
tar zxvf libgphoto2-2.5.3.1.tar.gz
cd libgphoto2-2.5.3.1/
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install

cd ~
tar zvxf gphoto2-2.5.3.tar.gz
cd gphoto2-2.5.3/
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install

Test the DSLR/RPI Setup

turn ON your DSLR. in the command-line test your setup

#auto-detect the device (useful if you need to troubleshoot)
gphoto2 --auto-detect

#take a picture
gphoto2 --capture-image

#take a picture and download to RaspberryPi (current working path)
gphoto2 --capture-image-and-download 

#take a picture and download to RaspberryPi (desired path)
#the gphoto2 filename option allows timestamps like %Y %m %d %H %M %S
gphoto2 --capture-image-and-download  --filename /home/pi/name.jpg

useful tips for timelapse capture

I changed my DSLR Mode to Manual (M) and did all the setup on the DSLR, although its possible to control ISO, shutter speed etc. with the gphoto library. It's even possible to access the battery level from the DSLR.

  • DSLR manual mode
  • turn OFF Auto White Balance (reduce flicker)
  • turn OFF Auto Focus (reduce flicker, saves pattery power)
  • turn OFF Capture Preview in DSLR Settings (saves battery power)
  • reduce Capture Quality (e.g. JPEG NORMAL, small to save battery power)
  • avoid downloading the captured images (saves battery power)

Example python script

This is my example setup which is executed every minute from a crontab. Be sure to understand, what you copy and paste, as this example includes sftp upload and my particular led setup. Check out the call function of gphoto.

import time
import sys
import pysftp
import datetime
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO

#call required to call gphoto script
from subprocess import call

## upload images to sftp server (not required)
def upload(TIMESTAMP):
    with pysftp.Connection('server', username='usrname', password='illuminati') as sftp:
    	with sftp.cd('html/d_fhp/io-slime-mold/data'):
    		sftp.put('/home/pi/io/slime_'+TIMESTAMP+'.jpg')

## START

## RPI GPIO setup
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BOARD)

## LEDS in physical setup: 
## L=> 37,35,33 M=> 31,32 R=>36,38,40 
leds = [37,35,33,31,32,36,38,40]

## LED ON
for ID in range(len(leds)):
	GPIO.setup(leds[ID], GPIO.OUT)
	GPIO.output(leds[ID], GPIO.HIGH)

## TIMESTAMP
ts = time.time()
TIMESTAMP = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(ts).strftime("%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S")
	
## DSLR PHOTO
# call (["gphoto2","--capture-image"]) #leave images on DSLRs SD card
call (["gphoto2","--capture-image-and-download","--filename","/home/pi/io/slime_"+TIMESTAMP+".jpg"])

## SLEEP
time.sleep(5)

## LED OFF
for ID in range(len(leds)):
	GPIO.output(leds[ID], GPIO.LOW)

## UPLOAD / CLEANUP
upload(TIMESTAMP) ## (not required)
GPIO.cleanup()

Further Reading

Troubleshoot

#####*** Error (-60: 'Could not lock the device') *** My RaspberryPi detects the SD Card of my DSLR as a mass storage device. In order to unmount the SD Card from raspberryPi filesystem detection, i found the following workaround.

#Gnome Virtual File System (GVFS)
cd /usr/lib/gvfs/

#Deactivate the GVFS by renaming the monitor. 
sudo mv gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor  gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor-bak

#reboot the pi
sudo reboot