Mtplvcap

Introduction

日本語はこちら

mtplvcap is a multi-platform (Windows/Mac/Linux) software that relays the Live View of Nikon cameras via WebSocket.

mtplvcap + OBS turn your cameras into web cameras without HDMI capture device. Enjoy video chatting on Google Hangouts/Meet/Zoom etc. with your favorite cameras!

Environments

Supported models (incl. potentially supported)

What is "High Res"?

While the default resolution is 640x424 for all models, newer models support capturing high res image like 1024xXXX. Changing the resolutions for some models succeeds but some do not. This problem is tracked in an issue and may be resolved when the right method to change the resolution is found.

Unsupported models

Note: model names without a link is not confirmed but may not support live viewing

• One digit D series D1, D1X, D1H, D2H, D2X, D2Hs, D2Xs
• Two digits D series D40, D40x, D50, D60, D70, D70s, D80
• Three digits D series D100, D200
• Four digits D series D3000, D3100
• Nikon 1 series
  • 1 J5 responds "unsupported" as a reply of Start Live View request, so mysterious
  • There may be an unknown MTP operation to get it working
  • Please tell me anything you know about Live View or tethered shoot of Nikon 1 series!
• COOLPIX series

Verified OSes and other software

Note: Browsers listed here are used to check if virtual cams work well. Any other browsers should work.

How to install

Notice: Snippets described here should run as-is and copy-and-pastable.

Windows

Important: For Windows, you have to replace a pre-installed MTP driver with WinUSB driver. Your PC will no longer recognize the camera as an MTP device unless you re-install it manually. Reverting back is super easy! Follow the instruction to revert back the driver.

1. Replace MTP driver

1. Connect your Nikon camera to the PC

2. Download Zadig from here and launch it

3. Tick List All Devices

   

4. Make sure that your camera is in the list upper in the window and choose it

   

   (This screenshot was taken after the WinUSB driver is installed and will differ from what you see)

5. Choose WinUSB (vX.X.X.X) in the input box in the middle of the window

   • Please keep in mind that other choices do NOT work

6. Click Replace Driver button and wait it finishes the installation

   • Optionally, open the Device Manager and make sure it's installed
   

2a. Use a pre-built executable

1. Download the release from here (mtplvcap_windows_amd64.zip).
2. Extract the ZIP
3. Double-click mtplvcap.exe
   • Make sure your camera opens up its shutter

2b. Build it yourself in MSYS2

1. Download and install MSYS2 from here

2. Launch "MSYS2 MSYS" in the Start Menu

3. Install dependencies

   • Some people reported that pacman fails to install a package group mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain and other packages at once. Installing them separately should succeed.

   pacman -Sy
   pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain
   pacman -S \
       mingw-w64-x86_64-libusb \
       mingw-w64-x86_64-go \
       mingw-w64-x86_64-pkg-config \
       git
   

4. Add PATHs

   echo 'PATH=$PATH:/mingw64/bin:/mingw64/lib/go/bin' >> ~/.bashrc
   source ~/.bashrc
   

5. Clone this repo

   git clone https://github.com/puhitaku/mtplvcap.git
   

6. cd, build, and launch it

   cd mtplvcap
   CGO_CFLAGS='-Wno-deprecated-declarations' go build .
   ./mtplvcap.exe -debug server
   

   • Make sure your camera opens up its shutter
   • Perhaps you have to specify GOROOT like GOROOT=/mingw64/lib/go go build .

7. Done!

   • The binary can be moved and redistributed easily
   • Copy libusb-1.0.dll from C:\msys64\mingw64\bin\libusb-1.0.dll and place the copy alongside mtplvcap.exe to launch it directly from Explorer

Revert back the driver (if necessary)

Generic MTP apps will no longer be able to communicate with cameras with replaced WinUSB driver. To revert it back, follow the instruction:

(Screenshots are not available as I don't have English Windows. Sorry for inconvenience.)

1. Right-click the Start Button and click "Device Manager"

2. Right-click your camera in the "Universal Serial Bus devices" section and click "Update driver"

3. Click "Browse my computer for driver software"

4. Click "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"

5. Choose "MTP USB Device" in the list and click "Next >"

6. It'll show "Windows has successfully updated your driver software" and it's done

macOS

‼️ For macOS Ventura users: please run mtplvcap command with sudo. See issue #68 for the background and further info.

1. Install dependencies

1. Install Homebrew

2. Install libusb

   brew install libusb
   

2a. Use a pre-built executable

1. Download the release from here (mtplvcap_macos_amd64.zip).

2. Extract the ZIP and launch it

   unzip mtplvcap_macos_amd64.zip
   ./macos/mtplvcap
   

   • macOS will warn you that the binary is not verified

3. Allow non-verified binary to launch

   • Dismiss the dialog (Do not move it to the trash!)
   
   • Open "System Preferences" -> "Security & Privacy" -> Click "Allow Anyway"
   
   • Launch mtplvcap once more and click "Open"
   
   • Make sure your camera opens up its shutter

2b. Build it yourself

1. Install dependencies

   brew install golang git
   

2. Install XCode Command Line Tools with xcode-select --install

3. Clone this repo

   git clone https://github.com/puhitaku/mtplvcap.git
   

4. cd, build, and launch it

   cd mtplvcap
   CGO_CFLAGS='-Wno-deprecated-declarations' go build .
   ./mtplvcap -debug server
   

   • If macOS blocks the downloaded executable and show alerts, please follow this procedure to proceed
   • Make sure your camera opens up its shutter

5. Done!

Linux

I strongly recommend you to compile by yourself for Linux distributions as Linux environments vary widely.

1. Install dependencies

1. Install libusb

   # For Debian/Ubuntu:
   sudo apt install libusb-1.0-0
   

   # For Arch:
   pacman --sync libusb
   

2a. Use a pre-built executable

1. Download the release from here (mtplvcap_linux_amd64.zip).

2. Extract the ZIP and launch it

   unzip mtplvcap_linux_amd64.zip
   ./linux/mtplvcap
   

   • Make sure your camera opens up its shutter

2b. Build it yourself

1. Install dependencies

   # For Debian/Ubuntu:
   sudo apt install golang-go libusb-1.0-0-dev
   

   # For Arch:
   pacman --sync go libusb
   

2. cd, build, and launch it

   cd mtplvcap
   CGO_CFLAGS='-Wno-deprecated-declarations' go build .
   ./mtplvcap -debug server
   

   • Make sure your camera opens up its shutter

Usage

$ ./mtplvcap -help
Usage of ./mtplvcap:
  -backend-go
        force gousb as libusb wrapper (not recommended)
  -debug string
        comma-separated list of debugging options: usb, data, mtp, server
  -host string
        hostname: default = localhost, specify 0.0.0.0 for public access (default "localhost")
  -max-resolution
        change the resolution to the max (experimental)
  -port int
        port: default = 42839 (default 42839)
  -product-id string
        PID of the camera to search (in hex), default=0x0 (all) (default "0x0")
  -server-only
        serve frontend without opening a DSLR (for devevelopment)
  -vendor-id string
        VID of the camera to search (in hex), default=0x0 (all) (default "0x0")

Watch incoming frames

• http://localhost:42839/view will show the captured frames
• http://localhost:42839/mjpeg will serve a bare MJPEG stream (suitable to record a timelapse with OctoPrint etc.)
• http://localhost:42839/snapshot will return the latest JPEG frame

Control your camera on your browser

• http://localhost:42839 is a controller to control your camera
• "Auto Focus" section controls periodic/manual AF
• "Rate Limit" section limits/un-limits the frame rate to decrease overall CPU usage
• "Information" section shows the dimension of captured images etc.

Connect with Zoom, Google Meet, Google Hangouts, etc.

1. Install mtplvcap and check if it works

2. Install OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) from here

3. Install OBS virtual camera (it varies for each OS)

4. Open OBS preference and "Video" tab

5. Adjust resolutions to fit with LV frame dimension

   • Launch mtplvcap and open localhost:42839 to get the actual resolution
   

6. Add a "Browser" source

   

7. Set "Width" and "Height" to the same value of "Video" preference

8. Set http://localhost:42839/view as the URL

   

9. Enable the virtual camera and configure chat apps

10. BOOM!

    

Caveats

• This software is in alpha stage.

Known Issues

• Stops Live View automatically
  • The timeout can be elongated in camera menu.
  • Some cameras support disabling auto-off timer, while some does not.
    • For D5300, "Custom Setting Menu" -> "c Timers/AE lock" -> "Auto off timers" -> "Custom" -> "Live View" -> "30 min"
  • As a work-around, mtplvcap watches the shutter and opens it automatically when it's closed.
• D5000: incorrect frame dimension is reported in the controller
  • Correct dimension is 640x426
• Windows: on MinTTY, the process gets killed without graceful shut-down when you press Ctrl-C.
  • It will result in a fail of the next launch and might require you to re-plug the camera in.
  • It's a known behavior and is not a bug of mtplvcap.
  • Please install winpty with pacman and run via it winpty ./mtplvcap
  • Running mtplvcap directly from Explorer with double-click runs without this problem. Please stop it with Ctrl-C, not by pressing the close button.

Feedback

• Posting issues and PRs is welcome. Follow CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution.
• Only few cameras are tested. Please tell me if mtplvcap works (or not) with your camera.

Credit

This program is based on github.com/hanwen/go-mtpfs. Special thanks to Han-Wen-san for a robust and mature MTP implementation.

And also I referenced github.com/dukus/digiCamControl for parsing MTP payloads. If not for this, I couldn't have implemented mtplvcap.

License

LICENSE document