Controlling digital SLR cameras with gPhoto2

The powerful gPhoto2 command-line software allows direct control of DSLR cameras from a PC, enabling automated continuous shooting. You can also use it for recording time-lapse videos on microscopes and telescopes watching the night sky.

GPhoto2 accesses the camera through the libgphoto library with a USB connection. Whether installing gPhoto is worthwhile depends on the kind of camera you have. The gPhoto homepage [1] lists over 1,600 supported models, but this means only that the program can read the image memory. For more demanding tasks, such as the remote control functions described below, support is essentially limited to Canon and Nikon DSLRs.

GPhoto2 can be found in the repositories of all the major distributions and can, therefore, be easily set up with the corresponding package manager. Under Ubuntu and its derivatives, choose the gphoto2 package and install it with the Apply button.

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