Sony Alpha with Octolapse (3d print timelapse)

Demonstration on how to use any Sony Alpha with Imaging Edge support (and especially older NEX models) with Octolapse to create timelapses of your 3d prints. Visit my blog at there.oughta.b... for all the details and the script to control the camera.
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[@harleyufo]

Thank you very much - great job! This works perfectly with my A6500 👍 The IP address of the camera always seems to be the one from your script - that's where I stalled at first... 😉 As you wrote in your blog, the installation of 'jq' is mandatory - then the reading of the temporary photos works fine 😎

[@Rcmike1234]

thanks so much. exactly what i was looking for

[@zZGhostCellZz]

Mega video, habe genau nach so einer Lösung gesucht!👍

[@PointBlankMetal]

Firstly, thank you so much for this - i was tearing my hair out with my sony camera and octolapse. I have sucessfully made octolapse use the camera to take the photos but i am not sure how to get the higher resolution photos that you mention. I turn rendering off as well so the images save to my SD card instead, i plan make my own render.

[@ThereOughtaBe]

Just adding the answer in short as we solved this via email: The higher resolution I mentioned can be activated with an API call to "setPostviewImageSize" to transfer full res jpegs instead of the default 2MP previews (if supported by the camera). What you were looking for was an option to store raw images on the SD card when the camera is triggered by the script. This is simply a setting in the "smart remote" app on the camera. Strangely, this app ignores the "quality = RAW & JPEG" setting of the camera and has its own setting for this function.

[@JulianMakes]

Very cool indeed!

[@MrFlav31]

I just discovered your channel, it's amazing! are you really working for aperture science?

[@Fullspectrumly]

Thank you so so much

[@chrisjamesies]

Is there a new way to do this yet? I noticed cura has a method of embedding a script in the gcode now baked in the software. I havbe an a6300 and Voxelab Aquila x2.

[@kylein209]

Hello! I have been troubleshooting for some amount of hours now with my Sony A7ii and I have the following- Octoprint is set up, and the script has been added to the home directory of the pi, I believe it is successfully running. I cannot seem to connect my Sony camera to the Pi though, because when I open the 'Smart Remote' application, it shows 'wifi standby' for a brief moment, then shows me an SSID and Password. I am not sure how to connect this information back to my pi so that the 'handshake' can take place? Do you have any suggestion? Thank you in advance!!

[@АндрейФ-п4к]

Спасиб большое за видео и блог! Это очень полезно!

[@midoriFPV]

cool

[@Cactuspractice12]

Hello a very promising solution, but to clarify, are these steps I need to do: 1. Create a wifi hotspot from my camera (?) " The app connects to a Wifi hotspot created by the camera" 2. Link my raspberry pi to the hotspot created by my camera 3. Paste in code to raspberry pi How do I creat a Wifi Hotospot using my camera..maybe you mean that I need to connect the camera and raspberry pi to the same Wifi network?

[@ThereOughtaBe]

I wish it was the latter. Unfortunately, you cannot link the Alphas to a local Wifi and control it remotely through this local Wifi. At least the cameras I have available allow file transfer in local networks at best, but will automatically switch to their own hotspot when activating the remote control feature. What I meant is the Wifi remote mode for the Imaging Edge app. On older Alphas it is a camera app "Smart remote control" (as seen at 2:19) and on newer ones it is just somewhere in the menu. On my a6400 it is in Network->"Ctrl w/ smartphone"->Connection. This will start the hotpot on your camera (or access point or whatever the precise name would be). Keep in mind that if you use the internal Wifi of your Raspberry Pi that you cannot use the same Wifi to connect to your local Wifi at the same time. So, you either need to log into your Pi via ethernet or you need to add a USB Wifi stick to connect to a second Wifi network (your camera's and your local one) at the same time. Unfortunately, this may or may not open a whole new list of possible difficulties...

[@Cactuspractice12]

@@ThereOughtaBe Ok, I see. Ive not used any Wifi remote for my A6500, so the concept of it creating a hotspot is strange. So what you're saying is that I need the Imaging Edge app for this procedure you describe to work? I have the Raspberry PI 4B, which has Wifi built in. My Pi Wifi is connected to my network, but this added USB wifi stick your saying is neccesary to connect to the camera since the built in Pi Wifi can only connect to one thing at a time (and that is being used by Octopi already perhaps?) Thanks so much for the extended explanation, but I had one question: are you able to save the octolapse files directly to your camera's SD card, or are they getting saved onto the PI? (presumably yes, but just confirming). And just to add, since ive seen a comment below about using Gphoto2 to control the A6500. It doesn't work despite the list of compatible camera's saying it does. Ive been in touch 'FormerLurker' (the creator of Octolapse) and he has said with many/all Sony camera's there is a problem with triggering the files to save locally on the camera's SD card (with Gphoto2). He's attempted to troubleshoot the issue countless times with people, but with zero success). That compatability list is a bit misleading for some reason, which you can see from all the post from people trying to get Gphoto2/Octolapse to work with Sony camera's. The only solution for Sony Camera owners currently is to create a manual trigger on the printer itself. A bit of a faff, which is why if your method doesn't work I may be selling my Sony and picking up a canon EOS M50 (which is compatible).

[@ThereOughtaBe]

​@@Cactuspractice12 Nope, you don't need the app. My script takes the role of the app and connects to the camera just like the app would do. And Yep, you would need a Wifi stick as the Pi would not be able to connect to two networks at a time. And also Yep: The Pictures are also saved on the SD card. I just transfer the 2M preview version while the high-quality version is stored on the card like a regular photo.

[@Ryxxi_makes]

So after a lot of research into this, it is my understanding that gphoto and usb method sucks for Sony cameras, atleast till 2019 models because of limited control and unable to store photos on SD card, I would still like to give your method a go and compare between both!

[@ThereOughtaBe]

It would be helpful to comment as an answer. Your comments are scattered all over the comment section and I am no longer sure which ones I answered. Besides, some of them can actually be entered into Google before posting them here... So, let's see what I can answer: - First of all, I cannot tell you anything about gphoto2, simply because I have not used it. - I find it hard to see if something went wrong in your timelapse. But what might help to figure it out is that you can step through the video frame by frame with the "." and "," keys. In general your timelapse needs a more stable light source (looks like sunlight on a cloudy day?) and you should use manual focus as it appears to refocus on each frame, introducing focus pumpung. - The error message you posted below is quite clear: You have to look into plugin_octolapse.log to learn more. If this is with gphoto2, I cannot say anything, if it is with my script, make sure you can ping your camera to rule out the network connection. - About lenses: As you can see in the video above I just used the stock lens with the tiny standard flash. I do not think that lenses make much of a difference here, because you are taking pictures that are converted to a much lower resolution than the sharpness limit. Maybe fast lenses can five you an interesting depth of field, but because of the close placement I find that I have to stop down anyways to get everything focused and in your shot the far end of your model is also blurry. Unless you want to focus on something in the front, you probably want to stop down a bit too and then the stock lens is more than enough. Instead, for my timelapses a better light source would be a big improvement. Flashes can be a bit inconsistent between shots and there are much more interesting lighting setups with better separation. Look into product photography to get some ideas. (In general, as you mention that your phone gives better results than your camera, you might want to look into some introductionary videos on photography, too. I can see how phones in full auto yield better results, but when set up properly even the old NEX-5T with stock lens should outperform even the newest phones in most situations. For these time lapses, you should fix almost everything instead of leaving it on auto to achieve maximum consistency between shots. So, you need to know how to set a fixed ISO (preferably 100), a fixed aperture , a fixed focus and (I often forget this myself) a fixed white balance along with stable lighting.) - I love the cheap Sony Macro for its price and it works well on "large stuff" too. You should set a manual focus anyways. But I do not think that it is necessary for print time lapses unless you want to print rather small objects and can get the lens in real close. Hope, I found all questions :)

[@Ryxxi_makes]

@@ThereOughtaBe Hi, thank you ! sorry about messing up your comments section :( , no my camera just had automatic white balancign and other auto settings which were changing the lighting. I got it to work now but there doesnt seem to be a way to stop pi from rendering finished snapshots using sony cameras, but i am just downloading the images and making my own in vegas pro and its working. Fair bit of print quality drop though because it takes a while for the pi to extract the image then delete it from the camera. I have now changed everything to manual and using manual focus. Its a lot better now. Thank you for all your help! really appreciate it.

[@Ryxxi_makes]

@@ThereOughtaBe hi, is the "Snapshot Acquire Script" in octolapse the same for your method ? so is it still "/home/pi/scripts/take-snapshot.sh" ?

[@DiConX]

@@Ryxxi_makes Not entirely sure if I understand the question correctly, because I named the script slightly differently... My "Snapshot Acquire Script" is named "takePic.sh", so it seems like the answer is "no". But you can name the script anything you like, so if you place my code in "/home/pi/scripts/take-snapshot.sh" then the answer would be "yes" :) Downloading the raw snapshots is easy - it is just a setting in Octolapse (I think you need to disable the rendering function or there might also be a setting to keep both).

[@mahmood392]

i want to do this.. but i have a6400 and Klipper not octroprint nor octolapse.. and if i was able to connect it like via usb that would be great but idk how to do that also.. because klipper uses crownnest, any solutions?

[@ThereOughtaBe]

No idea about Klipper, but the a6400 has plenty of triggering options that can be used for automation: Wifi, USB, IR and Bluetooth (which I just released a few weeks ago). If there are Klipper tutorials for this, using gphoto via USB will probably be the easiest and most reliable one.

[@mahmood392]

@@ThereOughtaBe issue though I’m confused gphoto says all the a6000 cameras are compatible except the a6400 isn’t available

[@ThereOughtaBe]

Their compatibility list is incomplete. It has been added a while ago: github.com/gphoto/libgphoto2/issues/407 Also, I am using the a6400 as my main camera too and tried it. The only thing I am uncertain about right now is if it can download photos as I used gphoto for video triggering and video transfer via USB does not work in control mode. But I would be surprised if photos could not be transferred and even if they can't you can just convert the photos from the SD to a time lapse later. Just make sure that your USB setting is correct as the a6400 offers mass storage, PC control and PTP. I think PC control should work best and PTP might work if some custom extensions have been implemented by gphoto (not sure I remember this correctly), but mass storage obviously will not allow triggering.

[@mahmood392]

@@ThereOughtaBe if only i knew what these things mean 😅

[@amanapartfilms]

Can you please explain how to make o send the script to the raspberry pi? I have octolapse working with a raspberry cam and a canon t3i, but i can´t make it work with my sony cameras. Edit: I think I could already send and save the script, but i don´t know how to connect the raspberry pi to the sony camera´s wifi.

[@ThereOughtaBe]

The script can go anywhere as long as Octolapse is able to execute it (so, it needs to be executable for your user - on most rPi installations, simply copy it as the user "pi" to /home/pi/ and make sure to do a chmod +x on the file to make it executable). Connecting to the camera requires a wifi that is not used for something else. By this I mean that you should not access your pi over the same wifi because it needs a direct connection to the camera, so it cannot be connected to your local network at the same time. If your Pi is connected via ethernet cable, you can just use the Pi's internal wifi (Pi3 or Pi4) or add a Wifi dongle (Pi1 or Pi2 or if you need a second Wifi network - you might want to do a quick Google search if it is supported under Linux before buying a dongle). There are different methods to configure Wifi under Linux. In case of a simple Octopi installation without any other Wifis configured, you might want to search for "wpa_supplicant.conf". Basically, you just need to set up a block like this in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf: network={ ssid="DIRECT-xxxx:NEX-5T" psk="PasswordShownByTheCamera" } I think a restart is sufficient then, but you still might want to search for "wpa_supplicant" in case this is not enough or if you have a different system or if you need to set up a second Wifi for your local network.

[@amanapartfilms]

@@ThereOughtaBe Awesome. Thank you for your answer. I have a raspberry 4 b with wifi integrated and connected octoprint via wifi. So i need to connect the raspberry via ethernet and the camera via wifi, right? I will look for more information about what you mention to me. Thanks a lot

[@ThereOughtaBe]

It might be possible to use a stick to connect to both Wifis, but if you can use an ethernet cable, it is certainly easier to set up and you do not need to get a dongle. It would be so much easier if the Sony cameras could connect to an existing Wifi (for some tasks, they actually can), but unfortunately they act as a hotspot as soon as you start the remote control app/function. (I would love to be corrected on this.)

[@amanapartfilms]

@@ThereOughtaBe Thak you so much for your time.

[@robmulally]

Gave this a shot with the A7III I found the IP and Port ok but looks like the commands fail. dissapointing and i'm stuck here.

[@robmulally]

Ok I think i figured it out Still Testing for Sony A7III the SCript needs to not have the / at the end of the path so it will be ""192.168.122.1:10000/sony/camera" (The IP and the last forward slash is differnt. See how this goes!

[@ThereOughtaBe]

​@@robmulally I just learned from the comments on another video with a similar script (kzbin.info/www/bejne/gKSyiZ2gi9aNiZI) that Sony has again changed their API on newer cameras. Could not test it with an a7III, but it seems like it will not be compatible. (See the pinned post I have now added, so other users with new cameras will not waste their time on it.) However, when it comes to Octolapse, I think that your camera should be very well controllable with gphoto2. You should not need the more complicated Wifi setup, but just a USB cable and gphoto2. (Don't ask me about details, though - I only ever used the method here since the NEX-5T is not properly compatible with gphoto2.)

[@robmulally]

@@ThereOughtaBe its working!!

[@ThereOughtaBe]

@@robmulally oh? Now I am wondering if the A7III uses the old API, if it uses the new API only after an update or if they just do not differ that much after all. May I ask what you needed to change?

[@robmulally]

@@ThereOughtaBe as per my previous comment besides the port number I had to remove the forward slash at the end of your Camurl variable that took me a long time to figure out , I followed your blog post. I use eth0 for my pi and the wifi for the camera direct connection.

[@Ryxxi_makes]

Nop :( something seems to be wrong, I cant get my A6000 to work with USB and g2photo. Its not taking photos again through SSH test. How would i connect the camera to my Pi using wifi ? i saw your comment below but it wasnt really helpfull. I have a wifi dongle and my pi4 is connected to wifi using the onboard wifi module, i did add the camera's ssid and password command lines under my existing wifi but how will the pi know which one to use to connect to both camera and my wifi network ? after i added the network={ ssid="DIRECT-xxxx:NEX-5T" psk="PasswordShownByTheCamera" } for my camera, i dont really know what to do next or how to connect the pi to it, any help would be awesome thanks!

[@ThereOughtaBe]

That's what makes the dual-wifi setup more complicated than the USB solution (if your camera supports it) and that's why I have not created step-by-step instructions as there are several details per OS and Pi model. Also, if you do not want to plug in a keyboard and screen, be careful not to break the Wifi connection that you use to SSH onto your Pi. I myself connect to the Pi via ethernet and use a Dongle (on a Pi2 without internal Wifi) to connect to the camera, so I have not tried this version myself. But if I google it, I find this promising stackoverflow thread: superuser.com/questions/469039/wpa-supplicant-for-dual-wlan The answer by "junaid" seems very promising, especially as "Hannes" explains why it works on Raspbian Buster.

[@Ryxxi_makes]

@@ThereOughtaBe i finally got it to work using gphoto2, its taking timelapses now. I had to buy a new dummy battery with power brick, dummy battery with power band did not work, seems like it neds 7.4v 2A and the power bank's 5v 3a was causing camera to restart. I also had to reset all camera setting and use "pc remote" and intelligent AUto, DO you have any tips for increasing my image quality ? which lenses would you recommend for this ? i am still using stock lense, i never really use my camera since my smartphone takes better photos with minimal effort so i am using it for octolapse but if you have any tips to improve my quality or any budget lens recommendations please let me know !

[@Ryxxi_makes]

@@ThereOughtaBe is the sony macro lens good choice for this or will i have problems with focus printing large stuff ? like 300mm tall

[@Cactuspractice12]

@@Ryxxi_makes could elaborate a little on the process for getting the A6000 to work with Gphoto2? are you able to save the files to the SD card on the camera, or are they getting saved to the PI's memory? After Gphoto2 triggers my camera to take a picture, I get the notice: *New file is in location /capt0000.arw on the camera* - but no new file is created on the camera. Any tips on how to get it to work? (I have an A6500)

[@Ryxxi_makes]

@@Cactuspractice12 its inside the pi, cant store images on the camera, the sony cameras before 2019 dont have this ability. just check octolapse wiki on github theres all sorts of guides under how to setup dslr's

[@Ryxxi_makes]

Hi can you do this guide for 6400 ? Am unable to get mine to work

[@DiConX]

Nope, besides having the remote control feature in a different menu, this process should be identical to the NEX-5T. Make sure that your Pi is connected to the Wifi of the camera (this is system-specific, so I do not have a step-by-step guide, but on a Raspberry Pi you usually want to setup wpa_supplicant for this and make sure that you do not need the Wifi connection to log into the Pi). But if you have an a6400, you might want to use an entirely different method. You should be able to simply control the a6400 with gphoto2 via USB and use one of many of the other guides out there. This should be much easier than setting up a wifi control and you can even charge the a6400 via USB. (The a6400 is not listed as compatible, but since the a6300 and a6500 are listed, I would assume that it just has not been confirmed by anyone.) The Wifi method is mostly relevant for older models that cannot be triggered via USB.

[@Ryxxi_makes]

@@DiConX I actually have a6000 , i cant get it to work using gphoto2, when i try to test the camera i get an error saying photo cannot be captured, the system does detect my camera though. i am using a external battery to keep it running.

[@Ryxxi_makes]

@@DiConX gphoto2 --auto-detect command work and i can detect the camera, but this command gives me error gphoto2 --auto-detect --capture-image am using PC monitor mode in usb on the camera.

[@ThereOughtaBe]

@@Ryxxi_makes ​ @Ryxxi (Sorry, other comment was from a wrong account.) Hm... not sure. Have not tried gphoto2 myself, but it lists the a6000 as compatible and explicitly says that it should be able to trigger a picture. If I am not mistaken, the a6000 also needs to be set to MTP mode. At least I think I have read this somewhere...

[@Ryxxi_makes]

@@ThereOughtaBe hi, i changed some things around and got it to take photos, i am still using pc remote but instead of raw and jpeg images i changed it to fine images and using usb 2 instead of 3 on the pi 4 setting up scripts now, thank you for the help

[@MouseAnton]

Is it possible to install this script into Octoprint on Windows 10? I tried to do so for several hours with no luck (don't know much about that stuff) Any help appreciated :)

[@ThereOughtaBe]

Hm... I don't think so. You would need to install a hole range of GNU/GPL tools (the typical Linux command line stuff) to use my script on Windows. Does Octoprint then call batch files and die Octolapse even understand that? I don't have a setup like this, but I suspect a lot of trouble along this path...

[@MouseAnton]

@@ThereOughtaBe thanks for the answer! I will try to use flash usb drive with linux system

[@Ryxxi_makes]

Finally finished timelapse with my A6000, but something seems to have gone wrong, i wasnt able to get a full timelapse, theres a few image skips, i dunno how to manually download the ssnapshots, it is only letting me download the rendered video. Here is the timelapse kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4qogXeArbSthas somethign is wrong because when you slow it down using youtube playback speed, you can see more of the layers printing. am not sure whats going on here.

[@АндрейФ-п4к]

Dear Sir! I have almost the same camera as you, Sony NEX 5R, and I have long dreamed of connecting it to my Octolapse! I have studied the setup instructions github.com/FormerLurker/Octolapse/wiki/Configuring-an-External-Camera But I could not do this via a USB cable, when I asked for gphoto2 --capture-image writes an error in PuTTy, and says that my camera is not compatible. Although my model is in the GPhoto2 list. I decided to try it via Wi-Fi, but I'm a noob, and I can only follow the instructions. I have a few questions for you: 0,5. Does your camera work through a USB-wire? 1. Please tell us more about how can I set up my WiFi dongle to work with the camera? How do I get it to connect automatically? 2. Which mode should you start in the camera menu? Viewing photos on a smartphone? How does the whistle know the WiFi camera password? 3. Where exactly should I save the script on the Pi in the nano editor or elsewhere? 4. What exactly do you need to enter in the “External Camera Setup - Script” in OctoLapse field? 5. And where exactly should you enter the command chmod + x, which you write about on the site, to check that the script is executable? 6. Could you add screenshots to the important story on the site? For noobs like me. Thank you very much again for your work! You can answer in any convenient way, here, or Telegram: @HuanVikiKristi Mail: [e-mail]

[@ThereOughtaBe]

Doing a proper step-to-step requires me to recreate this on a freshly installed system and those guides tend to become outdated very quickly as versions and packes of the operating system change. Besides, there might be little variations across cameras (like default IP addresses), which I could not address. In the end, documenting and sharing my projects is just a hobby, so I am not doing step-by-steps. However, you should read a basic introduction about shell scripts on Linux and you should have everything to understand the following answers: 1. Depends on your dongle, your version of the Pi and maybe your operating system. Search for Raspberry Pi and wpa_supplicant for one of many tutorials on how to setup Wifi on the Pi. 2. Not viewing photos, but controlling your camera from the phone. On my NEX-5T it is under "apps" and the 5R is indeed almost identical as far as I know. Newer cameras like the a6400 do not have camera apps but a menu entry to start the remote control. You might need to install the newest "Remote Control" app from the Sony In-Camera App Store first - even if there is already an older version that came with the camera. 3. Uhm... That's the shell script part. It is just a text file that you can store almost anywhere on your system as long as Octolapse can reach it. I was lazy and saved it in my home directory at /home/pi. Feel free to use any text editor of your choice. 4. The location of the text file. In case of my home directory it is /home/pi/takePic.sh (can be briefly seen in the screenshot at kzbin.info/www/bejne/gmqthYOvnJekjLc). As I said: you can place it almost anywhere as long as Octolapse can reach it. (Don't forget that Unix names are case-sensitive.) 5. This is what makes the text file executable. I am talking about the linux shell here... So, you SSH to the pi and enter "chmod +x takePic.sh" in the directory where you saved the text file. (Again, please look for a short introduction to scripts.) 6. Nope :) Sorry, I started the blog because I want to share my projects, so it is a reasonable wish, but I want to focus on the advanced parts that haev not been posted elsewhere on the web - not the basics for which there are already many tutorials out there. In the end it's a compromise on how to invest my spare time... Hope this helps, despite not being exactly what you hoped for.