Camera RC
V.1.5.0 beta

An application for remote controlling some Sony cameras over WLAN.

Copyright (c) 2015 - 2020 by Friedemann Seebass, Germany
11 April 2020

Contents

1 Introduction

Camera RC is an application for remote controlling Sony cameras from a notebook over WiFi. You can download similar software from Sony's homepage: But the first one (PlayMemories Mobile) is running only on smartphones and not on PCs, and the second one (Imaging Edge) needs an USB cable connection. This USB program can show the live view in the meantime, but this was not possible at the time I developed the application (with Sony's former Remote Camera Control which is not available any longer). Mainly this last shortcoming caused me to develop the software.

The software is based on Sony's Camera Remote API available on some higher priced Sony camera models. May be the software is running with all of these cameras - but I could test it only with my Alpha 7 II and an HX60 (limited functionality with this model, see section System Requirements). The current version is quite usable but not perfect. See the todo list below. What you can do is to set all the camera's parameters available by the API, set the focal point, take pictures, transfer images and movies to the notebook and take pictures automatically with a timer. If the camera is in movie mode you can start and stop recording a movie.

The program is written in Java and is successfully tested on Windows, Linux and Apple OS X. It contains no spyware, no adware or other malicious parts. It is published without any warranty and without charge. See the license in the application's About dialog box for details. Neither the project nor I for myself have any relations to the Sony corporation. Error reports and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

2 Installation

2.1 Camera RC

Camera RC is written in Java, the Java Runtime Environment (JRE), version 1.8.0 or newer, is necessary therefore. You can download it from http://java.com/download. When the JRE is installed, it is enough to unzip the file "CameraRC_140.zip" at an arbitrary place. Under Windows you can alternatively use the installer "CameraRC_140_Setup.exe".

2.2 Installation of Sony's Smart Remote Camera App

The communication between the notebook and the camera takes place over Sony's Smart Remote Control application on the camera. Make sure to have the newest version installed. The old built-in version delivered with the camera shows up as Smart Remote Embedded (compare with fig. 4 showing the newest version); in my case it has the old version identifier "Smart Remote Control SR/2.30 __SKZ__", "2.0.1". This will have limited functionality, i. e. the following features are not available compared to the newer one:

Reading the battery status,
setting shutter speed, aperture and ISO value,
changing the quality of the transferred last picture,
may be more, I have not made many tests with the old version.

The version I have used to develop the software is "Smart Remote Control SR/4.10 __SAK__", "2.1.4"; see fig. 22 how to figure out the version in your camera.

You can install the newest version of Sony's Smart Remote Control from https://www.playmemoriescameraapps.com/portal/ directly with your internet browser after connecting your camera via USB cable with your computer; a registration is required.

3 Connecting the Camera

Connecting the camera with your notebook is easy, but you need to know the steps:

1. Disconnect all network connections (wireless and wired) your notebook currently have; unplug the network cable.

2. Disable your firewall. Dependent on its settings establishing the connection could be prevented otherwise, shutter speed and aperture cannot be read out and set or the camera cannot be triggered.

3. Set the camera's mode wheel to "Auto", "P", "A", "S", "M" or "Movie" (other modes are not supported by Sony's programming interface) and make sure the "Airplane Mode" is set to "off" (otherwise the WLAN is not available):

Fig. 1: Set the camera into one of the marked modes.	Fig. 2: Press the camera's MENU key and set the "Airplane Mode" to "off".

4. Start the "Smart Remote Control" application on the camera:

Fig. 3: Press the camera's MENU key and navigate to the camera applications, ...	Fig. 4: ... start the camera's "Smart Remote Control" application; ...

Fig. 5: ... the camera sets up an ad-hoc network, remember its SSID and press the camera's trash can key to ...	Fig. 6: ... see the network's password.

5. Establish the connection with your operating system:

Fig. 7: Search in the network list for the camera's ad-hoc network SSID, ...	Fig. 8: ... input the password and establish the connection.

6. Start the *Camera RC* application on your notebook. This can be done in a shell with the command `java -jar CameraRC.jar` or on most systems with a double click on "CameraRC.jar" or under Windows with a double click on "CameraRC.exe"; the exe file checks if the needed JRE is installed, and guides you to the download page if not. The application will connect with the camera automatically.

4 Main Window

4.1 Basic Operation

When started the first time the application shows basically the camera's Live View and a trigger button to take a picture:

Fig. 9: Main window, basic view

Some info and control elements are in the lower left corner:

You can see the battery state (about 75 % energy left in the figure above),
the mode the camera is in ("A" - aperture mode),
the current shutter speed (1/60 sec),
the current aperture (F 5.6) and
the ISO setting (AUTO).

Greyed elements cannot be modified, the others are changeable: Move the mouse pointer over them and select the wanted value from the popup menu. In the status bar some camera states and the last commands sent from the software to the camera are displayed, just for information.

And there are three buttons:

With the Live View button you can switch on and off the live view. Turning it off makes sense to save the camera's battery power (hopefully).

Unfortunately Sony's programming interface does not allow to set the focus manually. But the Touch AF button switches on and off the "Touch Autofocus Mode". If activated you can choose a point in the image the camera will focus on by pressing the left mouse button on the wanted place:

Fig. 10: Focus point is set to a foreground object

Fig. 11: Focus point is set to a background object

The camera will not change the focus when the Trigger button is pressed now until the Touch AF mode is ended. Strange feature in Sony's camera app: You cannot change settings as shutter speed, aperture and ISO rate in this mode.

The application's Trigger button simulates the camera's trigger button's half pressed state: Pressing the left mouse button sends the half pressed state to the camera, releasing the mouse button does the full press and takes the picture. Strange feature in Sony's camera app: It seems not to be possible to change the image quality. Images are always taken in JPG format with quality "fine", the setting in the camera does not matter. Unfortunately it is not possible to take ARW pictures therefore.
There are three other ways to trigger the camera:
- With menu item "Camera/Trigger",
- with the Enter key on your keyboard
- or with the left mouse button while the mouse pointer is over the Live View or the Last Taken Picture panel (see next section); the half pressed state is not available though.
The latter could be useful with a wireless mouse: Your mouse can be used as a cheap remote trigger device in this way, and you do not need to keep the mouse pointer over the Trigger button.

Sony's programming interface does not allow to change the camera mode. If you want to switch from aperture mode ("A") to manual mode ("M") e. g. you have to do this directly with the camera's mode wheel and to press the camera's trigger button half down to transfer the new mode to the application.

4.2 Showing the Last Taken Picture

If the vertical divider of the main window's split pane is not at the very most right position the last taken picture is transferred from the camera to the application (this needs some time.)

Fig. 12: Main window, showing the last taken picture

Some more control elements are visible now. From right to left:

The Save button saves the last taken picture into the directory selected with
the Folder button.
If the Autosave checkbox is selected the last taken picture is automatically saved, even if the Last Taken Picture pane is not visible.
The camera allows to transfer the last taken picture in two sizes: "2M" and "Original". You can select between them with the popup menu appearing when the mouse pointer is over the size indicator (1616x1080 in the above figure). The setting will affect not the current picture but the next ones.
The last element (DSC07732.JPG in the figure above) is the file name of the picture; it is not changeable.

5 Camera Settings

The most important settings as shutter speed and aperture can be adjusted directly in the main window as seen above. These and all other camera settings available in Sony's API are accessible with the Camera Settings dialog:

Fig. 13: The Camera Settings dialog

The dialog can be opened with menu item "Camera/Settings ...". Just choose the wanted value with one of the drop down lists, and it is transmitted to the camera immediately. For the sake of compactness the dialog has its own little menu bar rather than buttons or other control elements. The dialog's contents is based on the events the camera sends back to the application when a parameter changes. This list of parameters can be filtered with the "Filter" menu item:

Show Changeable Data:
The parameter list in an event contains many data but only a part of it can be changed by the user; e. g. the battery info can only be read but not set of course. If this item is selected all changeable data is displayed in the dialog.
Show Infos:
If this item is selected all not changeable information available in an event is shown.
Show Unused Elements:
There are a lot of elements defined in Sony's API documentation which are available only with special camera models but not in others. Since all elements defined in the documentation are implemented in the application's data structures you can show them as empty fields when this item is selected.
Show Indices:
Sony's API documentation lists all elements in an event with an internal index. This index will be shown when this item is selected.

With the "Sort" menu item you can sort the list shown in the dialog by some criteria:

By Priority:
Of course some parameters as shutter speed or aperture are more important than others. I have tried to make a useful sequence that is shown when this item is selected.
Alphabetical:
All parameters in the event list are sorted alphabetically.
By Index:
As said each parameter in Sony's API documentation is listed with an internal index. The list is sorted by this index if the item is selected.

When changing the filter the dialog will show more or less elements than before and will probably need another size. To adjust the size again you can "Resize" it with this button. The "Close" button does the same as the closer ("x") in the upper right corner, but stores the settings.

6 Zooming

If the camera supports zooming the focal length can be set with menu item "Camera/Zoom ..." which opens the Zoom dialog:

Fig. 14: The Zoom dialog.

It is possible to Zoom in and to Zoom out and to set the zoom Mode which allows to disable the digital zoom. The slider shows the current zoom value from 0 percent (smallest focal length) to 100 percent (largest focal length).

7 Timer

Menu item "Tools/Timer ..." opens the Timer dialog:

Fig. 15: The Timer dialog.

You can define the number of Pictures to take, a Start Delay after that the triggering of the camera starts and the Time Interval between each picture. The process can be started and stopped when pressing the Start button and paused with the Pause button. The Countdown field shows the time until the next picture will be taken.

8 Focus Bracketing

Unfortunately Sony's API does not support setting the focus manually. Therefore it is not easy to realize a focus bracketing feature, i. e. taking a series of pictures with different focus settings to combine them into a single image with enhanced depth of field. The only option the API provides is the Touch AF mode which is described above. Using this, some kind of focus bracketing can be enabled.

Click on menu item "Tools/Focus Bracketing ..." to open the Focus Bracketing dialog:

Fig. 16: The Focus Bracketing dialog

This dialog allows you to define a line in the Live View with a focus start point, a focus end point and a number of focus points in between. When pressing the Start button the software will take the given Number of Pictures and moves the focus point via Touch AF automatically along this line. The line can be defined by typing in the Focus Start Position and the Focus End Position as percentages of the image width and height between 0 % and 100 %. Or you can use the Pick tool: If activated you can click into the live view to get the current mouse pointer position as start or end point. As in the Timer dialog the procedure can be aborted by pressing the Start button a second time and paused and continued later with the Pause button.

But, this mechanism is only a weak compromise of course. The problem is: You have to ensure that along the focus line is something in the picture which is in the correct distance to set the focus on; and that at this position is enough structure to allow the camera to find the focus. This means, in many cases, you need to place a ruler or something like that in your picture and define the Focus Start Position and Focus End Position on it as is done in this example:

Main window with active focus bracketing

Fig. 17: Main window with activated Focus Bracketing

And the process is very slow, because the autofocus needs time and the image processing after each taken picture as well. This may be possible in a studio to take pictures of table top arrangements but not in the free nature to photograph e. g. living insects with macro lenses.

Important hint: The focus field should be as small as possible to avoid overlapping of the focus field from picture to picture. Therefore you should set the camera's "Focus Area" into the mode "Flexible Spot: S"! This must be done directly in the camera because Sony's API does not allow it to set.

9 Histogram

Menu item "Tools/Histogram ..." opens the Histogram dialog:

Fig. 18: Histogram dialog

The histogram of a picture shows how many pixels of a specific color are there. As you probably know a picture's pixel is represented by the three values for the red, green and blue part (RGB). Each value can be in the range from 0 to 255. The mouse pointer in fig. 18 points to the right peak of the red line e. g., and this position has the coordinates (193, 41964). This means there are 41964 pixels in the picture with a red component value of 193. The histogram can be used e. g. to evaluate the exposure of the picture: If there are many pixels in the right part of the diagram but few pixels in the left part the picture is probably overexposured.

With the settings on the dialog's left side the diagram can be adjusted by enabling or disabling the Red, Green or Blue channel, and the Average of the three values, shown in black, can also be switched on and off. And you can switch between displaying the Live View's or the last Taken Picture's histogram.

10 Transferring Files from the Camera

Menu item "File/Transfer Files ..." opens the Transfer Files dialog:

Fig. 19: The Transfer Files dialog.

When opened the list of all images or movies available on the camera's SD card is retrieved and shown in the table. Thumbnails are loaded only if wanted because this needs very much time. The control elements are:

Thumbnail Size: Adjust the thumbnail size from No Thumbnails over 22 x 16 pixel to 320 x 240 pixel. The original size delivered by the camera is 160 x 120 pixel.
Target Folder: Select the folder on your harddisk here where the files shall be written to.
Copy Files: Selected files are copied into the target folder.
Move Files: Selected files are copied into the target folder and deleted from the camera afterwards.
Delete Files: Selected files are deleted from the camera.
Refresh File List: The contents (and may be the thumbnails) are retrieved again from the camera.
Abort: All operations can be aborted.
Cancel: Closes the dialog but does not save the path to the target folder even if modified by the user.
OK: Closes the dialog and saves the path to the target folder.

Transferring files from the camera is rather slow; in most cases it may be better to put the SD card directly into your notebook or a card reader to do this. But there is a problem when deleting files on the SD card with your computer's file browser: The camera's database will be corrupted then. This is not the case when deleting (or moving) files with the Transfer Files dialog.

Attention: Transferring files is only supported by some Sony cameras. It is not available with the HX60 e. g.

11 Program Preferences

Menu Item "File/Program Preferences ..." opens the Preferences dialog:

Fig. 20: Program Preferences Dialog

With this dialog you can adjust some settings concerning the application. You can switch the language between English and German, change the application's skin, switch tooltips on and off and switch on and off the warning message when the program will be closed.

These and all other settings as the position of the main window and those made in the other dialogs (but not the camera settings!) are only saved when leaving the program with menu item "File/Save Program Preferences and Exit". This is not the case when pressing "File/Exit" or the closer cross in the upper right corner of the main window.

If you want to reset all settings to their default values you can delete the file "C:\Users\<User name>\CameraRC\CameraRC.ini". It will be recreated when the software is closed the next time with menu item "File/Save Program Preferences and Exit".

12 Menu Bar

The menu bar shows the following options:

Fig. 21: The menu bar and the two sub menus Rotate and Grid in the Tools menu

File menu:
- Transfer Files ...: The Transfer Files dialog described in chapter 9 is opened.
- Program Preferences ...: The Preferences dialog described in chapter 10 is opened.
- Save Program Preferences And Exit: Closes the application and saves all parameters and the current window layout. They are restored when starting the program the next time. Parameters and layout are not saved when closing the application with the closer cross in the upper right corner.
  Attention: These are the settings used in the application, not the settings of the camera!
- Exit: Closes the application and does not save anything. Does the same as the closer cross in the upper right corner.
Camera menu:
- Camera Settings ...: Shows the Camera Settings dialog described in chapter 5.
- Zoom ...: The Zoom dialog described in chapter 6 is opened.
- Live View: Switches the live view on and off. Does the same as the button in the main window. Needed to have a shortcut key.
- Touch AF: Switches the Camera's Touch Autofocus Mode on and off. Does the same as the button in the main window. Needed to have a shortcut key.
- Half Press Trigger: Sends the half press command to the camera. Does the same as the Trigger button in the main window while the left mouse button is pressed but can toggle the state.
- Trigger: Triggers the camera. Does the same as the button in the main window (or if pressing the left mouse button while the mouse pointer is over the Live View or Last Taken Picture panel) but cannot trigger the half press state. Needed to have a shortcut key.
- Expert Commands ...: Shows the Camera Commands dialog described in chapter 11.
Tools menu:
- Rotate: You can rotate the Live View and the Last Taken Picture panels around 90, 180 and 270 degrees. Useful if the camera is mounted in portrait format or other positions on a tripod.
- Grid: If one of the different grids is selected a grid is layed over the live view and the last taken picture. Its color can be chosen freely.
- Invert Colors (Live View): If activated the live view's colors are inverted. This is useful when copying negative slides.
- Invert Colors (Taken Picture): If activated the last taken picture's colors are inverted. This applies only to the view; if saving the picture it is not modified.
- Timer: The Timer dialog described in chapter 7 is opened.
- Histogram: The Histogram dialog described in chapter 8 is opened.
Window menu:
- Maintain Aspect Ratio: If activated the Live View and the Last Taken Picture panels keep their aspect ratio when resizing the window or moving the split pane divider.
- Show Taken Picture: Shows the Last Taken Picture panel; not by moving the split pane divider but by enlarging the main window.
- Fit Live View: Fits the Live View panel to its original size as it is delivered by the camera.
- Fit Taken Picture: Fits the Last Taken Picture panel half the size as it is delivered by the camera. Only active when the size of the taken picture is "2M".
Help menu:
- Contents: Shows this manual.
- About: Shows the license and system info.

13 Advanced: Camera Commands

For experimental purposes all functions available in Sony's programming interface are accessible with the Camera Commands dialog. It is shown when menu item "Camera/Expert Commands ..." is triggered:

Fig. 22: Camera Commands dialog

Sony's camera API is divided into four so called services: "accessControl", "avContent", "camera" and "guide"^*. It can be selected with the Service drop down list. Each service offers a number of functions, Sony calls them "methods". Which methods are available depends on the state the camera is in. The currently available methods are listed in the Method drop down list. Some methods need parameters to work; their types are shown in the Parameter Types field (just for better memorization) and must be entered in the Parameters field. If this is done the method can be triggered with the Send button: The command will be sent to the camera, and the camera's answer is printed in the Response field. The response is given in the so called JSON format, i. e. basically as a list of labels and values included in curly braces.

You will not be able to use this mechanism without knowing Sony's programming interface. It is described in the document "API references for Camera Remote API beta", you can download it here: https://developer.sony.com/develop/cameras/. Some method examples are given in the following list to see how to hand over the parameters:

camera/getVersions:
This method has no parameters; it can be immediately triggered.
camera/getEvent:
This method has a boolean parameter. You must type true or false into the Parameters field; the value must not be enclosed in quotation marks.
camera/getMethodTypes:
This method needs a string as parameter, e. g. "1.0". All strings must be enclosed in quotation marks.
camera/setWhiteBalance:
This method needs three parameters, a string, a boolean and an integer. Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma. A valid parameter list would be
"Color Temperature", true, 2500
in this case. Integers must not be enclosed in quotation marks.
camera/setContShootingMode:
This method needs a named parameter. Parameter lists of this kind must be enclosed in curly braces, a name must be enclosed in quotation marks, the value must be separated from the name by a colon, and for the values apply the same rules as stated above: strings must be enclosed in quotation marks, boolean and integer values must not; multiple parameters must be separated by commas. Example:
{"contShootingMode": "Spd Priority Cont."}
avContent/deleteContent:
This method needs a named parameter and a string array as value; arrays must be enclosed in brackets. Example:
{"uri": ["image:content?contentId=XXXXXXXXXX", "video:content?contentId=XXXXXXXXXX"] }

^*Note: "accessControl" is not described in Sony's documentation, the service "system" described there is not available in the Alpha 7 II.

14 System Requirements

The application has been successfully tested with a Sony Alpha 7 II, a Sony Alpha 7 and a Sony HX60; a user reported the software to be working with a Sony Alpha 7 S II. Successful tests with the following operating systems have been made:

Windows 7 SP 1 (64)
Windows 8.1 (64)
Windows 10 (64)
macOS 10.12
Debian 9.6 (64)
Fedora 23 (32)
openSUSE Leap 42.1 (64)
Manjaro Xfce 18.0 (64)

Probably it will be working with other Sony cameras and other operating systems as well.
The Java Runtime Environment 1.8.0 or newer is needed.

The HX60 has limited functionality; the last taken picture can be transferred only with low resolution, the list of pictures stored on the SD card cannot be read.

15 Todo List

Some things in the application are still missing:

Saving camera settings for easy reloading them later could be helpful.
A German translation of the user manual should be available.
Further ideas? Tell me!

16 Change Log

11 April 2020, Version 1.5.0 beta:

New dialog for focus bracketing, see chapter 8.

6 January 2020, Version 1.4.0:

Zooming is supported, see chapter 6.
The application crashed when transferring files from the camera and the camera was not set to one of the allowed modes shown in fig. 1.
Better handling of features available in Sony's API but not available in a camera model.

26 May 2019, Version 1.3.0:

The "Bulb" shutter time is supported now.
Handling of the long time shutter speeds is improved; e. g. the live view is activated automatically again after taking a long time shutter speed picture, and the Timer dialog is working now with the long time shutter speeds.
Some minor bug fixes in the Transfer Files dialog and the Timer dialog.

20 January 2019, Version 1.2.0:

The user interface is available in German.
The "Look and Feel" can be changed.
These settings can be adjusted in a new Preferences dialog.
All dialogs have Help buttons to open the user manual at the appropriate location.
The camera can be triggered with the left mouse button now when the mouse pointer is over the Live View or the Last Taken Picture panel. This is useful with a wireless mouse: It can be used as a cheap remote control device in this way.
Even if the camera is triggered directly (i. e. not with the software) the last taken picture can be shown in the Last Taken Picture area.

15 December 2018, Version 1.1.0:

Grids in different sizes can be layed over the live view and the last taken picture.
A histogram can be shown.

30 October 2018, Version 1.0.0:

New dialog Transfer Files for copying and moving files from the camera to the PC added. All basic functionality Sony's API provides is implemented now.
Tool tips for the control elements added.
Some minor bug fixes.

7 July 2018, Version 0.9.5:

Documentation updated: Successful test with a Sony HX60.

9 April 2017, Version 0.9.4:

New dialog Camera Settings is available; all camera parameters provided by Sony's API can be set now.
New dialog Camera Commands is available; it replaces the former Generic Methods split pane in the main window.
Shortcuts for all buttons available.
Event handling improved.

8 November 2016, Version 0.9.3:

The live view and the taken picture can be rotated (in steps of 90 degree). Useful if the camera is mounted in portrait format on a tripod.
The live view's and the displayed taken picture's colors can be inverted. Useful when copying negative slides.
Some shortcut keys are defined.

5 June 2016, Version 0.9.2:

Touch AF functionality added.
Reentrancy problems with the underlying JSON parser solved - making the application more stable.

27 April 2016, Version 0.9.1:

Timer dialog added.

15 April 2016, Version 0.9.0:

First published release.