FotoBoxExpress

Third party tool instructions

Make and install libgphoto2 and gphoto2

These instructions are only necessary if you need the newest builds or want to modify the libgphoto library. It was necessary to reduce waiting-for-file-time from 35s to 5s in case my Sony Alpha 7III did not catch a focus. Tested on my RPi 4b.

Modifications of libgphoto source code

for Sony MTP cameras with short exposure

In case you are using a Sony camera via MTP, it's camlib will wait for the file to be available. In case of long exposure this can take up to 30 seconds, which is why the gphoto2 also waits 30 seconds in case of an error. If you are using short exposure times only, you may want to reduce that parameter. It can be modified by editing libgphoto2-X.X.X/camlibs/ptp2/library.c:

sudo nano camlibs/ptp2/library.c

searching for:

	/* 30 seconds are maximum capture time currently, so use 30 seconds + 5 seconds image saving at most. */
	} while (time_since (event_start) < 35000);

for Sony Camera without startup time

There are a few cameras that seem to require gphoto2 to wait a startup time of 3 seconds. This results in any capture event being delayed for 3 seconds. Since my Sony A7III never needed this delay, I reduced it to 0: Search for:

		while (time_since (params->starttime) < 3000) {
			/* drain the queue first */
			if (ptp_get_one_event(params, &event)) {

and modify the 3000 ms to e.g. 0.

Install dependencies

sudo apt-get install libltdl-dev libusb-dev libusb-1.0 libexif-dev libpopt-dev

Make sure you do not have any versions of libgphoto2 or gphoto2 installed if you want to make this build your default later.

Download and unpack latest libgphoto2

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/gphoto/libgphoto/2.5.23/libgphoto2-2.5.23.tar.gz
tar -xvzf libgphoto2-2.5.23.tar.gz
cd libgphoto2-2.5.23

Newest version available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/gphoto/files/libgphoto/.

Configure, make and install

Configure according to https://github.com/gphoto/libgphoto2/blob/master/INSTALL

./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make
sudo make install
cd ..

If you want to compile only one or two specific camlibs, run something like

make -C camlibs canon.la ptp2.la

Download and unpack latest gphoto2

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/gphoto/2.5.23/gphoto2-2.5.23.tar.gz
tar -xvzf gphoto2-2.5.23.tar.gz
cd gphoto2-2.5.23

Newest version available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/gphoto/files/gphoto/

Configure, make and install

Again configure but use sudo for permissions

sudo ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
sudo make
sudo make install
cd ..

You now have gphoto2 installed to /usr/local/bin it will not be available unless you add it to your PATH with

PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin

Sources

Credits to: https://github.com/gphoto/libgphoto2/blob/master/INSTALL https://hyfrmn.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/install-libgphoto2-and-gphoto2-from-source-on-raspberry-pi/