WebCam Cannon powershot A520

[Chris Mohler]

On Sat, Sep 26, 2009 at 5:21 PM, NoOp <glgxg at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

>> Yes - I've been playing around with this same camera, and it behaves
>> the way you describe.  However, in 'viewing' mode, it should still be
>> possible to issue a command to gphoto to capture an image from the
>> camera.
>
> The A520 or the A75? If A75 it will not be possible as the A75 shuts
> down the USB port when you switch from view to picture mode.

According to the gphoto docs, the A75 should support remote control as
well.  But as you noted, you must leave the camera in view mode to
establish a usb connection.  What happens when you issue these two
commands (after plugging in the camera and unmounting the storage):

gphoto2 --auto-detect -L
gphoto2 --auto-detect --set-config capure=1

With any luck, the lens should extend.

>> ~$ /opt/bin/gphoto2 --auto-detect -L
>> Model                          Port
>> ----------------------------------------------------------
>> Canon PowerShot A520 (PTP mode) usb:
>> Canon PowerShot A520 (PTP mode) usb:005,011
>
> Ah. I see you are talking about the A520. So if the USB port is still
> powered up in viewing mode, then you _should_ be able to use something
> to view the feed. Perhaps one of the webcam apps w/some modification?

Yes - you leave the camera in view mode, but use PTP to capture images
either to SDRAM or SD card, then transfer them over.  Something
appears to be quite borked w/the PTP mode though.

> For gPhoto2, try:
> http://gphoto.sourceforge.net/
> http://gphoto.sourceforge.net/

I've compiled the latest gphoto2  - the only difference I see is that
the latest version detects the camera model correctly - the error on
trying to set capture mode remains the same.

The fact that ptpcam is not working and neither is 'capture'
(capture.sf.net) leads me to believe something is broken with
libusb/libptp/something_else...

Chris


Chris