open-camera-control

A GTK application to control camera settings (ISO, aperture, shutter speed, white balance) via gphoto2. Keeps a persistent USB session so changing settings doesn't interrupt the camera's live view.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• libgphoto2 (system package)
• GTK 3 + PyGObject (system package)
• A gphoto2-compatible camera connected via USB

System dependencies (Fedora)

sudo dnf install libgphoto2 gtk3 gobject-introspection-devel cairo-gobject-devel

System dependencies (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt install libgphoto2-6 gir1.2-gtk-3.0 python3-gi libgirepository1.0-dev

Installation

pip install open-camera-control

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/jcubic/open-camera-control.git
cd open-camera-control
pip install -e .

Usage

Connect your camera via USB and run:

camera-control

The application opens a window with a camera selector at the top and two tabs (Photo / Video) below.

Camera selector

The top bar shows all detected cameras in a dropdown. Select a camera and click Connect to start controlling it. The button turns green when connected and changes to Disconnect. Disconnecting preserves the camera's live view. Use the refresh button to re-scan for newly connected cameras.

Settings tabs

Each tab (Photo / Video) contains:

• ISO — slider + text input
• Aperture — slider + text input
• Shutter Speed — slider + text input
• White Balance — preset dropdown + Kelvin slider + text input

Moving a slider updates the text input. Type a value directly into the text input and press Enter — it will snap to the nearest valid value. Click Apply to send all changes to the camera at once.

For white balance, selecting a preset from the dropdown sets the Kelvin value. Moving the Kelvin slider or typing a value switches the dropdown to "Custom".

Configuration

On first run, the app creates ~/.open-camera-control/config.json with default white balance presets:

{
  "white_balance_presets": {
    "Daylight": 5600,
    "Cloudy": 6500,
    "Shade": 7500,
    "Tungsten": 3200,
    "Fluorescent": 4000,
    "Flash": 5400
  },
  "kelvin_range": {
    "min": 2500,
    "max": 10000,
    "step": 100
  }
}

Edit this file to add, remove, or rename white balance presets, or to change the Kelvin slider range.

Camera model support

Different camera models expose different gphoto2 widget names for the same settings. The app ships with per-model JSON mapping files in src/opencameracontrol/models/.

Supported models

• Nikon D780
• Fuji Fujifilm X-Pro3
• Sony RX10 IV

Using an unsupported camera

If your camera model is not yet supported, run the detection tool:

camera-control-detect

This connects to your camera, lists all available widgets, and outputs a suggested JSON mapping. You can then either:

Option A — Personal use: Add the mapping to your ~/.open-camera-control/config.json:

{
  "models": {
    "My Camera Model": {
      "video_widgets": true,
      "photo": {
        "shutterspeed": "shutterspeed2"
      }
    }
  }
}

If a model is found in the user config, the bundled model file is not used.

Option B — Contribute: Save the JSON output as a model file and submit a pull request (see Contributing below).

Contributing camera models

To add support for a new camera model:

1. Connect your camera via USB
2. Run camera-control-detect
3. Review the suggested widget mapping — the tool guesses based on widget labels, but you should verify:
   • The widget is not read-only (the tool marks these)
   • The choices look correct for that setting
   • For shutter speed, prefer shutterspeed2 over shutterspeed if both exist (the former uses 1/125 format and is usually writable)
4. Save the JSON output to src/opencameracontrol/models/<normalized_name>.json
5. Submit a pull request

Model file format

Model files only need to specify settings that differ from the defaults. The default widget names are:

For cameras with separate video widgets (e.g., Nikon DSLRs), set "video_widgets": true. This auto-generates video widget names by adding the movie prefix (e.g., movieiso, movief-number). Add a "video" section only for video widgets that don't follow this pattern.

Minimal model file (camera uses all default widget names, same for photo and video):

{
    "model": "Fuji Fujifilm X-Pro3"
}

Model with overrides (photo shutterspeed differs, camera has separate video widgets):

{
    "model": "Nikon DSC D780",
    "video_widgets": true,
    "photo": {
        "shutterspeed": "shutterspeed2"
    }
}

The filename is the model name normalized to lowercase with special characters replaced by underscores (e.g., "Nikon DSC D780" becomes nikon_dsc_d780.json).

How it works

The app uses python-gphoto2 to maintain a persistent PTP/USB session with the camera — equivalent to running gphoto2 --shell. This means settings can be changed freely without the camera dropping live view or reconnecting, which is a known issue with individual gphoto2 CLI commands.

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Jakub T. Jankiewicz

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

See LICENSE for details.