Can Lumix filmmakers make use of this remote control software?

[melihozbek]

Hi,

Couple of months ago, a photographer (nickname lenuisible) decode the wireless communication protocol between image app on smartphone and GH3 camera http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/6703/control-your-gh3-from-a-web-browser-now-with-video-/p1. I took these, and adapted to my 13 years old remote control software (originally written in vb6 for casio qv3000).

After a couple of days, the software now finds the camera, queries its capabilities, and allows user to control the camera from windows PC.
It is a very simple program, you just see the commands (like focus, zoom, exposure, aperture, white balance etc...) and use them.

 

You can also record those settings and play them back later. You can tell the program to repeat those commands. So you can make timelapses by zooming in each shot, or changing the white balance when its dark outside.

 

For examplle you can adjust the focus between objects and then you can set the focus with one click like this:  http://www.dijitalakademi.com/P1640788.MP4

 

You can program complex set of commands and make it replay those (or replay and repeat)

 

I also added liveview from http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/6703/control-your-gh3-from-a-web-browser-now-with-video-/p1, thanks to lenuisible.. You should just press "Liveview" button. But you have to have java installed in your machine. From the post,

 

"Java RE : download here : http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp
Add the java bin directory to your PATH, On a windows machine, the Java bin directory should be : C:Program FilesJavajre7bin"

 

I have a FZ1000 to test it, it works ok, but it should work with all wifi enabled LUmix cameras. So feel free to try it, and let me know how it works.

 

Before you run the software, you should enable wifi from camera, connect the camera either a wifi network, or your pc to your camera. Program should find the camera automatically.. If program gives "no response from camera" then check wifi connection, get closer to the router, try again..

 

you can download and install it from http://www.dijitalakademi.com/lumixcontrol.zip

Screenshot:http://1.static.img-dpreview.com/files/p/E~forums/54696040/62ebbbd324fa4551932accb5bf73f94b

[andy lee]

this sounds very useful ! nice one!

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

Lovely!

[Inazuma]

Tried it with my GX7.

In the camera I went to Wifi > Wifi Function > New Connection > Remote shooting and view. And then I connected via wifi on my computer.

 

I then opened your program and it simply fails to find the camera, even after I manually inputted the camera's IP address (192.168.54.1)

 

Any solutions?

[melihozbek]

Inazuma, 

 

When your computer is connected to the camera, could you open a browser and type this to the address bar and hit enter:

 

http://192.168.54.1/cam.cgi?mode=camcmd&value=recmode

 

what do you see on the page? If anything different than 

 

<camrply>

<result>ok</result>

</camrply>

 

then the camera might be incompatible. 

 

You can download a new version from here: http://www.dijitalakademi.com/lumixcontrolexe.zip

 

just replace this exe with the one in /program files/lumixcontro folder.. (it might be in 'program files (x86)' if you use 64 bit windows.

 

regards,

 

Melih

[Inazuma]

Hey,

I did it the same way and it failed again, and when putting that URL into the address bar the connection timed out.

 

So I tried another method. This time I select "Via Network" in the connection method and I point the camera to connect directly to my wifi hub. Now the camera has an IP of 192.168.1.5.

 

I launch the program and it works!! All the functions (or the ones I tried) work. I can even start and stop video recording. The only problem is that I cant actually see the live view within the program. When I click "live view" an error pops up saying, "Runtime error 53. Can not find file." And then the program shuts down.

[melihozbek]

To see the liveview, you need to have java installed, download here : http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp

Add the java bin directory to your PATH, on my computer, the bin directory is at "C:Program Files (x86)Javajre1.8.0_25bin"

check that the bin folder is located there, and open a command window, write:

 

set PATH=%PATH%;"C:Program Files (x86)Javajre1.8.0_25bin"

 

and 3 files should exist at the same place with the exe file:

live.bat

UDPServer.class

UDPServer$1.class

 

It is not my program, so I simply call live.bat from the program..

[melihozbek]

I updated the program,  you can download it from 

 

http://www.dijitalakademi.com/lumixcontrol.zip --the setup 

 

http://www.dijitalakademi.com/lumixcontrolexe.zip  - if you previously setup the software, just replace the exe file in LumixControl folder. 

 

Don't copy the exe to desktop and try to run. It works, but when you hit "Liveview" button, it fails, because it looks for "live.bat" file (which looks for Udpserver.class files)..

[Inazuma]

Thanks for the info. I wont have the time to test it out again for a few days but can you tell me whether or not you think it'd ever be possible to record video directly to the computer? And if so could it be done at a higher bitrate than the native 24mbps of my gx7?

[melihozbek]

It streams 640x480 pictures, but I don't think it allows more than that.

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

I don't think recording a wifi signal is a good idea! 

With Canons you can record at full resolution to PC but via USB cable, even then it's about 21p in full frame (24p in 5x crop mode, which is very useful and cool to record the crop area)