SonyShell – An effort to “SSH into my Sony DSLR” (github.com)

I wanted to use my new Sony DSLR (a6700) in the same way as I use my server: by ssh'ing into it.

This is a one day hackaway helper built on Sony’s official Camera Remote SDK. It sort of mimics an ssh session by connecting to my Sony over Wi-Fi, listens for new photos or specific events... and runs scripts on them.

Thank you Sony, for not forgetting the Linux fan base. And thank you ChatGPT for freshening up my c++ skills!

Can you control the camera via script/CLI? Things like releasing the shutter, focus, apeture, etc?

My trust in a project which can not identify the most important characteristic of the hardware used is pretty low.

The A6700 is not, in any way, a DSLR camera.

Aside if author is around: You may want to rename it to not include "Sony" in the name. If the project gets popular and catches their eye it might become a headache.

Suggestions: DShelLR, dshr, dslr-sh, camshell

My recent research:

- Canon has a REST API, and the most affordable API supporting cameras.

- Fujifilm has an API, but not REST based, but it goes all the way back to the X-T3. Unfortunately, using it voids your warranty if there is a warranty.

- Sony has an API as well but mostly newer cameras.

- Blackmagic (video cameras) has a REST API, but their most affordable API-supporting cameras are meant for studio use, which isn't ideal for general use.

the A7R has a background FTP function but the problem is Wifi is deadly unreliable and low bandwidth for transferring huge files. for camera automation I've found it much easier to write to SD card then handle import in batches

Very interesting project, I wish I had gone down this route instead of the undocumented hell of usb PTP with hundreds of edge/corner case work arounds.

When I read the first word of the title I immediately thought this was going to be about a new rootkit.

Excited to see this develop.

Sony quietly removed the PAL/NTSC switch on some recent FX3/J1 firmwares — a really user-hostile move for anyone trying to avoid lighting flicker or needing flexible frame rates. The only practical “fix” I see in the wild is paying grey-market sellers (using leaked service tools I presume) to flip the 'region blob' so the menu comes back.

Is sonshell likely to be a useful vector for a more freely available solution? Not sure what level of access it actually offers i.e. is firmware/policy blobs readable/manipulable, and can persistent changes be made?

Nice work! I've wanted something like this while shooting, since people want to see what the photos I'm taking look like and all the software I've tried seems kinda bad.

Does this work better than the built-in FTP client software in the cameras? I've been tempted to just run an FTP server on my ipad which automatically shows all uploaded photos.

So... if you have guests on your network or are otherwise connected to a network with lots of people on it, can they just grab all your photos this way?

Reading the title, I thought: finally someone rooted/jailbroke sony cameras.

On Canon you can run Magic Lantern, an extensive mod that adds many features to Canon cameras.

Even Samsung N1 had SD Card loadable mods before they moved away from the camera market.

Rooting sony seems impossible, I never saw someone Working on it Since their Fullframe lineup launched.

[dead]

Heh, looks like the old OpenMemories hack [1] might actually have a successor now for modern cameras?

The old Sony lineup actually didn't just have a Linux kernel to run its base operating system, they actually included a bastardized Android layer on top of that so people could develop apps - but it died out pretty soon, so Sony removed it after the Mark 2 models and with it went the entrypoint for rooting.

[1] https://github.com/ma1co/OpenMemories-Framework/blob/master/...

Neat project, the one thing I still don't understand is how it's still so hard to wirelessly get photos on and off professional/prosumer cameras.

We had EyeFi cards back in the day, and I could configure them to (flakily, but given enough time, it worked) automatically upload RAW image files to a local FTP server while I was out shooting an event.

Years later, and a bunch of janky apps that mostly work with low-res JPEGs or if you fiddle with them, maybe RAW files, are the best that Canon, Nikon, and Sony have to offer first-party :(

Why change the title from Sony camera to Sony DSLR when the repository is specifically targeting Sony mirrorless cameras, not DSLRs...

Didn't know these run Linux

I wish my Olympus had something like this. They are considerably more customer hostile than other brands in both software and accessories. The app for those cameras is not even laughable; it's just depressing. And it can't be tethered to computers like every other camera system. Sigh.

I "only" have a A6000, any idea if it works with that camera as well?