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Libgphoto2 is the core library designed to allow access to digital cameras by external (front-end) programs, such as digiKam and gPhoto2. List of officially supported cameras is available on the official website (though more may work).

This article documents the configuration of `libgphoto2` to access digital cameras. Some digital cameras will mount as normal USB storage devices and may not require the use of libgphoto2.

## Installation

Install the libgphoto2 package, and optionally gphoto2 to have a command line interface.

### Frontend applications

- Darktable — Utility to organize and develop raw images.

  https://darktable.org/ || darktable

- digiKam — Digital photo management application for KDE.

  https://www.digikam.org/ || digikam

- Entangle — Provides a graphical interface for “tethered shooting”, aka taking photographs with a digital camera completely controlled from the computer.

  https://entangle-photo.org/ || entangleAUR

- gphotofs — Fuse module to mount camera as a filesystem.

  http://www.gphoto.org/proj/gphotofs/ || gphotofsAUR

- gThumb — Image browser and viewer for GNOME.

  https://wiki.gnome.org/action/show/Apps/Gthumb || gthumb

- GTKam — Graphical GTK 2 front-end to gPhoto2.

  http://www.gphoto.org/proj/gtkam/ || gtkamAUR

- gvfs-gphoto2 — GPhoto2 backend for GVfs to mount camera as a filesystem from a file manager that supports GVfs such as GNOME Files, Nemo, PCManFM and Thunar.

  https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/gvfs || gvfs-gphoto2

- Kamera — KDE integration for gPhoto2 cameras.

  https://github.com/KDE/kamera || kamera

- Pantheon Photos — Image viewer for Pantheon.

  https://launchpad.net/pantheon-photos || pantheon-photos

- Rapid Photo Downloader — Download photos and videos from cameras, memory cards and portable storage devices.

  https://www.damonlynch.net/rapid/ || rapid-photo-downloader

- Rawstudio — An open source raw-image converter written in GTK. Supports tethered shooting with gPhoto2.

  https://rawstudio.org/[dead link 2023-07-30 ⓘ] || rawstudioAUR

- Shotwell — Digital photo organizer designed for GNOME.

  https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Shotwell || shotwell

## GPhoto2 usage

GPhoto2 is a command line client for libgphoto2. GPhoto2 allows access to the libgphoto2 library from a terminal or from a script shell to perform any camera operation that can be done. This is the main user interface.

GPhoto2 also provides convenient debugging features for camera driver developers.

Quick Commands

- `gphoto2 --list-ports`
- `gphoto2 --auto-detect`
- `gphoto2 --abilities`
- `gphoto2 --summary`
- `gphoto2 --list-files`
- `gphoto2 --get-all-files`
- `gphoto2 --capture-image-and-download`
- `gphoto2 --set-config datetime=now` - sets the camera to the current time

For advanced file manipulation, use

- `gphoto2 --shell`

Tip: With `gphoto2 --capture-movie` it is possible to use supported cameras as a webcam. See v4l2loopback#Using a photo camera as webcam with gPhoto for details.

### Example usage with GVfs

Auto detect the connected camera and list the required port:

    $ gphoto2 --auto-detect

    Model                          Port
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Canon Digital IXUS 980 IS      usb:006,011

Now open your favorite file manager and enter the address with the found port detail `gphoto2://[usb:006,011]`. File manager functionality#Mounting will use gvfs to get the camera mounted and manageable with the file manager.

## Troubleshooting

### Permission issues

Users with a local session have permissions granted for cameras using ACLs. See General troubleshooting#Session permissions if it does not work.

### Claimed device

Your system might automatically mount the camera as a file system and then some gphoto2 commands output the error message "cannot claim device". In this case unmount the camera using your file browser or run:

    $ gio mount -s gphoto2

Categories:

- Digital imaging
- Lists of software
- Input devices

Hidden category:

- Pages with dead links