PTP Webcam – DSLR Live View Video Plugin

Large sensor digital still cameras can provide an exceptionally good image for video conferencing, compared to most built-in web cameras.

This is a plugin to make compatible digital cameras available as webcams in video calls, for example in Zoom or Skype on macOS. It also allows control of camera settings from the computer to adjust exposure parameters and focus.

The project consists of a CoreMediaIO DAL plugin, and a preview app to test functionality.

Note: only video is currently captured, no audio.

Installation

System Requirements

A compatible camera connected via USB to a Mac running macOS / OS X 10.12 through 10.15.

Binary Packages

Download and install the latest release from the PTP Webcam Homepage.

Installer packages for older releases are available from the Releases page of this project.

Building from Source

If you want to build from source, you need Xcode. You can build the project and the plugin should be automatically copied into /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL to be available to the system. However, apps with Library Validation enabled will need to have codesigning disabled to be able to access the plugin, see the Known Issues section below.

Testing the Installation

Opening Quicktime Player and creating a New Movie Recording via File -> New Movie Recording, then selecting the camera source can be used to verify functionality. The camera needs to be plugged in and turned on, and it might take a few seconds to show up.

Quicktime Player works because it has Library Validation disabled out-of-the-box, unlike eg. Photo Booth, which has the capability to use different video sources, but is prevented from doing so because Library Validation is enabled.

What it should look like

If the camera is connected, a status bar item with the camera's model number should appear and can be used to change settings.

Uninstalling

Delete /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/PTPWebcamDALPlugin.plugin to uninstall the plugin.

Supported Cameras over USB

Tested

Nikon D3500
Nikon D5500, Nikon D5600
Nikon D7100, Nikon D7500
Nikon D750
Nikon Z6, Nikon Z7, Nikon Z50

Nikon D800

needs to be in Photography LiveView mode for exposure preview to be available
LiveView timeout can be set to infinity via CUSTOM SETTINGS MENU -> c Timers/AE Lock -> c4 Monitor off delay -> Live view

Nikon D3400

exposure preview not available

Nikon D5100, Nikon D5200

potentially frequent (every few minutes) shutter cycling because of LiveView restarts

Untested

The following cameras have support in the code, but have not been confirmed to actually work. If you have one of these cameras, and it does or does not work, please file an issue making a note of how it behaves, so that it can be added here.

~~Nikon D90~~
Nikon D300, Nikon D300S, Nikon D500
Nikon D3200, Nikon D3300
Nikon D5000, Nikon D5300
Nikon D7000, Nikon D7200
Nikon Df
~~Nikon D3~~, Nikon D3S, Nikon D3X, Nikon D4, Nikon D4S, Nikon D5, Nikon D6
Nikon D600, Nikon D610
Nikon D700, Nikon D780
Nikon D800E, Nikon D810, Nikon D810A, Nikon D850

Note: some cameras support larger LiveView image sizes, but it is not possible to select that at this time.

Many other cameras can in theory be made to work, but are not yet supported.

Reported having Issues

Nikon D3 with PTP Webcam v1.0.0-alpha6: camera does not enter LiveView mode when selecting video source.
Nikon D90 with PTP Webcam v1.0.0-alpha6: camera does not enter LiveView mode when selecting video source.

Not usable because of hardware limitations

Nikon D40, D60, D80, D200 do not support tethered live view.

Known Issues

Library Validation

macOS applications that have library validation enabled cannot load DAL plugins that have not been signed or signed by another developer. Therefore, some popular video conferencing tools do not work out of the box.

The easiest way to workaround is to remove the signature for the offending applications, but note that this might be affected by security settings on your system, and might require to relax security settings.

Status for an unknown app can be checked via codesign -d --entitlements :- /Path/to/App and if any entitlements show up, com.apple.security.cs.disable-library-validation needs to be among them:

<key>com.apple.security.cs.disable-library-validation</key>
<true/>

If it is not, codesigning has to be removed from the app and potentially its helper apps.

References

https://stackoverflow.com/a/62456259/4296447

Zoom workaround

codesign --remove-signature /Applications/zoom.us.app

Skype workaround

Skype has several helper apps inside its application bundle that might need code signing disabled.

codesign --remove-signature /Applications/Skype.app
cd /Applications/Skype.app/Contents/Frameworks
codesign --remove-signature Skype\ Helper.app
codesign --remove-signature Skype\ Helper\ \(Renderer\).app

Additional helpers might be named differently in different Skype versions.

Chrome workaround

codesign --remove-signature /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app
codesign --remove-signature /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/Frameworks/Google\ Chrome\ Framework.framework/Helpers/Google\ Chrome\ Helper.app
codesign --remove-signature /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/Frameworks/Google\ Chrome\ Framework.framework/Helpers/Google\ Chrome\ Helper\ \(GPU\).app
codesign --remove-signature /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/Frameworks/Google\ Chrome\ Framework.framework/Helpers/Google\ Chrome\ Helper\ \(Plugin\).app

Funding and Sponsorship

This project is open-source and free to use, but can be supported through Patreon.

If you'd like to contribute in another way, contact dognotdog directly.

License

The full license is available in LICENSE.md at the same location as this readme.

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.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Marty Swartz for being the first to help testing additional cameras.

This work would not have been possible without other open-source work:

aseidlitz / ptpwebcam Goto Github PK

ptpwebcam's Introduction