Introduction

日本語はこちら

mtplvcap is a multi-platform (Windows/Mac/Linux) software that relays the Live View of Nikon cameras via WebSocket.

mtplvcap + OBS turn your cameras into web cameras without HDMI capture device. Enjoy video chatting on Google Hangouts/Meet/Zoom etc. with your favorite cameras!

Environments

Cameras (confirmed)

• Nikon D3200 (thanks @Ivisi !)
• Nikon D3300 (thanks @unasuke !)
• Nikon D5000 (thanks @rch850 !)
• Nikon D5100 (thanks @shigureanko !)
• Nikon D5300
• Nikon D5500 (thanks @nasustim !)
• Nikon D600 (thanks @ohtayo !)
• Nikon D610 (thanks @hazlitt !)
• Nikon D7000 (thanks @takashi0314 !)
• Nikon D7100 (thanks @TheMidlander !)
• Nikon D7200 (thanks @br_spike_love !)
• Nikon Z6 (thanks @ShadowXii !)
• Nikon Z7 (thanks @zacheadams !)
• I welcome feedback! Please tell me if your camera works or not.

Cameras (unsupported)

• Nikon 1 J5

Verified OSes and other software

OS	OBS	Virtual camera	Browser
Windows 10 version 1909, Build 18363.900, amd64	25.0.8	OBS Virtualcam 2.0.5	Microsoft Edge 84.0.522.44 (Chromium Edge)
macOS 10.15.5 Catalina, amd64	25.0.8	obs-mac-virtualcam 3ca8f62 v1.2.0	Google Chrome 84.0.4147.89, Microsoft Edge 84.0.522.44
Debian GNU/Linux 10 Buster, amd64	25.0.7-442-ge3942061	obs-v4l2sink 1ec3c8a	Mozilla Firefox 68.10.0esr

Note: Browsers listed here are used to check if virtual cams work well. Any other browsers should work.

How to install

Notice: Snippets described here should run as-is and copy-and-pastable.

Windows

Important: For Windows, you have to replace a pre-installed MTP driver with a libusb driver. Your PC will no longer recognize the camera as an MTP device unless you re-install it manually. Reverting back is super easy! Follow the instruction to revert back the driver.

1. Replace MTP driver

1. Connect your Nikon camera to the PC

2. Download Zadig from here and launch it

3. Tick List All Devices

   

4. Make sure that your camera is in the list upper in the window and choose it

   

   (This screenshot was taken after the libusb driver is installed and will differ from what you see)

5. Choose libusb-win32 (vX.X.X.X) in the input box in the middle of the window

   • Please keep in mind that WinUSB does NOT work. Be careful not to choose it.

6. Click Replace Driver button and wait it finishes the installation

   • Optionally, open the Device Manager and make sure it's installed
   

2a. Use a pre-built executable

1. Download the release from here (mtplvcap_windows_amd64.zip).
2. Extract the ZIP
3. Double-click mtplvcap.exe
   • Make sure your camera opens up its shutter

2b. Build it yourself in MSYS2

1. Download and install MSYS2 from here

2. Launch "MSYS2 MSYS" in the Start Menu

3. Install dependencies

   • Some people reported that pacman fails to install a package group mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain and other packages at once. Installing them separately should succeed.

   pacman -Sy
   pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain
   pacman -S \
       mingw-w64-x86_64-libusb \
       mingw-w64-x86_64-go \
       mingw-w64-x86_64-pkg-config \
       git

4. Add PATHs

   echo 'PATH=$PATH:/mingw64/bin:/mingw64/lib/go/bin' >> ~/.bashrc
   source ~/.bashrc

5. Clone this repo

   git clone https://github.com/puhitaku/mtplvcap.git

6. cd, build, and launch it

   cd mtplvcap
   CGO_CFLAGS='-Wno-deprecated-declarations' go build .
   ./mtplvcap.exe -debug server

   • Make sure your camera opens up its shutter
   • Perhaps you have to specify GOROOT like GOROOT=/mingw64/lib/go go build .

7. Done!

   • The binary can be moved and redistributed easily
   • Copy libusb-1.0.dll from C:\msys64\mingw64\bin\libusb-1.0.dll and place the copy alongside mtplvcap.exe to launch it directly from Explorer

Revert back the driver (if necessary)

Generic MTP apps will no longer be able to communicate with cameras with replaced libusb driver. To revert it back, follow the instruction:

(Screenshots are not available as I don't have English Windows. Sorry for inconvenience.)

1. Right-click the Start Button and click ""

2. Right-click your camera in the "libusb-win32 devices" section and click "Update driver"

3. Click "Browse my computer for driver software"

4. Click "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"

5. Choose "MTP USB Device" in the list and click "Next >"

6. It'll show "Windows has successfully updated your driver software" and it's done

macOS

1. Install dependencies

1. Install Homebrew

2. Install libusb

   brew install libusb

2a. Use a pre-built executable

1. Download the release from here (mtplvcap_macos_amd64.zip).

2. Extract the ZIP and launch it

   unzip mtplvcap_macos_amd64.zip
   ./macos/mtplvcap

   • macOS will warn you that the binary is not verified

3. Allow non-verified binary to launch

   • Dismiss the dialog (Do not move it to the trash!)
   
   • Open "System Preferences" -> "Security & Privacy" -> Click "Allow Anyway"
   
   • Launch mtplvcap once more and click "Open"
   
   • Make sure your camera opens up its shutter

2b. Build it yourself

1. Install dependencies

   brew install golang git

2. Install XCode Command Line Tools with xcode-select --install

3. Clone this repo

   git clone https://github.com/puhitaku/mtplvcap.git

4. cd, build, and launch it

   cd mtplvcap
   CGO_CFLAGS='-Wno-deprecated-declarations' go build .
   ./mtplvcap -debug server

   • If macOS blocks the downloaded executable and show alerts, please follow this procedure to proceed
   • Make sure your camera opens up its shutter

5. Done!

Linux

I strongly recommend you to compile by yourself for Linux distributions as Linux environments vary widely.

1. Install dependencies

1. Install libusb

   # For Debian/Ubuntu:
   sudo apt install libusb-1.0-0

   # For Arch:
   pacman --sync libusb

2a. Use a pre-built executable

1. Download the release from here (mtplvcap_linux_amd64.zip).

2. Extract the ZIP and launch it

   unzip mtplvcap_linux_amd64.zip
   ./linux/mtplvcap

   • Make sure your camera opens up its shutter

2b. Build it yourself

1. Install dependencies

   # For Debian/Ubuntu:
   sudo apt install golang-go libusb-1.0-0-dev

   # For Arch:
   pacman --sync go libusb

2. cd, build, and launch it

   cd mtplvcap
   CGO_CFLAGS='-Wno-deprecated-declarations' go build .
   ./mtplvcap -debug server

   • Make sure your camera opens up its shutter

Usage

$ ./mtplvcap -help
Usage of ./mtplvcap:
  -backend-go
        force gousb as libusb wrapper (not recommended)
  -debug string
        comma-separated list of debugging options: usb, data, mtp, server
  -host string
        hostname: default = localhost, specify 0.0.0.0 for public access (default "localhost")
  -port int
        port: default = 42839 (default 42839)
  -product-id string
        PID of the camera to search (in hex), default=0x0 (all) (default "0x0")
  -server-only
        serve frontend without opening a DSLR (for devevelopment)
  -vendor-id string
        VID of the camera to search (in hex), default=0x0 (all) (default "0x0")

Watch incoming frames

• http://localhost:42839/view will show the captured frames

Control your camera on your browser

• http://localhost:42839 is a controller to control your camera
• "Auto Focus" section controls periodic/manual AF
• "Rate Limit" section limits/un-limits the frame rate to decrease overall CPU usage
• "Information" section shows the dimension of captured images etc.

Connect with Zoom, Google Meet, Google Hangouts, etc.

1. Install mtplvcap and check if it works

2. Install OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) from here

3. Install OBS virtual camera (it varies for each OS)

4. Open OBS preference and "Video" tab

5. Adjust resolutions to fit with LV frame dimension

   • Launch mtplvcap and open localhost:42839 to get the actual resolution
   

6. Add a "Browser" source

   

7. Set "Width" and "Height" to the same value of "Video" preference

8. Set http://localhost:42839/view as the URL

   

9. Enable the virtual camera and configure chat apps

10. BOOM!

    

Caveats

• This software is in alpha stage.

Known Issues

• Stops Live View automatically
  • The timeout can be elongated in camera menu.
  • Some cameras support disabling auto-off timer, while some does not.
    • For D5300, "Custom Setting Menu" -> "c Timers/AE lock" -> "Auto off timers" -> "Custom" -> "Live View" -> "30 min"
  • As a work-around, mtplvcap watches the shutter and opens it automatically when it's closed.
• D5000: incorrect frame dimension is reported in the controller
  • Correct dimension is 640x426
• Windows: on MinTTY, the process gets killed without graceful shut-down when you press Ctrl-C.
  • It will result in a fail of the next launch and might require you to re-plug the camera in.
  • It's a known behavior and is not a bug of mtplvcap.
  • Please install winpty with pacman and run via it winpty ./mtplvcap
  • Running mtplvcap directly from Explorer with double-click runs without this problem. Please stop it with Ctrl-C, not by pressing the close button.

Feedback

• Posting issues and PRs is welcome. Follow CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution.
• Only few cameras are tested. Please tell me if mtplvcap works (or not) with your camera.

Credit

This program is based on github.com/hanwen/go-mtpfs. Special thanks to Han-Wen-san for a robust and mature MTP implementation.

And also I referenced github.com/dukus/digiCamControl for parsing MTP payloads. If not for this, I couldn't have implemented mtplvcap.

License

LICENSE document