Sony has now released a “Camera Remote API” for creating apps for smartphones and tablets that will be able to interact with Sonys WIFI-enabled cameras. There is a sample app for Android available. Read more:
Start: http://camera.developer.sony.com/
Developer program: http://camera.developer.sony.com/pages/develop/grid/
The camera API is available for Sony QX-100 and QX-100 as well as NEX cameras (5R and thereafter). it means you can develop a custom app to control cameras from your smartphone, PC, browser, and technically, from anything!
(Editor’s note: hanks to all readers for sending me in the info!)
More QX and other bits:
QX100/10 hands-on at Engadget, Cnet and Trustedreviews, Reviewed.com.
Xperia Z1 hands-on at Engadget.
Sony Xperia test at Sonymobile.com.
Something I missed to report: There is a LVR1 live remote control for the action camera (Sony Germany).
Here are all direct links to preorders in USA/Canada:
QX100: Amazon (Click here), SonyUS (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), SonyCA (Click here).
Soft Carrying Case for DSC-QX100 at Amazon (Click here).
Black QX10: Amazon (Click here), SonyUS (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), SonyCA (Click here).
White QX10: Amazon (Click here), SonyUS (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here).
Soft Carrying Case for DSC-QX10 Amazon (Click here).
Xperia Z case with QX mount on Amazon (Click here).
Sony AX1 4K camcorder Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here).
AS30V action camera: Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here).
HDR-MV1 Music Camcorder at Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here).
Here are all direct links to preorders in Europe:
Black QX100 at SonyDE, Amazon.de (via DealsRunner), Amazon France (via DL), SonyUK, SonyES, SonyIT, SonyNL, SonyBE, SonyAT, SonyCH, SonySE, SonyFI, SonyNo.
Black QX10 at SonyDE, Amazon.de (via DealsRunner), Amazon France (via DL), SonyUK, SonyES, SonyIT, SonyNL, SonyBE, SonyAT, SonyCH, SonySE, SonyFI, SonyNo.
White QX10 at SonyDE, Amazon.de (via DealsRunner), Amazon France (via DL), SonyUK, SonyES, SonyIT, SonyNL, SonyBE, SonyAT, SonyCH, SonySE, SonyFI, SonyNo.
Xperia Z1 at SonyDE, SonyUK, SonyES, SonyIT, SonyNL, SonyBE, SonyAT, SonyCH, SonySE, SonyFI, SonyNo.
AS30V camera: SonyDE.
X9 4K Ultra HD-Fernseher at SonyDE, SonyUK, SonyES, SonyIT, SonyNL, SonyBE, SonyAT, SonyCH, SonySE, SonyFI, SonyNo.
4K FDR-AX1 camcorder at SonyDE, SonyUK, SonyES, SonyIT, SonyNL, SonyBE, SonyAT, SonyCH, SonySE, SonyFI, SonyNo.
66 Responses
So, how is your vacation going so far 🙂
as he said in the previous post, this update was SCHEDULED, it means it got published automatically at some particular moment in time and space 🙂
Awesome!
Open Standards
We have been begging SONY to OPEN UP THEIR PLATFORM AND SHARE
WE NEED
Sony to Open Up their
FLASH HOT SHOE MIS MULTI-INTERFACE SHOE – SONY patented it
NO other vendor makes any flash this
SONY Highly Proprietary Flash Interface
SONY is Force vendors to pay 12.5 Million in Fees
to allow any commercial flash vendor to use it or make any flash for it.
NET Result is
Commercial Photographers need light and will NOT use Sony.
SONY open the platform Support your users.
I’m gonna write a novel: “e: becoming barry”
The repetitive obsessive thoughts of two SAR readers who couldn’t not comment their desires in every single SAR post.
The Times expects my book to be a best seller:
“It is likely to sell as many copies as Fifty Shades of Grey. Canikon fans feel lucky they don’t have an e or barry around them”
Very doubtful as you seem to be very occupied here, there and everywhere…
I have no idea if what I’m talking about is nonsense, but does this mean that now these cameras can more easily be hacked like the Panasonics were? If so the NEX Hack Project may see a huge evolution.
i dont think so, unless its through wifi
its only the code to control and get pictures from a sony wifi camera on your phone’s side, so say you can get instagram to take a picture with the sony camera as if it was a onboard camera
Possibly if it exposes new vulnerabilities that can be exploited.
Nope. They won’t be hacked. You only can deploy apps within API constrains.
I’m keen to see how much is available and how well this is supported. The Play Memories app is very lacking
Admin, you quit, remember?
.
This definitely opens up some possibilities for the QX devices as well as NEX and Action Cam – This is a very good move to save Sony on their (typically slow) development.
Aren’t you on vacation Andrea?
Dedication is the word. 😉
Would be awesome if they also allowed the API to be accessed through the USB data cable for non-WIFI camera bodies. That would allow third party devs to write all sorts of things to run on a tethered tablet/PC for existing alpha models. It may potentially also be faster than WIFI, so even WIFI enabled cameras would want to use it for data heavy transfers.
Indeed! Why no USB?
Yes, especially when it seems quite an expressive API (Ive skimmed through the docs only once though). Its simple JSON calls, but the camera can send back the url of media locations (the camera basically acts as a media server from what I understand so far).
So you can do cool things like data streams back to the client (such as a liveview feed) or get the last captured image and listen to camera UI events.
Basically allows a full remote UI with the added feature of being able to pull the captured data back to the remote UI as well.
I have actually requested that on the Sony developer forum. I can only encourage to register and post a message there as well.
Unfortunately, that’s a wrong headline. Sony doesn’t open up their camera software at all, they just open a connection to its remote-control functions. In contrast to what Samsung did, including the decision to use Android as their cameras’ operating system, Sony’s camera software stays closed and this new API doesn’t enable anyone to create an app that would actually run on the camera. Before, if ever, Sony will allow something like that, I think we can rest assured that they’ll make sure that they can profit from developers’ app sales by having them pay for using Sony’s app store, while disabling any other possibility of installing apps to their cameras.
But you agree it is a step in the right direction?
+1
+1
A step in the right direction but many more steps needed IMO.
Yes, wrong headline. Now thanks to Andrea a lot of idiots will repeat “Sony has opened their software”
Now everything falls into place…Sony embraced the changes that are now taking place in the technological world. It’s good to be a device company, because software is just a tool to sell your hardware. It’s quite tough to be a software company nowadays, because everyone expects “free”…
In fact the trend seems to be the opposite: big software companies try to buy into hardware business. The case with Android, or rather the Linux kernel, is different–it is free but not cheap OS. It’s pretty expensive, actually, funded by a coalition of partners.
Well, your answer would imply that I said that the trend is for hardware companies to buy software companies, which I haven’t said 🙂 The “trend” that I was talking about is the trend for hardware companies to open up the once closed software platforms to create large development communities which ultimately contribute to selling more hardware.
…and the reason why software companies buy into hardware companies is because nowadays is good to be a hardware company 🙂
I think, we both agree now. So nice!
What happened to the day off?
It was a SCHEDULED post.
i wish they release the code for the sony in camera apps instead!! theres quite a few problems and improvements that can be made to the existing apps! timelapse for example can only be taken on a fixed exposure value, making it unable to change when the light changes so you can’t really use it for sunrise/sunset timelapses
+1
Kudos to Sony for trying.
I see a big change in what products are released and services coming out now compared to just a year ago.
Exciting times for sure!
Cool! Had a quick look at the documentation, and while I’d have to do some more research, I suspect the NEX-5R, 6 and 5T need firmware updates to get full compatibility with the API. This should also mean that they will get a lot more controls in the PlayMemories Mobile app, comparable to the new QX cameras probably. Sounds pretty good!
In the forums there are dates for these releases. 28th of september iirc…
Go away and out on the mountain dammit.
What Alpha and nex cameras need is tethering via USB, in that regard Canon is well ahead
After a quick look at the documentation API I guess that it might be possible to create a tethering that shares many functionalities with a tethering on Canon gear.
So I’d stay rather optimistic as for NEXes and QX.
However A-mount and RX owners rather cannot hope for any benefits from this API.
Oh it is possible. The camera is basically a media server for the client. See my earlier post.
It could have been implemented from scratch specifically for the new devices and then made public. No one knows but perhaps USB API is ancient and rudimentary and mostly ugly ad hoc code nobody is particularly proud about. It will probably take time for them to rewrite and publish this part as well.
As far as I see – this api doesn’t support firmware used on A-mount cameras, so: no, it’s not.
Unless I’m wrong (and that said – I’d be delighted to be wrong).
You may be right–for now. I suspect this is the future of all/most Sony cameras except the bottom-barrel A3000 grade cameras.
As far as I can tell the API supports NEX firmware and all derivatives, including A3000, but no high-end cameras.
The a58 has USB tethering. But, so far, only with computers and not mobile phones.
awesome! waitin for a timelapse app for the rx100 mkII!!!!!!!
i ask sony for new features in their action cam and they came up with “do it yourself”
THANK YOU SONY… time for a coding weekend, oh… i feel the adrenaline in the blood…
It’s available only for residents of USA and Japan.
FAIL.
This is great news.
I was looking for a camera that could be remotely controlled from a Nokia Lumina 920 or a Windows 8/RT tablet.
Now I’ll wait for those apps to become available for the Sony cameras.
But what Sony to get?
Hmmm…..
Perhaps a NEX 6 with the new 16-70 zoom lens. Perhaps the NEX 7 replacement will be out by then?
I doubt you’ll see anything on Windows Phone / Windows RT. Most likely first releases will be Android-only. Perhaps in future we’ll see Windows – and with a lot of luck & some talented people we might even see an iOS releases, but WP/RT is very unlikely (though should be possible).
There’s already a Playmemories app for android.
The point of releasing the API is that we’ll get more apps and more platforms supported.
Sooner than you think, maybe. Yesterday I posted the links to the new SDK and API on a windows phone page at facebook, and one developer took the bait and he has already begun working on a WP remote app for communication with Sony AS-15 (the only API’s available at the moment). I will help him with beta testing during development since I own that camera. Not saying too much yet, but I definitely think this is great news for us WP users.
Oh, really? That’s a good news than 🙂
People asking for tethering on the A77, forget it. Sony couldn’t care less about you.
If they made the API available over the USB cable, this would be childs play. I’ve even written the minimum calls down on a piece of paper already in hopeful anticipation 🙂
I just see the Z1 “test” at sonymobile.com… the results show this test is bullshit. It is the kind of test which could produce some strange results, like “the xperia Z1 has better image quality than cybershot RX1”
There is some test shots by the Z1 at lesnumeriques.com (in french). The pictures do not look good. http://www.lesnumeriques.com/telephone-portable/sony-xperia-z1-honami-p16826/ifa-sony-xperia-z1-capteur-20-7-megapixels-exprime-n30918.html
Is the Rx100-2 included?
The API is fairly useless. You can do exactly what Sony has thought of doing and no more. There are no methods for changing any settings.
You get the ability to create custom overlays or (more importantly) display derived live views such as a full screen histogram on a 10 inch tablet… you can do things like this because the client will typically have hardware accelerated views, whereas the server (camera) does not and could not display many real-time derived live views (especially video scopes).
Also, the client will almost certainly be internet enabled, whereas the camera is only WIFI enabled. That opens up all sorts of possibilities for remote control and remote upload.
Neither of these feels ‘useless’.
I was excited at first, but it seems the controls are very limited. I have not found any possibility to control stuff like the aperture, iso, exposure compensation or anything like that!
I also glanced at the API reference, developers guide and the example java code. So far, it looks like the API allows for live view and image (still and movie) capture. I didn’t see anything that allows for method calls to change camera settings – i.e. JSON calls to change aperture, ISO, shutter speed, white balance, etc.
Unless I missed something in the API reference, Sony has only provided basic wifi “remote trigger” functionality. Granted, as Pb and others note, social media apps (instagram, flickr, facebook, etc.) and studio setups with a wifi direct-to-desktop workflow can certainly benefit from this basic functionality.
If Sony would extend the API even more, the possibilities for innovative 3rd party apps would be truly exciting.
Fantastic, news, very exited about this news, I hope they find away to help there existing A99 and A77 users as well especially with tether, remove viewing, settings..etc..etc.. would be fantastic to have this even via wire (USB) and/or third party wifi card perhaps?
Sony only offers an API to remotely control their cameras, nothing more.
this is huge. now samsung really needs to catch up. really no competition against samsung nx now. it lost the open source advantage. this is going to be amazing.