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F U J I P L A Y

$Id: README,v 1.6 1999/02/23 09:30:49 bousch Exp $

WHAT IS IT ?

Fujiplay is a C program for Unix systems, to download pictures from some Fujifilm digital cameras, like the DS-7 and MX-700, using the serial link.

Fujiplay has been written by Thierry Bousch <bousch@topo.math.u-psud.fr> using the protocol analysis from Mamoru Ohno <mamo@yk.rim.or.jp>. For several reasons, I was not entirely happy with mamo's GET_DS7 software: it was slow (because of Perl) and not very reliable. This is my attempt at writing a download tool which would be simple, fast, reliable and convenient.

Highlights

• The program tries to determine the maximum speed supported by the camera. So when Fuji releases a new model which supports 115200 bps, we'll be ready for it (hopefully).
• The program should detect all parity errors (not tested), thus improving the robustness of the one-byte xor checksum.
• It will not overwrite picture files without your consent. This is essentially to help resuming interrupted transfers; you just restart the program with the same command line.
• The program should detect disk full errors (not tested).
• You cannot have a truncated image file; if you have a DSCxxxxx.JPG on your disk then it means that the transfer has been successfully completed.
• The program can be gracefully interrupted with ^C (or whatever your interrupt character is).
• The program allows you to upload pictures to the camera, delete pictures from the camera, and to "press the shutter" remotely. You can also set the time/date and the "camera ID".
• The source should be reasonably portable to other, non-POSIX systems.

DS-7 COMPATIBILITY

Experimental support for the venerable DS-7 camera has been added in version 1.33 of fujiplay. Use option "-7" to enable it. It should also work with equally old models like the Apple QuickTake 200. This has not been tested, but versions 1.32 and older will definitely not work with the DS-7.

You should NOT use this option unless you really have a DS-7 or similar camera, as fujiplay will assume a minimal capability set and you'll only be able to list, download and delete pictures. All the more recent cameras can be queried for their actual capability set, and this is what fujiplay does by default (that is, unless "-7" is used).

LEGAL ISSUES

This program is in the public domain. You can do anything you want with it, except pretend that you wrote it.

THIS SOFTWARE COMES WITH ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

INSTALLATION

Check the Makefile and type "make", then move the "fujiplay" binary to an appropriate place. It will use /dev/fujifilm, which should be a symbolic link to the appropriate call-out device (/dev/cua2 on my system). If you only have a call-in device, like /dev/ttyS2, make sure it's in "local" mode.

It you want to use the preview feature, you should also install "yycc2ppm" as well.

HOW TO DOWNLOAD PICTURES

Running "fujiplay" without arguments will give you a list of the pictures in the camera. The first field is the "frame number" (i.e. the position in memory), followed by the picture filename, and the size in bytes. If the frame number is followed by a star, it means that a file with the same name is already on the disk; these frames will be skipped, unless you use the "-f" (force) option.

The arguments can be: picture numbers like "4", ranges like "4-10" or the keywords "all" (self-explanatory) and "last" (the highest-numbered picture). The numbers are interpreted like frame numbers. You can use the "-p" option to have them interpreted as the xxxxx which appear in the file names (DSCxxxxx.JPG). With arguments, fujiplay will download the selected pictures, skipping those already present in the current directory (unless "-f" is used).

If the "-d" option is present, pictures which have been successfully transferred onto the computer will be deleted from the Smartmedia card. Typical use: "fujiplay -d all".

OTHER FEATURES

1. Delete

To erase pictures DSC00101.JPG and DSC00105.JPG from the Smartmedia card, just issue the command

fujiplay delete DSC00101.JPG DSC00105.JPG

Granted, that's too verbose. But at least it should avoid mistakes. See also the "-d" option for downloads, discussed above.

2) Upload pictures

The camera expects files called DSCxxxxx.JPG, so fujiplay will (transparently) rename them if necessary. Example of use:

fujiplay upload /tmp/DSC00101.JPG /tmp/foobar.jpg

Fujiplay won't attempt to upload pictures if there isn't enough space on the card.

3) Shoot

Fujiplay allows you to "press the shutter" from the computer. You have to recharge the flash first, if necessary (I'm not sure of the meaning of the numerical parameter for "charge", but I assume a value of 0 cannot hurt; the fuji twain driver uses 200 for the MX-700). You can also set the flash mode from the computer, if you wish. Example:

fujiplay setflash 1
fujiplay charge 0
fujiplay shoot

The first command will put the flash in "forced" (fill-in) mode, the second command will charge the flash, and the third command will take the picture. The frame number, picture name and size are then written to standard output.

4) Set date

The keyword "setdate" can be followed by "gmt" (universal time), "local" (local time), or a 14-character string formatted as YYYYMMDDHHMMSS. Can be useful to test Y2K compliance. My MX-700 for instance accepts dates between 1980/01/01 and 2043/12/31.

5) Set camera ID

The "camera ID" is a string stored into the camera nonvolatile memory. It's at most ten characters long (if longer, it'll be truncated; if shorter, it'll be padded with spaces). This string is used to fill the "Copyright" tag (that's tag 0x8298) in the Exif header. You can put your name if it's short enough. Example:

fujiplay setid 'Th. Bousch'

6) Preview

The command "fujiplay preview" will cause the camera to take a small picture of the current scene. Since it's very small (80x60 pixels) it can be quickly transferred. The preview is sent to standard output, in some special format; you can pipe it into "yycc2ppm" to convert it into the more common raw PPM format.

DEBUGGING

It has been reported that the baudrate autodetection routine doesn't work with some older Fuji models, which claim to support higher speeds than they really do. Even if 115200 bps is supported by the camera, you might want to use it at a lower speed for better reliability. Consequently, there's a new option, "-B baudrate", to bypass autodetection and select a fixed speed. Possible baudrate values are 115200, 57600, 38400, 19200, 9600 and 0. The value "0" means "autodetect", which is fujiplay's normal behaviour, but with the side effect that debugging is enabled.

Apart from "-B0", another option useful for debugging is "-L". It will display the list of commands (in hex) supported by the camera. Read the document "mx700-commands.html" for details.

If you send me bug/malfunctioning reports, please include the output of "fujiplay -B0 -L" as it will ease my job immensely. The output from strace(1) can also be useful.

Enjoy,
Thierry Bousch <bousch@topo.math.u-psud.fr>