Use a D-SLR as a webcam in Windows FOR FREE!

Recently I've been developing a stop-motion animation program and a result I've been exploring possible ways to allow users to use D-SLRs without me having to delve into the Canon SDK.

The solution I've found is to use a program to make the D-SLR appear to programs as webcam. However until now I haven't found a free program that does this for Windows (Mac users should check out CamTwist). Without further ado, I'd like to introduce digiCamControl.

digiCamControl is a free program that allows you control and get a live feed from a number of supported Canon, Nikon and Sony cameras.

It also has a Web Server function and this has recently been expanded to include a virtual webcam feature which allows cameras appear to applications as a webcam and hence work with programs such as Helium Frog, Monkeyjam or Heron Animation. Video chat applications such as Skype will also work, however the live feed from this method has a slight delay and low frame rate making it not very ideal for video chatting.

Here's how to set this up:

1. Download and install beta version 2.0.17 (IMPORTANT) or above of digiCamControl.
2. Open digiCamControl and in the menu bar navigate to "File > Settings".
3. Select the "web server" tab and tick "use webserver". For privacy reasons I'd recommend making sure that the "allow public access" option below this is unchecked.
4. Restart digiCamControl with your camera turned on and connected to your computer via a USB cable.
5. Click "allow access" if a Windows Firewall alert appears.
6. Press the "Live view" button in digiCamControl (it has an icon with "Lv" on it).
7. Open the program you want to use the camera with and choose "digiCamControl Virtual WebCam" as your video source.

Tips:

• If a green focus rectangle is displayed on the image you can hide it by unchecking "show focus rectangle" in the display menu of the live view window of digiCamControl.
• Using live view quickly drains your camera's battery. Consider purchasing an AC adapter for it.

While this method isn't as slick as a native solution, I hope it allows you to at least make some use of your fancy D-SLR in many Windows programs without having to pay for something like SparkoCam.

If you have any questions feel free to comment below and I will do my best to help out!

Getting Helium Frog Animator to work on Windows 8

Edit Sept 2015: If you have upgraded your system to Windows 10 and find that Helium Frog no longer works try deleting the file "CaptureFormatData.mt" from the program's folder.

Edit June 2018: Unfortunately, Microsoft are shutting down CodePlex (the website where the "beta" edition mentioned in step 1 is hosted). As a result, this fix may no longer work. I have contacted Martin Price, the author of Helium Frog and will post any further updates here. I'm glad this fix has helped a few people over the years, but Helium Frog really is very outdated at this point and where possible you should seek an alternative.

Helium Frog is a popular piece of  free frame capturing software among brickfilmers. It has a very large feature set with things such as onion skinning and even green screening. I have used it happily in conjunction with my Logitech c920 webcam for a few years now, however when I was lucky enough to purchase a shiny new Windows 8 computer a problem arose, this was 'Error code 01.01 - source setup problem'. I tried doing a number of things such as re-installing drivers etc but I had no luck, I also noticed I was not the only person to have this problem finding threads asking for help on Brickfilms.com, Bricks In Motion and the French forum Brick a Brak - the common problem between all of these seemed to be Windows 8.

Anyway, I am happy to say that I have found a solution to this problem for Windows 8 users, it is a bit odd and isn't the most straight forward solution so I decided to write a blog post explaining it.

1. Download ZIP file for the 'beta' edition (version 2_06SW3) of Helium Frog from its source repository website here.
2. Extract the contents of the ZIP file. Then navigate to the extracted file and click the folder inside called 'Package', then click the file titled 'setup'.
3. A program to install Helium Frog should appear, follow through the default options in this wizard clicking 'yes' if any messages regarding 'Version Conflicts' appear.
4. Click okay to close the setup when it is complete.
5. IMPORTANT: Do not use the version of Helium Frog you have just installed or you will experience error messages and problems.
6. Now you must download the ZIP file for the 'standard' version 2.06 of Helium Frog from the program's official website here.
7. Extract the ZIP file and click the file titled 'Helium_Frog_2_06' and the program will work without the source error!

I'm not really sure why doing this worked for me but I hope this works for anyone experiencing the same problem as I did with Helium Frog. If you have any questions feel free to comment below and I'll try to help you.

By the way, once you successfully open the 'standard' version of Helium Frog you can uninstall the 'beta' version via Windows' Control Panel.