Indeed very interesting research, thank you! I'll be following this as well especially for timelapse purposes. In addition to what has been mentioned previously, this could eventually allow for remote timelapse camera installations that are controllable over long distance (for example by routing through a mobile 3G device).

And assuming Panasonic will use similar network software in future cameras, this has great potential.

If it matters, I'd be willing to pay for a developed tool like this as well. But this also has potential in current form as web page app, so anyone with some scripting skills could try and make own control functions for specific needs.

In any case, your work is appreciated!

Awesome @lenuisible I got it working in my Windows 7 pc. For a guy who is not much of a programmer you are making incredible progress. It took me awhile to figure out the Live View. Here's what I did. Start a Command prompt window and cd to the folder where all the WebBrowser files are located. While there, then run
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin\java" UDPServer
This then starts a java window that will display what the camera sees once Start Stream is clicked. Unfortunatetly, no video preview while recording. I also have not been able to see what files have been stored in the camera yet. Stopping video using Playmode, appears to work, so your work is already providing new functionality not in the LUMIX link app. This work is starting to pay off and I hope someone with more knowledge and time than me can join you in continuing to make progress with this awesome work... Al

First I have -100 knowledge in java and such and right now my head's kind of tired.
So, though I read the PATH stuff, I wasn't able to set the live view. Other than that EVERYTHING'S WORKING smoothly in a mac OS 10.6.8 The interface is changed a bit, bigger (we still can't select raw alone in Picture Quality ;), I tested pancake 20mm and 14-140, all good. The slow focusing tabs are super nice, totally useful for a rack focus of some kind. BTW didn't experience any of the previous (version) black outs. Way to go!!!

THANK YOU LENUISIBLE

hope you get aid/collaboration to see make all this work you're having something even nicer :D

Thanks guys for the kind words and for testing this,

@aljimenez yep, this is another way to have the "java UDPServer" working, if you change the PATH like I explained in the first post, you will be able to run java without entering its complete path, so instead of "C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin\java" UDPServer you could just type java UDPServer.
About the video preview during recording, as ou say it's impossible, but at least you can change the settings (focus, zoom, aperture ...). Maybe Panasonic will unlock this in a future firmware
About accessing the pictures files stored on the GH3, I would prefer that someone else takes care of it...

@disordinary I think creating an UDP socket (which is needed in our case) with a pure web solution is tricky, WebRTC needs RTP, which GH3 doesn't use.

@maxr thanks for testing this on a MAC, it would be cool if you could try the live view, what you basically need is to launch java UDPServer from a terminal (for java installation look here : http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/webnotes/install/mac/mac-jre.html), you can look here to see how to do it : http://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spr04/cos126/hello/mac.html.
I forgot to add the raw quality, I will update this in the next version, but you can add it yourself adding this line : < OPTION VALUE="raw" >raw < /OPTION > at line 293 of the requests.html file

@lenuisible

I forgot to add the raw quality, I will update this in the next version, but you can add it yourself adding this line : < OPTION VALUE="raw" >raw < /OPTION > at line 293 of the requests.html file

donne and WORKING, thanks

about JAVA JR7, minimum system requirements imply OS 10.7 or later, so right now I cannot test it, I'll try to kidnap the (very requested) iMac with OS 10.7
all good

@lenuisible excellent work so far !!

this has lots of potential, I would love to see someone with some coding skills help you out.

It would be really cool to have a bramper like function for time lapse, via a web interface to ramp the settings

I would donate to the cause

If we limit it to only Chrome browsers, it looks like a Chrome App can use chrome.socket.

I really need to try this out for Astro Photography.

@maxr Thanks for confirming that it works !

@taawp & @Vitaliy_Kiselev I'm starting to like Java :). To enable more advanced features, the program needs to be able to retrieve/parse and send XML files from/to the GH3, and it's a nightmare using browser because the GH3 doesn't use any "Access-Control-Allow-Origin:*" in its response header, and browser don't like that. If you're interested in the topic, you can read this : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3076414/ways-to-circumvent-the-same-origin-policy
I think I'm going to go one with Java for a Lumix Link like application for PC/MAC. A Web UI using JS will be better to develop specific apps. But If someone is willing to spend time on a live view player for the web, the theory is really simple :

• create a local UDP socket on port X
• send a GET HTTP like : http://@IP_GH3/cam.cgi?mode=startstream&value=X
• retrieve the bytes stream, look for 0xFF 0xD8, cut the datagram packet from this 0xFF offset to the end (finishing with 0xFF 0xD9)
• convert this into a JPG and display it

A small update, you can now download the JPG files stored on the GH3 using Chrome and the attached files.

• For security reasons, the web browsers doesn't like to parse content coming from other web sites, unless the requesting web page belongs to the same domain as the requested one.
• To make this work with the GH3, you have to launch chrome with a specific parameter : you need to use the CLI (with Windows or Mac OS), and type "chrome --disable-web-security".
• Download the attached "BrowseJPG.zip" file, and unzip it wherever you want

• You can then launch (from this "unsecured" Chrome page) the file "controlBrowseJPG.html" to access the files stored on the GH3

• you will be presented with the thumbnail pictures, if you click on one of them, you will download the full res jpg.

• FYI, 3 versions of the files are present on the GH3 :
  • http://@IP_GH3:50001/DOxxxxxxx.JPG : the original JPG file
  • http://@IP_GH3:50001/DTxxxxxxx.JPG : a small thumbnail JPG file
  • http://@IP_GH3:50001/DLxxxxxxx.JPG : a large thumbnail JPG file

Edit : I forgot to change the default value of the IP address of the GH3, which is set to 192.168.0.13 (the IP@ of my GH3).

• You should be able to change it when you launch the file (ie just change it to 192.168.0.1 before you click on load)
• If you want to change the default value, edit the "controlBrowseJPG.html" file, and on line 6, replace the value field with the IP address of your GH3 (192.168.0.1 if you're directly connected to the Wifi network of the GH3)

I thought it was just a standard applet for opening a udp stream? Haven't tested it but I'm guessing that VLC can also open it.

Focus peaking would be a pretty big ask I would have thought. What resolution is streamed? I doubt its 1080p.

@dtbow yes, I'll add it to the first post when I go back home. I played with filters to try to do peaking, it's quite easy to alter the JPG files, what's more complicated is fine tuning the filters and don't kill the perfs. I played with some filters of this guy : http://www.jhlabs.com/ip/filters/index.html, and I try to reproduce what was said in this article : http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=56246.0. The EdgeFilter does a pretty good job, but stacking other filters on top of it degrade the perf too much.
BTW, could you try to uses the files above and follow the procedure to see if you manage to download the pictures on your MAC ?

@disordinary I didn't manage to receive the stream with VLC, I think VLC only receive MJPEG over HTTP, or maybe it's looking for some info in the headers which are not there. The streamed resolution is 640x480 (640x360 when 16/9 is chosen)

@aljimenez thanks for testing, are you sure your chrome is running in the unsecure mode ? You may have to close other chrome windows before launching it with the option, if it works, you should have a message looking like this (in your language) :

Could you enable the Javascript console on chrome and look at the error message ? If it says something about Null Origin, chrome is not in the unsecure mode. If it says something about gh3ip or gh3ipaddress I may have made a mistake somewhere.

FYI the GH3 needs to be in "playmode" to get the pictures, and in "recmode" to be controlled. The browseJPG.html file enable "Playmode", so if you want to control the GH3 after using it, you have to click on the recmode button on the control web page

@lenuisible I got it running. The protocol GH3 is using to send data over UDP is actually quite simple: first 2 bytes of each packet is packet length (header + JPEG payload), the header is 132 bytes long after that you have a JPEG image until the end of the packet. So all what you need to do is to strip the first 132 bytes of each packet and there you have your JPEG. Your recording, actually, also contains the data you send over HTTP, not just the UDP stream. I had to do my own recording to find out what's happening over UDP.

Unfortunately the stream stops when in video recording mode. That is focus peaking on top of wifi is pretty useless. It kind of works, but not very precise - it is based on 640x480 resolution JPEG: not just resolution is low, but also artifacts are there. When not in video recording mode you are better off using the magnification view, when in video recording mode there is no magnification view, but also no wifi stream.