Use gphoto2 to Configure DSLR

Jun 2017

We can control the settings on our DSLR, again what can be controlled will vary between models. To get a list of items that can (maybe) control, you can use this command.

gphoto2 --list-config

Here is the listing that I get from my Canon EOS 700D.

/main/actions/uilock
/main/actions/syncdatetime
/main/actions/autofocusdrive
/main/actions/manualfocusdrive
/main/actions/eoszoom
/main/actions/eoszoomposition
/main/actions/eosviewfinder
/main/actions/eosremoterelease
/main/settings/datetime
/main/settings/reviewtime
/main/settings/output
/main/settings/movierecordtarget
/main/settings/ownername
/main/settings/artist
/main/settings/copyright
/main/settings/customfuncex
/main/settings/autopoweroff
/main/settings/capturetarget
/main/settings/capture
/main/status/serialnumber
/main/status/manufacturer
/main/status/cameramodel
/main/status/deviceversion
/main/status/vendorextension
/main/status/model
/main/status/ptpversion
/main/status/batterylevel
/main/status/lensname
/main/status/eosserialnumber
/main/status/shuttercounter
/main/status/availableshots
/main/imgsettings/imageformat
/main/imgsettings/imageformatsd
/main/imgsettings/iso
/main/imgsettings/whitebalance
/main/imgsettings/colortemperature
/main/imgsettings/whitebalanceadjusta
/main/imgsettings/whitebalanceadjustb
/main/imgsettings/whitebalancexa
/main/imgsettings/whitebalancexb
/main/imgsettings/colorspace
/main/capturesettings/autoexposuremode
/main/capturesettings/drivemode
/main/capturesettings/picturestyle
/main/capturesettings/aperture
/main/capturesettings/shutterspeed
/main/capturesettings/bracketmode
/main/other/d402
/main/other/d407
/main/other/d406
/main/other/d303
/main/other/5001

So for example, in this list we can see a setting entitled /main/capturesettings/aperture which indicates we can control the aperture on this DSLR.
To see what the possible values for /main/capturesettings/aperture that gphoto2 supports, we can use the following syntax.

gphoto2 --get-config /main/capturesettings/aperture