This tool interfaces with Sony digital cameras through USB. It allows to tweak settings, dump firmware, and in some cases install custom Android apps.
There are two binaries:
- pmca-console: The main command line application
- pmca-gui: A graphical user interface with a limited set of features
The application should work fine on Windows using the operating system's mass storage and MTP USB drivers.
Download the latest stable release or the newest development build.
macOS binaries are also distributed, but less tested than the Windows equivalents. Getting the USB drivers to work may require some fiddling. To communicate with cameras in mass storage mode, the PMCADownloader browser plugin and/or the DriverLoader application are required. Make sure to close all applications which could access USB drivers, including Photos, Dropbox and Google Drive.
The latest release binaries can be found in the release section.
The application uses Python 3 and should work fine on Linux using libusb drivers.
Clone or download this repository, then run the following commands:
pip install -r requirements.txt # to install the dependencies
./pmca-console.py # for the command line application
./pmca-gui.py # for the gui applicationThere are three main modes of interfacing with a camera:
If the camera supports PlayMemories Camera Apps (PMCA), it is possible to install custom Android apps using this tool. A list of supported cameras can be found here.
It is recommended to install the OpenMemories: Tweak app. This app allows to tweak settings and to start telnet and adb servers to execute code on the system.
Other apps are available. A list can be found here.
There are three ways to install apps:
- Browser plugin (deprecated): If you find a compatible browser, the official PMCA plugin can be used directly from your browser at sony-pmca.appspot.com. This method is deprecated and it is recommended to use pmca-console or pmca-gui instead.
- pmca-gui: In the Install app tab, select an app from the list and click Install selected app.
- pmca-console: Run
pmca-console install -ito interactively select an app to install.
Sony cameras can boot from a secondary partition for firmware updates. Using a custom firmware file, we can execute code in this mode. Note that the camera firmware itself remains untouched. The firmware update process is only used to execute custom code.
This mode does not require any special drivers, the operating system's mass storage USB driver is enough.
A list of supported camera models can be found here. gen4 models are not compatible, since their firmware is cryptographically signed.
There are two ways to use this:
- pmca-gui: In the Tweaks tab, click Start tweaking (updater mode). You can then use the checkboxes to configure your camera's settings.
- pmca-console: Run
pmca-console updatershell. There are commands available to dump the firmware, execute Linux commands, and to tweak settings.
Note that this requires rebooting the camera to firmware update mode. You will be guided through this process.
Sony cameras have a USB mode called senser mode, which is used during servicing for calibration and other things. It can also be used to execute code on the running system.
Service mode has the best camera compatibility, but requires custom USB drivers.
It is currently only supported in the command line application:
- pmca-console: Run
pmca-console serviceshell. There are commands available to dump the firmware and to execute Linux commands.
To use service mode on Windows, custom drivers have to be installed using Zadig:
- Make sure the camera is connected in mass storage mode.
- In Zadig, check Options -> List All Devices, select the camera, select libusb-win32 and click Replace Driver.
- Run
pmca-console serviceshellto make the camera switch modes. - Once the camera has switched, repeat the above step to install a driver for service mode.
- You should now be able to use
pmca-console serviceshell.
To be able to use the camera normally again, the libusb drivers have to be uninstalled in device manager.
The browser-based installer can be found at sony-pmca.appspot.com. This site uses the official Sony browser plugin to communicate with the camera directly from a browser window. Since other browser vendors are disabling NPAPI plugins, this method only works in Internet Explorer and Safari. Additionally, camera firmware updates released in June 2017 and later explicitly whitelist the URL of the official app store. Updated cameras refuse to install apps from our site. It is thus recommended to use the native installer instead.
Meanwhile, the site is still used to keep track of the installation counters for the apps in the app list.
This is an experiment in a very early stage. All information has been found through reverse engineering. Even though everything worked fine for our developers, it could cause harm to your hardware. If you break your camera, you get to keep both pieces. We won't take any responsibility.
It is possible to develop custom Android apps for supported cameras. Keep in mind that they should be compatible with Android 2.3.7. Debug and release certificates are accepted by the camera. See PMCADemo for a demo app.
There are a few special Sony APIs which allow you to take advantage of the features of your camera. They can be used through OpenMemories: Framework.
Without the work done by the people at nex-hack, this wouldn't have been possible. Thanks a lot!