Mark II Posted September 23, 2018 Share #1 Posted September 23, 2018 Advertisement (gone after registration) If anyone is interested, I have written a small app for macOS that can download images from the M10 over WiFi. You can download the app from my blog here. There was a thread here earlier this year looking at how the wireless protocol works with the M10. In short, yes, the M10 uses a more-or-less standard version of PTP/IP with some MTP extensions and zero-conf for service discovery. You can query the camera to get information about the supported properties and operations. While it would be possible to fully fully replicate the functionality of the iOS app, I do not think that this would be wise without support from Leica as there is a risk that mistakes in using reverse-engineered protocol features could cause problems with the camera. For this reason, the wireless download app uses only standard PTP/MTP features. The main problem with downloading images over WiFi is that the M10's wireless is quite slow - presumably a limitation of the antenna configuration and battery. This means that it takes a few seconds to download each image, and downloading thousands of images is unrealistically slow. However, for occasional use when you do not have a card reader to hand, such as when travelling with a laptop, it is still useful. The app and user interface are quite basic at the moment, but if there is enough interest I can develop it further and maybe spice up the look-and-feel. 15 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted September 23, 2018 Posted September 23, 2018 Hi Mark II, Take a look here M10 Wireless Download App for macOS. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Mark II Posted September 30, 2018 Author Share #2 Posted September 30, 2018 I have updated the application with a more modern user interface based on Apple's Safari download model, using a pop up window for the download list: This version also loads the initial image thumbnails at about double the speed of the previous version (pipelined image meta-data handling). The download is available from here (2.9MB download for macOS only). 5 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
willemr Posted September 30, 2018 Share #3 Posted September 30, 2018 Hi Mark, nice job in figuring this out and creating an application for it. I will try it somewhere in the next couple of days. I was wondering on the scalability of such an app. Lots of camera's use wifi to transfer images nowadays, so could the app be tweaked to be used with other brands (using the same/similar protocol(s))? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCPix Posted September 30, 2018 Share #4 Posted September 30, 2018 Simple and effective - great effort, thank you Mark. I did have difficulty connecting initially: I highlighted my camera and clicked 'connect'.... nothing happened. Tried reconnecting wifi etc. still no progress.... until I simply double clicked on the camera and it all opened perfectly. New user learning curve! The only thing I thought might be helpful is the ability to choose the folder you want to send the images to - I could only get them to go to my generic Apple 'downloads' folder - and then manually move the pics where I wanted them to be. Speed of transfer for jpegs was reasonably ok - only a second or two for each image. Keep up the good work. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ELAN Posted September 30, 2018 Share #5 Posted September 30, 2018 Very cool. I tested it a few times and it worked flawlessly. Well done. Throughput is about 10 DNGs per minute on a 'Create WLAN' connection to MBP. A few comments/issues: - as mentioned, a folder selection would be welcomed. - focus should default to the thumbnails view so one doesn't need to click on a thumbnail for Command-A (select all) to work. - camera battery consumption is quiet high - about 10% for 40 images and 4 minutes of download activity. - the Wifi connection is terminated and the download stops if the LCD is turned off (to save power) after the Auto Power Saving interval has past and the camera falls asleep. Perhaps there's a way the app can keep-alive the connection like the iOS app does. Also, after the connection is terminated the camera's LED keeps blinking until the camera is turned off. Tested on M10-P with firmware 2.4.5.9. (firmware version is not a typo - my P came with this version installed). Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
magixaxeman Posted October 1, 2018 Share #6 Posted October 1, 2018 A Lovely and very useful little app Mark, thank you very much. My only comment is as others have said the ability to choose the output folder would be nice. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramarren Posted October 1, 2018 Share #7 Posted October 1, 2018 Advertisement (gone after registration) Very cool! I'd love to see the same thing for the Leica CL. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark II Posted October 3, 2018 Author Share #8 Posted October 3, 2018 Thanks for all the feedback. I will put together an update towards the end of next week to try to improve the connection setup handling and to add a preference setting for the download folder and duplicate file checks. I wonder if the sleep problem depends on the firmware version, as I do not see this here. The app polls the battery status periodically to maintain/test the link connection (because the standard PTP probe commands do not seem to work). If there is a proprietary keep-alive mechanism I would need some help from Leica to use it safely. I would also like to be able to edit some of the standard PTP settings, such as the artist and copyright info which are painful to edit in camera. However, requests to change these return a “busy” error and it is not clear if this is because of something that I am doing wrong or because of something in the firmware. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ELAN Posted October 3, 2018 Share #9 Posted October 3, 2018 I wonder if the sleep problem depends on the firmware version, as I do not see this here. The sleep problem occurs only when the LCD is turned off. When the LCD is displaying the WLAN page the camera doesn't' fall asleep. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rnl Posted October 4, 2018 Share #10 Posted October 4, 2018 nice app! thanks Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjolnir Posted October 7, 2018 Share #11 Posted October 7, 2018 This works great! Also seems to transfer faster than the M iOS app? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
indergaard Posted October 11, 2018 Share #12 Posted October 11, 2018 Great work! Thanks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark II Posted October 14, 2018 Author Share #13 Posted October 14, 2018 Thanks for the feedback and encouragement! I have incorporated some of the suggestions in to the application now and posted a new version here (version 1.2): Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! The changes are: new application name (Leica Sync) and icon, as the application should support any Leica camera with PTP/IP based wireless - although be aware that I only have access to an M10 and can not test this explicitly more robust connection setup some interface enhancements, including a battery meter, cleaner graphics and better support for macOS 10.14 light/dark mode switching added preferences panel to allow selection of the download folder and to choose what to do if files already exist you can now edit the copyright info and artist strings in the Camera Info popup window The initial display of image thumbnails is faster than for the iOS apps, but it still may take a few seconds to display very large numbers of files (I test with ~1000 images on the SD card). This seems to have improved with firmware 2.6.5.0 on the M10 - although the conversely the actual image downloads seem to be running slower for me. The new firmware also seems to have broken the EXIF metadata for the thumbnails, which slows down the initial image previews slightly. There is not much more that I can do at this point without support from Leica. But I probably should spend more of my spare time taking pictures... 4 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! The changes are: new application name (Leica Sync) and icon, as the application should support any Leica camera with PTP/IP based wireless - although be aware that I only have access to an M10 and can not test this explicitly more robust connection setup some interface enhancements, including a battery meter, cleaner graphics and better support for macOS 10.14 light/dark mode switching added preferences panel to allow selection of the download folder and to choose what to do if files already exist you can now edit the copyright info and artist strings in the Camera Info popup window The initial display of image thumbnails is faster than for the iOS apps, but it still may take a few seconds to display very large numbers of files (I test with ~1000 images on the SD card). This seems to have improved with firmware 2.6.5.0 on the M10 - although the conversely the actual image downloads seem to be running slower for me. The new firmware also seems to have broken the EXIF metadata for the thumbnails, which slows down the initial image previews slightly. There is not much more that I can do at this point without support from Leica. But I probably should spend more of my spare time taking pictures... ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/289764-m10-wireless-download-app-for-macos/?do=findComment&comment=3612105'>More sharing options...
happymac Posted October 14, 2018 Share #14 Posted October 14, 2018 Mark, wow – what a phantastic work! Thank you so much!!! Tom 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rnz Posted October 14, 2018 Share #15 Posted October 14, 2018 works great, especially convenient with the MacBook without a SD card slot and a 10P Thanks Mark Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
buj Posted October 20, 2018 Share #16 Posted October 20, 2018 works perfect!!!! thx Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
magixaxeman Posted October 20, 2018 Share #17 Posted October 20, 2018 Updated to the latest app and its running smoothly on Mojave, Many thanks again Mark. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ing_rippi Posted October 21, 2018 Share #18 Posted October 21, 2018 Hello Mark, i tried to connect to my M10 with you Software, but so far with no success. Software on my iMac is 10.14 on the M10 it's 2.6.5.0 The M10 is set to establish a WLAN . With the Leica App on the iPhone I'm able to connect to the Camera. When i connect the iMac to the Cameras WLAN (which consists of the Model followed by the SN) I'm able to select CONNECT from your software, but unfortunately it only says "Connect" and nothing happens. How long does it take to connect, am i possibly too inpatient ? Thank you in advance. Harald Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr No Posted October 22, 2018 Share #19 Posted October 22, 2018 Hallo and thank you for this useful app. Why not Leica does this I don't know. Leica should give you a job. Very kind of you to make this! Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
schattenundlicht Posted October 22, 2018 Share #20 Posted October 22, 2018 On 10/14/2018 at 10:08 AM, Mark II said: [...] The changes are: new application name (Leica Sync) and icon, as the application should support any Leica camera with PTP/IP based wireless - although be aware that I only have access to an M10 and can not test this explicitly [...] As much as I hate to play the spoil sport, I would even hate more to see a selfless independent developer run into legal trouble... Maybe you should think twice to call your app „Leica Sync“ without endorsement from them, as the Leica brand name is jealously guarded by the four completely independent companies that share it between them (Leica Camera, Leica Microsystems, Leica Geosystems and Leica Biosystems). I am no lawyer myself, but I would rather play it safe there. YMMV. Thanks for the great work! 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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