recipe-lab-sony-pmca
Recipe Lab
Film simulations and camera looks for the Sony A6000, stored in the camera itself.
The app is free and stays free. Sponsoring pays for keeping it maintained, for building new features, and for buying the cameras it has to be tested on — every body beyond the A6000 is one someone has to own.
Contents
- What it is
- The recipes
- Sample frames
- Compatibility
- Installing
- Using it
- What it changes
- Uninstalling
- Troubleshooting
- FAQ
- For developers
- Credits
Recipe Lab is a small app that runs on the Sony A6000 itself. It comes with 77 colour recipes that recreate the looks of other cameras — Fuji film simulations, Ricoh GR image controls, Leica, Hasselblad, Canon and Nikon colour, Sony's newer Creative Looks — and of classic film stocks from Kodak, Fuji, Cinestill, Agfa and Ilford.
You turn the wheel, watch the live image change, press a button. From then on the camera shoots that way in every mode, photo and video, with the app closed. Turn it off and on, it is still there.
Honest note. The A6000 has no Picture Profile menu and cannot store tone curves. Every recipe is built only from what this camera can keep: Creative Style, saturation, contrast, sharpness, white balance, exposure bias, Picture Effect and one hidden colour setting Sony never exposed. So these are approximations of a look, not copies of another brand's colour science.
The recipes
| brand | recipes |
|---|---|
| Sony | Factory (ST), PT, NT, VV, VV2, FL, IN, SH |
| Fuji simulations | Provia, Velvia, Astia, Classic Chrome, Classic Negative, Nostalgic Neg, Reala Ace, Pro Neg Std / Hi, Eterna, Eterna Bleach Bypass, Acros, Acros +Ye / +R / +G, Sepia |
| Fuji film | Pro 400H, Fortia 50, Superia 400, C200, Natura 1600 |
| Kodak | Portra 160 / 400 / 800, Gold 200, Ultra Max 400, Color Plus 200, Ektar 100, Ektachrome E100, Kodachrome 64, Vision3 500T, Vision 200T (Asteroid City), Tri-X 400, Tri-X 1600 (pushed), T-Max |
| Cine | Cinestill 50D, Cinestill 800T, Classic Cinema, Rec709 Video |
| Ricoh GR | Positive Film, Negative Film, Bleach Bypass, Retro, Cross Process, Hi-Contrast B&W, Hard Monotone, Soft Monotone |
| Leica | Contemporary, Classic, Eternal, Monochrom |
| Hasselblad | HNCS Natural |
| Canon / Nikon | Canon Standard / Portrait / Faithful, Nikon Flat / Vivid |
| Panasonic / Olympus | L.Monochrome D, L.ClassicNeo, Pop Art, Pale & Light |
| Other stocks | Agfa Vista 200, Agfa Ultra 100, Polaroid / Instax |
| Ilford | HP5, FP4, Delta 100, Delta 3200, Pan F 50 |
See every recipe on the same subject → — 77 frames, one scene, one exposure, straight out of the camera.
Recipes marked PE in the app (Acros +R, Tri-X 1600, GR Retro, GR Hi-Contrast B&W, Sony SH, Polaroid) are built on a Picture Effect because, against the reference frames, its tone curve gets closer than Creative Style can; everything else stays Creative Style on purpose.
Not included, because the camera simply cannot do them: log profiles (S-Log, V-Log, Blackmagic Film, Cinelike D) and tinted black & white (selenium, cyanotype). Sony's camcorder Cinematone gamma exists in the firmware but the A6000's camera layer neither lists nor accepts it, so that door is closed too.
Compatibility
Recipe Lab has no model check in it, and every Sony body that runs PlayMemories apps has the same settings store — so it should install and work beyond the A6000.
The catch: the setting IDs were found on an A6000 and may sit elsewhere on another body, so a recipe could land in the wrong place. A camera gets a ✅ only once someone has stored a recipe on it and power-cycled the camera.
Tried one? File a compatibility report. Failures are as useful as successes.
Cameras that run PlayMemories apps
✅ someone has run it on that body · ❔ app-capable, nobody has reported back yet
| camera | model code | status | comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| A6000 | ILCE-6000 | ✅ | built and tested on it, firmware 3.21 |
| A6500 | ILCE-6500 | ✅ | installs, stores, survives a power cycle |
| A5100 | ILCE-5100 | ✅ | works, and the wheel scrolls every recipe — but the body has no Fn or AEL button, so the brand list and the clean-preview toggle are out of reach |
| A7 II | ILCE-7M2 | ✅ | reported working |
| A7 | ILCE-7 | ✅ | stores and survives a power cycle, firmware 3.20 — reported after unlocking the settings store with OpenMemories-Tweak, though whether this body needs that is untested (#19) |
| NEX-5T | NEX-5T | ✅ | oldest app-capable generation; installs, stores and survives a power cycle on firmware 1.1, reported on app 1.0 — but that report also said the stored values did not all match, and named menu labels reading differently on this body, which is still unresolved (#22) |
| A6300 | ILCE-6300 | ✅ | stores and survives a power cycle, firmware 2.01 |
| A7R | ILCE-7R | ✅ | stores and survives a power cycle, firmware 3.2 |
| A7R II | ILCE-7RM2 | ✅ | two reports, firmware 4.00 and 4.01 — stores and survives a power cycle |
| RX100 V | DSC-RX100M5 | ✅ | stores and survives a power cycle, firmware 2.00 — the only confirmed Cyber-shot |
| A5000 | ILCE-5000 | ❔ | as with the A5100, expect no Fn or AEL button |
| A7S | ILCE-7S | ❔ | |
| A7S II | ILCE-7SM2 | ❔ | |
| NEX-5R | NEX-5R | ❔ | oldest app-capable generation |
| NEX-6 | NEX-6 | ❔ | menus differ a lot from the A6000 generation, so the settings are the least likely to sit in the same place |
| A68 | ILCA-68 | ❔ | A-mount; not in the installer's device table either, so even the install is untested |
| A77 II | ILCA-77M2 | ❔ | A-mount |
| A99 II | ILCA-99M2 | ❔ | A-mount |
| RX100 III | DSC-RX100M3 | ❔ | |
| RX100 IV | DSC-RX100M4 | ❔ | |
| RX1R II | DSC-RX1RM2 | ❔ | |
| RX10 II | DSC-RX10M2 | ❔ | |
| RX10 III | DSC-RX10M3 | ❔ | |
| HX60 / HX60V | DSC-HX60 | ❔ | compact; no control wheel of the kind the app is driven with |
| HX90 / HX90V | DSC-HX90 | ❔ | compact; no control wheel of the kind the app is driven with |
| HX400 / HX400V | DSC-HX400 | ❔ | compact; no control wheel of the kind the app is driven with |
| WX500 | DSC-WX500 | ❔ | compact; no control wheel of the kind the app is driven with |
Two more are unclear: the RX100 II and the original RX10 had Sony's app store, but are missing from the installer's device table, so even the install is untested.
App-capable but pointless: the QX lens cameras (ILCE-QX1, DSC-QX10/QX30/QX100), with no screen or wheel to drive the app, and the Handycams and action cams, with no Creative Style to write.
Cameras that cannot run camera apps
Sony's last app-capable bodies are the ones above, from late 2016 — the A6500 and the A99 II. Everything since has
signed firmware and no MENU → Application, so nothing can be installed on it: not this app, not Sony's own store,
which closed in 2021.
| E-mount, APS-C | A6100, A6400, A6600, A6700, ZV-E10, ZV-E10 II, FX30 |
| E-mount, full frame | A7 III, A7R III, A7R IV / IVA, A7R V, A7S III, A7C, A7C II, A7CR, A9, A9 II, A9 III, A1, A1 II, ZV-E1, FX3 |
| Cyber-shot | RX100 VA, RX100 VI, RX100 VII, RX10 IV, RX0, RX0 II, HX99, ZV-1, ZV-1F, ZV-1 II |
…and everything released since. The menu is the test: no MENU → Application on your camera, no app — so reports of
Recipe Lab running on an A6400 or similar are mistaken.
Installing
Takes about ten minutes, once. You need the camera, its USB cable, a memory card and a computer (Windows, Mac or Linux).
1. Get the installer tool. It is called Sony-PMCA-RE, made by ma1co. It puts apps on Sony cameras the same way Sony's own app store did before it closed.
Windows: download
pmca-gui.exefrom the releases page. Nothing to install, just run it.macOS: the same page has a macOS build, less tested than the Windows one. Close anything that holds USB devices — Photos, Dropbox, Google Drive — or it takes the camera first.
Linux, or if the binary misbehaves: Python 3 and libusb, then in a terminal:
git clone https://github.com/ma1co/Sony-PMCA-RE.git cd Sony-PMCA-RE pip install -r requirements.txt
2. Download the app: RecipeLab
— that link always serves the newest release, so it is the one to use. The
releases page has older versions and the
version-stamped copies.
3. Prepare the camera. Battery charged, memory card inside. In the camera menu go to
Setup (toolbox icon) → USB Connection and choose Mass Storage. Turn the camera on and plug it into the computer.
The camera screen should say USB Mode.
4. Install.
GUI: open
pmca-gui.exe→ Install app from file → chooseRecipeLab.apk→ wait.Terminal, from the Sony-PMCA-RE folder (Linux: put
sudoin front):python pmca-console.py install -f RecipeLab.apk
The camera will flicker, go black and switch modes a couple of times on its own. That is normal — do not press
anything. After about a minute the computer prints Task completed successfully. Go by the computer. The camera
is usually left on its own Application Download / Connecting via USB... screen, which looks stuck and is not.
5. Unplug, then turn the camera off and on. The app now lives under
MENU → Application → Application List → Recipe Lab.
Using it
Open Recipe Lab from the Application List. You get the live image with a panel at the bottom, then:
| key | what it does |
|---|---|
| wheel | scroll recipes, from anywhere — the live image changes at once, and that is what the camera will write |
| left / right, top dial | scroll recipes too, but only on the recipe line; on the chip row they walk the chips |
| Fn | open the brand list. Favourites first, then the brands, on the left; recipes on the right. Left / right switches column (the active one is amber), wheel or up / down scrolls, centre picks |
| centre | pick the recipe you are looking at — the camera keeps it. A message confirms it |
| hold centre | mark the recipe as a favourite, or unmark it. Works on the main screen and inside the brand list |
| AEL | hide the panel — once for a small label, twice for nothing. The wheel still works |
| up / down | move between the recipe line and the row of value chips |
| TRASH | stage the factory look, then centre to pick it |
| shutter | take a picture of what you are previewing |
| MENU | leave the app |
Then turn the camera off and on. The look is now the camera's default in every mode — P, A, S, M, movie — with the app closed, and the app reopens on that recipe.
Favourites. Hold the centre button on a recipe and it joins the Favourites group at the top of the brand list, with a star next to its name; hold again to drop it. The group lists your picks in the order you marked them, and the brand list opens straight on it whenever the recipe you are on is one of them. The wheel on the main screen still walks all 77 — favourites shorten the list in the browser, not the scroll. The marks are kept by the app, not in the camera's settings, so they survive a power cycle but go with the app if you remove it.
The chips. In the chip row, left / right walks the chips, centre focuses one (it turns amber), up / down changes its value, centre leaves it. The wheel keeps changing recipes throughout. A recipe only shows the chips it uses: CS recipes show style, saturation, contrast, sharpness and matrix; PE recipes show the effect and its sub-setting. Quality, white balance, EV and DRO are always there. The legend at the bottom of the screen follows whatever you are doing.
The badge next to the recipe name says where you stand:
| badge | meaning |
|---|---|
| ACTIVE | the camera already has these values |
| PREVIEW | you are only looking; press centre to pick it |
What it changes
Only camera settings you could set by hand: Creative Style and its saturation, contrast and sharpness sliders, white balance and its fine-tune, exposure compensation, DRO, Picture Effect — plus one hidden switch for a richer colour matrix the camera has but never shows. No firmware is touched, nothing is unlocked.
Picture Effect recipes (marked PE) behave like the menu item does: the camera ignores Creative Style while one is on, and it only works with Quality = JPEG — set to RAW or RAW+JPEG, the camera drops the effect silently.
Quality therefore follows you rather than being dictated by a recipe. The Factory recipe starts as whatever the
camera is set to, and every Creative Style recipe uses that. Change it any time with the QUALITY chip. Only when a
recipe needs JPEG and you are on RAW does the app ask:
Quality: RAW+JPG → JPG Fine — JPEG is needed to apply this recipe
Cancel changes nothing.
Uninstalling
Is it permanent? The look stays until you change it — on purpose, that is what makes it work in every mode without the app. It is not permanent in the sense of damage. Undo it any time, three ways:
- In the app: TRASH, then the centre button, then turn the camera off and on.
- In the menus: set Creative Style back to Standard 0 / 0 / 0 and White Balance to Auto.
- Or use the camera's own
Setup → Setting Reset → Camera Settings Reset.
Removing the app. MENU → Application → Application Management → Manage and Remove → Recipe Lab. This does
not put the colour settings back, so undo the look first and remove the app after.
Worth knowing:
- Some recipes push saturation further than the menu slider goes (the menu allows ±3, the camera accepts more). The menu then shows the nearest value it can; if you touch that slider it snaps back to the normal range and the recipe loses that extra punch. Pick the recipe again in the app if that happens.
- The preview inside the app is temporary; closing the app removes it. Only what you picked stays.
- Built and tested on the A6000 with firmware 3.21. Several other bodies have been reported working — see Compatibility — but on anything still marked ❔ there, compare what the chips show with your menus before picking a recipe.
Troubleshooting
The common questions — RAW files, damage, LUTs, newer bodies — are in the FAQ.
| what you see | what to do |
|---|---|
No devices found |
USB Connection must be Mass Storage; card inserted; camera on and showing USB Mode; try another cable or port |
Stuck at Waiting for camera to switch... |
Unplug, turn the camera off and on, reconnect, run again |
Not written — the camera holds these settings read-only or WRITE FAILED |
The camera refused the recipe. Install OpenMemories-Tweak, open Protection, tick Unlock protected settings until it reads Protection disabled, then pick the recipe again |
| Look not applied after picking a recipe | Turn the camera off and on |
no live preview: ... in the panel |
Something else is holding the camera; close and reopen the app |
Text shows · |
Old build; install the APK from the latest release |
For developers
The reverse-engineering notes — source layout, the settings-store ID map, the exit rule, live-preview parameters, key scan codes and how to build — live in docs/DEVELOPMENT.md.
To contribute, read docs/CONTRIBUTING.md first: branch naming, commit format and the release flow are all enforced by CI.
Credits
Author: André Domingues (voxivoid) — reverse engineering of the A6000 settings store (backup IDs, PP flag behaviour, colour-matrix measurement), the app, the recipes, the icon.
Huge thanks to ma1co. None of this would exist without his years of work reverse engineering Sony's PlayMemories camera platform:
- Sony-PMCA-RE — the app-install channel, the updater shell used to dump
this camera's firmware and settings, and
fwtool. - OpenMemories-Platform — the backup driver / OSAL bindings this app links against (vendored here as a git submodule).
- OpenMemories-Tweak and
OpenMemories-Framework — reference for
Backup_read/write, theScalarInputkey codes and theCameraExAPI. - The earlier nex-hack community research he built on and kept documented.
He figured out how these cameras work, documented it openly and licensed it permissively — this project just stands on that.
Thanks also to Veres Deni Alex. His Sony film-simulation recipes and the side-by-side reference frames on his site were the inspiration and the benchmark for many of the looks here (Kodak, Fuji, Cinestill, Ilford, Cinema…). The values in this app are re-derived for what the A6000 can store and are not his recipes.
License: MIT (this repository). OpenMemories-Platform: MIT, © 2017 ma1co.
