I wrote a Python solution to using the AVT cameras based on the Vimba SDK that you may find useful. It's a driver wrapper called pymba, and the code can be found here. I have successfully tested it with the monochrome version of the Pike FireWire camera.
An equivalent example would look something like:
from pymba import *
import numpy as np
import cv2
vimba = Vimba()
vimba.startup()
cameraIds = vimba.getCameraIds()
camera0 = vimba.getCamera(cameraIds[0])
camera0.openCamera()
frame0 = camera0.getFrame() # creates a frame
frame0.announceFrame()
camera0.startCapture()
frame0.queueFrameCapture()
camera0.runFeatureCommand('AcquisitionStart')
camera0.runFeatureCommand('AcquisitionStop')
frame0.waitFrameCapture()
imageData = np.ndarray(buffer = frame0.getBufferByteData(),
dtype = np.uint8,
shape = (frame0.height, frame0.width, 1))
cv2.imshow('My image', imageData)
camera0.endCapture()
camera0.revokeAllFrames()
camera0.closeCamera()
vimba.shutdown()