Question about the state of WiFi cameras these days

[ftaok]

Hi all. Another travel soccer season is in full swing and I'm woefully out of date with my camera gear and what can/can't be done.

Here's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for a decent camera (preferably able to use my assortment of EF/EF-S lenses) that my iPhone can access, either wired or wirelessly, but still allow the iPhone to maintain it's LTE connection.

What I'd really want see is when I'm shooting on this camera, I want to be able to go to my iPhone and access the camera's photos, then be able to instantly share on FB/Twitter/whatever. I want to be able to do this without connecting/disconnecting from the camera's wifi network.

Right now, I have a Toshiba FlashAir SD card in my Rebel Xti. While it works for what it was designed for, it's a hassle to have to switch back and forth from Wifi to LTE. Plus it's kinda slow.

I was hoping that the features and functions have improved in the last 5 years or so.

Thanks.

 

[kenoh]

Hi all. Another travel soccer season is in full swing and I'm woefully out of date with my camera gear and what can/can't be done.

Here's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for a decent camera (preferably able to use my assortment of EF/EF-S lenses) that my iPhone can access, either wired or wirelessly, but still allow the iPhone to maintain it's LTE connection.

What I'd really want see is when I'm shooting on this camera, I want to be able to go to my iPhone and access the camera's photos, then be able to instantly share on FB/Twitter/whatever. I want to be able to do this without connecting/disconnecting from the camera's wifi network.

Right now, I have a Toshiba FlashAir SD card in my Rebel Xti. While it works for what it was designed for, it's a hassle to have to switch back and forth from Wifi to LTE. Plus it's kinda slow.

I was hoping that the features and functions have improved in the last 5 years or so.

Thanks.

Hi,

The short answer is that yes it has moved on in the past 5 years though they can still be a bit temperamental.

HOWEVER - it is very much camera dependant. I know for example that my Sony has NFC so I can "bump" the camera against my phone (android) and it will transfer the file I currently have selected on the screen. Also my fuji with the fuji app lets me select the images I want and it transfers them over. It also converts them to JPEG and downscales them inflight ready for social media.

In terms of Canon, I am afraid I havent shot Canon for a few years. While I am sure the newer models will do it, I am afraid I cannot say for sure which ones will. I suspect EOS 80D, 800D, 6D MKii, 7D mkii and 5D mkIV are your most likely best bet.

Hope this helps.

 

[anotherscotsman]

Most of the recent Canons have WiFi and some have NFC as described by Ken above. More recent iPhones also have NFC but I can’t say how useful their implementation is.

I use WiFi between my WiFi-only iPad and both my 6D and M3. I use an app called Cascable for both image transfer and wireless control when I need it. Camera is set up as a hot-spot so I don’t think you’ll need to switch between LTE and WiFi but as I say, I don’t use an iPhone for this sort of thing. Canon’s own app is similar and free.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I just tried to do what you asked on my Lumix GX85, and it appeared to work just fine. I established a WiFi connection between camera and iPhone, took a picture, pulled it off the camera with the Panasonic app, went to a browser and LTE worked while WiFi connection to camera was maintained. It could have maybe been more graceful, but the camera did its job of holding a WiFi connection. Not sure about other vendors, but on Panasonic, I can only transfer jpg with the app, not RAW.

 

[anotherscotsman]

I just tried to do what you asked on my Lumix GX85, and it appeared to work just fine. I established a WiFi connection between camera and iPhone, took a picture, pulled it off the camera with the Panasonic app, went to a browser and LTE worked while WiFi connection to camera was maintained. It could have maybe been more graceful, but the camera did its job of holding a WiFi connection. Not sure about other vendors, but on Panasonic, I can only transfer jpg with the app, not RAW.

I think JPEG-only direct wireless transfer is an Apple-imposed limitation. You can get RAW out using the appropriate dongle and it may be possible with some other apps but I haven't used RAW transfer myself since I prefer to do any serious editing on my computer.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I think JPEG-only direct wireless transfer is an Apple-imposed limitation. You can get RAW out using the appropriate dongle and it may be possible with some other apps but I haven't used RAW transfer myself since I prefer to do any serious editing on my computer.

I figure it was a file-size thing too. In iOS Photos, once you edit a RAW file, it gets converted to jpg anyway! Some apps are downright terrible. The Nikon app wouldn’t pull anything but a poor low res jpg from my old D5300, making transfer useless. Part of the problem there was Nikon has more than one app, and the one you use depends on the camera you own. I was really happy with Sony’s app, but I can’t recall if it worked like OP wanted.

 

[ftaok]

Thanks guys.

I actually have a Fuji point-n-shoot that has BT/NFC/Wifi and played around with it last night. After getting my iPhone connected to the camera, I was able to connect via wifi, but I lost my LTE signal. When exiting the app, it'll disconnect and LTE will come back on.

It's better behavior than the Toshiba wifi SD card that I have, but it's not as seamless as I had hoped.

Maybe I'm asking too much for a 3rd party camera to work with the iPhone via BT/wifi like the Apple Watch does.

Perhaps one of the camera vendors will approach Apple and get their blessing to create a seamless experience.

 

[tizeye]

With your EF.EF-S lens, best bet is to stick with Canon and as an alternative, Sony with a Metabones adapter. I may be wrong but don't think other cameras can be adapted to the Canon EF mount. Adapters do cause secondary issues, like slower focusing or features not supported, so probably best to stay native. Try narrowing it down to the models you want, then research those models. Owner's manuals are usually available for download through the manufacturer's support section of their website. Should be relatively easy to review the specific area of the manual for those bodies considering to confirm if they can and how it is accomplished.

I can't really speak for Canon as my last Canon was film and they orphaned me with FD lens. While Nikon could, primarily used their NFC to connect to Camranger. Sony can (II Series, uncertain about III as Sony dropped Playmemories App) transfer to the iPhone in 3 different ways, two of which are native menu. All are .jpg which I prefer for field use, and transfer RAW when home at computer. After adjustments, the remote control ap puts RAW (default .jpg) on SD card and transfers .jpg to the iPhone used as remote controller even if I don't want it to and routinely have to delete from iCloud. The two menu items through me as they are on separate pages. Transfer means EVERY SINGLE ONE which I don't want as ties up camera with useless transfers. I finally found the other menu item and it lets me selectively transfer. That is what I use, then do an upload to FB. The camera can directly upload to social media but accompanying text is impossible so do the camera transfer first.

 

[anotherscotsman]

For wireless transfer and subsequent RAW editing it might be worth having a look at this:

https://petapixel.com/2018/10/10/ca...ssional-express-does-raw-processing-on-ipads/

although I don't fancy doing anything like this on an iPhone.