The 6D & Wifi Revisited

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This is Chris (Packham), one of the visiting Blackbirds to the garden. I was hoping to catch Terry (Nutkins) but decided to be camera-shy for the afternoon, if I can catch a shot this week, hopefully the names will become a lot clearer…

I’d covered the wi-fi briefly in my initial first impressions of the Canon 6D, This was shot with the Canon 6D & 24-105mm combo just a few feet from the blackbird. Meanwhile I was tucked up inside, warm, though I wasn’t using the 6D wi-fi per se, but a radio remote (the Yongnuo RF602 for those interested) which is a faster trigger and the next shot can be instantaneous whereas there is a much bigger lag for wi-fi, it’s super fine for landscapes and not nudging the tripod, just not so responsive for a bird hopping around. However the wi-fi iPhone “EOS remote” app was allowing me to view the thumbnails and review as I shot, and adjust minor details (ISO/F stop). The camera shutter/remote port are disabled when the wi-fi remote shooting is enabled, so you can’t have the video of one & the shutter response of the radio trigger.

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But still it saves a lot of hassle in these situations where you can’t see the camera LCD, having to go check the camera, it’s great not having to wonder if you’ve got the shot, knowing if you need to make any adjustments or if you can carry on, or stop as you’ve bagged the shot you wanted. Even better the 6D could reach the home wi-fi/internet from the garden, so I could shoot & check my emails without having to change anything on either the camera or the phone.

It’s also great for tethered shooting in a studio style environment, though I’ve found setting the camera set to record RAW to the SD card, and then sending a small jpeg to EOS utility over the wi-fi for quick on screen reviewing the best setup for speed. It’s a lot easier judging critical focus/exposure on a 24″ screen than a 3.2″ one!

However for the field I’ve run into a small ‘issue’, to connect your iPhone & 6D together, the 6D has to create the network and the iPhone then joins this. This is fine, till the moment you’re actually event shooting and actually wanting to shoot & tweet, or email or anything else, as at this point the iPhone attempts to route all its data to the wi-fi it’s connected too, the 6D, which doesn’t go anywhere. As I do a bit of corporate event shooting for a client, so I was finding myself joining the camera wi-fi, grab an image, turn the wi-fi off, tweet, shoot, wifi on again, disconnect… This doesn’t make for a smooth fast reacting shooting flow.

First thoughts, I investigated reversing the connection, getting the 6D to join the iPhones “personal hotspot”, so the iPhone remains connected to 3G, but it would appear the iPhone then doesn’t see the 6D, either as it’s routing all data over 3G, or the phones firewalls the wi-fi. So for event work I’ve now picked up a Mi-Fi wi-fi hotspot, this means I can get the camera & iPhone to both connect to the Mi-Fi, so I can shoot, grab pictures & email, without having to keep switch the wi-fi over and stuttering the workflow. It’s also small & light to fit in the camera bag without any issues, just got a PAYG one, so should only have to pay for a month/1GB of data here n there as & when needed.

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