THIS MONTH: IN- CAME RA WI-FI

Go cable-free to remotely shoot and share images

What was once a ‘nice to have’ option is now becoming a standard camera feature

FOR most of us, Wi-Fi makes life a bit less cluttered and that little bit easier, and it’s hard to imagine having to return to a life tangled in snaking

cables. Camera manufacturers have been a little slow to react, with Canon being the first to launch a DSLR with built-in Wi-Fi (the EOS 6D) less than five years ago. But what was once seen as a ‘nice to have’ (if ‘slightly cumbersome to use’) option is gradually becoming a standard feature, a footnote in a camera’s specifications sheet. There are a number of accessories on the market that can bring Wi-Fi to cameras that don’t have it, but having built-in Wi-Fi adds convenience – it’s one less thing to have to fork out for, and certainly one less thing to potentially lose. But what does Wi-Fi actually enable you to do? Well, for a kick-off, being able to send an image straight from the camera to be printed on a Wi-Fi enabled printer or to display it on a TV is handy, but it’s the prospect of sharing images online as you take them and being able to control your camera and take pictures with a mobile device that makes things interesting.

Being able to change settings and shoot remotely using a smartphone can enable you to get shots that would be too difficult or impossible to achieve if you had to stay stood behind the camera. For instance, it opens up the possibility of placing the

1 menu You’ll need to dip into the camera’s menu to activate Wi-Fi: it’ll be switched off by default. 2 battery Wi-Fi drains camera batteries, so deactivate it when you’re not using it. 3 connection Check the status of the Wi-Fi connection on the rear...