ACCESSORIES
A collection of the best fun-yet-functional products out there for photographers
A roundup of products for photographers to consider
cAmFi Pro
Connect selected Canon, Nikon or Sony cameras to your computer
www.cam-fi.com
$299 / £235 (APPROX)
The CamFi Pro is a wireless dongle for your camera that allows you to transfer fullresolution (or smaller) RAW and/or JPEG images to your computer or phone. It means that you can focus on the shoot while the client and/or designer keep an eye on the results on a large computer screen. Using the CamFi apps, it’s also possible to control the camera remotely and adjust key settings such as the metering mode, exposure, white balance and focus point. You can even focus manually using your computer screen to assess sharpness and set up and trigger focus stacking or time-lapse sequences. However, there’s no drive mode control and we found it important to ensure that the camera is in single-shot mode before you start using the CamFi Pro.
After charging the CamFi Pro’s battery, it only takes a few minutes to get everything set up. The first step is to connect it to the Wi-Fi network and open the app on your phone or computer. It will automatically check for and install an update to the firmware if one is available. Then you need to select the correct USB mode on your camera and find the right cable to connect the CamFi Pro to your camera.
Once that’s done, tapping the Live View icon on the app reveals what the camera is seeing. You can then use the app’s controls to adjust the camera’s settings.
Although the system is responsive and pretty intuitive to use, the desktop app crashed a couple of times when we used it. We also found the range was considerably shorter than the claimed 60m.
Nevertheless, when we shot using the camera as normal and sent the images to a computer or phone, the images arrived promptly and were located in the folder we’d designated. It was also impressive how quickly the CamFi Pro adapted to different cameras being used – we would expect this to give it a few issues, but it identified the new camera quickly and was ready to go when we were. The CamFi Pro has lots of potential with more functionality promised. It’s also fairly easy to set up, but a clear, in-depth manual would be helpful for some aspects.