Canon EOS R Bluetooth Function

[Viggo]

Can anyone tell me if there’s a faster way to connect to camera? I now have to activate WiFi, then go the menu again to choose “phone” then find network on my phone, activate the app and wait and wait...

Why is there not a way to store the network and a simple one touch operation to activate WiFi and choose “phone” instead of all this annoying navigation...?

 

[koenkooi]

Can anyone tell me if there’s a faster way to connect to camera? I now have to activate WiFi, then go the menu again to choose “phone” then find network on my phone, activate the app and wait and wait...

To make this faster I've done a few things:

1. Enable bluetooth to be always on
2. Configure my home wifi network in the camera
3. Add the wireless config to 'My Menu'

I don't think you need to explicitly enable wifi first, I never do that. Wifi seems to be only powered when it's active.

If you're connected over bluetooth already with Camera Connect it's pretty fast, click any action that would require wifi (e.g. show images on camera) and it will set up an ad-hoc wifi network. I get a pop up on my phone asking to connect to it.

When I'm at home I don't want it to use an ad-hoc network, but my home network, so I go to 'wifi function' and select my phone. It will then connect to my home network and Camera Connect will auto detect it.

Why is there not a way to store the network and a simple one touch operation to activate WiFi and choose “phone” instead of all this annoying navigation...?

My M50 has a tiny 'wireless' button on the side that will launch the 'wifi function' menu when I press it. I only realized how useful that button was when I tried finding it on the RP

 

[Viggo]

So what you’re saying is that if WiFi is turned on, it doesn’t really activate, or drain power searching, unless you choose a WiFi-function?

 

[koenkooi]

So what you’re saying is that if WiFi is turned on, it doesn’t really activate, or drain power searching, unless you choose a WiFi-function?

From what I've seen so far, yes, that is how I would describe it. I haven't done any proper testing, though.

 

[David the street guy]

Just got an EOS R myself and found the GPS really easy to use. However on my first outing using it I found the locations assigned to photos to be less accurate than the inbuilt GPS on my 6D MKII, but that's the phone's fault, not the EOS R.

What I did notice is the battery drain, I took about 75 shots and battery was down to about 58%. It was the first charge of a brand new battery so hopefully that will improve after a few charge cycles (so might not be down to the bluetooth only) I've notice too that when you turn off the camera, BT remains on & drains the battery too (unless you switch it off in the menu).

I'll see how battery life improves after a few charge cycles but will also give my GPE2 gps unit a go again...

I tried the GPS fonction on the RP, without success. Strangely, a GPS location appears in the camera menu, but it is not transferred to the pictures I take, and I'm not sure how it got there: the Canon iPhone app tells me the camera should be on the wifi network for it to work, and the camera tells me the opposite.

I wish to find a way to make it work, since I'll be in Boston next week-end…

 

[LesC]

Yep, was a bit confusing; the manual suggests connecting via wifi & then setting up bluetooth which is what I did but after set up I turned of the wifi connection and EOS R connects to phone via bluetooth only. I'm using an Android phone not that it should make a difference...

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

1. If you have tried and failed to connect, erase all connection info from the camera and from the Bluetooth on the phone, start clean!

1. Start Canon connect on the phone
2. turn on WiFi and turn on Bluetooth on the camera.
3. click pairing in the Bluetooth menu and complete the connection in the camera connect app. click ok or respond on camera and phone.
4. In camera connect, when you click to remotely control the camera, it will setup a AD-Hoc WiFi connection to the camera, you will have to respond OK on the canon app and the camera again.

After that, it will operate and remember the connections when you turn on the camera and the canon connect app on the phone. You still have to ok the WiFi, I think this is for security to prevent someone else from activating live view on phone or camera via WiFi.

I keep WiFi and Bluetooth turned off in my camera, but if I planned to use it a lot with tethering, I'd keep it on while I was planning to use if frequently.

The Remote tethering is very basic, no intravalometer, no bracketed exposure, no bracketed focus, a lot of things are missing that would be useful to me. I tried to find a good IOS app, and ended up giving RemotEOS a try even thought it does not support the R. It halfway works but is quirky, and the author will not be able to update it soon due to his lack of a R camera.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

BTW, I also tried DSLR controller on Android. It has almost no functionality with the R, and what does appear to work is infinitely slow.