Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, iPhone and WFT-E2

Startup

Connect the WFT-E2 (WFT) to the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III (camera), and navigate to the menu item "WFT settings" that will take you to the WFT settings menu.

Prepare the HTTP-account on the WFT

When you connect to the WFT webserver from Safari (or similar) on the iPhone, you need to log on using the username and password that you set up in these steps. First go to the menuitem "Set up" in the WFT settings menu.
In the "Set up" menu, scroll down to "HTTP account" and enter.
In the "HTTP account" menu, you can set up 3 HTTP-accounts.
Enter whatever you like, but make sure you write it down or use something simple, because you cant see the password once you have typed it in.

Configuring the wireless ad hoc network - Step 1 of 9

Go back to the WFT settings menu, and start the "Connection wizard". Have your iPhone ready.

Configuring the wireless ad hoc network - Step 2 of 9

Select the HTTP connection method. For the PTP method, you need a piece of software to run on your Mac or PC to connect to the camera. However, that's quite cool to, as you can use the "Live View" function wirelessly, to finetune the focus. That can come in handy if you have placed your camera somewhere you can not be when you the pictures are to be taken. Like close to a bird's nest, in the church roof or wherever. The FTP-option could be quite cool as well together with the iPhone or similar. The camera will upload the photos it shoots to the FTP-server, running on the iPhone, or Mac or something else. I will explore that possibility later.

Configuring the wireless ad hoc network - Step 3 of 9

Yes wireless is what we want to be.

Configuring the wireless ad hoc network - Step 4 of 9

If the WFT finds available wireless networks, it will make them available in a list. However, we dont want any of those. Right now we want to make our own ad hoc network. It is of course possible to use either an open network or your own secured network, but unless you plan to bring your entire network setup with you on location, into the woods, into the concerthall or whatever, then ad hoc is the only way to fly baby. So select "Enter connection", below the list of networks (if any).

Configuring the wireless ad hoc network - Step 5 of 9

Select "Ad hoch 11g" (Thats actually misspelled, it should be "Ad hoc 11g")

Configuring the wireless ad hoc network - Step 6 of 9

The default SSID (that's the callsign of the network we are creating), is "Wft-canon". You can of course use anything you like.

Configuring the wireless ad hoc network - Step 7 of 9

For easy setup, we will let the WFT select which wireless channel it wants to use.

Configuring the wireless ad hoc network - Step 8 of 9

For a less complicated setup, we will not use any encryption now.

Configuring the wireless ad hoc network - Step 9 of 9

After selecting none for the encryption settings, the camera will say that it is "Busy". One might call this a minor weakness in usability, as it is actually not busy at all. It is just bored, waiting for you to pick up your iPhone and start connecting it to the ad hoc network. Instead of "Busy" it should say something like "Connect the other device-thingy to the ad hoc network named Wft-canon-something".

Connecting the iPhone to the ad hoc network - Step 1 of 3

Open the "Settings" application from the main screen.

Connecting the iPhone to the ad hoc network - Step 2 of 3

Open the "Wi-Fi" settings.

Connecting the iPhone to the ad hoc network - Step 3 of 3

Select the "Wft-canon" wireless network. And voilà the camera and the iPhone are now connected by the ad hoc network. Let's go back to the camera again.

Finishing the configuration on the camera - Step 1 of 3

Now the camera should have stopped being bored, and be ready to do more work. The camera and the iPhone are sharing a network. However, the WFT is still not quite done, as the the IP-addresses has to be set up. Let this be configured automatically for now: Select "Auto setting".

Finishing the configuration on the camera - Step 2 of 3

Now the WFT is probably doing some magical IP-address stuff. Just wait.

Finishing the configuration on the camera - Step 3 of 3

When things are now set up, you are given the option to save these settings, and give them a name so you can reuse this setup later (Without going through all the steps on the camera). When you want to reuse the saved settings, you select the given setting from the "Set up" menu. The "Busy..."-screens will not appear when you activate the settings, so you just have to "know" that you must connect your iPhone to the ad hoc network. Then once again you have to wait some more for the second "Busy.."-period.

Accessing the webserver using Safari on the iPhone - Step 1 of 6

As we set the IP-address-thingy to be automatically configured, we need to know the camera's address when we want to access it from the iPhone. We head back to the WFT settings menu, and select "Set up" once again.

Accessing the webserver using Safari on the iPhone - Step 2 of 6

In the "Set up" menu, we scroll down to "Confirm settings" ...

Accessing the webserver using Safari on the iPhone - Step 3 of 6

.. and in there, on page 2, we find the IP address that we need. In this case it is the number 168.254.222.9. Now open Safari on the iPhone, and enter the URL http://168.254.222.9 (this will probably be a different number in your setup)

Accessing the webserver using Safari on the iPhone - Step 4 of 6

In Safari the webpage should look something like this. Click on the "Capture" button to start shooting.

Accessing the webserver using Safari on the iPhone - Step 5 of 6

The capture screen looks something like this. Before you have shot any photos, the screen is gray. This screendump was made after the first capture. If you click on the photo on the camera (and if you are shooting JPEG or RAW+JPEG), you will be shown a larger version of the photo...

Accessing the webserver using Safari on the iPhone - Step 6 of 6

In here you can zoom in on the iPhone, and have a closer look at your work of art.

The Result

This is the result from the camera. The picture on the screen of the iPhone is the real thing. There is a slight delay between clicking the release button on the webpage, and the actual release of the camera, so I was able to move away before the shot was made. You can see the Safari progress bar in the URL-line, waiting for the camera/WFT to update the page with this picture.

A quick range test

Of highest importance is the range at which the WFT can be accessed. I set the camera up on my balcony, and went for a little walk. I have a lot of trees and stuff in my neighborhood, so the line of sight was not that good for this quick test. I had a 14mm on my camera and the photo below shows both the scaled full frame, and a cropped version at 100%. According to Google Maps I was about 130-140 meters away when I took that photo. The network signal power-thingy on the iPhone gave two of three lines. In other words, the range seems pretty good.

Conclusion

This method of controlling the camera could for the most part be filed under "nice to have". But in some, perhaps very few situations, this stuff is priceless.
It would be nice to have the ability to change the parameters like f-stop, shutterspeed, ISO and perhaps even adjusting manual focus on the camera through the webserver. Maybe it will be available in a future firmware upgrade, as the possibility is already there with the PTP-type communication, and with remote shooting via USB.
Still, nobody can deny that this is cool. Even though it may not give you better photos directly, it could help you have some more fun with your photography, and thus indirectly result in better photos.

I need coffee

Did you find this article valuable? Please consider donating a little so I can buy more coffee and stay up late writing more articles like this.

Andreas Øverland, 2008.07.01

Update: My wife just helped me correct a bunch of typos, and she requests a donation for some sweets..