Sunday, April 28, 2013

Access Samsung WB150F Camera from iPad via Remote Viewfinder

Accessing your camera over WiFi from an iPhone or iPad, including remote shutter release, seems like a fantastic idea, especially for family or self-portraits, but can be difficult to figure out.

First, the camera side. When you turn the knob to WiFi, Remote Viewfinder is one of several apps. To access this feature alone, you do NOT need to connect to an existing WiFi network. Most other WiFi enabled features assume you will be connecting to your home network, but not this one. Rather, once you activate this app, it turns your camera into a WiFi hotspot, which you can connect to, out in the field, without a password, from your phone or tablet.

Next, the iPad side. Maybe if you're using a Samsung Android tablet or phone this will be easier, but for some reason, perhaps bad blood between the 2 companies, although the Samsung Remote Viewfinder iOS app is available on iTunes, when accessed from your PC, it's not findable in Apple's App Store from your phone or tablet, which seems nuts for a free helper app. But there is a work around.

Since you can find the iOS app on PC-based iTunes, you can also find its URL, which currently is:

     https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/remote-viewfinder/id507930776?mt=8

Therefore, type the above URL into the browser on your iPhone or iPad, and you will be taken to it. Press Install and soon you will have Remote Viewfinder on your device.

Finally, to get the 2 working together --
  1. On the camera, turn the knob to WiFi, select Remote Viewfinder, and activate it. This turns your camera into an active hotspot, even if you are out in the forest.
  2. On the iPad, go into Settings > WiFi and connect to the new hotspot, and only then
  3. Go back out and activate the Remote Viewfinder app itself, which will now find the camera and connect to it.
After you have completed these steps, you can see through your camera, even if you are in the picture, and press the shutter. But there is one drawback. Apparently you can't go into the mode of your choice, such as Smart. Instead you are stuck in some unknown mode that takes a long time to fire and uses the flash. If you turn the knob to Smart, away from WiFi, your remote connection is lost.

Hopefully these drawbacks will be addressed in future versions, but the pictures come out okay, so this seems like a minor price to pay, for an otherwise free and usable remote control program.

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