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| Moderated by: chrisbet, | ||
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jk
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Nikon have introduced Snapbridge technology into the D500 and also some of their other cameras (Nikon SnapBridge is compatible with all of the latest cameras: W100, A300, B500, B700, A900, DL and D500.). So you ask what is Snapbridge? Well here is the lowdown...... http://snapbridge.nikon.com For those of you who use tethering of your camera and LiveView and remote control via a wired connection please move into the 21st century with Nikon's latest good idea for wireless control of your DSLR via an app on your smartphone. OK so you dont have a Smartphone! Shame on you! You dont p,ay games  well neither do I but there are a host of great apps that aid life that you can have on your smartphone (especially the iPhone).Currently (3rd August 2016) there is a Snapbridge app for Android phones. I have an iPhone and feel disenfranchised by Nikon's inability to produce and release an app for iOS (Apple iPhones) phones and iPad. However they have promised to rectify this by the end of this month (August 2016). Yippee. So now you know about Snapbridge and that you can run it on your tablet or phone if you have Android device and soon if you have an iOS device. This technology will I think change the way we interact with our cameras and also allow our cameras to upload our pictures to a remote place e.g. Facebook and other social media sites if you configure it to do this. I would be interested inyour feedback in this thread please on this new technology and its use. |
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Graham Whistler
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Thank for the info. When I got the D500 I spent as long time on Nikon's website before I saw that with all the info there but was no way I could at that time get it set-up for my camera! |
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Graham Whistler
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I have now managed to get SnapBridge on my NX5 smart phone and the D500 paired with it no problems but still need to get the hang of making them work. Need a 16 yr old to help me please!!! |
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jk
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Well I am still waiting for Nikon to release the iOS version of the app for iPad and iPhone. I will post a link to it as soon as it is available. |
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TomOC
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Thanks, JK... I need the iOS version to even test it also. tom |
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jk
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Tom, are you still shooting Nikon and Fuji side by side? I feel reluctant to give up my Nikons but I am finding that the Fujis have increased appeal due to their lower weight but also I like to use the EVF to pre-visualise my image exposure. Much easier than using the histogram. |
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amazing50
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Will this work with Snapbridge?? http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Bluetooth-Wireless-Timer-Remote-Camfly-Nikon-D7100-D7000-D5200-D5100-D3200-D90-/331222725382?hash=item4d1e69b306:g:N4AAAOxyDo1TjuCp |
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jk
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amazing50 wrote: Will this work with Snapbridge??No it wont AFAIK. This hardware requires its own app (Camfly) to control it. |
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jk
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Apparently Nikon will release the Nikon Snapbridge app for iOS at the end of August. Not long to wait! |
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TomOC
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jk wrote:Tom, are you still shooting Nikon and Fuji side by side? JK- I'm 90% fuji...most of that with x100t and xp2. I did buy a D500 and it's pretty impressive. I expect to use it for some birding and some animal portrait shots (though the fuji's seem just fine for that, too). I still use the D800 for the few instances where a really big file is a must (mostly architectural shots with tripod, pc lens and the whole magilla) I'm probably selling my xt1 (definitely not interested in an xt2) and I have an xe1 converted to IR ) Obviously it was easy to buy too much fuji gear  it seemed so cheap compared to early nikon purchases I'm likely to trim down my lens list and sell of the older bodies (though they don't fetch much).Can't see offing anything nikon though... There seems to be a place for both, if you have both. If you didn't I'd be much more leaning to fuji. tom |
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TomOC
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JK- I should add...Nikon (and Canon) still own the day for sports photos. Fuji is trying but there isn't a chance in the world that any fuji performs as well as the D500 (I can't say first hand but I'm sure that applies to the D5). IMHO, the fuji focus on the XP2 is now at least as god and fast as the D800 but nowhere near the D500...and Nikon long lenses are still the best made period! tom |
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Graham Whistler
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Yes no doubt that the D500 is way ahead of most other DSLRs now, the auto focus is very good as is the tracking for birds in flight. The high ISO is also streets ahead of the D810 very little noise even on A3+ prints at 2500 ISO. Weather protection is also good as I was caught in rain and camera got quite wet with no problem, but I did dry it ASAP. |
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jk
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OK, Nikon have released a firmware update for the D500 and D3400 to support Snapbridge. They have also released the iOS app in the Apple App Store or iTunes. You need to look for Snapbridge by Nikon in the i Phone apps for some rason it is not listed under the apps for iPad but does install on an iPad. http://snapbridge.nikon.com/ and click on the App Store icon. As yet I have not managed to get The Snapbridge link to work to either my iPhone 4S or my iPad 3rd generation unit. You can ONLY pair with one iOS device (such a rubbish implementation). You need to go to Bluetooth settings and remove the camera device if a pairing fails. Also you can only pair with one iOS device so using with another device requires you to delete the working device!!! All this seems very unhelpful and I have raised a question with Nikon about the pairing process. Notes: If you want to pair it with the iPad, you first have to un-pair with the iPhone in Snapbridge by clicking on arrow next to the camera icon and "end pairing" then go into the iPhone settings and in the Bluetooth for the camera, click on "i" and "forget this device". Then go into Snapbridge and pair with iPad. |
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jk
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If you look in the DPReview forums this Snapbridge implementation is getting very poor reviews and comments!! |
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jk
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I have been testing tonight. iPad. The iPad 1st, 2nd and 3rd Generation do not seem to be supported. My iPad 3rd gen can see the D500 but does not connect. iPadAir2 (4th generation) works with the D500. It sees, connects and transfers images. iPhone. iPhone 4s does not seem to be supported as my one can see the D500 but does not connect. I have seen that people with iPhone 6 can connect. |
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Robert
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Thanks for the info JK, seems a bit of a muddle. |
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Graham Whistler
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I have been able now to connect the D500 to my NX5 Mobile phone and it is possible to use the phone to see images as framed on the D500 and take a picture. So yes you now have a remote viewfinder and shutter release. I will do more tests to see how far signal will travel. Taking pictures with the D500 and sending them to the D500 has problem images are far to large and just do not get there. I see no point in doing that any way. If you sent small JPG to the phone it may work but what is the point of that you might just as well take the pix on the phone? |
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jk
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Apparently it works with a iPhone 5s. I will probably go for an iPhone 6 SE next. All I can say is that if you want to do this then get the latest hardware from Apple. Nikon seem to have messed up again with little backwards compatibility. |
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amazing50
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Seems like a lot of money and bother to accomplish very little. |
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jk
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Graham Whistler wrote:I have been able now to connect the D500 to my NX5 Mobile phone and it is possible to use the phone to see images as framed on the D500 and take a picture. So yes you now have a remote viewfinder and shutter release. I will do more tests to see how far signal will travel. Graham, What make is that mobile phone? |
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TomOC
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Lots of complaints and 1 star ratings in iTunes as well...think most of it is about the firmware not being ready when the app was released - a major "minor league" mistake by Nikon. |
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amazing50
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Thom Hogan has a few thoughts on this http://www.dslrbodies.com/newsviews/snapbridge-isnt-a-snap-nor.html |
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jk
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Just as well that I dont do a similar write up. This is what is claimed to be a solution. It is meant to work with all Bluetooth devices. I have an iPhone4S and iPad third generation and cannot connect the camera to either of these devices. It always fails. The software is clunky and poorly designed from what I can see. The D500 firmware update still requires the Bluetooth stuff to nbe done before the WiFi works. There is no cheap device to directkly connect the camera to an Ethernet network either wifi or direct connection. Nikon you are a shambles. Your software is rubbish and the design to use a Scottish term is shite!. If I could return my D500 I would as I find that in truth I should probably have bought the D750 with a battery grip. Eric if you read this I will swap my Nikon D500 and non-Nikon Battery grip for your D750 and a non-Nikon battery grip and or a few spare batteries if you are interested. |
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amazing50
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2 sec fix to put any DSLR pic onto a smartphone in low definition. Just snap a pic, with a smartphone, of the pic displayed on the LCD of the DSLR and ZAP, it's on the web.  |
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Robert
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Nice one! I don't quite get this... How is it important to be able to export images directly from a D500 camera to social media? If this is important, simply take them on an iPhone and save £xxxx. These are large image files, unedited and presumably NEF's, else not much point in using a D500. Not many files would fill a 'phone to bursting point. To offload large numbers of high resolution image files requires a robust and fast connection. Even using a Firewire 800 CF Card reader it's a slow process unloading a full 32Gb CF card. In what way is this improved using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi with all the complexities and fragility that involves? I am all for innovation but this needs to be done properly, not using the digital equivalent of sealing wax and gaffer tape. I can see some point in being able to control and make exposures, either from an inaccessible vantage point or some other remote need. It would be handy to be able to monitor star trail intervalometer sessions from the comfort of the car and other similar things like setting the camera up near a birds nest and retreating out of sight. |
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jk
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The Snapbridge application is only designed to do: 1. Allow remote control of camera for shooting. 2. Allow download of JPG images to iPad or iPhone for sharing or editing. The internet sharing is of no interest to me but occasionally it is useful to transmit to a customer. Frankly if the connection was easy and to one or more devices it would be useful but since it is limited to one device without deleting a previous device it is like saying you can fill your car with petrol from only one petrol station in a country! Useless. Also unless you enable the bluetooth part via Snapbridge then the wifi doesnt work. Doooh, who designed that? This camera firmware and Snapbridge application has got to have been designed by an idiot. |
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Robert
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jk wrote:Also unless you enable the bluetooth part via Snapbridge then the wifi doesnt work. Doooh, who designed that? My understanding is that simple Wi-Fi communication between camera and other devices can be both flaky and power consuming for technical reasons which are hard to surmount. I have read that the Bluetooth component is a less power hungry workaround to nudge the various devices into action when a Wi-Fi transmission is about to happen. As I understand it Bluetooth has it's own limitations when it comes to working with multiple devices and that's probably what's happening here. I'm not a great fan of wi-fi for large scale file transmissions, much prefer hard wire for reliability and speed, although I can see benefits in some situations especially when multiple photographers are working together at an event for one organisation. What I can't figure is why this minor snag is such a big deal. Bottom line is that they are trying to incorporate a marginally need feature which was doomed to failure in the first place. Apart from very expensive specialised commercial setups, nobody has got this working simply or reliably yet, presumably because very few people need it. When I bought my P3, a long while ago, I chose it for it's 'Wi-Fi capability'. It never worked as advertised, was unreliable frequently only sending only some of the image files. It was much more trouble than a USB wire or an SD card reader. Lesson learnt. The base technology has hardly changed. |
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amazing50
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I basically agree that all this connectivity is also a low priority for me, however there is a whole generation of consumers that must have it and are willing to pay top dollar for the hardware and data plans. Smart phones have seriously cut into the sales of traditional digital cameras and Nikon etc. have failed to keep up with the times.This translates into cost cutting, R&D, Quality, Service etc. with hyped up new model introductions lacking serious improvement. |
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jk
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Response to me from Nikon Tech Support. Dear Jonathan, Thanks for contacting us. The wireless functionality of the D500 and Snapbridge app requires that your smart device is compatible with 'Bluetooth low energy' or 'BLE' (ie. a function only enabled in devices that support bluetooth 4) in order to establish and communicate over the wireless connection. Being that bluetooth 4 is relatively new it is not included in many of the past smart devices from many manufacturers, Apple included, which may explain the issue you have with some of your earlier iOS smart devices. On the Snapbridge page of the iOS app store it does list system requirements and some guidelines you can use to determine compatibility of the app with your iOS device. I have provided this information to you below: "System Requirements iOS 8.4 or later or iOS 9.1 or later (the most recent version of iOS 8 or iOS 9 is recommended). iPhone 5 or later, third-generation iPad or later Bluetooth 4.0 or later There is no guarantee that this app will run on all devices." With the above in mind then, it is expected that it doesn't work on the 1st and 2nd generation iPads and also the iPhone 4s. It should work on the 3rd generation iPad though. Can you confirm what the iOS version is on that iPad and update it accordingly so it is using iOS 8.4 or above? The fact that say it works on an iPhone 6 and a 4th generation iPad though indicates that the app and the D500 wireless functionality is working as expected. I hope this message finds you well and I look forward to your response. If you have any orther enquiries then please let us know. Kind Regards, Brian Scully Senior Advisor Nikon Customer Support United Kingdom: 0330 123 0932 Republic of Ireland: 01 5171851 Monday to Friday: 9am-5pm http://www.europe-nikon.com/support According to Apple. What iPhones and iPads have Bluetooth 4.0? What iPhones and iPads have Bluetooth 4.0? Bluetooth 4.0 (BT LE), also known as Bluetooth Low Energy and Bluetooth Smart first appeared in smartphones in 2011. It is required for the Handoff feature of iOS 8 and Yosemite. The following iPhones and iPads use Bluetooth 4.0: iPhone * iPhone 4s * iPhone 5 * iPhone 5c * iPhone 5s * iPhone 6 * iPhone 6 Plus iPad * iPad, 3rd generation * iPad, 4th generation * iPad mini * iPad mini 2 * iPad mini 3 * iPad Air * iPad Air 2 I havent tried to get Snapbridge working again since I raised the issue with NPS. I will try once again with my iPhone and iPad 3rd Gen products before I give up. |
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jk
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I retested yesterday with Samsung (Android) smartphone and the snapbridge worked fine. It is a crappy interface but it works. I then tested with iphone 6 and it works. I then finally retested with my iPhone 4S and iPad third generation which both should work. Both indicated that they saw each other and were communicating but they did not pair! This is really poor on Nikon's part. I will be contacting Nikon NPS in UK and ask them what gives! |
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jk
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Nikon has today released an update (v1.0.1) to Snapbridge for iOS. Update is via AppStore/iTunes or Google as normal for these apps. I am downloading and will test tomorrow. |
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jk
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Same issues - Failed to pair with mt iPhone 4S and/or iPad 3rd Generation devices. Both are on the supported list. |
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Robert
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Just a thought JK, might the Bluetooth also be communicating with some other device? I have found Bluetooth quite flaky with all my computers and devices if they are multitasking. None of my host computers or small devices will work reliably when I try to use BT headphones and a BT mouse/trackpad/keyboard at the same time, audio breaks down badly, audio OK if the headphones are the only BT device paired on any host. |
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jk
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No the D500 and the iPhone or the iPad are communicating with each other and seeing each other but they never pair. I get the authentication code sent from D500 to device being shown on the device. Then you need to do an OK on both camera and device then it falls over. It is very frustrating. |
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Robert
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jk wrote:It is very frustrating. Agreed, difficult.  |
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jk
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Technology refreshed! IPad Pro and iPhone SE. Now I have my D500 Snapbridge connected. I am not sure it was worth the effort or expense. My Fuji camera connects much easier and the app works much better. Is it time to get rid of my Nikons? |
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Eric
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I will continue to remove the SD cards and slip them into the iPad card reader. All this Bluetooth and wireless transfer just erodes battery life...which in the case of the Fuji, is in short supply. I've tried various remote shooting interfaces, some good some poor, but the basic question comes down to whether you need to leave your cameras remotely and operate them? Its never been an absolute necessity for me, so haven't missed the option. |
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jk
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I havent tried it yet but you can also usb cable link the camera to the ipad if youhave the camera connection kit. All this stuff should be simple but Apple make it difficult so they get ipad corruptions and Nikon make it difficult as well due to the complete incompetence at designing software. |
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Eric
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jk wrote:I havent tried it yet but you can also usb cable link the camera to the ipad if youhave the camera connection kit. One of my irritations with iPad, is the inability to add modified jpegs from a card. It reads the originally recorded file, but take it into a desktop and resave it to an sd card, even without modification, and the iPad won't see it.  |
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jk
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Eric wrote:jk wrote:I am not sure I follow what you are doing here. It should see the revised file as a new file! What software are you using on the iPad? How are you saving back to the SD card? What app? |
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jk
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Eric wrote:jk wrote:I am not sure I follow what you are doing here. It should see the revised file as a new file! What software are you using on the iPad? How are you saving back to the SD card? What app? |
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Robert
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Eric wrote:One of my irritations with iPad, is the inability to add modified jpegs from a card. It reads the originally recorded file, but take it into a desktop and resave it to an sd card, even without modification, and the iPad won't see it. Have you tried importing them into Photos? That should recognise any (readable) image and allow the import and display/edit. I have to say I have no experience of Photos but that is my understanding of it's functionality and would be my expectation. |
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jk
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He is a Windoze user so he doesnt have such software! |
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Eric
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I can import jpeg images from SD card to iPad through SD reader and lightning adapter...no prob. Because of the limited editing on iPads I also transfer files to PC with card reader. If I subsequently resave the edited photos ( or just try to resave the same unedited image back to the same SD card (or an empty one)....the newly saved files are not visible when I try to import to the iPad. (In the case of using the same SD card, the import does see all the original jpegs. I had assumed that Windows was saving the jpg in a manner that confused the iPad. Of course, jpegs modified in this way are discoverable by Macs...so it seems like an iPad block. Same is true with edited movies saved as mpeg4 ....playable everywhere except on the bl***y iPad! I should add that the files are readable if I Dropbox them and download them to the iPad that way. It just seems like the windows writitng to SD card is the problem. |
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Robert
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So you reason to import the images to the iPad is to display them, not to edit them? If so that is what I do but using Lightroom. If I edit an image in Lghtroom on my main computer and wish to have it available to 'show' on my iPad and iPhone I simply add that image to a special 'Collection' in Lightroom by draging and dropping the image into one of my predefined folders. The image is then instantly available on my iDevices. |
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| A small amount of member data is captured and held in an attempt to reduce spammers and to manage users. This site also uses cookies to ensure ease of use. In order to comply with new DPR regulations you are required to agree/disagree with this process. If you do not agree then please email the Admins using info@nikondsl.uk Thank you. |