Snapbridge and the D500

I don't have a D500 or any other Snapbridge compatible camera, so I haven't been able to test it, but I feel in principle what Nikon is trying to achieve is a good thing, but the implementation has gotten a lot of criticism from early users. In earlier implementations of built-in wireless transfer and control, at least my experience is that the connection is too clumsy to start and breaks off too easily. For example, if I turned the D750 off, the wifi connection to mobile would be lost and is not automatically reset when the camera is back on, when using an iPhone as the other device. Android devices may be able to automatically reconnect, but that doesn't help me. Also, when the wifi connection to iPhone is established, the connection is lost (somehow the phone thinks that if there is a wifi connection, it won't try to connect to the internet using the cell network or any other means). What Snapbridge tries to achieve is that 1) the connection is established once and then the devices will be connected automatically if they are close enough to each other, 2) the connection and image transfer continues even when the camera is "off", 3) if the bluetooth connection is used, the phone's connection to the internet is lost. All of these things are good things in my book, and in fact the difference between whether I'm willing to use the wireless connectivity feature or not. Now, the drawback of Snapbridge appears to be that Nikon software isn't very sophisticated or reliable, and many older phones do not work with Snapbridge because they don't support Bluetooth LE. Finally, bluetooth transfers are slow and mainly suitable for transferring small images (2K).

I believe Nikon can, over time, fix the software side and third party software makers can implement their own software. I believe one problem is that the connection needs to be first established with Bluetooth LE and only then the faster WiFi connection can be initiated. For the latter part 3rd party software can be used, if snapbridge is used to initiate the connection via Bluetooth. There is a discussion on this topic on nikongear.net. If Nikon makes a change to the camera (firmware?) which would allow third party software to connect with WiFi without the use of Bluetooth, then the Snapbridge featuring cameras could be used just as the previous generation of camears with built in WiFi. However, at the moment it is reported that to establish WiFi connection you need to go through the Snabridge/Bluetooth LE pairing process. I think Nikon should listen to its users for information on how they would like to use the wireless connectivity and control features on their cameras and make changes accordingly.

Of course, there are other approaches to wireless connectivity and control such as Nikon's WT-7, Camranger etc. However, WT-7 appears to have a strange omission: no tripod socket at the bottom, so it can basically be used for hand held photography mainly, unless the lens used has a tripod socket of its own. This seems quite a gross omission in the design. In the D810 the wireless connectivity is achieved using UT1 and WT-5, which of course do not interfere with tripod use, and on the D5 with the WT-6 which is just a small thing plugged to the side of the camera. These add on devices allow a variety of connection protocols to be used either with dedicated computers or mobile devices. However, the cost is quite high especially if one uses a variety of different cameras. Camranger seems to be a good, economical solution to wireless camera control and image transfer compatible across different Nikon camera models. However, the device itself is attached on the camera with a cable and apart from the flash shoe, I am not sure where to mount it. For use in the studio I would not want an additional device hanging from the camera while the flash shoe is taken up by the flash trigger.

Personally I hope at some point Nikon wireless gets to be truly seamless, reliable and easy to use, in the near future.

I gather it eats battery power too. Is that specific to Snapbridge and Bluetooth LE irrespective whether it then 'allows' normal wifi after initial pairing??

...and as for the WT-7 having no tripod socket AND making your wallet £1000 lighter.. Yikes.

...it's about as handy as no simple IR remote for my D810.,...Grrrr.

I use the WT-10 as a radio based transmitter/receiver to trigger all my cameras. It includes WT-T10 (basically the handset with a button to trigger cameras), WT-R10 (the receiver/transmitter that is put on the camera), and WT-A10 (adapter to allow mounting to 10 pin connector on select cameras). No IR remote, but the radio based system works over greater distances and is probably more reliable than IR. IR triggers have a substantial random delay which I don't particularly like as it doesn't allow simultaneous triggering of several cameras.

Bluetooth LE should consume less power than WiFi, but I don't know what the practical situation is.

I use the WT-10 as a radio based transmitter/receiver to trigger all my cameras. It includes WT-T10 (basically the handset with a button to trigger cameras), WT-R10 (the receiver/transmitter that is put on the camera), and WT-A10 (adapter to allow mounting to 10 pin connector on select cameras). No IR remote, but the radio based system works over greater distances and is probably more reliable than IR. IR triggers have a substantial random delay which I don't particularly like as it doesn't allow simultaneous triggering of several cameras.

 

Bluetooth LE should consume less power than WiFi, but I don't know what the practical situation is.

WT-10 is "just"for remote control, Snapbridge also sends the pics to your phone or tablet .

I got Snapbridge working now on an iPad , and on a new android phone, but it eats so much power in the camera, and it is to slow for larger numbers of pictures or larger files. So it is just usefull to quickly send some JPEGS to your phone / tablet .

Seems Nikon is putting Snapbridge in all new models, but fro me it feels a bit like a "failed feature" 'till now and tools like CAMFI and siblings perform a lot better and are more userfriendly ..