Used CamFi Pro Next Generation Wireless Camera Controller

2019-10-27T23:26:02

I picked up a CamFi Pro (not the Pro+) so that I could let clients preview photos during the shoot. I work in many environments, so portability is key. Overall, it is a neat little device but there were a lot of things about it that I had to figure out through multiple sources. I'll try to put many of them here so that the next guy can benefit. Range is acceptable, maybe 50ft. If it looses the wifi connection to your phone/tablet/pc, you're probably in for a reboot and wonkiness, so be careful. Battery life is good, at least more than 4 hours, and it can charge while in use. The battery is replaceable. I tested it with a Sony a7III. Having multiple devices connected to it or ending a connection and restarting it often end in connection problems. It seems easier just to turn it off and back on again between devices. I've only had 1 shoot with it, maybe 90 minutes in a botanical garden. It worked well for the first 60 minutes (and the mom was very excited to see her seniors pictures pop up like magic) BUT, she got out of range and it was too much of a time wasting hassle to get it to reconnect. We just finished the shoot without it (which means a mother glued to the back of my camera after each set of shots). Boot time is around 30sec, so it's a bit of a wait when you're trying to get stuff done. If you can find a pro, it has all of the same features as the pro+ except for 3rd party tethering. I shoot Sony, so that's not really an issue (can't directly tether in LR, anyway). With the pro, you just have to use the CamFi iOS and Mac/pc apps but that's no big deal. If you decide that you want the tether support (for capture one, for example), you can buy a software upgrade for $40 and download it right away to your Pro to make it a Pro+. I ended up doing that but it didn't really seem to make any functional or performance difference. I want to shoot to my iPad AND have it backup the photos to dropbox at the same time. I discovered a couple of issues here - When you tether the iPad, you're connected to the wifi that the CamFi generates. So, you have no internet access. You can put the CamFi into BRIDGE MODE (where it connects to an access point like a wifi router in a studio), and you're good to go (BTW, the options to upload to Dropbox in the app are only accessible while in bridge mode). BUT you can't have it both uploading to dropbox and connected to the camera at the same time on a mobile device. There is a work-around where you manually set the IP address of the iPad connection to the IP address that the CamFi would have assigned it (which, in theory, is supposed to let you use your LTE connection simultaneously), but I never got it to work. Even on my iPhone with the settings correct, the CamFi app would quit every time I tried to upload to dropbox from inside the app. SO..... Here's the workflow I came up with - 1. Connect device to CamFi 2. Shoot at close range 3. Restart CamFi if anything goes wrong 4. Set CamFi to automatically download all photos to the camera roll (in the settings) 5. Finish the shoot, turn off the CamFi 6. Use the Dropbox app to manually upload all the pictures to a folder (in the app, touch the big + button to create, choose camera roll, select your pics and choose/make a folder). From a PC, it's a much more simple story. You can tell the CamFi app where to place the files. That can be in dropbox, or could be a hot folder for Lightroom or Capture One. I haven't tested the PC stability yet, but I will on my next shoot just to see if it's any better. If it is, I'll come back and edit this review with that info. Keep in mind that the files are saved on the SD card, so if everything blows up, there's no real loss. I just wish it were more consistent. Also, with Sony, you choose to transmit RAW, JPEG, or BOTH inside the menu and not in the CamFi app. All in all, the CamFi Pro/+ is a neat device that has a lot of potential but is slightly tarnished by inconsistent connection and poor software choices.

SHAWN M.