which body for best wireless experience?

Hihi

I have the 7d and 5d III and love them to death
but I have fallen into the trap of the modern age telephone and would love to have a connection with my camera real time
and I was wondering what body works the best vis a vis wireless communication to the telephone (i personally have android, though I suppose that it is less important to answer the question)

Are there any other options besides buying a new camera with this ability which can act in a reliable and stable manner? or at least the most reliable and most stable that is available?

Many thanks and have a great day

For what you have, the only acceptable way IMO is to use camranger, or make your own (same basic thing camranger did). You can find those instructions here. This worked well for me on the 7D and 5D3.

http://dslrcontroller.​com/

It was easy to flash the firmware once I found the router needed, and then the software worked well with the router, while on my Samsung tablet.

The unusual accessory WFT-E5 for the 7D will allow the camera to act as a file server. This also opens up for real time control, but with several limitations.

The first camera I've had that actually supports Canon's Camera connect software for Android is the 1DX Mark II, equipped with (at least) WFT-E6.

thanks for the ideas and I will examine them
though I was also open to a new body for this possibility as well.

i guess that I didnt make that clear enough.

maybe an 80d? 6d2?
a 5d4 is a bit expensive for me but I also think that the tech might be a bit too old for the purpose.

is the technology still changing - are there versions that are more or less stable? useful?

thanks again

ceriltheblade wrote in post #18659042
thanks for the ideas and I will examine them
though I was also open to a new body for this possibility as well.

i guess that I didnt make that clear enough.

maybe an 80d? 6d2?
a 5d4 is a bit expensive for me but I also think that the tech might be a bit too old for the purpose.

is the technology still changing - are there versions that are more or less stable? useful?

thanks again

They are all about the same if they have the wifi capability. The 5D4 has the same options, from what I can tell, as the others. So if you are going to get a body, just make wifi one of the requirements, but beyond that, get the body that fits what you want to shoot, for the glass you have or want to buy in the future.

I am not sure about the 6D2 since you have the 5D3 already, they are quite close in IQ, and I would take the AF system of the 5D3 over the 6D because I think the AF spread is a bit more, personally. IQ is nearly identical. IMO the 80D is a bigger jump over the 7D than the 6D2 is over the 5D3, in both features and IQ.

thanks for all that.

i appreciate the insights

There are differences in WiFi capabilities for different models. For the somewhat older models, the higher end ones tended to focus on "more advanced" things. They supported FTP, for example, where the lower end models instead supported "social media"-adapted things, like the Camera Connect application.
Out of my three cameras with Ehternet/WiFi capability, the 7D with WFT-E5 (cable/WiFi) and the 1DX (cable, with the WFT-E6 also WiFi) belongs to the top level group. The 1DX Mark II (cable, with the WFT-E6 or WFT-E8 also WiFi) is the first I've seen that supports both FTP and Camera Connect.

I got curious and checked. Now I've also learned that the built-in WiFi capabilities of the 5D Mark IV aren't the same as are supported by the WFT-E7 accessory. Some are, but not all. The feature set provided via the WFT-E7 is similar to what you get with the WFT-E6 on a 1DX.

So, since you seem to know this feature - I will ask a question

does the FTP vs the social media allow you to pass the full size files to the phone raw and jpeg alike?
Is there a review that you know about which speaks about the nuts and bolts of this - because I cant really find anything so far.

Many thanks

You can configure the FTP client to send whichever file you like to the FTP server. Small, big, RAW, jpeg - it's up to you.
If you want to push it further, to social media or whatever, you need something more than the FTP server. Either a person who evaluates, selectes and publishes, or some automatic software which sees the image and publishes it somewhere.

many thanks

how does this compare to using a solution like an eyefi - eyefi pro?

I haven’t used the latest mobile Pro eyeFi cards, but the older ones (eyeFi Pro - no longer supported) worked fairly decent, but I often had connectivity issues with my iPad for no real reason. I wouldn’t say it was reliable or fast enough to use for a paid shoot by any means. JPG transfer was ok, but RAW was pretty slow from the 5D3 I was using it with and pretty unusable. It’s quite a leap forward going from the eyeFi I had to the built-in functionality of other cameras I’ve owned like the E-M1 II, A7iii, and 7D2 + Canon W-E1 adapter. I would hope the newer eyeFi models are improved and much closer to “built in” performance.

I can’t say how they compare to the more advanced features of the higher end adapters mentioned above, but I’m sure the ones I’ve used are not as advanced and are more consumer oriented.

Eyefi is basically dead, just so you are aware. The offering of on board wifi from the manufacturers basically made the eyefi design moot. As an aside, I have a web service configured on my 5d4 to send selected images to my Google drive account, and I have the folder shared by the teams marketing and social media group so they can pull images for Facebook, etc during a game.

I regularly use the 80D and 5D4. I find the Wi-Fi implementation on the 80D cleaner and easier to access than that of the 5D4 because you can turn the radio on and off from the Q menu; whereas, the 5D4 radio control is buried in menus and is not very intuitive in comparison. Both bodies are similar after the Wi-Fi network is up and running, in that you then have to subscribe your phone/tablet to the ad-hoc network, and from there open the Canon app to enable transfer. It's a little clunky and button-press heavy, but once things are set up it's rock solid.

Before these bodies, I used the 5D3 + Eye-Fi. It's been a while since I used it, but I do remember liking the quick transfer feature, where you hit the Rate button and the jpeg is transferred. With the 5D4/80D OEM implementation, you have to hit the Set button 3 times minimum before a file transfers (select photo, transfer selected image?, transfer initiated). Much slower than the Eye-Fi method. But, unlike the OEM setup, the Eye-Fi card solution wasn't as reliable.

MatthewK wrote in post #18660376
I regularly use the 80D and 5D4. I find the Wi-Fi implementation on the 80D cleaner and easier to access than that of the 5D4 because you can turn the radio on and off from the Q menu; whereas, the 5D4 radio control is buried in menus and is not very intuitive in comparison. Both bodies are similar after the Wi-Fi network is up and running, in that you then have to subscribe your phone/tablet to the ad-hoc network, and from there open the Canon app to enable transfer. It's a little clunky and button-press heavy, but once things are set up it's rock solid.

Before these bodies, I used the 5D3 + Eye-Fi. It's been a while since I used it, but I do remember liking the quick transfer feature, where you hit the Rate button and the jpeg is transferred. With the 5D4/80D OEM implementation, you have to hit the Set button 3 times minimum before a file transfers (select photo, transfer selected image?, transfer initiated). Much slower than the Eye-Fi method. But, unlike the OEM setup, the Eye-Fi card solution wasn't as reliable.

I just put the wifi menu on My Menu, along with other most used items, and have My Menu popup first when I hit Menu. That is my workaround to that. Also, I do not use the phone app at all to transfer files. I just turn on the wifi radio on the 5D4, it connects to my phone, and then I select files, it transfers them accordingly to Google Drive through the phone as a hotspot. You have to first use the Canon software connected to the camera to set up the desired web service you want, it will authenticate your account and build that authentication into a file that gets sent to the 5D4. You can go to facebook, canon image gateway, and a host of other options this way.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #18660419
I just put the wifi menu on My Menu, along with other most used items, and have My Menu popup first when I hit Menu. That is my workaround to that. Also, I do not use the phone app at all to transfer files. I just turn on the wifi radio on the 5D4, it connects to my phone, and then I select files, it transfers them accordingly to Google Drive through the phone as a hotspot. You have to first use the Canon software connected to the camera to set up the desired web service you want, it will authenticate your account and build that authentication into a file that gets sent to the 5D4. You can go to facebook, canon image gateway, and a host of other options this way.

Same here, it's in My Menu, but it's still a rather convoluted means to activate the Wi-Fi.

I'm curious how you're able to transfer files without going through the Canon app; the camera won't let me transfer files until I open the app on my phone. It probably has something to do with how you've setup the phone as a hotspot and the camera joins that network, whereas I go the other way and have the camera start the network and I join my phone to that. I don't do too much transferring to my phone, so only the wi-fi is only activated when needed, versus being turned on all of the time, which would drain the battery.