If you’ve got a camera with built-in Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth, then you’ll be able to take advantage of this to quickly and easily send your images to your smartphone or tablet. From there you can edit the photos and quickly share on social media. In this guide we’ll show you what you need to connect your camera to your smartphone.

You’ll also get the opportunity to remotely control your camera, giving you additional creative options, such as setting up the camera for use in a remote location, or take advantage of the larger screen on your smartphone or tablet.

If you’ve never done this before, then this guide on how to connect your camera to your smartphone is for you. Once you’ve tried it, you’ll wonder why you’ve never done this before.

Welcome to the AP Improve Your Photography Series – in partnership with MPB – This series is designed to take you from the beginnings of photography, introduce different shooting skills and styles, and teach you how to grow as a photographer, so you can enjoy producing amazing photography (and video), to take you to the next level, whether that’s making money or simply mastering your art form.

Improve your photography from AP and MPB

Each week you’ll find a new article so make sure to come back to continue your journey, and have fun along the way, creating great images. If you’ve found these articles helpful, don’t forget to share them with people you know who may be interested in learning new photography skills. You’ll find a whole range of further articles in this series.

What you need to know to connect your camera to your smartphone

This guide is setup so that you can find instructions for your specific brand of camera, as each camera company has their own app or application available for smartphones and tablets, and for Android devices, like the Google Pixel 6, you’ll find them in the Google Play store. For Apple iOS devices, like the Apple iPhone 13 Pro, you’ll find them in the Apple App Store.

How to connect your Canon to your phone

  • App name: Canon Camera Connect App
  • Cost: Free
Canon Camera Connect App from Google Play

Canon Camera Connect App from Google Play

Canon Camera Connect, is the app that you need, in order to connect your Canon camera to your smartphone or tablet. It lets you view and transfer images on your camera, use remote live view shooting, as well as use location information from your smartphone to Geotag your images. There’s also an option to setup auto-transfer, or use the smartphone as a Bluetooth remote control. Using Bluetooth rather than Wi-Fi and live view will help save precious battery life.

Using the Canon Camera Connect app

How to connect your Nikon to your phone

  • App name: SnapBridge
  • Cost: Free
Nikon SnapBridge from the Google Play Store

Nikon SnapBridge from the Google Play Store

This is the latest app that Nikon provides for connecting your Nikon camera to your smartphone, and can use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth if your camera supports it. By using Bluetooth, you can transfer images with lower battery consumption. There’s also support for Nikon Image Space, which is Nikon’s cloud storage and photo backup system.

How to use the Nikon SnapBridge app

How to connect your Sony to your phone

  • App name: Imaging Edge Mobile
  • Cost: Free
Sony Imaging Edge Mobile from Google Play Store

Sony Imaging Edge Mobile from Google Play Store

Like the other apps here, Sony’s Imaging Edge Mobile lets you transfer images and video from your camera to a smartphone, remotely control and shoot from the smartphone, giving you a larger screen. You can also add location information from your smartphone, so that your photos are stored with GPS data attached. Tablet support means you can use an even larger screen for remote shooting.

How to connect your phone to a Sony camera: Sony Imaging Edge Mobile.

How to connect your Fujifilm to your phone

  • App name: Fujifilm Camera Remote
  • Cost: Free
Fujifilm Camera Remote App from Google Play Store

Fujifilm Camera Remote App from Google Play Store

The Fujifilm Camera Remote app lets you connect your Fujifilm X series camera to your smartphone, letting you remotely control your camera, using live view shooting, import and transfer images, as well as automatically transfer images that you’ve marked for transfer on your camera.

How to use Fujifilm Camera Remote app.

Nb. A different app is needed to connect Fujifilm Instax cameras and printers to your smartphone, depending what Instax camera or printer you have.

How to connect your Olympus / OM System to your phone

  • App name: OM Image Share / OI.Share
  • Cost: Free
OM System OI Share smartphone app from Google Play Store

OM System OI Share smartphone app from Google Play Store

OM Image Share is the new app for OM System and Olympus cameras, and this app works with old and new cameras. Of all the smartphone apps, it’s one of the highest rated on the Google Play store, and as well as all the usual features such as remote shooting, importing photos, adding Geotag (GPS) data to photos, it also helpfully includes a built in How-To camera guide, as well as the ability to edit photos.

Olympus OI Share: Connect your Olympus camera to your phone

How to connect your Panasonic Lumix to your phone

  • App name(s): Panasonic Image App / LUMIX Sync
  • Cost: Free
Panasonic Image Sync App from Google Play Store

Panasonic Image Sync App from Google Play Store

Panasonic, for reasons unknown, offer not one, but two different Apps, starting with the newest, the Lumix Sync app for some cameras, including the full-frame S series cameras (such as the S1, S1R, S5 etc), and G series cameras (including the G100, GH5 II, GH6 etc), but for other Panasonic cameras, they recommend using the Panasonic Image App (shown above). In fact Panasonic themselves confusingly say that to “use all functions, use Panasonic Image App”

Panasonic Lumix Sync: How to connect your camera to your phone

How to connect your Pentax/Ricoh to your phone

  • App name: Image Sync (Ricoh Imaging Company)
  • Cost: Free
Ricoh Image Sync App from Google Play Store

Ricoh Image Sync App from Google Play Store

Designed to work with Pentax DSLRs such as the Pentax K-3 III, as well as Ricoh cameras such as the Ricoh GR III and Ricoh GR IIIx, the Ricoh Image Sync app is a relatively basic app, but one that gives you the ability to view and transfer images, as well as remotely control the camera.

How to connect your Leica to your phone

  • App name: Leica FOTOS
  • Cost: Free
Leica FOTOs app from Google Play Store

Leica FOTOs app from Google Play Store

This promises to be one app for all your Leica cameras, whether that’s a compact, a rangefinder, or a full-frame mirrorless camera. The app lets you download photos from your camera as JPG or DNG (raw) files, you can control your camera remotely, as well as update your camera firmware via the app.

Guide to the main features when you connect your camera to your smartphone

How to connect your phone to a Sony camera - Sony Imaging Edge Mobile app

Images can be transferred individually or in batches using Sony’s Imaging Edge Mobile app

Transferring images to your smartphone

By transferring your camera photos to your smartphone, you’ll be able to quickly share these with friends, and on social media sites, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and anywhere else you want.

Some apps will transfer a resized (smaller) image, whilst others will let you transfer the full-size image. Some apps also let you transfer the raw image file, so that you can edit this on apps like Adobe Lightroom Photo and Video Editor, or Snapseed. Once you’ve transfered your images you’ll need to check your smartphone albums to find your photos.

The remote shooting mode gives users the option to control the camera’s most frequently used settings straight from a smartphone. This is handy when you’d like to create distance from yourself and the camera. Wildlife and group shots are just two examples of where it can be exploited to its full potential

The remote shooting mode gives users the option to control the camera’s most frequently used settings straight from a smartphone. This is handy when you’d like to create distance from yourself and the camera. Wildlife and group shots are just two examples of where it can be exploited to its full potential.

Remote shooting with live view

By using a smartphone or tablet as a remote control for your camera, you can view the scene on a much larger screen, as well as position the camera in another location while you shoot. This could be of great use for group shots, or even wildlife photography, where you don’t want to scare any animals.

Some let you use your smartphone as a remote trigger (Fujifilm), without live view if needed, but even with live-view you can use your smartphone as a remote trigger.

Having the option to wirelessly transfer images from camera to smartphone is great to have when you’re travelling

Having the option to wirelessly transfer images from camera to smartphone is great to have when you’re travelling

Geotagging images

Why do people add GPS data to images? By adding the GPS data from your phone, you can get an exact location of where you were when you took your photos, and this could help you track your location, particularly if you’re travelling or on a road trip.

This is particularly useful for photojournalism or documentary photography. You can even use geotagged photos to produce a map of your journey, or contribute to Google maps adding photos for local information.

So now you know of the benefits of connecting your camera to your smartphone, why not give it a try and start sharing your images, or shooting remotely. 

Tune in next week, for the next article in the series of the AP Improve Your Photography Series – in partnership with MPB.

Find the latest Improve Your Photography articles here.

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