WFT-E2/E3/E4 Wireless Transmitters – Send files and control the camera without wires
The Canon WFT-E2, WFT-E3 and WFT-E4 Wireless File Transmitters for several cameras in the EOS range allow you to either send files wirelessly or control your camera from the comfort of your computer all without using wires!
Who are they for?
Aimed mainly at studio and news photographers, the WFT units can be used to get large previews back on a computer to wire images to a picture desk almost as soon as they’re taken.
The WFT-E4 Wireless File Transmitter enlarge image
Key features
- 802.11b and 802.11g
- USB Host
- PTP, HTTP and FTP protocols
- Up to 150m range
- Ethernet 110 Base TX connector
The WFT-E2, WFT-E3 and WFT-E4 units offer multi-protocol control and convenient USB hosting in a compact package. The units allow you to connect to both wireless and wired LAN networks with full support for FTP, HTTP and PTP. A new connection wizard makes setting up a WiFi connection quicker and easier than before and allows WPA-PSK authentication and TKIP encryption to ensure secure data transfer.
For those working in studios or on location these units are the quickest way of getting your images in front of your clients. Shoot tethered using an Ethernet 100Mbps connection for fast image transfer; wirelessly transmit images using 802.11b (11Mbps) or 802.11g (54Mbps) connections; or simply use the USB host functions to shoot images direct to an external USB hard drive.
To retain the weather sealing of the cameras, the units feature a built-in antenna. These units are perfect for commercial studios, sports and wedding photographers. At a wedding you can remain mobile, free from the clutter of cables. Images can be transmitted immediately back to a base-station where an assistant can select and edit them on location and present a slideshow in time for the wedding reception.
For sports and news photographers, images can be transferred directly to the picture desk, using HTTP mode, for review by the picture editor in almost real-time. For the busy commercial studio, having images available to view by the client or art director while the shoot is going on can save time. The art director could potentially give meaningful direction from anywhere in the world. Alternatively, it can be used in less pressured environments to get images onto a larger screen where they can be checked for lighting and focus issues.
If you want to geo-tag your images so they can be located on a map, you will also need one of these units as it provides the connection to allow the latitude and longitude information to be embedded within the EXIF data of each image you take.
FTP, PTP and HTTP protocols
By making use of three different protocols, the WFT units can be set up in several different ways depending on the requirements.
The FTP function allows file transfer from the camera to the computer almost as quickly as you can take the images. It can be used by both studio photographers looking for large previews or news photographers sending JPEGs to a laptop for onward transmission.
PTP mode allows remote camera control by providing two-way communication between the camera and computer. It is a lot like using a USB connection, but without the cable. It can give a wireless live view of what the camera sees back on a computer and allows setting of shooting parameters and triggering of the camera from the computer.
HTTP mode allows remote clients to browse the contents of the memory card in the camera and select images to download. It can be useful for event or news photographers so that picture desk editors can see the images being shot and choose to download the images they want.