Snap Remote: Camera Control

Snap Remote turns your iPhone into a wireless remote for cameras that speak the classic
Camera Remote API over Wi-Fi. Live view, shutter release, video recording, every setting
the camera actually allows, and an interval mode built for the real timing of a camera.
No cable, no account, no cloud.

SEE WHAT THE CAMERA SEES
The live image comes straight from the camera, including the focus and face frames it
reports. Fire from the screen or with the volume buttons, which is what you want when
the phone is clamped to a tripod leg. After each shot the preview lands in the corner
and one tap saves it to your photo library. Video recording works the same way.

ONLY THE CONTROLS THAT REALLY EXIST
Aperture, shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation, white balance, focus mode: the list
is built from what the camera permits at that moment. With the mode dial on Intelligent
Auto the exposure values are locked, and the app shows them anyway, with a lock icon and
a note on what to change. That is more honest than making them disappear.

WHAT YOUR CAMERA CAN DO, IN BLACK AND WHITE
The range of the Camera Remote API does not depend on the camera model but on the
version of the Smart Remote Control app installed on the camera. On the factory version
the exposure values are read-only; with the old PlayMemories upgrade they are fully
controllable, and that store closed in 2021. So Snap Remote hard-codes no value lists at
all. On connect it asks the camera what it implements and builds the interface from the
answer. A parameter your camera reports but cannot set appears visible and locked; one it
does not know at all does not appear. The Camera Info tab shows you the result: version,
API reach and every single function your camera reported.

A TIME-LAPSE THAT LISTENS TO THE CAMERA
Depending on the subject, a shutter release takes one to three seconds until autofocus,
exposure and preview are through. A rigid timer stacks up requests in that window until
the camera gives up. Snap Remote waits for the answer instead, subtracts the time spent
from the interval and sleeps only the remainder. If a frame takes longer than the
interval, the sequence runs as fast as the camera can and the app tells you so. For a
time-lapse through the blue hour that is the difference between a sequence and an error
message.

HONEST ABOUT THE LIMITS
No internet needed, and none available: the camera runs its own Wi-Fi and is the router
inside it, so iOS will report "No Internet" while you are connected. That is correct.
The app keeps the screen awake during intervals and video instead of faking a background
mode that iOS would not honour. Intervals below two seconds get unreliable, which is a
limit of the camera API, not of the app. There is no access to the memory card: what
gets transferred is the preview image the camera offers after each shot, at full JPEG
resolution on an upgraded camera. RAW stays on the card. And the camera allows exactly
one live view connection, so a second app streaming from it will cut one of you off.

COMPATIBLE CAMERAS
Any model with the classic Camera Remote API, meaning the ones that run the Smart Remote
Control app on the camera. Among others: a7, a7 II, a7R, a7R II, a7S, a7S II, a5000,
a5100, a6000, a6300, a6500; RX100 II to RX100 V, the RX10 series, RX0; HX90, WX500; and
the FDR-X1000V, FDR-X3000, HDR-AS50 and HDR-AS300 action cameras.

Not compatible: a7 III and newer, a9, a1, a7C and the ZV series. Those speak the newer
Camera Remote SDK over USB and other protocols, not the Wi-Fi interface Snap Remote is
built on. Please check your model against the list above before buying into the idea.

NO ACCOUNT, NO TRACKING
Snap Remote talks to your camera and to nothing else. There is no account, no server and
no analytics.