Alpha 7iii with Imaging Edge into iPhone and Lightroom

[MalthouseMark]

Hello, I'm a new A7iii user. I got two of them recently. Reading the online manual it talks about PlayMobile and I know that has moved to Imaging Edge Mobile. I'm having a few difficulties and I've got some questions.

I started out with using one camera. I connected it to Imaging Edge on Bluetooth with a QR code. I sent files to it. I was able to connect to it and control it from my iPhone. I was also able to set location and that show up in photos.

Then I went to try it on the other camera. And I seemed to do that too.

I thought that I had worked it out for myself.

But now that I try again I get a message that it is "unable to join the network".

I am confused what I've changed that it no longer works.

Whilst investigating I saw that with Imaging Edge one can see photos on the phone whilst the camera is turned off, and that it can transfer wirelessly all the time (does this have a huge impact on battery? I am shooting weddings.)

What I'd really like to do is shoot on both cameras (different lenses), files miraculously transfer into my iPhone and then allow me to rank and edit them in Lightroom Mobile which then feeds them through to my PC... (PC not Mac).

Is that even possible?

Here's my setup:

Within Network 2 page 2/3>Edit Device Name
On Camera 1 I've edited the device name to ILCE-7M3-1
On Camera 2 I've edited the device name to ILCE-7M3-2

On Network 1 page 1/3

Ctrl w/ Smartphone ON

Always Connected ON

I believe that's what would be required to allow me to continuously transfer files but it will use more battery. If it is not sensible for a full day wedding shoot I would turn that off and just connect at various periods to send files.

Network 2 page 2/3> Bluetooth Settings

Bluetooth Function ON

Network 2 page 2/3> Loc. Info. Link Set

I have turned ON all of Location Info. Link, Auto Time Correct. Auto Area Adjust.

I've turned them on so that the time is set correctly

Network 3 page 3/3

Bluetooth Rmt Ctrl is OFF on both cameras

I *believe* I turn it on if I wish to use the phone to control the camera.

However I also note that the Loc. Info. Link Set will not allow me to turn that On (it greys it out) if Bluetooth Rmt Ctrl is turned ON.

I can't see where else I might have settings to change! I don't know that I've edited any other network (e.g. wifi) settings which might have affected any of this.

Ideally I'd be doing one of two things:
1) I'd turn on remote control for the odd occasion I wanted to control the camera from my phone.

2) I'd have it set to either continuously transfer files to my phone so I can edit them at any time in Lightroom Mobile or (if that is particularly heavy on battery) I'd turn that capability on when the wedding guests are eating and quickly move files to my phone from both cameras, one after the other.

Can anyone help me to understand what setting(s) I need to achieve this?

If it means zapping the settings in the Imaging Edge Mobile and re-connecting then that's fine. I simply want to make the use of it as easy as I can.

Thank you.

[MalthouseMark · Accepted solution]

Ok, so I've re-set the network settings on both cameras, and re-changed the camera names as before.

I watched a few YouTube videos and this guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZglOMJGFCs says at 3:11 the same error I was getting. Following what he's saying about the WiFi error there I see that I might want to add to My Menu an item for the "Network 1>Ctrl w/Smartphone>Connection" item, so I can just hit that if I ever want to control the camera with my phone, and then watch for WiFi before hitting the required camera in my camera list in Imaging Edge.

Having done that I have both sent images to my phone and controlled the camera from my phone on both cameras.

So far so good.

That leaves two aspects. The first I'll detail in case anyone else follows along behind me on how I fixed it!

The location settings/time settings - this requires the Bluetooth Setting to be ON. I turned on "Network 2>Bluetooth Settings>Bluetooth Function". I then turned the camera off/on and my phone's bluetooth off/on - but whilst the camera said it is pairing the device never comes up on the phone to pair with...

I found that Under the "Location Information Linkage" in Imaging Edge, if you click on "change the camera" it will show you potential paired cameras. At the top right is "settings". Go in there, tell it to "Delete Pairing Information" and then have another try at pairing using "Network 2>Bluetooth Settings>Pairing".

I now have two cameras listed and I can pair with either in Imaging Edge's Location Information Linkage section. By turning on "Network 2>Loc. Info. Link Set." all three items to ON the GPS information on the images is being recorded.

This gentleman has a good video on the setup of the location information on a single camera. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khZ3ntbGMAc

Having said all that, whilst I have managed to get the information to show I also get a problem with the location information showing a fair bit! The issue is that you can choose in the Imaging Edge Location Information Linkage which camera to pair with. You can't be connected to two cameras at the same time. So if I'm working with Camera 1 I have to link to that one and if I start to shoot with Camera 2 it doesn't give it any location information. I would have to "Change the camera" to get it connected to the other camera.

Hmm. That's not ideal. I'm switching cameras all day.

I may turn this function off - my main desire was in synchronising my camera times with the phone so doing this periodically at home in a controlled environment may be best.

Ok, that brings me to the final conundrum.

Continually transmitting images from cameras (both) to the phone.
I believe that this also requires bluetooth setting and may also drain battery so may not be desirable at all on a long shoot.

My research on the web and YouTube continues but if anyone can help fill in the blanks I'd be grateful.

If (when) I find out about continual download of images from the A7iii via Imaging Edge to iPhone I'll let you know. I suspect it may only work (like location access) with one camera at a time - so a dual camera setup may preclude it.

Watch this space for updates!

[MalthouseMark]

Ok the final bit of the jigsaw is solved.

What I saw before was Sony's Transfer and Tagging add-on which allows FTP sending of images whilst shooting. It allows JPG only not RAW and JPG (apparently).

https://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/app/transfer/en/ gives details. And https://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/app/transfer/en/devices/cameras.php suggests it is compatible with my Sony A7iii. It does require signing in to the Sony userid which I've not done on Imaging Edge.

This chap gives an allternative FTP tool https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LDMVO726Ok but to be honest just looking at the configuration it would be a bit of a pain entering information using the "keyboard" screen on the camera so I may not bother at all and simply transfer things by date when I am in a quiet period on an event.

All of which means I've managed to answer my questions in the end! Phew.

I hope that helps someone somewhere.