There have been a lot of questions here on the blog and on Twitter (@therealmikewong) from photographers who need some support with their DSLR Camera Remote for iPhone. The majority of the support questions have to deal with connecting to the DSLR Camera Remote’s free Server Software that runs on a computer. Normally, I would direct these questions to our Tech Support form or Kwowledge Base, but I thought it would be a good idea to provide you with a list here to help you solve many of these problems or answer your questions. A big thanks goes to senior product manager Dan Harlacher who put this list together for me.

Troubleshooting the DSLR Camera Remote for iPhone

Last Updated: November 9, 2009

Be sure that you have installed the latest update to your operating system.

Be sure that you have the latest versions of both the client software running on your iPhone or iPod Touch and of the Server software.

Current Versions as of November 9, 2009

  • DSLR Camera Remote Client software for iPhone/iPod Touch: version 1.2
  • DSLR Camera Remote Server software: version 1.2

Please note, the 1.1 client works fine with the 1.2 server. The version numbers do not have to match.

Problem: The DSLR Camera Remote Server  won’t start or gives an error message?
Steps to Try:

  1. Windows users, try reinstalling the Microsoft .NET framework 3.5 from Microsoft’s website. DSLR Camera Remote will install this automatically if it is missing, however sometimes it may appear to be installed already and is an old or corrupt installation and DSLR Camera Remote’s installer will not try to reinstall .NET.
  2. Windows users, try reinstalling Bonjour from Apple’s website. This is similar to .NET in that DSLR Camera Remote will try to install this automatically if it is missing but if it thinks its installed but it is broken or corrupt it will not try to reinstall it.
  3. Try reinstalling the DSLR Camera Remote Server. Be sure to un-install it first. Make sure you have administrative privileges on the computer. For Windows Vista you may want to turn of User Access Controls during installation.
  4. Turn off your firewall or add an application exception for DSLR Camera Remote. On Mac OSX 10.4, you will need to turn the firewall off.
  5. On a Mac, if you receive a -5000 error, try repairing your disk permissions. Go to Disk Utility in your Applications > Utilities folder.
  6. Restart your computer.

Problem: The DSLR Camera Remote Server doesn’t show my camera connected?
Steps to Try:

  1. First make sure your camera is a supported model [ View this list here - {1} ], is turned on and attached to the computer with the proper USB or Firewire cable. Also check the battery in the camera, a low battery can cause problems even though the camera can turn on and function.
  2. Windows users may need to have the current drivers for their camera installed. Check the Canon web site for the most up to date driver software.
  3. Make sure your cameras firmware is up to date. Check the Canon website or the Nikon web site for the most up to date firmware.
  4. Check the camera’s communication mode is set to PTP. You can adjust this in the cameras menus. This is the default setting on newer cameras. For some older cameras such as the 5D, you will need to set the communication mode to PC Connection.
  5. Make sure no other software is accessing the camera. Turn off the EOS Utility or any other tethered shooting or downloading software.
  6. The sequence of starting things up can be important. Try restarting your computer, turning on the camera, then connecting the USB cable, then start the DSLR Camera Remote server software.
  7. If you are using on the the WFT wireless transmitters instead of a cable make sure you have the most up to date software and firmware installed. Also make sure you are using PTP as the communication protocol and that the transmitter is paired with your computer before starting the DSLR Camera Remote Server.

Problem: When I start DSLR Camera Remote on my iPhone/iPod Touch it doesn’t see my Server?
Steps to Try:

  1. Make sure your iPhone and host computer are on the same network (access-point). You set this in the Wi-Fi settings on your iPhone.
  2. Turn off your firewall or add an application exception for DSLR Camera Remote. On Mac OSX 10.4, you will need to turn the firewall off.
  3. Make sure you have a good signal strength on your Wifi network. If you are a long distance from your access-point it may lose connection.
  4. If you are working with an ad-hoc wireless connection it may take a minute or so before your server will appear in the server list, so be patient.

Problem: When I user DSLR Camera Remote on my iPhone/iPod Touch I can connect to the server but I see no controls or images on the iPhone.
Steps to Try:

  1. This means the host computer has lost connection with the camera. This can happen if the camera has gone to sleep or is “busy.” Try turning the camera off and back on or un-plugging and re-plugging the cable.

Problem: I can’t access certain controls on the camera from the iPhone/iPod Touch
Steps to Try:

  1. Some settings such as camera mode (Manual, Av, Tv, etc.) and focus mode (manual, single shot, continuous, etc.) have to be adjust on the camera body itself.
  2. In some camera modes, some options will disappear. For example if you are working in Program the shutter speed and aperture controls will be removed as they are being adjusted automatically.
  3. If you have the Lite version of DSLR Camera Remote you can only fire the camera and review images. Upgrade to the Professional Edition for more control.
  4. If you don’t see the LiveView option, your camera doesn’t support it. Check the DSLR Camera Remote user guide for details.

Problem: I can’t get the camera to focus or it is focusing in the wrong spot.
Steps to Try:

  1. When shooting without LiveView enabled, the camera will autofocus before taking a picture if the lens is set to AF. If the camera can’t focus you will get an error message on the iPhone. If this happens you can try setting a different AF point on the camera or turn the camera to MF and pre-focus on your subject.
  2. If you are using LiveView, the camera will not auto-focus. You will need to pre-focus the camera manually. We will be adding AF during LiveView in the future.

Why do I need a computer, why don’t you just have the iPhone control the camera directly?

We would love to do this, however, please remember that for the most part, cameras don’t have any wireless way to communicate with them, they do not have Bluetooth or Wi-Fi radios built into them. There are a couple of wireless adapters that Canon makes that we are exploring what we can do with them, but they are slow are limited in what we can do with them as a third-party developer. There are other general purpose wireless memory cards like the EyeFi but they are memory cards and don’t actually talk to the control bus of the camera – which is necessary to fire the camera and control other settings.

Several people have asked if they can plug their iPhone directly into the camera’s USB port and control it this way. This is something we are actively investigating, but until the iPhone 3.0 update, third party developers like us don’t have any way to communicate through the iPod dock connector. In the future we hope to be able to add this support, we will keep you posted.

At this time, we do not have any scheduled plans to support a direct connection between the iPhone/iPod Touch to a camera to control it. That may change in the future, but at this time, a computer will still be required to complete the connection between the iPhone/iPod Touch and the camera.

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  1. DSLR Cameras Supported as of October 12, 2009:- Canon EOS-1D Mark II
    - Canon EOS 20D
    - Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II
    - Canon EOS Kiss Digital N/350D/Rebel XT
    - Canon EOS 5D
    - Canon EOS-1D Mark II N
    - Canon EOS 30D
    - Canon EOS Kiss Digital X/400D/Rebel XTi
    - Canon EOS-1D Mark III
    - Canon EOS 40D*
    - Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III*
    - Canon EOS Digital Rebel Xsi/450D/Kiss X2*
    - Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS/1000D/KISS F
    - Canon EOS 50D*
    - Canon EOS 5D Mark II*
    - Nikon D40
    - Nikon D40x
    - Nikon D60
    - Nikon D80
    - Nikon D90
    - Nikon D 5000
    - Nikon D200
    - Nikon D300
    - Nikon D300s
    - Nikon D700
    - Nikon D3
    - Nikon D3x [↩]