FreddB Loc: PA - Delaware County

Step 1: in camera setup menu, hit Bluetooth
Step 2: Network connection - ON; screen shows "iPhone waiting for connection"
Step 3: on phone open snap bridge
Step 4: change Auto Link to ON, hit "X" top left
Step 5: choose download pictures; "Enable camera wi-fi"; hit OK
Screen shows "snap bridge wants to join wi-if network "D5600..."
Step 6: choose Join; phone connects to camera

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

A question on the use of the Nikon app, SB. Is this being used simply to transfer jpeg files to a phone, or to a computer, too? Will it transfer RAW data?When would a photographer most likely want to use this app? I don't know what a practical application would be. I generally take a laptop with me on photo shoots and download the card each evening as a backup. If I want to put something on my phone, which I actually don't do often, I can airdrop it from my Mac to the phone. Just trying to learn about the app.

nhislop

Personally I use it to synch my photos as to my phone so that I can post to Facebook, share with friends and family in near-real time.

At some later stage I will upload to my PC do all that good LR stuff, but often I want to share pics on a more casual, immediate basis and SB is good for that.

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

Jaackill, why are insulting this guy. Snap bridge is not easy to figure out and often doesn't work very well. These are ligetimate questions and you answer him by putting him down. If you have something real to say then say it.
...Cam

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

If this works it is a good explanation, but why does Nikon put "enable camera wi-fi" if only Bluetooth is being used?
...Cam

Polock

all this is well and good unless you happen to have a Intel processor in your mobile device.
maybe something has recently changed but read the fine print

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

I don't think Snapbridge has ever connected automatically for me. Usually, I have to tell my iPhone to forget the D850 so it can reconnect. I wish either Nikon fix the app or somebody explain in simple terms how to make it connect & automatically reconnect.

JeffDavidson Loc: Originally Detroit Now Los Angeles

Check with Nikonusa.com or call. They are very helpful.

Love Wildlife

I called Nikon and they walked me through in about 5 minutes. It has works flawless for transfering pics from my camera to my phone through bluetooth while I shoot the go. The app will change the data size so that no pic will be over 2 megs as it transfers to my phone. If you turn the camera off before transfers are complete the camera will continue to transfer. This is how I have been doing it all along. There is still enough data there that I can print a 11x14" but nothing bigger. I only use it as a backup incase my SD card fails then I just delete the pics from my phone.

Jim

hobbit123 Loc: Brisbane, Australia

Thanks to everyone for your informed replies/intelligent guesses. I did some testing today and I may be close to the truth.

I turned off the WiFi on my phone then did the following:

1) Took some photos and watched as they transferred (@ 2Mb) to my phone.
2) Selected one photo and transferred it to my phone at original size.
3) Used my phone to control the camera.

It did all these things perfectly but the one observation I made was that Snapbridge turned on my camera WiFi when I tried to control the camera (and in fact may have done it for the transfer of the file at original size).

So then I turned off my wireless router and did the test again. Once again it worked (and of course in hindsight I realised it mustn't use the router because it works in the field)

So it looks like Nikon uses WiFi for camera control (probably because of the greater bandwidth which would be needed to provide live view) and optionally to transfer files at original size. This is consistent with what a number of you have suggested. It looks like the camera and phone communicate directly with each other.

It appears BT is used only for the transfer of 2Mb files.

As for the range of BT? As PeterG pointed out low-power BT is used so the range is less than normal BT but depending on circumstances this could still be up to 100m (line of site) or 30m in a typical house. This is well within the distance I was describing.

Thanks everyone for your help.

hobbit123 Loc: Brisbane, Australia

This is a good question because if you've never used SnapBridge you have no idea how handy it can be. Typical scenario - I go on vacation and take my camera and my phone (Android in my case). I take some photos with the camera and when I get back to my hotel room I review them...on the tiny LCD screen on the back of the camera. That's the best I can do and it's not ideal. The solution? Take a laptop of course then just use a USB cable or remove the SD card and put it in the card reader in the laptop. Problem? My laptop is heavy and it represents a significant risk of theft.

Snapbridge provides a solution that appeals to me. Not long after I've taken the photos they appear (all by themselves) in a SnapBridge folder on my phone. I can review them there but that's only slightly better than the small LCD screen on the back of the camera. So I have the Snapbridge folder on the phone synced with Google Photos so as soon as I'm within range of a WiFi signal I can use, the photos are copied there automatically. Then I can view them on my iPad (yes I know a theft risk but it can fit into the room safe when I'm out). Alternatively I can use an available PC in the hotel and log in using my Google account and view them there.

I think it's a great solution that's worked really well for me since I started using it.

stewml Loc: Livonia, MI

[quote=hobbit123]This is a good question because if you've never used SnapBridge you have no idea how handy it can be. Typical scenario - I go on vacation and take my camera and my phone (Android in my case). I take some photos with the camera and when I get back to my hotel room I review them...on the tiny LCD screen on the back of the camera. That's the best I can do and it's not ideal. The solution? Take a laptop of course then just use a USB cable or remove the SD card and put it in the card reader in the laptop. Problem? My laptop is heavy and it represents a significant risk of theft.

I also used an android phone on vacation. I put the phone in airplane mode then turned on only the Bluetooth and location and recorded general locations to the meta data. (You can set the timing (Accuracy) for taking way-points.

SeaBrat Loc: St Petersburg, FL

This is my experience with Snapbridge, D7500 and iOS. Sometimes I use it with a D5600 but I am not sure the differences. After BT is connected, the camera chooses if it needs wifi and then the camera turns it on. You don't need to do anything.

- Nikon has a great video to help you connect the camera to the first time
- Once connected (paired) you should not need to do that again. So you will not need the camera function “connect to smart device” again.
- with the camera and Snapbridge both on and close to each other, they will connect by themselves. The connection is evidenced by the Bluetooth (BT) symbol on the iOS device and camera BT symbol on solid.
- when the camera display goes to sleep, so does the Bluetooth connection unless you enable the BT “send while off” function in the setup menu. When the camera wakes up so does the BT connection all by itself. You may want to set your Custom Setting C2 timer to 10seconds or longer.
- Snapbridge only works with .jpg files.
- if you only shoot .nef files, you can use the camera Retouch menu to convert selected files to .jpg. Then use Playback menu to select and send .jpg files to your iOS device. If Snapbridge “cloud” is setup to Auto upload, your files will be uploaded to Nikon Image Space.
- some Snapbridge camera “Auto link” functions are duplicated in your camera. So both need to be on to activate that function. Think auto download, synchronize location...
- Snapbridge download function only works with WiFi. BT must be connected first to connect with WiFi. The camera chooses wifi if it needs it. You select the .jpg files on your iOS device and click download. WiFi stays on in camera and Snapbridge until you turn it off in Snapbridge or turn the camera off.
- Remote photography works on WiFi and allows you to change P,M,A,S modes take pics and more. Focus by pressing the iOS screen display.

Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

Here's a little bit about my experience with SnapBridge.

I have a D7500 and a Samsung Note 8.

I have paired my D7500 with my Note8. I pointed SnapBridge to a newly built folder on the 256GB SD card in my Note 8. I shoot RAW with Normal JPEG and I have a 128GB SD card in my D7500.

I leave Bluetooth off in the camera usually. I have tried the automated transfer (Auto Link) which is restricted to 2MB JPEGs only. It works fine, but the limitations make it so that it's not my preferred metod for backup.

I did some tests and I lose Bluetooth connectivity after about 25 feet or so, which is the standard for Bluetooth as a PAN with a 10 meter coverage. In a house (no line of sight) it goes away even faster. I haven't a clue how it was reported earlier that the Bluetooth in a D5600 goes to 100 meters in line of sight and 30 meters in a house, those are WiFi specs, not Bluetooth. I also have a Samsung Gear 3 watch paired with my Note 8 and the distances are very similar to what I'm getting with the D7500.

Now, the D7500 has Wifi which enables the camera to establish an ad hoc wireless network (peer to peer) with the Note 8. You start that using Bluetooth and when you do downloads, you select the folder on the D7500 from which to get the pictures, select the picture(s) you want to download and when you click on Download it will give you the option to download a 2MB file or original size, but still only JPEGs. It takes about 6 seconds to transfer a 12MB JPEG file to my Note 8's SD-card.

You have to use WiFi to download files and to do remote photography, it seems Bluetooth is only used for transferring files in Auto Link and to turn on WiFi on the camera.

When you use remote photography, you can elect to download the file automatically or not, and you can select to get a 2MB JPEG or the original size, but still just a JPEG. WiFi connections go much further than Bluetooth with my setup.

I find it faster to transfer lots of files, including RAW from my D7500 to my Note 8 by using a short OTG cable a regular USB cable to the D7500. I then just fire up Files and transfer what I want at about 4X the speed of WiFi. I also have a small SD-card reader that I can attach to my Note 8 and download the files that way to my SD-card. That's the fastest way to pull the files across.

I'm continuing my tests.