Fujifilm X-PRO2: Wireless

category: Cameras • 3 min read

Fuji includes the wireless functionality into many of its cameras, like the X-PRO2, the X-T2, the X-T20 and even some of the older cameras.

What I’d like to do is:

  • Take a few pictures (mostly headshots)
  • Review them myself
  • Show the person and make some improvements

The problem is the LCD at the back of the camera is small and almost everything looks good on it. Magnifying at the focus point only shows a tiny bit of the face…

The solution?

Use the wireless and a tablet with “Fujifilm Camera Remote”. So I borrowed my son’s Samsung 8“ Tab E which is 7.1 times larger in surface than the LCD at the back of my X-PRO2.

It should be simple:

  • Go to the Google play
  • Type fujifilm, look for “Camera Remote”
  • Install

So where’s the documentation?

Kind of missing in action.

I contacted Fujifilm who pointed me to http://app.fujifilm-dsc.com/en/

There are a few web pages showing what can be done. It’s fairly obvious until I started running into problems.

The “Fujifilm Camera Remote” is divided into 4 sections:

  1. Remote control
  2. Receive
  3. Browse camera
  4. Geotagging

The first thing to do is connect the camera to the tablet:

  1. Start the camera remote app
  2. Select connect
  3. Select wireless communication from deep inside the menu

Then I selected “Browse Camera” to view the images. It works but then the camera doesn’t work. The camera remote transfers the jpeg preview to the tablet. It works but it’s not as fast as Canon’s Camera Connect to view the image. And did I mention that the camera becomes “frozen” while doing any of these operations?

OK, now I want to take some more photos. No can do. I have to disconnect the X-PRO2 from the Camera Remote program. Take another few photos, reconnect…

Make sure that you set a shortcut to the wireless menu

  • If you need to switch from one module to the next, you need to disconnect and reconnect…
  • If you need to cancel an operation, you need to disconnect and reconnect…

What’s the range?

I’m not sure, but I have used it at around 10 meters/30 feet and it worked without any problem (foyer of a large building). It can even work across a wall from one room to the next without any problem.

What’s the battery life?

The NW126 and the NW126S batteries are not known for having an extended battery life per charge.

With the wireless enabled, it becomes: “make sure that you have plenty of spareS.” And I’m not talking about one extra battery. I was getting between 30 to 40 images per battery charge. Luckily I have 4 of them: 2 Fuji and 2 no-name (up-start).

BTW, the Fujifilm batteries do last a little bit longer than the no-names when using the camera remote but not by too much.

Receive

Allows to send a single image from the camera to either the smartphone of the tablet.

  1. By default it resizes the image to 3 megabytes
  2. It only transfers JPEGs and doesn’t transfer RAW images. If you shoot RAW only, the camera will convert it to JPEG and transfer the jpeg.

Browsing Camera

Allows to view all the images AND videos from the camera and then download them to either the smartphone of the tablet.

  1. By default it resizes the images to JPEG to 3 megabytes
  2. It only transfers JPEGs and doesn’t transfer RAW images. If you shoot RAW only, the camera will convert it to JPEG and transfer the jpeg.
  3. The smarphone/tablet must support the video mode to be transfered. Fuji recommends: HD 1280x720 for the iPhones and iPads.

Geotagging

The camera gets the geolocation from the smartphone/tablet and applies it to the images when taking new images.

  1. Location data older than two hours will not be transmitted to the camera.
  2. If more than three hours have passed since location data were last updated, the data will no longer be embedded in new pictures by the camera.

Fujifilm X-PRO2 X-T2 X-T20