How do you get better reliability with NCF transfers from T6s?

[mcpherdl]

I have succeeded only three times out of over a dozen tries on photo transfers from new T6s to my Samsung Note 4. It starts to make connection each time I place the phone next to camera base, but then stops progress after recognizing the network existence. Has anybody found any techniques to improve the NCF transfer reliability? I bought this camera body especially for this capability, but am quite disappointed by the experience.

[theandies · Accepted solution]

I think you mean NFC (Near Field Communications).

Yes I have the same issue with my HTC One M8.  I can connect (T6i) fine once and then any other time I cannot.   After the initial connection I get a message in the Camera Connect app saying

"Cannot connect to the camera. Check the camera settings".

The only work around that I've found is to delete the NFC set and then go through the connection process again.  It's a PITA so I stopped using NFC for now.  I hope a camera Firmware update or app update fixes this problem.

I just did some experiments.  I deleted the NFC set.  I forced stopped the app.  I turned off WiFi on my phone and turned NFC on.   I  turned on the camera but didn't go into the camera connection menu.  I just tapped my phone to the bottom of the camera.  Once I did that it started the connection process.  Durring this process the app asked if I wanted to turn on WiFi.  I pressed OK then the app said:

Find a network

Connect to network

Connect to the camera

The connection was established.

What I don't understand at this point is why WiFi needs to be on if you are connecting via NFC.  Doesn't that defeat the whole point of NFC?

Anyway after doing this I can connect via NFC every time (so far, I haven't tried it outside of my home WiFi yet).

So here is my new NFC work around

1.  Turn on NFC and WiFi on table/phone

2.  Turn on camera

3.  If not, enable WiFi/NFC connections in the camera menu. I usually leave WiFi/NFC enabled unless I need to connect via the comm cable to my computer.  If you know WiFi/NFC is enabled on your camera then you don't even need to go into the camera menus as there is no need to select WiFi function on the camera.

4.  Tap phone to bottom of camera and wait for connection to be established.

I hope Canon is aware of this as this is not how NFC should work.  NFC is like bluetooth (only for shorter distances) and should not require WiFi for communications.  Like I said I think a firmware update is in order.

The best option I've found with wireless communications between my phone/table is to use the camera's WiFi hotspot capability called Camera Access Point Mode (Page W-23 in the manual). This way you can transfer/remote control your camera anywhere.  Basically when you use this mode your camera creates a WiFi network and you go into your phone/tables WiFi settings and you will see the SSID or Nickname you made when first setting up your camera.   Just connect to that "network" and follow the instruction in the Camera Connect app.

After writing this I started thinking that maybe using the NFC function actually turns on the Camera Access Point Mode (CAPM) thus the reason WiFi needs to be on even when using NFC.  Maybe it's just a quick way of using the cameras CAPM.  Going outside away from my home WiFi to do more experimentation.

Hope this helps

John

EDIT - That is exactly what the NFC function is doing.  It's turning on CAPM.  I turned off my home network by unplugging my modem/WiFi router. This made my WiFi icon on my phone (notification area) go away even though I did not turn off WiFi on my phone. After taping my phone to the bottom of the camera my phone’s WiFi icon showed up again and it connected to my camera.  After communication was established I checked what network my phone was connected to and it said John's Camera_Canon0A (which is what I nicknamed my camera).  So it’s not really using NFC as the communication media it’s just using NFC to start the CAPM on the camera without having to go through the CAPM setup process.   Pretty neat but Canon should explain this better in the manual. 

Sorry you had to read everything before my final findings but I left it in this reply for others that may be having the same issue for educational purposes.  And thanks for posting this as it motivated me to figuring this out as I was just frustrated and had given up on the NFC communications feature.

[mcpherdl]

This help is quite illuminating. I spent about half an hour trying my camera this a.m. and finally had success by bringing the phone in proximity to the phone quite slowly. When I plant the phone against the camera before running the phone app, it almost acts like it's overdriving the connection and somehow distorting the signal. You suggestions look promising and I'll be trying them also. It's reassuring just to know that the process details aren't as simple as Canon implies in their somewhat abbreviated instructions. Thank you much for your time and wisdom.

[theandies]

It's still acting a little weird.  Sometimes I can connect with no problems other times I get the "check camera settings" message.  I'm going to get to the bottom of it sooner or later as I've made some progress today.  I'll post what I find.

[theandies]

This morning I tried again and got the "Check camera setting" message in the app on my phone.

I wrote down all the settings.  I then retried without doing anything and was still getting that message.  I deleted the NFC set on the camera then tried again.  It connected just fine.  I disconnected and turned the camera off and NFC off on my phone.  Turned everything back on and it connected fine.  Disconnected and tried again (Many times) and each time it connected. 

The settings I wrote down for the NFC set before I deleted it were the same as the settings after the deletion.

I'm going to compile all my test data better and send it to Canon.  I've not ruled out something going on with my phone but I suspect it's the app and/or camera that has the problem at this point.

It's getting better but still not sure why it's so flaky.    

Now my camera battery is dead so I need to charge it before more testing. UGG.