Note: The new Creators' App mobile application replaces the Imaging Edge Mobile app. The Creators' App allows you to transfer images from the camera to your smartphone, shoot remotely, and use various other functions.
Adds a function that improves security when connecting with the Creators' App and Imaging Edge Desktop software for remote shooting and image transfers
Note: Please update the Imaging Edge Desktop software to the latest version (Ver.3.6 or later)
Adds a function to switch the face that is prioritized for focus with a custom key
It looks like the Creator App does not work with the r3 body. When I try to add a camera in Creator App, it adds the r5 body successfully but while it recognizes the r3 body exists, it just shows a popup saying "Cannot add. Use Imaging Edge Mobile app.". It doesn't seem to be a problem to have both apps installed, though.
Thanks for your field report! That's interesting to know.
It immediately raises a question for me as to whether, if you have both apps installed, you can run both apps simultaneously and have them be connected (for the location data feature, also simultaneously) to different cameras.
If so, that would enable one to have two cameras connected, switched on and retrieving GPS data from a single 'phone - rather than having to choose one at a time as is the case with IEM.
The reason that's interesting to me is that I often have two cameras active when I shoot (set up differently and with different lenses attached) and to do that with GPS, I have to carry a second phone that's dedicated to IEM for the second camera. It would be nice to be able to get GPS connection for both cameras from a single 'phone...
I've just gone ahead and tried exactly that. Both apps are installed; the a7r3 is registered with IEM, and the a7r5 is registered with Creators App. "Location Information Linkage" is enabled for both in their respective apps. I can indeed take pictures with both cameras and the images on both get GPS location data attached.
I will say though that at least on the iPhone, IOS seems to stop both apps (or at least block them from communicating with the camera) after a short period of not being in the foreground, so unless I'm mid-session, and even sometimes then, most of the time when I pick up the camera and start shooting it doesn't get GPS data until I take out my phone, start the app manually, and put it back in my pocket.
I assume this is some kind of limitation in iOS, but it does make the whole GPS linkage much less useful. I wish they'd just gone ahead and put a GPS receiver in the camera, honestly. I also can't figure out what determines how long it works before stopping. Sometimes I can pick up the camera the next day and GPS will still work, other times even 10 or 15 minutes after starting the app, it stops delivering GPS data to the camera. It seems very random to me.
Thanks a heap for doing that and reporting the result. That could turn out to be very handy!
Of course, it does depend on the two cameras one uses being able to connect to different mobile apps. So if one was using two a7Riii bodies (for instance) it would not help because they'd both be limited to IEM.
Although, per the OP from @kilofox, I understand that FW 2.0 for the a7Rv "adds support for the Creators' App", I tend to assume that it also means that the a7Rv (once the FW is updated) will no longer connect to IEM - though I've not seen this explicitly stated. If that's the case, the "two app" GPS strategy wouldn't be possible with, say, two a7Rv bodies running FW 2.0 - you'd presumably have to be using one body that's updated to "support for the Creators' App" and one that isn't...
I've seen that too, but not recently, I must say.
My assumption is that the (mis)behaviour varies depending on the version of iOS - and perhaps also the version of IEM and/or other config settings in the device. At a particular point, it started working (reconnecting without me having to manually futz with IEM) and I've attempted to avoid changes abd updates since then, in order to avoid "breaking it" again. So far, so good, and I can sometimes go for weeks (with multiple shooting sessions) without any dropped (or failed-to--establish) GPS connections.
I'm with you 100% on the desirability of a GPS receiver in the camera.
My guess is that the folks at Sony have been reluctant to include onboard GPS because it would be one more thing draining power and shortening battery life (which is a crucial spec for marketing purposes). But if that's their motivation, I don't really think it holds up. User experience matters, and whatever they might "lose" in marketing brownie points over a bit of an impact on battery run times would be offset by the extra marketing bullet point of internal GPS functionality.
It would especially help them with people like you and me who have had enough of futzing around with apps that don't always connect when they should (and otherwise behave/misbehave in inexplicable and seemingly random ways). : |
I'm not sure that's a problem. Previously I had an rIV body which uses IEM, and the rV also used IEM before the v2.00 update. At that point I had both the rIII and the other body both connected to IEM simultaneously and that worked fine. I don't have two Creators App-compatible bodies, so I can't say for sure that it can work with more than one at a time, but I know for sure that IEM can, as I used it that way for a long time. And yes, once updating the rV to v2.00 it will no longer talk to IEM, only to Creators App. But I bet multiple bodies on each app would work fine.
