Shutter - Canon Camera Remote 4+

Remote Shutter Trigger for Canon R5

I found this app while WISHING I could trigger the shutter of my canon camera from my Apple Watch, without having to purchase another gadget. This app does the trick and saved me from having to buy a hardware version. When everything is right it does the trick!!

Now, from my Apple Watch,I can see a live preview, adjust exposure settings, and trigger the shutter. It also has an Intervalometer.

I had a question, emailed the developer, and got a response within minutes. The app is new for canon cameras and shows a lot of promise. It sounds like we can expect more to come :)

WIFI SETUP: the developer says to connect phone directly to camera WiFi, not through another WiFi network, such as my usual home network. It works MUCH better with the direct connection. If you connect through indirect WiFi expect issues.

Not super impressed

I’ll forgo a lengthy complaint about the trial. I wish I had longer to evaluate it than 7 days. Coercing people into a subscription is wrong. That’s all to say about that. It’s already covered in other reviews

Visually the app is nice, much nicer than Canon. But it stops there.

Functionally the connectivity isn’t much better. I had several occasions where Wi-Fi just wouldn’t pick up.

I was hoping for more shutter options such as custom lengths of time in BULB but the app only supports a maximum 30s exposure and only allows shutter speeds native to the camera. In that manner, it doesn’t function like an actual shutter controller.

I found that importing RAW files from my camera didn’t work; only received JPEG files in my photos app. The transfer wasn’t very smooth either failing a few times, and drained battery life off my camera I believe due to the JPEG conversion.

Also it’s unfortunate that this robs you of being able to use the Canon app altogether, because the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections must be totally reset between the two apps. While the Canon app is a pain, it offers much more features such as firmware updates, GPS coordinates, time sync, etc. that this app does not (and likely could not, especially on the firmware updates side).

I was willing to pay for a lifetime subscription but this app fell short in too many ways that left it no better than the free Canon app.

Evaluated using a Canon R5 mark ii.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for the detailed feedback and sorry the app didn't meet your expectations.

Exposures longer than 30 seconds are already supported. The camera must be in a mode that supports BULB (single photo exposure, non-electronic shutter), and the app will allow exposures up to 1 hour.

RAW imports should work, too. When you download RAW photos, the app asks whether to import them as RAW or JPEG. Given your camera is very new (R5 mark II), it's possible that the Photos app (where we store imports by default) was unable to read these RAW files yet. We've added an option to save photos to Files app. You can use e.g. Lightroom to edit them there.

The Bluetooth/Wi-Fi situation is indeed quite unfortunate. It's especially tricky with the R5 mark II that insists on Bluetooth connection (of which there can only be one active; it's a camera limitation). However, we found a method that allows you to keep using the Canon app (with its geotagging, time sync etc) and start Shutter without going through the entire configuration process again.

If you wish to give Shutter another try, I would be happy to set you up with a test version for longer than 7 days. Just email help@shutter.dev (or use the contact form on the website). We should be able to fix most of your issues.

As for the subscription, we try to make it very clear that this is a paid app with 7 days trial. You can later choose if you wish to continue with a subscription or a lifetime option. In the last release, we've made it a bit easier to switch between the two.

I hope you give Shutter another try!

What Canon Connect should have been

I often prefer to use an iPad to the touchscreen on my EOS RP, especially to show other people what the camera is seeing, such as during the solar eclipse. I also wanted to use the intervalometer to record an image every minute, but that functionality is disabled on the camera while connected to wi-fi, and Connect does not have that feature. So I can view on an iPad, or use the intervalometer, but not both.

Shutter does have this functionality, as well as the standard shutter, aperture, etc controls.

Also, my model allows a bulb timer, but only for one shot. So I can take one image of 60 seconds, for instance, but the intervalometer function is then disabled. I can’t take a series of images longer than 30 seconds.

Shutter also resolves this, allowing me to take any number of long exposures.