# Canon’s image.canon cloud service is now live



## Canon Rumors Guy (Apr 15, 2020)

> The image.canon cloud service went live yesterday. This is another online service from Canon as they appear to be motivated to find some sort of online storage solution.
> image.canon is a cloud service designed to ease your imaging workflow, whether you are a professional, enthusiast, or casual user. Connecting your Wi-Fi compatible Canon camera to the image.canon service will allow you to seamlessly upload all your images and movies in their original format and quality and access them from the dedicated app or a web browser – and automatically forward them to your computer, mobile devices, and third party services.
> Download for Android // Download for iOS
> 
> ...



Continue reading...


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## Antono Refa (Apr 15, 2020)

The Android app download page says "image.canon app not ready, Currently being reviewed on Google Play"...


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## SereneSpeed (Apr 15, 2020)

My one question: Can I backup RAW files, while shooting?

(i.e. can this be used as a ‘second card slot’ for the EOS R?)


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## JBizzle (Apr 15, 2020)

I downloaded this and used it yesterday. In it's current state, it adds no value. 1) It is painfully slow (it took an 90 minutes to upload 50 RAW photos) to the cloud 2) This consumes the battery 3) The automatic download from the Cloud to Google Drive did not work 4) The automatic download from Cloud to Desktop did not work.

The idea is awesome, but it just doesn't work fast enough or with the automated capabilities it claims. In it's current state, this slows my workflow.


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## CJudge (Apr 15, 2020)

While I commend Canon for attempting to ease file management workflows, I have to agree that this solution as it stands is pretty much useless. You need to be connected to a WiFi network, so it’s not like it’s a great backup solution for when you’re on location. And so if you are in a WiFi area, along with your computer, why on earth would you use the bandwidth to upload and then download Gigabytes and Gigabytes of data to and from Canon’s servers, when it would make much more sense and be much faster to transfer directly over the local network?

Making the Canon Connect app work more seemlessly and in the background would be a much, much better solution for most photographers.


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## unfocused (Apr 15, 2020)

1DX III not listed? I thought it had WIfi.


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## Aaron D (Apr 15, 2020)

I'm commenting without having tried it, but I'm not sure if this is ever going to be quicker for me than taking a card out of the camera, plugging it into a card reader and loading files directly into the their final resting place on my hard drive. Sure an on-the-fly second card slot would be nice, or sending files directly to an end client--if you work that way. Vacation photos to an on-line gallery maybe? 

Dunno.


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## mccasi (Apr 15, 2020)

JBizzle said:


> I downloaded this and used it yesterday. In it's current state, it adds no value. 1) It is painfully slow (it took an 90 minutes to upload 50 RAW photos) to the cloud 2) This consumes the battery 3) The automatic download from the Cloud to Google Drive did not work 4) The automatic download from Cloud to Desktop did not work.
> 
> The idea is awesome, but it just doesn't work fast enough or with the automated capabilities it claims. In it's current state, this slows my workflow.



I'm already very positive that they support the R, having said that I'm confident:
1. the R5 will have 5GHz Wifi and a faster processor, I'm sure that will address the speed issue by a factor (90--> 9min)
2. I think Canon wants to establish HEIF, so that's another 2-3x factor of speed (--> 3 min for 50 images)
3. Send to Google Drive worked for me, not yet automatically
4. app itself works pretty snappy and intuitive for a first live for such a complex product (tried some use cases for myself)

Last time I was on my Japan trip, i had a portable 3G router with me for 10 USD a week, I took 3k images, so all assumptions from above thats 3h upload at once, or half an hour every day.
A wedding photographer maybe takes 500 GB of images & video's a day across 4 cameras: that's 2000 min across 4 cameras --> 8.33h upload each (probably blocking each other's upload stream), don't think that works - maybe no video then.

So as a prosumer/travel/Getty photographer, its pretty exciting!


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## Starting out EOS R (Apr 15, 2020)

Any cloud based solution like this is always going to rely on the wifi connection which if at home or on a normal wifi network will be ok but when out and about and using a 4g/ wifi hotspot etc is likely to be slow at best and probably unusable.

As CJudge says, if you are using a wifi network say at home or in a hotel, why do this when you can just use the card to download straight to storage? Unless there is going to be some sort of robust and fast method of transferring files while out and about, I suspect this solution will be for emergencies and not be a viable day to day solution, especially with the drain on the battery.


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## mccasi (Apr 15, 2020)

Aaron D said:


> I'm commenting without having tried it, but I'm not sure if this is ever going to be quicker for me than taking a card out of the camera, plugging it into a card reader and loading files directly into the their final resting place on my hard drive. Sure an on-the-fly second card slot would be nice, or sending files directly to an end client--if you work that way. Vacation photos to an on-line gallery maybe?
> 
> Dunno.


But just imagine a teenager who grew up with smartphone buys a prosumer cam, SD into laptop is alien to them. Sure it's faster for now, its like using a typewriter instead of a computer for writing a letter... I have never used a typewriter for that, but i'm sure it's faster than writing a letter, just image what other use cases are enabled this way... the future starts now


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## JBizzle (Apr 15, 2020)

I used my EOS R for this exercise. Too slow for me at the current speed, using WiFi (1000 Mbps plan and was right next to the router). As is, downloading from the card is faster and more reliable. Not saying it can't get there, but in it's current state it adds no value and actually delays my workflow.


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## bubbles (Apr 15, 2020)

I think Canon is planning for the future here i.e. internal 5G sim card. In the current state it is not very functional but lets not forget it has just been over 24 hours since release. Currently my main complaint is that it does not do automatic upload. You need to specify a specific image, date range or all items every time you want to upload. I would like them to upload as they are taken and if no known wifi is available then to auto batch upload once you are in range of one. Though this has battery concerns. I would also like the option to say only upload images. Syncing to Google Drive worked for me, but only for images uploaded after it was linked.

There are surely some professional uses cases here but I think it will mainly be geared towards consumers/prosumers. I personally would love to be able to take a picture while on vacation and within a few seconds pull up my phone, have the image on Google Photos where I can do a quick edit and share with family all seamlessly. Unfortunately this will probably only be a reality once we have cellular on the camera.


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## Aaron D (Apr 15, 2020)

mccasi said:


> the future starts now


Sure, and for some this will be a big deal. 

I guess I'm just sitting here wishing Canon would put a tripod foot on their TS lenses and wondering if that's such a old-world mechanical thing that it will never appear on their radar. Doesn't seem like a huge ask to me, but I see all the energy and resources pouring into this stuff and get jealous...


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## alejandrobox (Apr 15, 2020)

I can´t see the advantages of the service. Can someone explain it to me? You need to be connected to a wi-fi or some other internet connection. I´m trying it at home, where I have a 600mb wi-fi internet connection. It needs like 45 minutos to upload 38 files. What is the benefit versus download it to my computer and then upload to my Google Drive?


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## Chaitanya (Apr 15, 2020)

alejandrobox said:


> I can´t see the advantages of the service. Can someone explain it to me? You need to be connected to a wi-fi or some other internet connection. I´m trying it at home, where I have a 600mb wi-fi internet connection. It needs like 45 minutos to upload 38 files. What is the benefit versus download it to my computer and then upload to my Google Drive?


Many people dont know this but the upstream speed of home internet connections is not same as downstream speed(based on which ISPs charge you for plans and that is what is advertised). It is fraction of that speed and thats why everyone will say uploads are slow. At my home I pay for 50Mbps internet plan but the upstream speed is only 512kbps and even uploading a single jpeg(~5MB) takes ~80secs or so for me. Just check the statistics of your internet connection on data connection page of router/modem to find out at what speed the files will be uploaded from client end to server end.


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## David_E (Apr 15, 2020)

Doesn't work for me; can't connect to Canon Image Gateway. Someone wrote on the official Canon forums that the Canon Image Gateway has been shut down (Canon said it would be) and the replacement server for image.canon is not up yet. Soon, probably. Or perhaps it was up, and then went down, as I see above that some are saying they succeeded in trying it.


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## LDS (Apr 15, 2020)

SereneSpeed said:


> My one question: Can I backup RAW files, while shooting?



Yes. You'll need a fast enough connection, though.
I believed they would reuse some Irista code for the image viewer, but it looks they started again from scratch with a very basic viewer.


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## LDS (Apr 15, 2020)

CJudge said:


> You need to be connected to a WiFi network, so it’s not like it’s a great backup solution for when you’re on location.



You can use your phone or a mobile router as a portable wifi hotspot, and use it to transfer images to the remote server. Then you or someone else can download them to a computer from it. Or move them to another supported storage.


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## Antono Refa (Apr 15, 2020)

Chaitanya said:


> Many people dont know this but the upstream speed of home internet connections is not same as downstream speed (based on which ISPs charge you for plans and that is what is advertised). It is fraction of that speed and thats why everyone will say uploads are slow.



Indeed. In Israel, the upload speed is 5-10% the download speed. Furthermore, smartphone data plans are usually limited with exceptions, say unlimited traffic for certain popular apps, such as whatsapp and facebook, with the rest is limited to 50GB per month.


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## Valvebounce (Apr 15, 2020)

Hi Chaitanya. 
Doesn’t upload speed depend on whether you have ADSL or SDSL? SDSL should give the same both up and down. 

Cheers, Graham.



Chaitanya said:


> Many people dont know this but the upstream speed of home internet connections is not same as downstream speed(based on which ISPs charge you for plans and that is what is advertised). It is fraction of that speed and thats why everyone will say uploads are slow. At my home I pay for 50Mbps internet plan but the upstream speed is only 512kbps and even uploading a single jpeg(~5MB) takes ~80secs or so for me. Just check the statistics of your internet connection on data connection page of router/modem to find out at what speed the files will be uploaded from client end to server end.


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## magarity (Apr 15, 2020)

CJudge said:


> You need to be connected to a WiFi network, so it’s not like it’s a great backup solution for when you’re on location


I'm pretty sure the idea is to put your phone in wifi hotspot mode. I also suspect it is meant to be "not far behind" more than "instantaneous".


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## magarity (Apr 15, 2020)

alejandrobox said:


> I´m trying it at home, where I have a 600mb wi-fi internet connection.


The latest 5Ghz wifi (802.11ac) gets 200Mb/s so while your home to ISP might be 600Mb/s, your wifi isn't. Even if you have a fancy router that can do that much in total, individual devices like the camera will not. Furthermore all the camera models have 2.4Ghz, which is lucky to get 20Mb/s.
Canon means for this to be used with your phone in hotspot mode or a laptop with a cell SIM while you are out and about. Using it at home makes no sense as you've discovered.


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## Whowe (Apr 15, 2020)

I have not used it either, but what I would like is to be able to rate an image in camera (or "lock" image) and set it to only upload those images. That would reduce the number of images uploaded, saving some time and providing protection for your best images. Seems like this should be easy enough to do.

I also agree that I do not understand why this needs to be a separate app from canon connect app. Again, that just seems to make things more complicated.


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## LDS (Apr 15, 2020)

magarity said:


> The latest 5Ghz wifi (802.11ac) gets 200Mb/s



The latest is 802.11ax (WiFi 6) which has a theoretical maximum of 9.6Gb/s (ac was 3.5) - but those are speed with wide channels and a lot of antennas. Realistic speeds are slower, but it's not difficult to get more than 200Mb/s, many phones can do better easily. For example one of the phones on my desk is connected at 433Mb/s, and it's not a top of the line ones.

It's hard to put many antennas in a camera without having them blocked by hands. and leaving space to other needed items. Still, they may go faster than many people upload speeds. But for some lucky ones with symmetric fibre links at 1Gb/s, most have slower speeds. Some fibre//high speed coax links have usually some hundred Mb/s, VDSL usually some tens, while ADSL rarely goes beyond 1Mb. Symmetric connections are usually more expensive and often not available but to business users.

4G is usually around the lower tens, 5G should be higher, but it's still available in relatively few places.

Uploading a lot of large RAW images will take time. Uploading smaller JPEG/HEIF files will take considerably less.


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## JBizzle (Apr 15, 2020)

alejandrobox said:


> I can´t see the advantages of the service. Can someone explain it to me? You need to be connected to a wi-fi or some other internet connection. I´m trying it at home, where I have a 600mb wi-fi internet connection. It needs like 45 minutos to upload 38 files. What is the benefit versus download it to my computer and then upload to my Google Drive?


Exactly. It's junk in it's current state. I have 1000 mbps and it took 90 minutes for 50 RAW files. There is no benefit. The "automated" upload/download to other services doesn't work either. Useless. I am not saying it can NEVER work, just that (as launched) it is not worth it.


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## magarity (Apr 15, 2020)

I just tried Google Play again and this thing is still under review. How are you other people already trying it out?


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## Chaitanya (Apr 15, 2020)

Valvebounce said:


> Hi Chaitanya.
> Doesn’t upload speed depend on whether you have ADSL or SDSL? SDSL should give the same both up and down.
> 
> Cheers, Graham.


SDSL(still not standardised) connections are not that common and they generally are targetted towards small to medium sized enterprises who cannot afford T1/E1 lines. In case someone is indeed using SDSL or any leased line they should get much higher upstream speeds than users using Adsl connections.


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## David - Sydney (Apr 16, 2020)

LDS said:


> You can use your phone or a mobile router as a portable wifi hotspot, and use it to transfer images to the remote server. Then you or someone else can download them to a computer from it. Or move them to another supported storage.


I get the cloud backup/redundancy benefits but this is meant to be temporary storage / single slot backup solution. If you are using your phone as a hotspot then surely saving the files locally on the phone is a better/faster and maybe cheaper (iphone flash tax vs andriod uSD card vs data plans especially when roaming) option. 512GB should be sufficient short term storage for stills until reaching a backup PC/external drive. iPhone 11 has 802.11ax now and most phones will be using it over the next 2/3 year refresh cycle. Although 5G has very high theoretical speeds (upload and download), coverage is very patchy and distance to tower makes a lot of difference. It will be the future solution but it will maybe take a couple of years to be ubiquitous in urban areas together with 5G phones. 

I still think that having 2 x micro SD cards in one SD card in RAID 1 is the best option for single slot cameras. Still looks to be single slot/card and camera only reads/writes to the primary micro SD card. If the primary card fails then you can remove the other micro SD card as the backup and upload from there and replace the faulty micro SD card. 
Pity no one makes such a device!


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## CJudge (Apr 16, 2020)

LDS said:


> You can use your phone or a mobile router as a portable wifi hotspot, and use it to transfer images to the remote server. Then you or someone else can download them to a computer from it. Or move them to another supported storage.



It's unlikely that anyone hotspotting from their phone or a portable router would have the bandwidth to spare for this. Intense uploads such as this would likely incur massive surcharges, or be throttled quickly. I agree with another poster who suggests that if there's an option to only upload starred images, then I could see the appeal for making sure that your absolute keeper shots get backed up off-site ASAP. Otherwise, you're better off just temporarily keeping the backups on your phone. And either way, it would be nice if this was an update to the existing Camera Connect App, instead of being a separate workflow.


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## CJudge (Apr 16, 2020)

mccasi said:


> I'm already very positive that they support the R, having said that I'm confident:
> 1. the R5 will have 5GHz Wifi and a faster processor, I'm sure that will address the speed issue by a factor (90--> 9min)
> 2. I think Canon wants to establish HEIF, so that's another 2-3x factor of speed (--> 3 min for 50 images)
> 3. Send to Google Drive worked for me, not yet automatically
> ...



Firstly, I think you're vastly over-estimating the increase in upload time attributed to 5Ghz Wifi and the processor here... The 90mins isn't the time it takes for the camera to shift the images off the card via Wi-Fi, the bottle-neck is the upload bandwidth provided by the user's ISP.

Secondly, HEIF isn't going to result in 2-3x smaller file sizes. In fact, it's likely that image file sizes will remain pretty similar to JPEG, but with roughly twice the image quality.

So although future advances will bring speed improvements, it's the networks that need to improve, not the cameras. And it's going to be quite a while before we see a 30x speed improvement there.


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## CJudge (Apr 16, 2020)

magarity said:


> I'm pretty sure the idea is to put your phone in wifi hotspot mode. I also suspect it is meant to be "not far behind" more than "instantaneous".



The only way I could see this working effectively (neither killing battery life nor maxing out upload bandwidth of a mobile data plan, while still actually providing a genuine convenience) would be if the app could be set up to work like this:

1) I quickly star an image while shooting.
2) The camera turns on Wifi, pings my phone, and establishes a connection.
3) The starred image gets transferred to my phone that's still in my pocket, which in turn begins to sync it to the cloud.
4) The WiFi on the camera turns off once more, until another image is starred which has not been yet noted by the system as having already been uploaded.

If the software gets to this point, I'd be delighted. But as it stands, the Canon Camera Connect app still requires my phone to be left on the app's menu screen if I want to maintain a connection to auto transfer images as I shoot, which renders the whole process very awkward and battery draining for both devices. So I'm not going to hold my breath on Canon making this seamless any time soon...


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## magarity (Apr 16, 2020)

CJudge said:


> if I want to maintain a connection to auto transfer images as I shoot, which renders the whole process very awkward and battery draining for both devices. So I'm not going to hold my breath on Canon making this seamless any time soon...


Ah, then if the phone is in your pocket what really needs to happen is not a WiFi connection but Bluetooth, which is fast enough for file transfer yet much lower power. Pretty sure the current model cameras all have BT. Unfortunately they seem to only use it to initiate WiFi or only be a remote trigger. Not data transfer. Hmm.


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## LDS (Apr 16, 2020)

CJudge said:


> It's unlikely that anyone hotspotting from their phone or a portable router would have the bandwidth to spare for this. Intense uploads such as this would likely incur massive surcharges, or be throttled quickly.



That's strictly dependent on your internet contract and which part of the world you're operating in. Here I can get a consumer or business mobile unlimited data plan for €40/month. A lot depends on how you shoot. It's clear shooting at 10fps continuously requires a different bandwidth that taking a shot every few minutes.


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## Starting out EOS R (Apr 16, 2020)

LDS said:


> That's strictly dependent on your internet contract and which part of the world you're operating in. Here I can get a consumer or business mobile unlimited data plan for €40/month. A lot depends on how you shoot. It's clear shooting at 10fps continuously requires a different bandwidth that taking a shot every few minutes.


Your right, there are so many variables here. The biggest issue I'm sure we will encounter will be if shooting in RAW, the files are quite big and if its landscape, likely to be away from wifi hotspots meaning it will be your own phones 4 or 5G hotspot and connection, if there is any where you are. I'd love to think there is going to be some innovative solution from Canon to help with this but I'm pretty sure there are too many outside factors they cannot influence so no matter how good there platform is, it will always be reliant on the telecom companies infrastructure, mast positioning and network speeds etc. I live in hope but prepare for the worst by swapping out cards regularly to ensure images are safe.


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## lawny13 (Apr 16, 2020)

CJudge said:


> While I commend Canon for attempting to ease file management workflows, I have to agree that this solution as it stands is pretty much useless. You need to be connected to a WiFi network, so it’s not like it’s a great backup solution for when you’re on location. And so if you are in a WiFi area, along with your computer, why on earth would you use the bandwidth to upload and then download Gigabytes and Gigabytes of data to and from Canon’s servers, when it would make much more sense and be much faster to transfer directly over the local network?
> 
> Making the Canon Connect app work more seemlessly and in the background would be a much, much better solution for most photographers.



Additional functionality and expansion of features IS ALWAYS WELCOME even if some users might find it useless. The example you provide is anecdotal. One can easily give example where it can be useful. 


For example. 

1. I can see myself setting it up such that LR looks for images in a certain folder and automatically imports them in the correct directory format that I like. I can have this new cloud feature from canon forward and download images to that folder that lightroom is constantly looking at. This way whenever I get home from a shoot I will simply connect my camera to my network and upload, and turn on my computer... take a shower, have dinner/lunch, a coffee, whatever. By the time I get to my computer my images are in my library and ready to go. 

2. For pros, I can see how they can set it up with the external wifi component to continuously push images to the cloud which forwards those images on the fly to computer that is accessed by those they delivery their images to. Sounds like very very good way to streamline their work flow and not have to even bother remembering to push images though. 

3. My iphone's 4G connection is pretty quick. 5G is set to be even faster. I can see working pros invest in a large enough data bundle, tether their phones to their cameras and basically shoot on location with quick backup. Or cloud backup when they take breaks. It isn't about a second memory card, but rather actual backup in case anything happens to the camera. 

4. Lets say you are on a once in a life time trip. And you happen to have the R5 or R6, so you have 2 card slots. Even then, you can come to the hotel at the end of the day, connect your camera to the network and have a backup push to the cloud. This way you have an off location end of the day back up. Just like in example 2 a journalist or pro can have images pushed to the cloud, synced with a computer in another country that is accessable by their editor, or colleague. Some people take SSDs with them on trips, back up to it and mail that to themselves as a sort of back up. Again this service can replace that. 

As tech advances, if things get faster this can easily improve. I think canon is thinking about the eventual 5G networks that will allow very fast transfer rates. If you think about connection speeds of 10 years ago you might realise that the whole adobe cloud and syncing with LR mobile would be quite slow and thus useless. But at present it is a great thing to have. 2-5 years for now this whole thing might be faster and thus more useful then than now.


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## LDS (Apr 16, 2020)

Starting out EOS R said:


> I'd love to think there is going to be some innovative solution from Canon to help with this



I don't believe we can expect any solution for this from Canon - it's clearly beyond its business areas. What they can try is to take advantage of the existing telecom infrastructure, which is inevitably different in different parts of the world. Until Musk launches enough satellites (which will start to ruin a lot of astrophotographers shots...) to give broadband coverage everywhere - and devices to use them are small enough - it's difficult to expect the same level of coverage of a city centre, when you're out in the wild. I don't see this new feature as something that can fully replace a second card or a backup disk while traveling - but it can be a nice add-on when you're in a situation you can exploit it well enough.


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## mccasi (Apr 16, 2020)

CJudge said:


> Firstly, I think you're vastly over-estimating the increase in upload time attributed to 5Ghz Wifi and the processor here... The 90mins isn't the time it takes for the camera to shift the images off the card via Wi-Fi, the bottle-neck is the upload bandwidth provided by the user's ISP.
> 
> Secondly, HEIF isn't going to result in 2-3x smaller file sizes. In fact, it's likely that image file sizes will remain pretty similar to JPEG, but with roughly twice the image quality.
> 
> So although future advances will bring speed improvements, it's the networks that need to improve, not the cameras. And it's going to be quite a while before we see a 30x speed improvement there.


1st, maybe I'm overestimating a bit, but right now, WiFi and processor are definitely big the bottlenecks.
You can run a test on your laptop upload to google or whatever you're using, I just did:
5 CRAWs on my laptop took 90 seconds, thats 50 CRAWS in 15 min, so 6x improvement with better WiFi and processor

2nd, the 50 photos for 90 min baseline was RAW, HEIF is 2-3x smaller than that, not than JPEG.
Also, i experienced that JPEGs, esp. 10MB or 4MB are over-proportionally faster to upload, because Google has optimised out of them.

3rd, fully agreed that network speed will be the next bottleneck, let's see though where we end up after 1st and 2nd.


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## Stuart (Apr 16, 2020)

The android bit does not work yet 

The PC example shown on the web is different to my old version on the PC and when i try and download a new version vie here - it still points to a 2015 version for my 6d




__





EOS Utility Software - Canon UK


Download drivers, software, firmware and manuals for your Canon product and get access to online technical support resources and troubleshooting.




www.canon.co.uk





I need to go to the US site for a more recent EOU utility - EOS Utility 3.12.10 for Windows file is - EU-Installset-W3.12.0.18.zip https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/...ess-cameras/dslr/eos-6d?tab=Drivers&Downloads 

Launched for the US only?

I'm still not yet sure this is as good as i want it to be.


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## CJudge (Apr 16, 2020)

mccasi said:


> 1st, maybe I'm overestimating a bit, but right now, WiFi and processor are definitely big the bottlenecks.
> You can run a test on your laptop upload to google or whatever you're using, I just did:
> 5 CRAWs on my laptop took 90 seconds, thats 50 CRAWS in 15 min, so 6x improvement with better WiFi and processor
> 
> ...



Sorry, yes, I got mixed up with all the different formats going around. HEIF could definitely be a worthy option for emergency backups, if transferring RAWs ends up being too cumbersome. A lot of people are happy using JPEGs as backups, and HEIF would definitely be a step above.

As for the WiFi, thanks for doing your test, but it doesn't really mean anything unless you also test Canon's Cloud Service using the same network. The 90minute example was from another user who's network might be very different to yours, so it's doesn't tell us a lot about the camera's limitations. Also, various cameras are all compatible, and they all have different processors...


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## CJudge (Apr 16, 2020)

lawny13 said:


> Additional functionality and expansion of features IS ALWAYS WELCOME even if some users might find it useless. The example you provide is anecdotal. One can easily give example where it can be useful.
> 
> 
> For example.
> ...



Jesus, dude, you don't have to go all "anecdotal" on me. This isn't a scientific research forum, obviously it's only my opinion. Also, I started out by saying I commend them for making advances, as I of course think that new features are, on the whole, good for users. And I also said that "as it stands" it's pretty useless. I'm not talking about how things will be 5-10 years in the future, I'm talking about right now.

Having said that, just for fun, to counter your examples, I would suggest that:

- In situation 1, you would be needlessly slowing and complicating your workflow. To have your camera connect to the cloud, then upload the images, and then have your computer download those images to folder which Lightroom watches and imports from... You could just plug your camera into your computer, initialise the file transfer in LR, and walk away. And as an added bonus, it would be much, much faster.

- In situation 2, it would require faster upload speeds than are currently feasable. Another user here said that it took 90mins to upload 50 raw files. I'm not talking about upload speeds in 5-10 years, I'm talking about now.

- In situation 4, this is only useful if you don't have any access to computer of any kind from which to make the transfer. Although I will agree that if you happen to not have this access, then it would be a very welcome option to be able to initiate it directly from your camera.

As for situation 3, I completely understand and agree that this is not the same as a second card slot, I recognise the benefits of off-site backup. The issue is that, at the present point in time, no working pro would be able to operate within the constraints of the upload speed bottleneck. Upload speeds are almost always significantly slower than download speeds.


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## CJudge (Apr 16, 2020)

LDS said:


> That's strictly dependent on your internet contract and which part of the world you're operating in. Here I can get a consumer or business mobile unlimited data plan for €40/month. A lot depends on how you shoot. It's clear shooting at 10fps continuously requires a different bandwidth that taking a shot every few minutes.



Bandwidth is not the same as data limits. And every unlimited plan in the world actually reserves the right to throttle your speeds if they deem your usage excessive. But yes, if you're only shooting a few images per hour, then this could be useful, agreed.


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## CJudge (Apr 16, 2020)

magarity said:


> Ah, then if the phone is in your pocket what really needs to happen is not a WiFi connection but Bluetooth, which is fast enough for file transfer yet much lower power. Pretty sure the current model cameras all have BT. Unfortunately they seem to only use it to initiate WiFi or only be a remote trigger. Not data transfer. Hmm.



Yes, the R does currently use Bluetooth, but the usability problem unfortunately remains. :/


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Apr 16, 2020)

I already have my R setup to transfer to my PC. I think that the cloud would let you upload from any wi-fi network in the world, so it would be possible to upload a limited number of images in raw format, limited due to the time it takes, or a larger number of jpeg images within the same time.

If the new EOS-R5 has 5GHZ capability, I wonder if we will get fast transfer speeds. That is needed if its going to be practical for large numbers of images.

I decided to give it a try. I just tapped the cloud button in the communications menu of my R and followed the very simple setup. It took about a minute to start uploading to the cloud. Then, I installed the downloader for my pc. 

So now, I have the Canon image Transfer utility 2 which uploads new images to my pc, and the canon image app that downloads cloud images to my pc. 

I also noted that everything had migrated from the old Canon image gateway including cameras registered. I need to remove my old cameras.

I don't really plan to use the feature, but its nice to know it works fairly well.


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## LDS (Apr 16, 2020)

CJudge said:


> actually reserves the right to throttle your speeds



But that doesn't happen blindly. While they could throttle torrent users transferring what are often illegal contents, they may not want to throttle other services to/from some big companies and get them angry. With cloud services more and more used, can you throttle users blindly while uploading data to AWS or Azure services? There's Canon at the other side here, and AFAIK the service runs on AWS. Unless your ISP is really ugly, I believe you can easily upload more than a few images per hour.


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## magarity (Apr 17, 2020)

The Android one is available for download on Play store now - can anyone get the EOS utility to set the web service on their camera? I keep getting 'unable to connect to server'. Argh


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## jdavidse (Apr 18, 2020)

We're definitely going to need Rudy Winston to explain this one to us.


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## magarity (Apr 18, 2020)

I just get "cannot connect to server" when I try the EOS utility to set the web service on the camera. Has anyone got that part working? What might I be doing wrong or is this just the worst rollout ever?


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## itsab1989 (Apr 19, 2020)

magarity said:


> I just get "cannot connect to server" when I try the EOS utility to set the web service on the camera. Has anyone got that part working? What might I be doing wrong or is this just the worst rollout ever?



I came here to ask the exact same question. I tried several times on a Mac and a PC - always with the same result.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Apr 19, 2020)

itsab1989 said:


> I came here to ask the exact same question. I tried several times on a Mac and a PC - always with the same result.


are you using *canon Utilities Downloader for image.canon * ver 1.0.0.0 ?

I first went to my R and in the wireless communication / wi-fi function clicked on the cloud, and it guided me thru the setup. I never needed to refer to a manual, it was quick and easy. I may try it with my 5D MK IV to see how that works.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Apr 19, 2020)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> are you using *canon Utilities Downloader for image.canon * ver 1.0.0.0 ?
> 
> I first went to my R and in the wireless communication / wi-fi function clicked on the cloud, and it guided me thru the setup. I never needed to refer to a manual, it was quick and easy. I may try it with my 5D MK IV to see how that works.


So, I pulled out my 5D MK IV and the options are totally different and not obvious at all. It was pretty frustrating and since I did not plan on using the service, I decided to let it sit for now. With the EOS R, it was easy and obvious.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Apr 19, 2020)

I also get a can't connect message from canon utilities for my 5D MK IV. My EOS R is connected and uploading fine. It then downloads to my pc after about a minute.


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## magarity (Apr 20, 2020)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> are you using *canon Utilities Downloader for image.canon * ver 1.0.0.0 ?
> 
> I first went to my R and in the wireless communication / wi-fi function clicked on the cloud, and it guided me thru the setup. I never needed to refer to a manual, it was quick and easy. I may try it with my 5D MK IV to see how that works.



No, I'm using "EOS Utility" as according to Canon's instructions.
As an experiment I typed in nonsense for username and password and it said the same 'cannot connect to server'. I wonder if the 'create an account by linking to google' is the part that didn't work.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Apr 20, 2020)

magarity said:


> No, I'm using "EOS Utility" as according to Canon's instructions.
> As an experiment I typed in nonsense for username and password and it said the same 'cannot connect to server'. I wonder if the 'create an account by linking to google' is the part that didn't work.


I think the link in Canon utilities has a problem passing the password. The R does not need Canon Utilities, but the 5D MK IV does. I'd give it a couple of days, and it will be fixed.


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## itsab1989 (Apr 20, 2020)

I sent a request on Canon Germany‘s Facebook page. They answered that they know about the issue and it should be working now, but I did not try it yet.


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## magarity (Apr 20, 2020)

Oh this just takes the prize doesn't it; finally it starts working. Then the Android app wants permission to read the phone's storage and pictures. Ok, that sounds reasonable for a photo app. Then it wants permission to scape my contact list. Umm, no. So it quits out and won't run. The price of using this "free" service is data mining my contact list. No thanks. What a waste of my time to set it up!!


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## SteveC (Apr 20, 2020)

magarity said:


> Oh this just takes the prize doesn't it; finally it starts working. Then the Android app wants permission to read the phone's storage and pictures. Ok, that sounds reasonable for a photo app. Then it wants permission to scape my contact list. Umm, no. So it quits out and won't run. The price of using this "free" service is data mining my contact list. No thanks. What a waste of my time to set it up!!



The native photo gallery on my android did this quite some time ago; after an upgrade it wouldn't work without my contacts list. I disabled it and downloaded something else.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Apr 20, 2020)

Works fine as others noted today. The EOS Utility basically updated the 5D MK IV to the same functionality as my EOS R. I did not need to go thru a login function, just select the image for upload and it did. Then, about 2 minutes later, they automatically downloaded to my pc using the canon downloader for image.canon. I wonder if it will work for remote hot spots like at Starbucks.

I left my 5D MK IV on last night like I always do, and the battery had ran completely down because wi-fi was turned on. My R battery was still charged at 96%, so wi-fi is shutting off when the camera turns off. I'm thinking the EOS R5 may be my next purchase, and the 5D IV will go. Its a great camera, but my mirrorless gets all the usage. I will only buy the R5 if it includes the focus bracketing of the RP.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Apr 20, 2020)

I installed the app, it does ask for contact list, you must approve it. The app includes a send to email which needs the contact list. 

It will only upload images to the cloud taken by a Canon Camera, so it does not work with images taken by the phone camera. That makes Lightroom much more useful since it handles virtually all images.

One good thing, I was able to use it to delete all the test images sent to the cloud.

I don't see any use for it on my phone, I have to fool with camera connect then transfer images to the phone and upload them, or use the camera with a hot spot to upload images to the canon cloud and then download them to my phone.

Right now, I use photosync to automatically transfer images from my phone to my pc via wi-fi. As soon as I load camera images from my Canon or any other camera to my phone, it downloads them over Wi-Fi to my pc. If I want them in the cloud, I can use the free lightroom app. I've done that while traveling.

So, I really don't find either app that useful since they are limited to just specific canon cameras.


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## magarity (Apr 20, 2020)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> I installed the app, it does ask for contact list, you must approve it. The app includes a send to email which needs the contact list.


If it were well written it would say 'sorry, can't email the picture until you grant permission to contacts' instead of just shutting down and doing nothing.


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## magarity (Apr 21, 2020)

How is the iOS version doing? The Android is getting hammered with grumpy reviews on Play store. It has a 2.0 rating. For comparison, the Canon Connect app is a 4.0


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## LDS (Apr 21, 2020)

magarity said:


> If it were well written it would say 'sorry, can't email the picture until you grant permission to contacts' instead of just shutting down and doing nothing.



Anyway you don't need the app to upload photos from the camera - only to view and share them, but you can do it with any browser anyway. Still, read the ToS about the service because it's also designed to gather user data.


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## magarity (Apr 23, 2020)

LDS said:


> Anyway you don't need the app to upload photos from the camera - only to view and share them, but you can do it with any browser anyway. Still, read the ToS about the service because it's also designed to gather user data.


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## magarity (Apr 23, 2020)

Has anyone made it work? When I take a test picture it just says 'this image cannot be uploaded' after it connects.


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## abbebus (Apr 25, 2020)

magarity said:


> Has anyone made it work? When I take a test picture it just says 'this image cannot be uploaded' after it connects.



I have the same problem with my 5D mk IV. I can only transfer jpeg:s, not CR2 images from my camera. Is something wrong, or isn't the mark IV able to transfer RAW-files? This service would be pretty useless to me if that's the case.


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## magarity (Apr 26, 2020)

abbebus said:


> I have the same problem with my 5D mk IV. I can only transfer jpeg:s, not CR2 images from my camera. Is something wrong, or isn't the mark IV able to transfer RAW-files? This service would be pretty useless to me if that's the case.


Wow, that didn't even occur to me but yes, I switched to jpg and the camera uploaded one right away. Raw are still no go.


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## LDS (Apr 26, 2020)

It looks not a few cameras, including the 5D4, can't send RAW files:

EOS 5D Mark IV / EOS 6D Mark II / EOS 6D / EOS 80D / EOS 70D / EOS 77D / EOS Rebel T7i / EOS Rebel T7 / EOS Rebel T6s / EOS Rebel T6i / EOS Rebel T6 / EOS Rebel SL2 / EOS 200D / EOS 800D / EOS 750D / EOS 760D / EOS 1300D / EOS 1500D / EOS 2000D

(source https://image.canon/st/en/news.html)

Probably they need a firmware update - anyway not a good way to launch such a service.... plus you wonder about the level of testing.


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## abbebus (Apr 30, 2020)

LDS said:


> It looks not a few cameras, including the 5D4, can't send RAW files:
> 
> EOS 5D Mark IV / EOS 6D Mark II / EOS 6D / EOS 80D / EOS 70D / EOS 77D / EOS Rebel T7i / EOS Rebel T7 / EOS Rebel T6s / EOS Rebel T6i / EOS Rebel T6 / EOS Rebel SL2 / EOS 200D / EOS 800D / EOS 750D / EOS 760D / EOS 1300D / EOS 1500D / EOS 2000D
> 
> ...



Aaaah, ok. I hope they announce a firmware update for 5D4 asap.


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## ChrisJ_SLH (Apr 30, 2020)

abbebus said:


> Aaaah, ok. I hope they announce a firmware update for 5D4 asap.



Thank goodness I found and read this thread. Not being able to send images from my 5D4 was driving me up the wall. At least I now know it wasn't something that I had done wrong.


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