Gadgetory

one of the best parts about owning a DSLR camera is the fun you can have by augmenting it with accessories and one of the most useful accessories is probably something you already own an Android device when you pair a DSLR and an Android your shooting options grow and you can do things your camera can't do on its own for starters you get a big screen look at the viewfinder helpful for checking focus and composition and when you're shooting those photos can be reviewed and even shared right away through your phone there are other useful features too like a tool for time-lapse and HDR this is definitely geared towards photography enthusiasts but anyone with the DSLR camera and an Android device will geek out over this here's how the setup looks you'll need the DSLR controller app installed on your phone to find out if it's compatible with your devices you can either look it up on the developers website or download the remote release app if remote release works DSLR controller will work too if you're good on that front connect a USB on-the-go adapter to your phone which you can find for a few bucks online now into that goes your cameras USB cable and finally switch on that camera if everything is right DSLR controller launches and you'll see the live viewfinder show up on your phone screen now let's dig into some of the features that make DSLR controller awesome for starters any controls you normally have on your camera are available here on the side you can fine-tune the focus with manual focus adjust the white balance add a grid to guide a certain ratio or follow the rule of thirds and you'll see the battery indicator along with a photo count at the bottom just note that obviously the features you see here correspond to whatever shooting mode you're in the app really works best when you're in manual aperture priority or shutter priority once you've tweaked those settings to your liking take a photo by tapping to focus and hit this shutter button on the right there's a little latency but that's to be expected with this set up at any point you can view the photos you shot by tapping the play button here if you launch this settings menu you'll see even more tools and options ones that aren't available on your camera for instance you can set up a time lapse usually you'd need an intervalometer to do that but here it's built right into the app you also have automatic HDR along with a mode for focus stacking but my favorite feature is one that takes this whole setup to the next level Wi-Fi pass-through I can connect this phone to another phone or tablet wirelessly so I can move around freely it's great if you really need to get some distance away from the camera for those self-portraits or maybe a photo booth or if you're in a shoot and want an easy way to show your clients photos to do it install DSLR controller on the second device then connect both devices to the same Wi-Fi network now on the wired device head to settings and open this Wi-Fi pass-through option launch the app on the tablet and a few seconds later you've got a wireless remote and as you can see you have access to all the same controls available on the wired device if you end up using the setup often you might want to consider mounting your phone to the camera or the tripod somehow and don't forget to bring extra batteries for your camera and for your phone for more tips on how to use DSLR controller check out my blog at how to dot cnet.com and as always if you have any questions hit me up on Twitter for CNET I'm Sharon Vaknin