CamRanger Review & Tutorials

The CamRanger is a photography gadget that makes life easier for almost every photography genre.

Shoot macro with focus stacking? Set up how many photos and how much of a focus change you want. Hit go, and go get coffee.
Shoot landscapes? It’ll help you bracket for HDR.
Shoot wildlife? In bad weather? Use your phone/ipad as a remote with a live preview of the shot. No need to scare the birds, or even get out of the car.
Time lapse and night shoots? Set it up, and go have coffee.
Portrait tethered shooting to Mac or Windows? Yes.
Nikon or Cannon? Yes to both.
iPhone or Android? Yes to both.
Need to create an internal-only wi-fi network between devices? Yep.
Need small? Weight: 4 oz, Dimensions: 4″ x 2 1/2″ x 5/8″

On my last trip to Photoshop World I tried one of these out and ended up buying one that week. It really is a great multi-tool that doesn’t take up a lot of space/weight in your bag. I’ve used it for several projects over the past several months.

These are the biggest limitations:

Cost – Around $300 US dollars + a device to use as a remote screen (phone, iPad, computer)
- If you’re looking for a simple remote, there are cheaper options.
Battery Life: Short.
- If you’re going to be shooting for more than a couple hours at a time, you’ll need an extra battery. I’ve taken it out fully charged and gotten less than 2 hours of hard use. This is by far the biggest downside. It does charge via USB, like your phone, so you can use phone chargers as a spare battery.

I’ve made a couple video tutorials for using the CamRanger and listed them below. These describe taking several macro images and then focus stacking them in Photoshop to get one fully-focused shot. The ice image featured in this post was made using the same method.

How it works in with the camera: https://youtu.be/_meiOpyVjfw