Smartphone cameras are becoming more and more powerful with each passing year. There was a time when even a 2 MP carrying mobile phone was considered to be a great deal but things have changed radically since. 8 MP camera has become a norm these days with industry leaders like Sony, Nokia (it was once!) trying to break the barrier by introducing professional camera tech in mobile device. This being said, what has all this got to do with Snap Remote and why are we even discussing all of this?! Alright, the moot point here is that all of this is true for primary camera i.e the one at the back. If you were to take your own image, either you take a guess shot or use a secondary camera, which are still struggling with 2 MP shooting capabilities.
This is where Snap Remote, a nifty mobile accessory comes into play. It allows you to place your phone and capture images through its camera wirelessly! Sweet, isn’t it? You don’t have to hold the camera and try to take a “worth uploading” selfie 😉 Snap Remote works in 2 parts, first, there is a physical remote with couple of buttons and a miniature light indicator located at the top. Second is the application which needs to be installed and ran on your android or apple iOS device. The Snap Remote works effortlessly but I am still struggling to find out the logic behind its working. All one has to do is to install and run the Snap Remote application and just press the button to capture image. It doesn’t requires any sort of bluetooth of Wifi pairing, which is precisely the reason why I am still scratching my head as to how it communicates with the device.
Anyhow, moving forward, as mentioned earlier, Snap Remote is compatible with all the android and apple (iOS) devices of any brand (Samsung, Micromax, Sony, Nexus, Motorola, LG, etc), type (iPad, iPhone) as long as you can install the application on that device. So virtually every device is compatible. In setting up, all you have to do is to make sure remote is working (no dead battery) and to have the Snap Remote application running. That’s about it! Just press the large button located at center to capture image or press smaller button on top left corner to shoot from front camera (or the other way around). Unfortunately you cannot control video shooting, the application doesn’t provide an option for switching to video mode.
Using Snap Remote is pretty straightforward as well. Just run the application and press the button to capture image. However you should keep in mind that the camera takes a fraction of second to focus so make sure you give the camera some breathing space before pressing the button. Also, there’s a lag of 2-3 seconds between the time you press the button and camera on mobile captures an image. Again, don’t go on pressing the button continuously, give the little guy some time to process your command internally 🙂 One tip I’d like to share with you here, install and run the app on multiple device, place them strategically (you know…) and press the button. Voila! All of them will capture image simultaneously.
In sum, I highly recommend this small but useful accessory and more so if you love to click images using handled device. Group photos, self shots, etc become fun and less tedious. You can buy Snap Remote from Mobilefun – Snap Remote Camera Shutter and Stand for Apple & Android Devices for $24.99.
I’ll use it to capture wierd behaviour of my pet bird…(my pet doesnt show moves wen im around)