12 Step Program for setting up the WFT-E1A on Airport
This is a How-To for setting up the Canon WFT E1A on a Mac using an Apple Airport Base Station. The method for setup would be different but essentially the same if you have a different wireless router. For those of you that don’t know, the WFT-E1A (lousy name) is an attachment for some Canon digital SLR’s that will transmit the files wirelessly to a computer. It is not an intuitive process but once set up it should be pretty easy to use.
Step 1: Enable FTP services. You have FTP software built right into OSX. Open your System Preferences and go to “Sharing”. Check the box for FTP and you are now running an FTP server on your Mac. It will tell you the address at the bottom of the window. Next, check the “Firewall” tab and make sure that if it is on you check the FTP box to open the port. I think it is better to just turn it off for wireless capture.
Step 2: Open your Airport Admin Utility and get your SSID (the name of your Network). Here it is called “White-Britt”
While your are here click on the “Password” tab and get the hexadecimal number equivalent of your Airport password.
Step 3: Click on the “Port Mapping” tab and open port 21 for FTP. Use the FTP address of the machine you will be capturing to (System Preferences FTP, bottom of window - see FTP screen shot from Step 1).
Step 4: Open the WFT-E1A Utility. Type the name of your wireless network in the SSID text box. The settings in the screen shot below are optimized to use with a wireless hub/router (Infrastructure). If you are trying to connect directly to a laptop without using a router then you would chose Ad-Hoc from the pulldown. FYI, Ad-hoc slows everything down and I have found it barely usable. The “Key” text box is where you enter the hexadecimal form of your password that you obtained in step 2.
Step 5: Under the FTP tab, enter the address obtained in the Sharing Preference settings under the services/FTP tab. This is the same number you opened the port for in the Airport Admin utility in step 3.
You can put the Target folder anywhere. The setting on my screenshot worked but it is not correct. Just use /ShootFolder. That will create a folder called “ShootFolder” in your home use folder.
Step 6: Under TCP/IP settings I just let the router give out the WFT-E1A’s IP address by selecting “Use DHCP server”
Step 7: Save the settings to a Compact flash card from the WFT E1A “Save Settings” button. The file needs to be saved to the root level on the card which means the first level you come to when the flash card is opened. The file will be called “nprofile”.
Eject the flash card and insert it into the camera. Connect the WFT E1A to the camera via the firewire cable and turn the power on. Be sure to use the rubber flanges on the firewire ports. These provide a snug fit and I have found the connection to be flaky or non-existent without them.
Step 8: Navigate to the “Set Up” menu on the camera. Select the “Image transfer (LAN) settings”. This option will only be available if the WFT-E1A and the camera are turned on and connected.
Step 9: Navigate to LAN settings and choose “set up”
Step 10: Load settings from the card by selecting “Load settings”. You can set up the camera to work on more than one network by choosing “Set 1″, “Set 2″ etc. for up to 5 locations. For example if you might use “Set 1″ at the studio via an Apple Airport connected to a G5 tower and “Set 2″ for an Ad-Hoc connection to a Powerbook on location.
Step 11: Navigate to the “LAN type” menu and choose “wireless” as the type of connection.
Step 12: Select if you want just the JPG’s, JPG and RAW or Raw to transfer wirelessly.
You should now be ready to shoot. I always turn the WFT-E1A off and on again to reset it after making changes. If you get error messages you should look them up in the user manual.
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3 Responses to “12 Step Program for setting up the WFT-E1A on Airport”
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May 2nd, 2006 at 8:44 pm
Hi, very nice tutorial. Thanks a lot. How do you set it up with an ad hoc network?.
August 21st, 2006 at 9:01 am
[...] Here’s a very cool tutorial at the Death to Film blog, 12 Step Program for setting up the WFT-E1A on Airport. [...]
January 21st, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Thanks for the tutorial. What if you want to create an extended network? I have tried adding airport express stations at the remote areas of the base station range, have them set to extend the wireless network, but it does no good. Does anyone know how to extend a wireless network for file transfers? my email is rand@morningstarproductions.com