[Howto] Using Canon WFT-E1 with Mac OS X 10.5

The Canon WFT-Ex/WFT-ExA range of products (currently E1..5) are wireless 802.11b/g transmitters that connect to Canon DSLRs and upload photos directly to an FTP server. There is also the option of connecting an Ethernet cable if you do not want or can not use a WLAN connection.

Each DSLR works with a different WFT product, so you will have to check which one is right for your camera. The WFT-E1 works with the 1D Mark II, 1D Mark II N, 1Ds Mark II, 5D, 20D, and 30D cameras, for example. The WFT-E1A is the North American version that only differs in the available WLAN channels from the rest of the world (WFT-E1).

You connect the WFT-E1 via either a Firewire (1D, 1Ds) or USB (5D) cable to the camera. Turn it on ... and nothing happens. It's actually a bit more work than that. ;-)

The following instructions will walk you through how to set up both a Mac with an Airport connector and the WFT-E1 so that you can transmit photos directly to your Mac. This is a useful setup if you want to be highly mobile. It is also possible to go through a WLAN access point, which is often better than connecting directly to the Mac, but that will be the subject of a follow-up post.

There is quite a bit of setup required to get things to work, but I believe it is well worth the effort. Let's get started!