In my books about two of Sony’s compact cameras with Wi-Fi features, the DSC-RX100 II and the DSC-RX100 III, I discuss the fact that, with many Android smartphones and tablets, you can use those devices’ built-in NFC capability to establish a Wi-Fi connection with the Sony camera. NFC stands for near field communication, a feature involving the use of a radio antenna inside the device. When the camera and the phone or tablet are placed in physical contact with each other, their NFC antennas establish a Wi-Fi connection automatically so you can transfer images from the camera to the phone, and control the camera remotely using an app on the phone.

If the phone or tablet does not have NFC, then you have to establish the connection by going to the Settings app on the phone or tablet and selecting the Wi-Fi network that is generated by the Sony camera. The first time you do this, you also have to enter the password for the network. So, NFC cuts through one or two steps, and makes it considerably easier to get the camera connected with the phone or tablet over the Wi-Fi network.

In both of those books, Photographer’s Guide to the Sony DSC-RX100 II and Photographer’s Guide to the Sony DSC-RX100 III, I discuss the point that many Android devices include NFC capability, but iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad do not.

With the recent release of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, both of which were said to include NFC features, I was hopeful that the new iPhone models would be able to use NFC to connect directly to these two cameras (and other cameras that have similar features). But no such luck. It has been disclosed that, at least for the near future, Apple is limiting the use of NFC to its new Apple Pay service, which will let you pay for purchases using the iPhone by pointing it at a device in a store or business that has the necessary equipment. For the time being, Apple is not permitting the NFC capability to be used for other purposes, such as communicating with camera apps.  Here is a link to an article that explains the situation.

I will continue to monitor developments in this area, and, when and if Apple permits the iPhone’s NFC capability to be used for connecting to cameras, I will post an update on this site.