Finally! Free WiFi with Nikon firmware update for D850, D500, D7500 and D5600

It actually happened! Nikon just released firmware updates for the D850, D500, D7500 and D5600 which provide free WiFi next to the Snapbridge connectivity.

Especially for us timelapse photographers this is great news, since it allows connecting to those cameras much easier, for example for shooting the holy grail as I explained in my tutorial.

Since the first Snapbridge Camera was released (the D500) I was fighting to get free WiFi back in the new Nikon cameras. More than thousand users signed my Open Letter to Nikon on gwegner.de and LRTimelapse.com.

The first reaction, came with the release of the new Z-cameras – in which next to Snapbridge also free Wi-Fi is implemented. I was really happy about that! But I didn’t dare to hope that Nikon would also release firmware updates for older models.

Now this got true: all former „Snapbridge-Only“ cameras received firmware updates for free WiFi, which is amazing news for Nikon photographers! Thank you Nikon!

Here you can find the updates for the cameras

Don’t get irritated by the Nikon releasenotes, they don’t tell you, what they really changed… 😉 If you want so see how it looks like, I’ve shown the updated firmware on a D500 in a video, that I made for my German blog.

Now all Wi-Fi-enabled Nikon DSLR and DSLM cameras offer the possibility to open a Wi-Fi access point directly from the camera menu and allow any WiFi-device to connect to it. As a result, the cameras can finally be controlled directly with third-party apps (eg qDslrdashboard / ControlMyCamera), just like the Nikon D750 , D5500 and the new Z6 / Z7 cameras, for example. The Snapbridge technology remains unaffected and can be used alternatively with the cameras that support it.

With these firmware updates Nikon has shown that they take wishes of their users seriously, if they are presented in a plausible way. This was also confirmed to me in my discussions with staff in Tokyo when I was there last year .

Time to say thank you!

I’ve collected more than 1,000 supporters on lrtimelapse.com and gwegner.de alone for my Open Letter. Additionally many commented on social media and the topic was also spread by major photography news sites all over the world. I think now it’s time to say thank you to Nikon for listening to their users. You can do that in the comments , I’ll pass it on to Nikon!

PS: If you still don’t know, why this is important for us timelapse photographers, check out my Holy Grail Tutorial Video!