Getting started, step by step

Everything you need to do, in order, from an unopened box to the first picture taken from your phone. Each step says what you should see when it has worked. Nothing here needs a steady hand except the very first step, which is done once and never again.

You need:

• a Canon EOS R50 or EOS R100 with a charged battery and a memory card;
• a Windows PC (a Raspberry Pi works too — see the note at the end);
• the USB cable that came with the camera, for step 1 only;
• a phone or tablet to use the page from, if you would rather not use the PC's own screen.

Step 1 — Switch on the camera's API (once, ever)

The camera ships with its Camera Control API switched off, and nothing works until it has been switched on. This is the only step that needs a cable and a hand on the camera, and it is done once per camera.

1. On the PC, go to Canon's developer site and download the CCAPI Activation Tool (it needs a free Canon account). Unzip it.
2. Make sure the PC is connected to the internet — the tool talks to Canon during activation.
3. Turn the camera off. Connect it to the PC with the USB cable. Turn the camera on.
4. Run CCAPI Activation Tool.exe. Click Execute Activation, tick I accept, click Next, then OK.
5. Quit the tool, turn the camera off, unplug the cable.

What you should see: turn the camera on and open its Wi-Fi settings. There is now a Camera Control API entry in the list. It was not there before. If it is not there, the activation did not take — repeat the step with the PC online.

If Canon's own apps are open, close them

EOS Utility and Camera Connect take the camera for themselves. The camera allows one connection at a time.

Step 2 — Install the app on the PC (two commands)

Open PowerShell (press the Windows key, type powershell, press Enter).

1. Install Python:

   winget install -e --id Python.Python.3.13

   Close PowerShell and open it again so it knows about Python.

2. Install the app from the file you were sent (a name ending .whl), using the path to wherever you saved it:

   pip install C:\path\to\ablecamera-0.0.0.1.18-py3-none-any.whl

What you should see: type ablecamera --version and press Enter. It prints a version number. There is nothing else to install.

Step 3 — Start the camera's Wi-Fi

On the camera: Wi-Fi settings → Camera Control API → Add connection → Camera access point mode. The camera becomes its own Wi-Fi network and shows the network name (something like EOSR50_…) and the password on its screen. Leave the camera on that screen.

Next time, it is Camera Control API → Connect → pick the saved connection.

What you should see: the camera's screen says Wi-Fi on and shows an address such as 192.168.1.2. You will not need to type it.

Step 4 — Join the camera's Wi-Fi from the PC

On the PC, click the network icon in the taskbar, then the arrow beside Wi-Fi. Pick the camera's network from the list, type the password from the camera's screen, and click Connect.

A PC with an Ethernet cable keeps its internet on the cable while its Wi-Fi talks to the camera, which is the comfortable arrangement. A laptop on Wi-Fi alone loses its internet while it is on the camera's network — that is normal; the camera's network goes nowhere else.

What you should see: Windows shows the camera's network as connected (it may add "no internet", which is expected).

The password changes

Every time you Add connection on the camera, Canon makes a new password, so a saved network on the PC stops working. If the PC will not reconnect, use the saved connection on the camera instead of adding a new one — or re-join with the new password.

Step 5 — Start the page

In PowerShell:

ablecamera ui --open

The app looks for the camera by itself. You do not type its address.

What you should see in PowerShell:

Looking for the camera...
Found Canon EOS R50 at 192.168.1.2.
The camera page is at:
  On this PC:  http://127.0.0.1:8720/

and a browser opens on the page. The top of the page names your camera and lens, and says Ready. On an R50 the app takes over the mode dial and sets manual mode itself, wherever the dial is physically pointing — it says so in words when it does.

If the camera is not on yet, that is fine. The page is served either way:

Looking for the camera...
No camera found. ...
Serving the page anyway. Switch the camera on and press Connect at the top of it.

Switch the camera on whenever you are ready and press Connect in the top right of the page. There is no order you have to do this in.

Leave PowerShell open: it is the bridge between the page and the camera. Pressing Ctrl+C in it stops the page and hands the camera back exactly as it was.

Step 6 — Take a picture

Press Take a picture — the blue button in the middle of the bottom of the page. The page says what happened in words.

That is the whole thing. From here, every setting is a button with words on it: see A tour of the page.

Step 7 — Use it from your phone instead (optional)

The page is easier to use on a phone, and that is what it is designed for. Stop the page (Ctrl+C) and start it so the whole house can reach it:

ablecamera ui --bind 0.0.0.0 --port 8720

What you should see: it prints every address it can be reached at, for example:

The camera page is at:
  http://192.168.50.99:8720/
  (whichever of those is on the same network as your phone)
Or by name, on any device here: http://ablecamera.local:8720/

On the phone — which stays on the house Wi-Fi, not the camera's — open the browser and type the address that matches the house network (the 192.168.… one), or the ablecamera.local name. Bookmark it; the address rarely changes.

Only the PC has to be on the camera's Wi-Fi. The phone talks to the PC, and the PC talks to the camera.

Make it one press for ever

The public demonstration at ablecamera.evomedia.net has a Your own camera box at the bottom. Type that address into it once, and from then on every visit to the website is a single press through to your own camera. See Your own camera from the website.

On a Raspberry Pi

The app has no dependencies beyond Python itself, so the same two commands work on a Pi: install Python with the Pi's package manager, pip install the .whl, join the camera's Wi-Fi, and run ablecamera ui --bind 0.0.0.0 --port 8720. A Pi in the camera bag, on a battery, is a bridge that goes where the camera goes.

If a step does not work

Troubleshooting lists what each message means and what to do. The two most common are the camera's Wi-Fi is not started (step 3) and the PC is not on the camera's network (step 4).