I cannot describe how important the ability shoot tethered AND wirelessly is to being able to work efficiently on location. As a result, the Camranger has become one of the best pieces of photography gear, especially for architecture or real estate photography.

Briefly, the Camranger is a portable wireless router that allows you to set up a Wi-Fi hotspot anywhere and use it to operate a camera via a wireless device such as a phone or tablet. It makes chimping a shot much easier now that you don't have to constantly run back and forth to to check the LCD after each adjustment. One of the biggest downsides to using a Camranger is the cost, which is $300! Not terribly expensive, but something to consider when factoring backup gear/replacement costs.

Fortunately, there is a much, more reasonably priced option (for those of us not rolling in those types of Mike Kelley residuals) that yields the same functionality as the Camranger for under $50. "Witchcraft!" you say? Not really. All it takes is a couple of minor purchases, 2 downloads, 30 minutes, and a willingness to tinker. I couldn't believe how easy it was to pair this device with my Canon 6D and have a functional clone of my Camranger (or "Scamranger" as I affectionately call it) in such a short amount of time.

THE GRITTY DETAILS

First, you'll need a TP-Link TL-MR3040 portable router ($30). You'll notice that this router looks similar to the Camranger, and that's because IT IS THE EXACT SAME ROUTER, just rebranded. Sure, the Camranger has altered the firmware and it's own app, but we can easily fix that.

Second, you'll need to download a couple of firmware updates based on OpenWRT (open source). The first update will replace the TP-Link's factory firmware with OpenWRT, while the second update will allow us to us use a 3rd-party app to connect the camera to the router.

Finally, you'll need to download qDSLRdashboard (free for Android, $10 for iOS) to connect to the router and control your camera wirelessly.

There are a couple of nuances to setting this all up, but it really is simple. For a more detailed guide, you can either read through the steps HERE, or watch THIS video tutorial if you're a more visually-oriented learner.