airnef and the Sony ILCE6100 (α6100) (WHL #120)
I’ve been thinking about a slight upgrade to my main camera, the Sony RX100M2. I got it quite a while ago, *checks blog post history*, in early 2019, and since it is a compact camera, it hasn’t been modified, despite the wide variety of tasks that I threw at it. It’s still decent for most jobs, it works most of the time (sometimes you gotta slap it back into action when the sensor reads garbage, and the mode wheel has been acting up lately), but e.g. on my 2 week trip to Xinzo de Limia, I thought about a backup device in case something happens, for whatever cause/reason. I’ve been watching eBay offers for a couple weeks now, for three specific models: The Sony α6100, the α6400 and the α6500. All in the 24 MP class of system cameras (I think even the exact same APS-C sensor), all in roughly the same price bracket, with the 6500 being a more upmarket/professional version but a generation older (~2016 release date) and the 6100 and 6400 being younger brothers from 2019ish. Those 24MP aren’t a giant upgrade from the 20MP of the RX100, but the tripled sensor size should be (and that is with the RX100 already having a somewhat large 1″ sensor for its class). They’re also clearly more flexible and adaptable with tons of options for specialized lenses, should the need arise.
Very recently I found an offer that got me interested, and for ~430€ including shipping, I now do have a better camera and the SELP1650 kit glass. Throwback to the RX: That was 180 bucks back then, in worse physical condition. Since I don’t really know what I’m aiming for, some standard lens is fine for the moment – and if I ever need something better, I can go for exactly that.
One thing that I couldn’t reliably figure out before buying any of these three models was the data transfer situation. I do use airnef to transfer both images and video from the RX100 to my Thinkpad running Ubuntu, and since this is both software originally intended for Nikon cameras AND unmaintained, I wasn’t sure if that would also work with the alpha series. Of course Sony offers the “PlayMemories” garbage suite for Windows and Mac, and a subset of that called “Imaging Edge Mobile” for Android and iPhone – but nothing for Linux users. And running that crap in Wine or always booting up the Windows desktop was no option either. I’d rather switch manufacturer than deal with that shit.
Turns out that’s not an issue, it does work – but it needs to be set up first, and that likely does require a Windows PC (or Mac). Since I spent an hour or two figuring that out, here’s a step-by-step instruction, or the tl;dr: Set up the WiFi import in Playmemories WiFi settings when the camera is attached via USB.
1. Open the menu in your Sony Alpha, navigate to the green globe symbol for all the networking stuff. In here, go to the “WiFi settings” submenu and make sure that your WiFi is set up (“Access Point Set.” or similar). The camera is able to create its own AP (“send to smartphone” menu option uses this), but we want a connection to the general home WiFi instead, where the target computer is also connected to.
2. In the same networking menu, choose “send to computer”. If that makes it connect to the verified WiFi, we might be golden already, jump to the last step immediately. If however some “needs to be set up first” bullshit comes up, we do need the Windows/Mac computer to do so. As far as I know, this cannot be set in the camera, it needs external software.
3. Now boot up your computer and download and install Sony Playmemories Home – maybe from here, but I have no clue how long-term stable deeplinks to Sony pages are: https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00018355 Do not download IEDT Imaging Edge Desktop (and whatever the fuck the T stands for) – this is apparently useful for live-viewing the camera, i.e. using it as a webcam, but this does not set up the camera for WiFi file transfers, although the several menus and downloadable addon tools do use very similar wording and suggest they would do exactly that.
4. Connect the camera via USB. For my 6100, that’s classic Micro-B USB, the more recent ones like the 6700 have a USB-C port instead.
5. Now open either the Settings helper tool located in the start menu Playmemories folder, or the Playmemories application itself (you Mac people gonna figure it out yourself, you’re clever folks). Playmemories can open the helper tool via Tools -> Import Media, but not the other way round. In that helper tool, go to the WiFi import subcategory and just enable everything, which likely does check Windows firewall settings and sets up a daemon (what’s the Windows name for those background workers?) for auto-importing. Once that is all done, the camera will be set up to send data to this specific computer once triggered via “send to computer”. No “hooray” message on the computer, no confirmation on the camera, though. I think once the camera is disconnected and turned off, so that it doesn’t receive any changes to the ones just made, everything can be reverted, but I kept it as-is.
Menu should look something like this: 
6. Fire up airnef on the actual target machine. The original page https://www.testcams.com/airnef/now yields a 404, but it pops up here and there with updated Python bindings and stuff, so it should be available *somewhere* (https://github.com/mazdac/airnef shows up pretty much on top when googling, but untested). I also do keep a copy if everything else fails 
According to https://www.dpreview.com/articles/6089807566/airnef-brings-desktop-wi-fi-transfer-to-nikon-users , version 1.1. is critical, as that one added support for Sony cameras.
In here, add the camera IP (check your router if needed – I very much recommend a static IP for the device) and click “Select on Computer”. Set your import preferences, and off you go!
It seems the transfer is more reliable when airnef is already polling and the Alpha 6100 is then set to send data. For the RX100, it is the other way round, but both eventually find the target in most instances. Important: If the original Windows/Mac computer is also online before airnef can establish a connection, it will transfer data instead…and then turn off the camera. So ideally, one would set the Playmemories computer to the IP of the airnef computer and then back, but I was clearly too lazy for that and will have to remove Playmemories in the long run to stop the annoyance. The computer name in the camera display will change depending on the last or current target device, it is not fixed and it is not bound to that. Instead, the first application to establish contact will take over, but the original setup IP seems favoured…forever.
Hope that helps someone – and if not, it’ll help dumbass me in a couple years when I do the next camera upgrade and cannot remember how to do the initial WiFi setup for data transfer – it’s not documented anywhere and the camera error message isn’t exactly helpful, plus, as I said, airnef is technically unmaintained, so there’s no help from that side either.
All in all, the Alpha 6100 seems like a nice camera, and I will have some comparison shots on the next PCB that asks for a camera upgrade, be it for being large (so…resolution), or having tiny text (sharpness), or being in a difficult color (better color rendering). We’ll see, something will pop up.
