Manfrotto’s Digital Director Turns Your iPad Air into a Display and Remote for Your DSLR

Manfrotto has just unveiled a CamRanger competitor called the Digital Director that transforms your iPad Air into a display and remote control for your Canon or Nikon DSLR.

The system has two components: hardware and software. On the hardware side, the Digital Director comes with a CPU-equipped base station that connects to your camera via a USB cable and to your iPad Air either wirelessly or through a Lightning connector on one end.

Once your camera and iPad are connected through the device, a new Digital Director app does the rest of the work. It lets you use your iPad Air as a wireless external monitor, showing you histogram and audio information and giving you a better idea of what you’re getting as you’re shooting.

Your camera functions can be controlled through the app as well. In addition to remotely snapping photos and recording footage, you can adjust things like ISO, exposure compensation, shutter speed, aperture, focus, white balance, and more.

Resource Magazine reports that the Digital Director system will be available for $500 starting in June 2015.