Many Canon cameras can now automatically back up pictures to Google Photos

Canon and Google today announced a new software integration that enables automatic Google Photos backup of pictures taken with select Canon cameras - a full list is available here, but it's most of their recent interchangeable lens cameras dating back basically to when they started getting Wi-Fi on board.

The auto-backup feature will work via the Canon mobile app, which is available on Android and iOS devices. If you have the most recent version, you can add your Canon camera to the app and set it to automatically transfer full, original-quality photos from your camera to Google Photos when your phone is connected to the camera. That takes out the typically manual process of somehow connecting either your camera or its memory cards physically to either your computer or your smartphone.

This feature does come with some caveats, however, including that it's only available to Google One members. To ease the financial sting of that requirement (though it's one of the more affordable and comprehensive cloud photo and data products out there), Canon users new to Google One will get one month of access free, with up to 100GB of cloud storage.

Speaking from experience, I know that a lot of photos I take with my real" cameras just end up staying on the camera, or on countless backup drives and SD cards I have strewn about. This auto-backup feature makes it much more likely I'll actually discover and look at more of those photos again - and possibly even print and share them with loved ones. Here's hoping it expands to other camera makers in the future.