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Alternative to Canon Wireless Transmitter

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MarkTrueman

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Hi,

My current workflow at the events i do is to take photos and then give my cf cards to runners who take them to my marquee. Here my missus downloads the images to the pc, and creates proof sheets. Its time consuming for her, and it makes it more difficult to take orders, as she is tied up doing this.

Does anyone use a viable alternative to the Canon wireless transmitter for event photography? It seems awfully expensive for what it is.

I was thinking that maybe i could use a Pocket PC with a CF card slot and use wireless g(be it inbuilt to the pocket pc, or a wirelessG card of some sort) to transmit the images. Ok, so the downside would be that i have to take the CF card out of my 20d and put it in the PC, but i usually have to give it to a runner anyway, so to me thats not a problem. I have time in the field to spend a little while fiddling with cards and PCs, so im not going to miss that special moment by doing this.

Ive also seen this

http://www.idruna.com/pocketphojo.html

which looks useful, as it can scan a folder (ie the CF card folder) and then batch transmit the taken photos over wireless. I could probably write something similar myself to just copy the files from the CF card to a shared folder on the wireless net. That would be useful, as then i can write some software to scan a drop folder on the pc in my marquee and automatically print out contact sheets with no intervention from anyone in the marquee.

Anyone got any views on this idea?
 
Mark

we do the same and i just bought the canon transmitter. There is also wipics but it is even more expensive and i dont know about the CF card with the flat cable coming out of the camera (not even sure if this would even work with a 1 series

if you dont mind having a laptop sitting there you can of course do that and simply to the card dance there and use wifi

another option is a pocketpc but it would probably make it more complicated too

the canon transmitter allthough a little costly works well. the only thing i am worried about is range especially in our case with ice skating where there is lots of metal and metal insulation and the PC is in the next room.

--
Michael Salzlechner
http://www.PalmsWestPhoto.com
 
I remember being quite enthusiastic when the canon transmitter when it was first talked about, but like many was surprised when the cost was announced.

At the time and this must have been a couple of years ago, all the talk was of many alternatives soon coming to the marketplace, but so far the Canon is still the only option. I guess that’s why it hasn’t been reduced.
 
I too do exactly as you although I don't use runners, just do the downloads in 2 batches, once 1/2 way through, once at the end.

I don't think wi/fi would be any good for me as the range is very much limited. I would have to be less than 100 meters from the marquee.

Don't know how close you are but these might be a cheaper option ?

http://www.eye.fi/index.htm

Cheers
Adam
 
If you spend a couple hundred more you can get an amplifier and a high power omnidirectional antenna for your access point that could give you a range of as much as 1km.... granted, this could be cut significantly if there was a lot to interfere with the signal, but you could easily get 300-500m.
 
How directional would this be?, I do alot of running around !!

Adam
 
MarkTrueman said:
Ive also seen this

http://www.idruna.com/pocketphojo.html

which looks useful, as it can scan a folder (ie the CF card folder)
and then batch transmit the taken photos over wireless. I could
probably write something similar myself to just copy the files from
the CF card to a shared folder on the wireless net. That would be
useful, as then i can write some software to scan a drop folder on
the pc in my marquee and automatically print out contact sheets
with no intervention from anyone in the marquee.
Click to expand...
Isn't Phojo a fancy image bank? It can then wifi to another computer for sure,
but You still have to buy the PocketPC and the software.

We use HyperDrive at long weekend events where we have to download. I can

see some needs for Phojo system, but it is just another device to carry around. If
you have the PocketPC already, then it has value. The need to transmit within

minutes of the picture being taken is the real key to the workflow. What I like about
Phojo is that you only need any wifi connection to transmit to your home office.

Does the Phojo then keep the images on the PocketPC hard drive? Looks like it
does. It would seem to be a good solution in an overall sense even though you
are theathered to the PocketPC that is not much of a problem.

Thanks for the ideas, interesting for sure.
 
Im thinking i might try using my laptop this weekend at my next event tethered to my camera out in the field, downloading to a shared folder on the pc in the marquee. I dont move during the morning or afternoon sessions, so portability isnt a problem.

The only problem i will have is that the laptop i use will only work for 2 hours on a battery charge, which is no-where near enough, and you cant get batteries for it any more as far as i can tell. What i could do with is a nice cheap laptop with a really good battery,( basically a not very portable wireless transmitter). Of course i would then have the advantage of being able to view pics in the field as they are taken on a proper screen.

I'll see what i can come up with
 
I bought Pocket Phojo to send photos from a iPAQ via serial cable and a satelllite phone. I bought a sleeve for the iPAQ that had a Compact Flash card slot and an extra battery. I got the software to shrink the images and caption them (it does IPTC) before transmission. The software used the iPAQ's own SD card as working memory - since the whole system was solid state, it was actually fairly fast. The original images on the card were never touched. The user interface is a little cludgy, but it does work. The biggest drawback is the pathetic battery life of the iPAQ!

Chris.
--
Freelance sports photography
http://www.hockeyphotos.com/
 
does the canon wireless transmit a 1DS2 raw image in seconds?
Does anyone know the rate?
 
well the transmission rate depends a lot on the quality of the wireless speed

i played with it a little and while a jpg from the mkIIn takes about 3 seconds this includes a lot of time to connect to the ftp server

if you have a lot of images to transmit it doesnt disconnect from the ftp server and the transmission is much faster

if you have a 801.11g connection and the connection is perfect (54Mbps) i would guess you would get a data transmission rate of about half that

--
Michael Salzlechner
http://www.PalmsWestPhoto.com
 
Thanks for info. I take it then, at 54Mbps (which I assume the Canon transmitter is capable of) the transfer is acceptable.
 
Then you've got a poorly configured 100m/bit wired ethernet setup.

Wi-fi inefficiency is considerable. 54m/bit wi-fi is a lot less than 1/2 the speed of 100m/bit wired ethernet.

Wi-fi is only half-duplex, there's a lot of radio overhead, and latency is greater. You can reduce some overhead by turning off encryption, but the overhead is still substantial. And that's with a strong signal.

There are a number of other efficiency tweaks that some wi-fi access points support, but I don't know about the Canon wi-fi's compat with those.
PalmsWestPhoto said:
Yes at 54 it is acceptable. The transmitter can do wireless G
and/or B as well as wired ethernet at 100Mbps

--
Michael Salzlechner
http://www.PalmsWestPhoto.com
Click to expand...
--
dpreview & pbase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/digirob
 
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