GPS & WIFI on Cameras

[Steve5D]

I simply can't see any benefit to either of them. I know some people do, and some people love them, but I don't know that I'll ever be convinced of their usefulness...

 

[Juga]

Everyone automatically goes right to the sharing and file transfer usage for wifi but the area I find it most useful for remote shooting. Sure you can buy a remote blah blah blah but I like using the wifi to remote shoot from my ipad and being able to see 100% coverage and change all the settings without touching the camera...especially during long exposure.

Funny you mention that. I use the wifi on my gopro black for exactly that. I change settings without touching it. It makes changing positioning very easy because it's a 100% viewfinder. I guess when doing some astrophotography that just might be useful as well.

Exactly. I only use it for remote shooting and love it.

 

[baturn]

I bought an eye-fi card for my D300s prior to my recent trip to Kenya. I loved the instant gratification of seeing my photos almost instantaneously on my tablet. In some cases it also allowed me to assess the photo quickly and reshoot if necessary ( when the critter hung around long enough).
Worth every penny imho.

 

[minicoop1985]

My wife's A55 has GPS built in (I think). When it ever gets back from cleaning (IF it ever gets back) I'll give it a try and see if it's worth it.

 

[robbins.photo]

My wife's A55 has GPS built in (I think). When it ever gets back from cleaning (IF it ever gets back) I'll give it a try and see if it's worth it.

Your wife's what? Oh.. that's 2 fives.. whew. I thought the GPS thing was odd enough, but sending it out to have it cleaned? Rotfl

 

[robbins.photo]

I bought an eye-fi card for my D300s prior to my recent trip to Kenya. I loved the instant gratification of seeing my photos almost instantaneously on my tablet. In some cases it also allowed me to assess the photo quickly and reshoot if necessary ( when the critter hung around long enough).
Worth every penny imho.

I looked at the eye-fi cards, but I opted for the Sandisk Extreme Pro 95 mbs read/write instead - makes a big difference when shooting in continuous mode on the D5100.

 

[minicoop1985]

My wife's A55 has GPS built in (I think). When it ever gets back from cleaning (IF it ever gets back) I'll give it a try and see if it's worth it.

Your wife's what? Oh.. that's 2 fives.. whew. I thought the GPS thing was odd enough, but sending it out to have it cleaned? Rotfl

This made me laugh hard enough to wake her up again. That's twice this week you've gotten me in trouble.

 

[robbins.photo]

My wife's A55 has GPS built in (I think). When it ever gets back from cleaning (IF it ever gets back) I'll give it a try and see if it's worth it.

Your wife's what? Oh.. that's 2 fives.. whew. I thought the GPS thing was odd enough, but sending it out to have it cleaned? Rotfl

This made me laugh hard enough to wake her up again. That's twice this week you've gotten me in trouble.

Well she probably hates me already so might as well go for broke as they say. Hmm.. this might explain why I got voted "Most likely to grow up to be a bad influence" in high school.. lol

 

[JClishe]

Using my Eye-Fi to send images from my camera to Photosmith on my iPad has been a huge productivity booster for my entire workflow. I do all of my rating & reviewing in the field either during or immediately after a shoot, and when I'm working with a model, she has the ability to tag her most and least liked images as well. When I get home I import the RAW's into Lightroom as usual then do a metadata-only sync from Photosmith on my iPad to the RAW originals that I just imported into Lightroom, and I immediately start editing.

Although I have no plans to replace my 5D3 anytime soon, there's absolutely no question that integrated WiFi will be a requirement for my next dSLR body. It's an invaluable tool.

I agree with Juga's comments earlier, if integrated WiFi simply causes you to think about social sharing options then you're not seeing the bigger picture.

 

[robbins.photo]

Using my Eye-Fi to send images from my camera to Photosmith on my iPad has been a huge productivity booster for my entire workflow. I do all of my rating & reviewing in the field either during or immediately after a shoot, and when I'm working with a model, she has the ability to tag her most and least liked images as well. When I get home I import the RAW's into Lightroom as usual then do a metadata-only sync from Photosmith on my iPad to the RAW originals that I just imported into Lightroom, and I immediately start editing.

Although I have no plans to replace my 5D3 anytime soon, there's absolutely no question that integrated WiFi will be a requirement for my next dSLR body. It's an invaluable tool.

I agree with Juga's comments earlier, if integrated WiFi simply causes you to think about social sharing options then you're not seeing the bigger picture.

Guess it depends on which larger picture your talking about. I shoot pretty much entirely in raw and post process everything. I don't own a tablet and even if I did I'd still most likely not want to try to process images on it, so before anything gets uploaded or shared anywhere I'll be putting it on the PC at home first and running it through photoshop. As a result the only thing Wifi would really do for me is make it so I wouldn't have to plug the little usb cable into the side of the camera to transfer the images to the PC. Not exactly a feature worth dropping much money on, at least not for my workflow.

Obviously your mileage varies, and that's ok. But the feature itself doesn't benefit everyone in the same way.

 

[Juga]

Using my Eye-Fi to send images from my camera to Photosmith on my iPad has been a huge productivity booster for my entire workflow. I do all of my rating & reviewing in the field either during or immediately after a shoot, and when I'm working with a model, she has the ability to tag her most and least liked images as well. When I get home I import the RAW's into Lightroom as usual then do a metadata-only sync from Photosmith on my iPad to the RAW originals that I just imported into Lightroom, and I immediately start editing.

Although I have no plans to replace my 5D3 anytime soon, there's absolutely no question that integrated WiFi will be a requirement for my next dSLR body. It's an invaluable tool.

I agree with Juga's comments earlier, if integrated WiFi simply causes you to think about social sharing options then you're not seeing the bigger picture.

Guess it depends on which larger picture your talking about. I shoot pretty much entirely in raw and post process everything. I don't own a tablet and even if I did I'd still most likely not want to try to process images on it, so before anything gets uploaded or shared anywhere I'll be putting it on the PC at home first and running it through photoshop. As a result the only thing Wifi would really do for me is make it so I wouldn't have to plug the little usb cable into the side of the camera to transfer the images to the PC. Not exactly a feature worth dropping much money on, at least not for my workflow.

Obviously your mileage varies, and that's ok. But the feature itself doesn't benefit everyone in the same way.

It is a tool and obviously not a tool for everyone. You, like many others, are still thinking about editing and/or file transfer with the wifi...not the bigger picture. Being able to remote shoot is a great feature using the wifi with a phone/tablet which is not for everyone but it is a nice feature for landscapes and my wife and I even used it to do our own couples shoot. With long exposures it is particularly nice because I don't even have to touch the camera to change settings or focus point which as you know is important to reduce vibrations within the camera.

In the end it gives you a very quick view of your image to make sure you got what you want in camera to later post process. File sharing, transfers, or editing are not even an option for me when using wifi. Just because it is new to DSLRs doesn't make it worthless or unnecessary to all.

 

[TheFantasticG]

I wonder why the manufacturers like Canon and Nikon don't put wifi and gps into the grips. Seems like it'd be a great selling point for the grip. I know if they re-released the D7k grip with wifi and gps i would buy it in a heartbeat.

 

[robbins.photo]

It is a tool and obviously not a tool for everyone. You, like many others, are still thinking about editing and/or file transfer with the wifi...not the bigger picture. Being able to remote shoot is a great feature using the wifi with a phone/tablet which is not for everyone but it is a nice feature for landscapes and my wife and I even used it to do our own couples shoot. With long exposures it is particularly nice because I don't even have to touch the camera to change settings or focus point which as you know is important to reduce vibrations within the camera.

In the end it gives you a very quick view of your image to make sure you got what you want in camera to later post process. File sharing, transfers, or editing are not even an option for me when using wifi. Just because it is new to DSLRs doesn't make it worthless or uncessary.

Well for me a landscape is not the bigger picture - because I don't shoot landscapes.. lol. It's a cool feature for some, no doubt about it - but not one I'd probably ever make use of myself.

 

[Smokeyr67]

I wonder why the manufacturers like Canon and Nikon don't put wifi and gps into the grips. Seems like it'd be a great selling point for the grip. I know if they re-released the D7k grip with wifi and gps i would buy it in a heartbeat.

I love that idea!

I'm considering a wi fi sd card, so I can send the images straight to my laptop for both myself and the model to review. I don't think GPS would be handy for me at the moment, but then again, I used to feel that way about speedlights

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

There are lots of uses for both GPS and WIFI. Many of those features I use myself pretty regularly.

There is more discussion on this topic here:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/photographic-discussions/341412-defense-wifi.html