Wireless tether options?

[Mach0]

Hello folks, I'm planning ahead this year. This past spring, we covered a three day dance event and did onsite printing. All went fairly well but I was looking for a more efficient way to tether the cameras. We had two separate staged set ups with two cameras going so a wired tether wasn't going to work and constantly having 8-10 memory cards in the rotation got old fast ( not to mention a bit unorganized). I've checked out camranger but I don't like that it's hanging from the camera. Has anyone used it before or can recommend a good set up to transfer raw files ?

I know there's the wt4 but I will most likely be running either LR4 or CS6 on a Mac. If anyone has any input, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!!

 

[Mach0]

Bump

 

[robbins.photo]

I think your problem here is the Mac part of the equation. Cables to go makes a wireless USB Dongle set that will allow you to tether the camera to the computer wireless - the problem is that they don't have device drivers for a Mac, only Windows. The only other option I could think of would be to use a cell phone as a router or if you have access to AC better yet bring along a wireless router - and use something like Eye-Fi memory cards in the camera so you can connect over your wireless network. You'd have to purchase Eye-Fi cards of course, but that might be really your best option.

 

[Light Guru]

I've checked out camranger but I don't like that it's hanging from the camera.

I think your problem here is the Mac part of the equation. Cables to go makes a wireless USB Dongle set that will allow you to tether the camera to the computer wireless

Oh please using a mac is NOT an issue here. If a software is windows only you can simply run windows on the he mac.

That said somehow you missed where the OP said he does NOT want a device hanging from the camera.

If you don't want something hanging then you are ether going to have to use wireless me merely cards or use cameras that have built in wifi.

Has anyone used it before or can recommend a good set up to transfer raw files ?

This may be one of the few times you don't want to use raw files or at least go with raw+JPEG. Raw files are big and sending lots of those wirelessly is not going to be fun for both the camera and the computer receiving them. Using Raw also means that you have to do some editing on each file before you print it as all unprocessed raw files look rather bland.


You did not say what model cameras you are using so I don't know if they take SD cards to use the eyefi cards. I have heard that performance is not great is you use a compact flash to SD card adapter, but I could be wrong. You should know that the only currently available eyefi card that will join an existing wifi network is the X2 Pro the mobi requires you to join the network made by the card and that would not allow you to connect multiple cards to the same computer at the same time.

If your cam eras have two card slots I would say set one card to save raw and use an eyefi card int he other and have the camera set to only put JPEGs on Hagar card.

Of course you could always rent cameras that have built in wifi.

 

[robbins.photo]

I've checked out camranger but I don't like that it's hanging from the camera.

I think your problem here is the Mac part of the equation. Cables to go makes a wireless USB Dongle set that will allow you to tether the camera to the computer wireless

Oh please using a mac is NOT an issue here. If a software is windows only you can simply run windows on the he mac.

That said somehow you missed where the OP said he does NOT want a device hanging from the camera.

If you don't want something hanging then you are ether going to have to use wireless me merely cards or use cameras that have built in wifi.

Has anyone used it before or can recommend a good set up to transfer raw files ?

This may be one of the few times you don't want to use raw files or at least go with raw+JPEG. Raw files are big and sending lots of those wirelessly is not going to be fun for both the camera and the computer receiving them. Using Raw also means that you have to do some editing on each file before you print it as all unprocessed raw files look rather bland.


You did not say what model cameras you are using so I don't know if they take SD cards to use the eyefi cards. I have heard that performance is not great is you use a compact flash to SD card adapter, but I could be wrong. You should know that the only currently available eyefi card that will join an existing wifi network is the X2 Pro the mobi requires you to join the network made by the card and that would not allow you to connect multiple cards to the same computer at the same time.

If your cam eras have two card slots I would say set one card to save raw and use an eyefi card int he other and have the camera set to only put JPEGs on Hagar card.

Of course you could always rent cameras that have built in wifi.

Using mac is an issue, because the devices do not have drivers for Mac. That isn't to say mac is horrible, etc - just pointing out no device drivers exist for the OS, which I think would be important information for the OP to have. Also not all virtualization software handles usb devices that require device drivers all that well - in fact some of them don't work at all. So yes, this is an important consideration.

No, I didn't miss where he said that he really didn't want something hanging out of the camera, but it's not like he has 400 options to chose from here. I'm merely letting him know what the options are and he can make the final decision from there.

As to the over the top hostility - not sure where that came from but would appreciate it if you could tone it down a bit. I was merely trying to help the guy out and your coming after me like I was trying to kill your kids or something. Seriously, what gives?

 

[Light Guru]

Using mac is an issue, because the devices do not have drivers for Mac. That isn't to say mac is horrible, etc - just pointing out no device drivers exist for the OS, which I think would be important information for the OP to have. Also not all virtualization software handles usb devices that require device drivers all that well - in fact some of them don't work at all. So yes, this is an important consideration.

You can install windows natively and boot directly to it and not use any virtualization software at all. You are literally running windows natively and all windows drivers will be compatible. So again using a mac is NOT an issue.

 

[robbins.photo]

Using mac is an issue, because the devices do not have drivers for Mac. That isn't to say mac is horrible, etc - just pointing out no device drivers exist for the OS, which I think would be important information for the OP to have. Also not all virtualization software handles usb devices that require device drivers all that well - in fact some of them don't work at all. So yes, this is an important consideration.

You can install windows natively and boot directly to it and not use any virtualization software at all. You are literally running windows natively and all windows drivers will be compatible. So again using a mac is NOT an issue.

Well I doubt the OP is going to want to boot to windows to transfer the files then reboot to mac in order to use them - it wasn't the impression I got from reading the original posting. Also the usb dongle option, as you went to such great lengths to point out, does require something to be plugged into the side of the camera so it wasn't the option I was recommending - something you might have realized if you'd read my posting instead of simply flying off the handle and going immediately into snark mode.

 

[Light Guru]

As to the over the top hostility - not sure where that came from but would appreciate it if you could tone it down a bit. I was merely trying to help the guy out and your coming after me like I was trying to kill your kids or something. Seriously, what gives?

I'm sorry if you took what I said to be a personal attack on you, i did not mean it like that. Your inference however that because the OP's problem is made worse because they are using a mac is just simply NOT true. Having a Macintosh computer actually gives the user more options because they can use any operating system or software they choose.

 

[robbins.photo]

As to the over the top hostility - not sure where that came from but would appreciate it if you could tone it down a bit. I was merely trying to help the guy out and your coming after me like I was trying to kill your kids or something. Seriously, what gives?

I'm sorry if you took what I said to be a personal attack on you, i did not mean it like that. Your inference however that because the OP's problem is made worse because they are using a mac is just simply NOT true. Having a Macintosh computer actually gives the user more options because they can use any operating system or software they choose.

Well I apologize if you took my original posting that way, that wasn't how it was meant. Just meant that the Mac OS does limit the options some what. Mac OS is incredibly stable which is a huge plus - but it is so stable in large part because it limits the hardware that it has to deal with and as a result you don't run into a lot of the hardware compatibility issues that a PC might experience. However that has a downside in that not all hardware will work for Mac. That was really all I meant in the original post, so if it was poorly worded I do apologize.

Also interestingly enough you can run Mac OS on a PC - really the only difference between the two any more is that Mac uses an EFI chip in place of a PC's bios, other than that all the hardware is pretty much the same.

 

[Light Guru]

Well I doubt the OP is going to want to boot to windows to transfer the files then reboot to mac in order to use them

Who says you have to reboot. Like I said in my first reply I recommend having a JPEG sent to the computer so you don't have to do any post at the event and all you then have to do is print, that's what the OP is looking to do.

 

[Mach0]

I am not against printing jpeg to keep things simple. For the photography side( the other part of the crew were videographers) there were only two of us. I ran the cameras while he ran the printing. He made the small tweaks to print since everything was calibrated( monitor, printer, etc.) I used a d700 and a d90 so I'm using sd and cf cards. The cf to sd car adaptor performance issues aren't too big of a deal since by the time they get over to the printing section, there's a line of people purchasing. So a minute or so delay isn't an issue. The real issue is getting both cameras to tether at the same time since I ran two propped areas within 75 feet of each other. I wouldn't mind using a hard wired tether but as you can imagine, not being close to the printing station will present a challenge. Thanks for the input thus far.

 

[DougGrigg]

its a bit've an untested by me option, but there are wi-fi SD cards (if you are using SD) that if there is a connection upload straight to the laptop from camera, definite option. have been dying to test it out in the studio, but have a look on gadget sites. there is always amazing technology floating around (the cards are about £39.99)

 

[Mach0]

its a bit've an untested by me option, but there are wi-fi SD cards (if you are using SD) that if there is a connection upload straight to the laptop from camera, definite option. have been dying to test it out in the studio, but have a look on gadget sites. there is always amazing technology floating around (the cards are about £39.99)

Might be a good option. Maybe have it upload to a specific folder and start the import from that folder. Thanks

 

[Light Guru]

its a bit've an untested by me option, but there are wi-fi SD cards (if you are using SD) that if there is a connection upload straight to the laptop from camera, definite option. have been dying to test it out in the studio, but have a look on gadget sites. there is always amazing technology floating around (the cards are about £39.99)

Those cheeper ad cards are not going to let you join the card to a wifi network you have to join the computer to the network the card creates. This will only allow the computer to talk with one card at a time. I'm also betting that the range of those cards is limited.

Like I said earlier the the eyefi pro X2 lets you join the card to an established wifi network. This should let you send multiple cards to the same computer and give you greater distance.

 

[Mach0]

Those cheeper ad cards are not going to let you join the card to a wifi network you have to join the computer to the network the card creates. This will only allow the computer to talk with one card at a time. I'm also betting that the range of those cards is limited. Like I said earlier the the eyefi pro X2 lets you join the card to an established wifi network. This should let you send multiple cards to the same computer and give you greater distance.

Ty!