|
Forums >
Photography Talk >
IPad for Photographers, a REAL use
What you'll need: a camera that uses SD cards - I use a Nikon D90 an ipad, 3g optional - duh eyefi pro X2 card - mandatory a wireless router - I found a Belkin on newegg for $14 rechargeable 9v battery - clearance rack at radio shack $6, its designed to power those portable DVD players. First task is setting up the router. It'll need an internet connection for this installation, so make sure you know a bit about networking, or buy a six-pack and call a friend. Once the router works, you'll have to install the eyefi card. Eyefi needs to send the image (raw and/or jpg) from your camera, across your new wireless network, and save it onto your computer harddrive. Disable eyefi from sending the images anywhere else, online portals, ftp, etc. Test a few shots, and make sure they're popping up on your computer. Testing is very important, as we'll need some info from this step later on. If all is well, close ALL eyefi software running on your computer, else it will confuse the eyefi card once we start sending the images to the ipad. Now, unplug the wireless router, and fix your network settings.. hopefully it won't cost ya another six-pack. Fire up the ipad! In the app store, $8 buys an app called Shuttersnitch. Then visit http://2ndnature.thebrew.dk/shuttersnit … hp?f=2&t=1 for the tutorial to get this app to listen for data from the eyefi card. Its pretty straightforward, and takes about 5 minutes. Plug in your wireless router (doesn't need an internet connection), and start Shuttersnitch. Create a 'collection', you have to be inside a collection for the app to listen for data from the eyefi card. Now snap away in either jpg or raw/jpg mode! In my experience, it takes 10-12 seconds for each shot to show up on the ipad! Shuttersnitch is a basic image viewer, with pinch zoom. Its got histogram view, and some sort of audible alarms if the incoming image doesn't meet certain criteria.. such as if the image is below X shutterspeed, or above X aperture. Shuttersnitch has a basic star rating system. It also lets you export selected images to your ipad library, or... and this is the FUN part, email or FTP the images, assuming you have 3g or an internet connected wifi spot. I'll talk more about that in a sec.. Now, remember that 9v battery? I've got 2, and each powers the router for 2.5-3 hours. Plug the two together, throw it in your camera bag, and you've got a wifi hotspot on the frickin beach.. in the middle of the woods.. anywhere! Snap the shutter, and near-instant viewing in seconds! Back to exporting images out of Shuttersnitch. This makes all of this trouble seem soooo worth it. Are you an on-location shooter/printer? Export selected images to your ipad library, and get one of the many apps that print to bluetooth or wifi printers. Boom.. prints literally 3 or 4 minutes after they're shot. Want quick proofs after an event? Get the walgreens app, and upload your shots to the 1-hour photo. You can even put your customer's name as the pickup contact. You can't really do this with 3g.. not in my area anyway. You'll need an internet equipped wifi hotspot. Get one of the infinite numbers of facebook apps, and upload the pics during clothing changes. Or, my favorite.. FTP: I've created several folders on my FTP server, and given them names such as, bw, bw vignette, bw vignette portrait professional, sepia, sepia vignette, cross process, cross process vignette, etc etc. I upload my chosen images to the correct directories. At home on my PC, I've got a piece of software called 'Fling File Transfer'. I've set it up to check each directory on the FTP server once per minute. If any jpgs are there, they are downloaded, and put into specific directories on my PC. Then, a custom javascript applies the correct photoshop actions to each file. So, whatever files are in my 'bw vignette' directory are processed in photoshop, and saved to an output directory. So, from shutter-click to finished image takes 1.5-3 minutes depending on FTP and wifi speeds. Next on my list is to take all images in the output directory, and automatically upload them to www.insertwebsitehere.com so we can view them on the ipad. OR.. wait until ipad multitasking comes out, and find a decent image editor for the ipad. One last thing! The app called iTeleport! Remote desktop! FTP images to your computer, and do the cropping/actions/editing manually in photoshop. yes.. PHOTOSHOP AND LIGHTROOM ON THE IPAD! Now, its not the greatest, but if you build a few custom panels with adobe configurator and rearrange your panels/toolbars/etc keeping your touchscreen in mind.. and you can do quite a bit, albiet its clumsy. My only wish for iTeleport is that it'd allow keystrokes from the apple bluetooth wireless keyboard, so I can hold alt, shift, ctrl, etc etc and use photoshop's tools as they're meant to be used. C'mon, get the credit card out.. ya know ya wanna! Done! Jun 22 10 09:43 pm Link I do something similar with my Q1.. except I just plug it in and use the prior install of DPP to tether and view raw files.. it also then doubles up as an 8"real time view finder. Mac make lovely toys, in extremely complicated ways, which is a shame, given the simplicity of their operating systems and general user experience.  Jun 23 10 02:40 am Link i missed the part where i develop the film...???? Jun 23 10 04:11 am Link I used it to get engaged. That was as real as I could get  Stephen Eastwood http://www.StephenEastwood.com Jun 23 10 04:37 pm Link S W I N S K E Y wrote: you must be a PC/Android person Jun 23 10 04:38 pm Link I'd rather be able to use the EyeFi to send pics directly from the camera to an iPhone without a wireless router... rather than an iPad, I may as well just take my notebook/laptop. Now, the iPhone site is saying the new 4G will support tethering (and it looks like ATT might change and support it now) so I may as well take a laptop anyway. Jun 23 10 04:45 pm Link StephenEastwood wrote: I saw the video. It was win. Jun 23 10 04:53 pm Link I'm genuinely struggling to see how all this messing about is better than tethering to a laptop. (Apart from that fact that there's an iPad involved, of course.) Just my $0.02 Ciao Stefano www.stefanobrunesci.com Jun 23 10 04:53 pm Link Stefano Brunesci wrote: It isn't better, technologically Jun 23 10 04:55 pm Link Stefano Brunesci wrote: +1. Even though I LOVE my iPad, all this seems a LOT of tinkering to get something that doesn't work as well as tethering to my MacBook Pro, where images show up within 1-2 seconds, not 10-12. Jun 23 10 04:58 pm Link Granted, I didn't read the whole thing. Stuff that takes more than 4 steps loses my interest pretty quickly. Why not just pop your SD card out, and jam it directly into your iPad dongle? It seems like you jumped through 4 flaming wormholes just to get a wireless upload solution. Jun 23 10 04:59 pm Link The camera connection kit lets you take the RAW or JPG or both files off the card into the device for previewing and transfer to a computer later. As a tether device...meh. The cam connection kit is cheap, fast and super simple. Pop in the card and its all just touch to select or select all, and in they go. Jun 23 10 04:59 pm Link can i just wait til the iPad 4 comes out with the SD slot and USB connection? Jun 23 10 05:00 pm Link Karl Baxter wrote: I see the same over complicated stuff with the mac boys using final cut pro.... Jun 23 10 05:05 pm Link I'll keep my Macbook Pro that actually does something and it still very portable Jun 23 10 05:40 pm Link R A V E N D R I V E wrote: A pretty experience? Try watching porn on the iPad, thats pretty cool experience, you have to see it for yourself. Its soooo much better than watching it on your computer, because with the Pad, its portable, so you have fap fap fap on the go! Jun 23 10 05:43 pm Link Stefano Brunesci wrote: you're 100% right! A laptop can create the ad-hoc network needed for eyefi without all of this messing around and tinkering. The purpose of my project is just to play with innovation.. get creative juices flowing.. think outside the box. The ipad can be more than just, "ohhh look, now I can show off my port on this new shiney thing!" Jun 23 10 05:57 pm Link LDPhotography wrote: and the external keyboard that's attached and folds up to protect the screen during transpor.......oh wait we got that already a laptop Jun 23 10 06:04 pm Link It is a fantastic tool...not a laptop just another option more portable meant to work along side your laptop and I-phone anyone who thinks it is a replacement is mistaken... love apple for their continuing innovative thinking... Jun 23 10 06:12 pm Link I use my iPad for backup during a shoot and then as a portfolio/sales tool. It works like a charm, 99% happy Brian Jun 23 10 06:15 pm Link Anyone who has used a iPad wants one. They are cool . My complaints are no flash, no SD reader/slot and no usb. The Asian clones have addressed these issues and Android is better in many ways then using Apple's apps. As to the tether issue.... The OP has offered a clever solution to something Apple should have focused on. I have debated this problem with some other shooters about the iPad. They felt that the people buying the pads won't care about tethering. Those people are crazy IMHO. That's the very reason you buy these gems. My budget is limited but the iPad is fantastic. Its one of the best new products around and will change the landscape of computing. I am not a Apple fan boy. Although, I do own Apple computers. I am a tech fan boy and the iPad is killer. Jun 23 10 06:22 pm Link David Simpson Images wrote: yeah but the laptop doesnt get almost 12 hours on a charge either..... Jun 23 10 06:47 pm Link syd47421 wrote: Actually NO I really dont wanna Jun 23 10 07:31 pm Link Guys, A few thoughts on several of the posts above. FULL DISCLAIMER: I'm one of the Eye-Fi co-founders. First of all -- kudos to syd47421 for putting this write-up together. Totally awesome. On the throughput -- you will get about 10-12mbps, which ends up being about 2.5MBps, transfer rate. So if you're shooting RAW + JPG, and all you want, is to transfer the JPG's, to preview, live, during a shoot -- it'll take much much less than 12 seconds per file. Just do the math. If you shoot RAW + low-res JPG's that are 500kb each, the files will just be flying in. If you're shooting 30MB RAW uncompressed files, yes, it will take 10-15 seconds per file. But you will NEVER be blocked while shooting. You could shoot for a very long time, have the card EMPTY itself while you're shooting via the Endless Memory feature, and you won't need to swap out cards. You could also be shooting, on-location, and the make-up artist / stylist, on-location, could preview the images. Or, you and your model could see the images in real-time. It's much more convenient to shoot this way, vs. a cable, even though the cable has faster throughput speeds. Cables have many issues, in the studio, and on-location. The battery life of the iPad or devices like the iPad has a huge advantage over a laptop. I carry my MacBook Pro everywhere with me, but I hate to carry it with me to the beach, even though I have backups of my data. I just don't want the hassle of having it break on me. But with the iPad in the bag, or something like the iPad, you could shoot, on location, and just focus on shooting. You won't run out of space, you won't need to swap out cards, and you'll be able to browse the images in real-time. If I tried to rely on my MacBookPro to transfer images out of my cards, during a shoot, I would need to power it up, sleep it, wake it up, etc..., to keep transferring cards, during outfit changes. A major pain that cuts the flow of the shoot. Any time that I don't need to spend transferring files, erasing, managing images, during a shoot is MORE TIME I CAN SPEND WITH THE MODEL. The reason that the Eye-Fi Card cannot talk to the iPad / iPhone / iPod is that those devices don't support ad-hoc Wi-Fi. There is a way to make it work, but it's not supported by Apple, so I'm not gonna get into it here. NO, the iPhone 4G WILL NOT support Wi-Fi tethering. It will support bluetooth tethering. You can purchase a battery like the Tekkeon MP1800 or other batteries from Tekkeon, that will power your devices for hours. Thx, Ziv. Jun 28 10 12:44 am Link Someone mention porn? Jun 28 10 04:24 am Link Alluring Photo wrote: My Netbook has Wi-Fi and a 10 hour battery life! Jun 28 10 04:36 am Link Jerry Nemeth wrote: Which netbook is that, and does it work with Eye-Fi? Jun 28 10 05:30 am Link if the IPad had firewire it was interesting for me... but now i dont see the possibility to use it in photography... Jun 28 10 05:30 am Link LDPhotography wrote: +1 mee too Jun 28 10 05:32 am Link There are already aps for Leaf Capture and Capture One that preview images on iPhone/iPad if you are already tethering into a host computer. Personally, I wouldn't want to tether directly into an iPad anyway. I have an Epson P7000 that does this with a 160 gig drive which can look at RAW files from either tethered or download from cards. I wouldn't mind being able to hook up my iPad to the P7000 for a larger display, but storing RAW images on an iPhone/iPad does not make sense to me. I have found that the iPad makes a great tool for the photographer as a portfolio. I'm sure it would serve the same function for the videographer. Jun 28 10 05:35 am Link In Balance Photography wrote: Acer Aspire one 532h-2326 Jun 28 10 05:59 am Link The Eye-Fi Card requires a Wi-Fi connection. This can be: Infrastructure, meaning, router based, hot-spot, etc... ad-hoc, meaning, straight to your laptop, via the laptop's Wi-Fi. ad-hoc works amazingly well in OS X, Windows 7 and Vista. It sucks in Windows XP, so if you need to shoot with the Eye-Fi card, and you'd like to stick with Windows XP, use the following app, which overcomes Windows XP's horrible ad-hoc Wi-Fi: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5374713/ConnectifyInstaller.zip Don't forget, if you want to do ad-hoc, only the Pro X2 does that. Jun 28 10 03:24 pm Link UUUUmmmmm! What was that again? LOL! Sounds French to me man. Jun 29 10 07:59 pm Link K E S L E R wrote: Winner. Going to put some porn on my ipad immediately. Jun 29 10 08:42 pm Link David Simpson Images wrote: Nope... laptops are too big... try a blazing netbook... there's your (almost fullsize) keyboard, USB and SD ports, bigger 10" display, 160 gig hardrive, built-in GPS, 6 hour battery life and bulletproof Windows 7... Jun 30 10 05:59 am Link Good Egg Productions wrote: DONGLE: my new word for the day. Lets see if i can use it as much as i use epic. Jun 30 10 06:05 am Link Alluring Photo wrote: Dumb question... is there any way to selectively choose what images are transferred, or does it need to be all images... or all images as they are shot. Jun 30 10 10:27 am Link K E S L E R wrote: you are killing me! LMAO Jun 30 10 12:04 pm Link you know, sometimes I wonder .... how could the world ever turn without Apple? Jun 30 10 12:47 pm Link K E S L E R wrote: Genius. This post was masterful. No pun intended. Jun 30 10 01:11 pm Link |
