Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography => Topic started by: NikolaBorissov on August 16, 2010, 08:07:12 am
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Hello everybody,
I am guessing we all would do unimaginable things for a working Wi-Fi solution for MF cameras. It doesn't seem that Hasselblad is going to offer anything like this in the near future, so I am looking for an alternative way to send data from my H4D wirelessly. I stumbled upon this: http://uk.eye.fi/ (http://uk.eye.fi/) - Wi-Fi enabled SD cards. Stangely enough, there isn't a CF model, only SD. Uhm. According to a quick google search, people have been successfully using these with SD-to-CF adapters in a variety of CF-compatible cameras - 5Dm2s, D700s, etc., so I'm guessing they should work, albeit slowly, in a H4D. Has anyone tried this combo? Or is there any other similar device that I am not aware of? Any thoughts and observations are most welcome!
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If it works then "slowly" will barely begin to describe it. Most use of the EyeFi is to send a JPG to the computer and have the RAW write locally.
Since Hassy/Phase/Leaf cannot write JPGs in camera this would require writing the entire RAW over the air. The only situation I can imagine that would be tolerable is when shooting still-life which is the very situation which does not require wireless tethering.
However if you test it do please do post your results!
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bump for this topic, as the new H5D will produce JPEG too, maybe it will be possible ? who knows ! :)
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Nikola - the next speed bump for wireless is 802.11ac; it is not beyond the realm of capability to incorporate a transmitter inside new MF camera models - or, for backwards capability, using a transmitter in the form factor of a CF card. First devices are scheduled for early 2013 according to CISCO (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps5678/ps11983/white_paper_c11-713103.html).
John
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I like your thinking Nikola, this has to be the way forward.
“Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.” - Robert A. Heinlein
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This may work, but there are various obstacles.
First of all the CF to SD conversion may not provide the type of stability needed for a Eye-Fi card.
There may also be issues with a Wi-Fi signal origination in an MF body. This could produce issues for the internal circuitry and it may also
be an issue for the signal to get out of the body.
There were issues with the D800 and Eye-Fi cards, but they have fixed it now with new drivers. However I doubt
Eye-Fi is interested in supporting the tiny MF market if it requires changes to their drivers.
The speed of the Eye-Fi cards is not really fast enough for large files so it would be necessary for the new Hasselblad backs
to also make lower res Jpegs, but with high quality compression.
The other issue to consider is the speed limitation of the Eye-Fi card in saving the Raw files to the card itself as well as the
size limit of the card 16Gb is the largest.
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I would never discourage anyone from experimenting, but there is a big difference between discussing what should work on a napkin at a bar (or on the Internet) and what actually works on a shoot when time is low and pressure is high.
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Nikola - the next speed bump for wireless is 802.11ac; it is not beyond the realm of capability to incorporate a transmitter inside new MF camera models - or, for backwards capability, using a transmitter in the form factor of a CF card. First devices are scheduled for early 2013 according to CISCO (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps5678/ps11983/white_paper_c11-713103.html).
John
I wonder how long it will take MF to adopt a new standard. Hasselblad is still stuck with Firewire even on the H5D while Phase One is still has Firewire and a dead USB 3 port.
Another thing to keep in mind is heavy coming out of a device that is inches from your brain and optic nerve..... maybe a wire is the best way to go with maybe just low res jpeg
as a sort of digital polaroid...