Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Digital Cameras & Shooting Techniques => Topic started by: bcroslin on January 02, 2009, 02:35:22 pm
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I just finished a shoot today with the 5D MKII tethered and it worked flawlessly. No crashes, no weird hiccups - it just worked. This has got me thinking about buying a WFT-E4a or maybe even a WFT-E2a for my 1Ds MKIII. Does anyone have any real-world shooting experience with the WFT-E4a and version 19.1 of DPP/ EOS Utility?
TIA
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i tried the wifi device w/ my canon 1dsmk3 and it didnt work smooth..... kept getting interrupted networks. we hated it, it made everything harder. your quote"I just finished a shoot today with the 5D MKII tethered and it worked flawlessly" , hold onto that method because gthe wifi will be the opposite!
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i tried the wifi device w/ my canon 1dsmk3 and it didnt work smooth..... kept getting interrupted networks. we hated it, it made everything harder. your quote"I just finished a shoot today with the 5D MKII tethered and it worked flawlessly" , hold onto that method because gthe wifi will be the opposite!
We're you using the latest version of DPP? I've heard similar things about the 1Ds MKIII and the WFT-E2a. I wonder if it's a hardware or software issue.
If the WFT-E4a works it would be incredible. I don't feel like being a guinea pig and wasting $1k if it doesn't work.
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We're you using the latest version of DPP? I've heard similar things about the 1Ds MKIII and the WFT-E2a. I wonder if it's a hardware or software issue.
If the WFT-E4a works it would be incredible. I don't feel like being a guinea pig and wasting $1k if it doesn't work.
I was using the latest one at the time ( device and software ) around march 2008, so probably not.
ok, please be our guinea pig and try it out..... but I the old one caused us so much frustration.....I couldnt wait to get rid of it.
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ok, please be our guinea pig and try it out..... but I the old one caused us so much frustration.....I couldnt wait to get rid of it.
I'm going to demo one next week and I'll report back. The rep I'm dealing with says the new version for the 5D MKII should be bulletproof for working "tethered" to DPP thru EOS Utility.
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I'm going to demo one next week and I'll report back. The rep I'm dealing with says the new version for the 5D MKII should be bulletproof for working "tethered" to DPP thru EOS Utility.
thats what they told me with the last one
we were shooting raws to the CF card in camera and small jpgs to the laptop just to see our lighting etc and when it worked it was great, super quick file transfer for the jpgs.
I hope it works, although I have the 1ds 3 so not sure if it will help me.
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Reporting back on the WFT-E4a.
I was able to use one today for about an hour and it seemed to work great. It is a serious pain-in-the-ass to set up but after getting everything hooked up it was rock solid. I was able to shoot "tethered" to my Macbook with DPP/ EOS Utility displaying jpgs. At one point I was about 40 feet away from the Macbook and shooting without a hitch. Canon seems to have solved any issues the older E2a transmitter might have had.
There are 3 issues IMO:
One - it takes a little more than 10 sec's for jpg's to display from push of the shutter until display in EOS Utility. When you hammer the shutter it takes about 7 sec's/ image after the first 10 sec delay. I'm not sure if it's possible to make the transfer go any faster. My assistant swears this is about the same as shooting plugged in via USB 2.0.
Two - set up still requires a degree in computer networking. Thankfully, I know a Reuters photographer who covers the shuttle launches and has a ton of experience using the WFT-E3a. He's written a doc that takes the pain out of setting up the E3a/ E4a. If I didn't have the doc I wouldn't have even attempted to set the transmitter up. I'd be happy to email anyone a copy of the doc - it's indispensable.
Three - the WFT-E4a is expensive. $930 is the lowest I've found from Samy's in CA. Add to the price the purchase of the also expensive as well as non-existent LP-E6 battery that is needed to run the transmitter and you've got a $1000 piece of plastic.
I plan on waiting to see if the price drops on the E4a. It's just too expensive when a 20 ft USB 2.0 cable will the do the same thing for about $40. Granted the freedom of the WFT-E4a is great but not at that price IMO.
Bob
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I own, but rarely use the WFT E2a with my 1Ds Mark III. Sending only the jpegs, small and compressed works well. The images come up very fast. Set up is a bit of a challenge. I've never had the patience to really dial in all the IP settings to make it connect faster. I'd love to take a look at your friend's set up instructions.
info@danielgoldwasser.com
good luck,
Daniel
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It's just too expensive when a 20 ft USB 2.0 cable will the do the same thing for about $40. Granted the freedom of the WFT-E4a is great but not at that price IMO
Although not as convenient as wireless, but there are much longer USB cables now; see http://www.usbfirewire.com/Parts/rr-usb2-ext-65ft.html (http://www.usbfirewire.com/Parts/rr-usb2-ext-65ft.html). Then there is this one, up to 196 feet: http://www.cableguyusa.com/cgi-bin/cable/k...tml?id=7RrZksMd (http://www.cableguyusa.com/cgi-bin/cable/kit-601-401-60-150ft.html?id=7RrZksMd)
The 10sec for a JPEG sounds very bad; a raw file would take probably 30 seconds or more.
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I find the bottleneck not to be the transmission but simply the processing. On my 30D I get 11 seconds for a RAW, 9 for a jpg over USB2. Going with a longer cord but stepping down to USB1, it only adds 3 seconds. This is from shutter release to seeing the image in lightroom, monitoring a folder. This is on a very old P3 laptop with 1GB ram.
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I've just picked one of these up, and yes it is a PITA to get it set up.
Once it is working though it's great. Shooting RAW + small JPEG, the JPEGs will transfer in about 1 sec up to a range of 20m or so. It slows down if you go further away than that. You can put the computer to sleep and turn off the camera and the connection will be restored automatically when you restart, so it never seems to lose the connection. I'm going to try it for real on a location shoot soon.
Initial report on my blog at:
http://adventure-photographer.blogspot.com...ransmitter.html (http://adventure-photographer.blogspot.com/2009/02/wft-e4-wireless-transmitter.html)
Will have a post on how to set it up (with screenshots etc) shortly too - the manual assumes you have a degree in computer networking.
Julian
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How are well does the live view work with the wireless?
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Hi David - I haven't tried it in PTP mode yet, only FTP - PTP mode isn't that useful to me. I might get some time next week to test it that way - if I do I'll report back.
Julian
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Julian:
Please try PTP for me. Live view on a laptop screen sounds terrific. I'm 56 and composing, checking focus, dof, etc., while bending or leaning against a wall becomes more troublesome every year. While doing this task, I usually crave working with my Hasselblad. Too bad the digital backs are so expensive. So, for me and as many all over, dslr's are the answers for digital photography. If this device works fine in both FTP and PTP, I'm buying one. Period
Thanks in advance
Eduardo
Hi David - I haven't tried it in PTP mode yet, only FTP - PTP mode isn't that useful to me. I might get some time next week to test it that way - if I do I'll report back.
Julian
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is working with raw files even somewhat interesting? i really don't care about shooting jpegs and until apple has their #&*$% usb tether situation figured out, i will use DPP to shoot raw tethered, which works great for me...and superfast....
i guess useable would be anything up to 10sec and NO DROPPED FRAMES...AT ALL....i don't care if it takes the thing 10minutes after each set up to bring the shots in one by one....
but i guess if it takes 7 sec for a jpeg, i am looking more at 20sec for raw.....
WHY does canon not use "n" standart? ...so much faster and longer range! even every macbook is "n" these days....and the chips are still backwards compatible....
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i guess useable would be anything up to 10sec and NO DROPPED FRAMES...AT ALL....i don't care if it takes the thing 10minutes after each set up to bring the shots in one by one....
but i guess if it takes 7 sec for a jpeg, i am looking more at 20sec for raw.....
JPEG will transfer in about 1 sec, RAW in about 15 sec. There are no dropped frames - if the camera loses connection for any reason it buffers the frames and sends them when the connection is reestablished. And the originals are always saved to the CF card unless you specify it not to.
Julian
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WHY does canon not use "n" standart? ...so much faster and longer range! even every macbook is "n" these days....and the chips are still backwards compatible....
Products like these are usually behind the state of the art.
In the case of what you call the "n standard", it isn't even a standard yet! A lot of manufacturers jumped the gun, using early drafts of the protocol, which will probably be finalized this coming November or December. Those manufacturers are betting that the final standard (probably coming in 2010, then) will not differ significantly from the earlier drafts, and that they can push firmware upgrades to customers to fix incompatibilities.
I don't think Canon really needs to justify it any more than that.
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Products like these are usually behind the state of the art.
In the case of what you call the "n standard", it isn't even a standard yet! A lot of manufacturers jumped the gun, using early drafts of the protocol, which will probably be finalized this coming November or December. Those manufacturers are betting that the final standard (probably coming in 2010, then) will not differ significantly from the earlier drafts, and that they can push firmware upgrades to customers to fix incompatibilities.
I don't think Canon really needs to justify it any more than that.
not sure what you are talking about....i bought apple and netgear "n" stuff in 2007....and i believe those items were released in 2006.....afaik there is a new bluetooth standart coming out in 2010 that is faster then wifi "n".....
apple hasn't built a wifi capable device (other then the iphone) WITHOUT "n" in 2 years....
so i don't think this is state of the art in any way.....besides shouldn't a 1000$ grip (which is WAAAAAY overpriced, any 100$ router can do most of this stuff) be state of the art? especially when it comes to range and speed?
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Setup guide for using the WFT-E4 now online on my blog:
http://adventure-photographer.blogspot.com...p-ftp-with.html (http://adventure-photographer.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-go-wireless-setting-up-ftp-with.html)
Hope you find it useful if you're having trouble getting this thing working.
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i tried the wifi device w/ my canon 1dsmk3 and it didnt work smooth..... kept getting interrupted networks. we hated it, it made everything harder. your quote"I just finished a shoot today with the 5D MKII tethered and it worked flawlessly" , hold onto that method because gthe wifi will be the opposite!
Hi
I am shooting with the wifi device w/ my canon 1dsmk3 and it works fine for almost a year now. I shoot RAW to the camera card and large JPGs to PC in the studio and on location with laptop PC. It keeps connection 10- 15 meters.
It is very convenient for all aroud uses, Once it is working though it's great. Shooting RAW + Large JPEGs, but I needed an expert to make it work. I don't have a degree in computer networking.
If someone has a detailed written way on how to set it up (with screenshots etc) for PC, I will appreciate haveing it (because I will have to set it up again on a new computer I intend to buy).
best regards
Menachem Reiss www.reiss.co.il
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Fantastic Julian Love!
I haven't bought this gear yet, but your blog is marked and saved already. It looks like a lot of work and big time thinking explaining step by step with pics as you did. Thank you so much.
By any chance, will you blog how to setup a PTP connection?
Best
Eduardo
Setup guide for using the WFT-E4 now online on my blog:
http://adventure-photographer.blogspot.com...p-ftp-with.html (http://adventure-photographer.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-go-wireless-setting-up-ftp-with.html)
Hope you find it useful if you're having trouble getting this thing working.
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not sure what you are talking about....i bought apple and netgear "n" stuff in 2007....and i believe those items were released in 2006.....afaik there is a new bluetooth standart coming out in 2010 that is faster then wifi "n".....
I can sympathise with your confusion, but 802.11n is NOT standardised yet.
Your products purchased in 2007 may not work properly next year, depending on which guesses they made in their headlong rush to release a product that should have waited.
I suggest you peruse the information on e.g. Wikipedia regarding 802.11n to learn a bit more about how the standardisation process is coming along.
Bluetooth is irrelevant here, that's not a similar standard at all.
apple hasn't built a wifi capable device (other then the iphone) WITHOUT "n" in 2 years....
so i don't think this is state of the art in any way.....
That's your opinion, and you're of course entitled to it, but it doesn't make it a reasonable position.
besides shouldn't a 1000$ grip (which is WAAAAAY overpriced, any 100$ router can do most of this stuff) be state of the art? especially when it comes to range and speed?
I also think that these grips are far too expensive for the technical functionality they deliver, but I suppose that your USD 100 router doesn't fancy rain too much and is a bit too picky regarding not being plugged into a wall socket.
300-400 dollars would be more reasonable, I suppose.