Field Test - Canon 5DmkII+WFT-E4+iPad

In order to do a quick field test of the 5D mkII to iPad wifi setup I mentioned previously, I met up with my friend TJ who lucky for me happened to be in Tokyo last month.

We headed up to a park near the NHK building.  Being from Hawaii, I don't normally get to see trees with colors other than green.  We came across some red trees lining the back of one of the NHK buildings which I thought would make a good background.

I had TJ stand up on the wall and I fired up the 5D/WFT-E4/iPad combo.  I used a 70-200 f2.8L lens on the 5D to throw the background out of focus.

Canon 5D mkII iso200 70-200 f2.8L IS 1/80 @ f2.8

It was pretty overcast that day, so I setup an SB26 and a shoot thru umbrella on a stand to get some directional light.  This let me use a faster shutter speed which darkened the background and made the red leaves pop a bit more.

Canon 5D mkII iso200 70-200 f2.8L IS 1/125 @ f2.8

We got a couple of shots in before building security came by and said we could only continue shooting if we took down the lightstand.  Doh!  Time to change locations.

Canon 5D mkII iso200 85mm f1.2L II 1/200 @ f2

We next setup on the steps of a nearby bridge.  Here I tried out the 85mm f1.2L II lens that I had just picked up that morning.  A bit of a mistake to buy this lens, because ever since I put it on my 5D mkII, I haven't wanted to take it off. ;-)  It takes a bit of getting used to the extreme shallow depth of field you can get with this lens - you really have to be careful where you focus.  I've found I get the most success rate from using the center focus point, locking it on the eye closest to me, then recomposing.
Once you get the hang of this lens though, it's amazing what it does to backgrounds.

 Canon 5D mkII iso200 85mm f1.2L II 1/200 @ f2.8

Keeping an eye out for security, I decided just to use an on-camera flash this time- a 580EX dialed down about 1-1/3 stop.  Just enough to lighten the shadows a skosh and put a little sparkle into TJ's eyes.

We moved to a spot under the bridge where there was a lot of colorful grafitti art.  First tried using the 85mm, but because the wall was not wide enough I ended up using the 70-200 to compress the frame and make the wall fill the background completely.  Since we couldn't see security anywhere and figured that under  the bridge was far enough away from the NHK property, I took a chance and setup the SB26 again, this time without the umbrella.

Canon 5D mkII iso200 70-200 f2.8L IS 1/125 @ f2.8

Lucky for me, TJ is the kind of model that looks great no matter what kind of light you throw at her, and she was able to take the direct flash pretty well.  This gave us some much needed directionality of light.

We had hoped to shoot some Christmas lights in Shinjuku, but we finished too early in the day and they had not turned on the decorations yet.  We decided to just grab some Starbucks and chat while looking through the images on the iPad.

Canon 5D mkII iso200 70-200 f2.8L IS 1/400 @ f2.8

Field results from this session:

Setup was relatively quick.  It was much easier to get the 5DmkII/WDT-E4 to transmit to the Shuttersnitch app on the iPad via the wireless router than it was with my 1DmkII/WFT-E1 setup.  The extreme portability of the iPad made it simple to show the model the images as we were shooting.

During this shoot I was using version 1.1.9 of the Shuttersnitch app and 4.2 iOS on the iPad.  Unfortunately the Shuttersnitch app crashed several times while transfers were taking place, so several images only half-downloaded to the iPad.  When the app crashed and I restarted it, it was very unstable so I had to shut down the iPad and restart it.  In between crashes, about 50% of the images made it to the iPad successfuly during the shoot.  The rest of the images I ended up having to transfer to the iPad while we sat at Starbucks after the shoot. I've heard that 2.0 is much more stable, and I hope that the app is updated on the iTunes store soon.

For reviewing images, it's pretty good.  You can set star ratings for each image and zoom in to check focus. I wish they listed the filenumber in the header (right now it only shows exposure info).  Right now in version 1.1.9 the only way to see the filenumber is to press and hold the tiny thumbnail images on the bottom of the interface.

I think once the app developer gets Shuttersnitch to a more stable version, I'll be using this setup more often.  As it stands right now, I can't recommend it for serious work yet.

***Edit - the developer of Shuttersnitch has released version 2.0 of the app which seems to be a LOT more stable.  You can now see the filenumber in the header and while testing it out on a later photoshoot, it did not crash.  Reviewing the images was still a bit wonky - sometimes when swiping through the images, it would jump back to the first image.  But it's way better than the previous version.

Canon 5D mkII wireless transmission to iPad

When Apple introduced the iPad at the beginning of this year, I knew immediately what I would want to use it for - viewing images from my camera during a photoshoot.  While there is a camera connector kit available that allows one to plug in a memory card and transfer images to the iPad, I wanted to be able to do it wirelessly during the shoot.  It just feels more productive to have the crew and myself to be able the view the image on a large screen seconds after it is taken, instead of viewing it on the LCD on the back of the camera.

I previously did this with a Canon 1D mkII, a WFT-E1 transmitter and my Macbook Pro.  While it did accomplish what I wanted it to do, the setup did have some drawbacks.   The WFT-E1 was Canon's first attempt at doing wireless transmission, a big bulky unit that screwed onto the bottom of the camera and plugged in via firewire or USB.

It also had an external antenna that got in the way sometimes (and eventually broke). Setting it up for networking was also a major pain in the tuckus and sometimes it would just refuse to behave. At one point I went back to using a long USB cable and shot physically tethered to the computer, but long cables and my clumsy feet are a disaster just waiting to happen.

I also tried a similar setup last year with the Eye-Fi card and a Dell Mini 9 hackintosh.  However, I had heard on the Eye-Fi forums that other people were experiencing corruption problems when using the Eye-Fi SDHC cards in CompactFlash adapter cards in their DSLRs.  The newer X2 series that are 8GB seemingly do not work at all with the CF adapters in cameras like the 5D mkII, which really sucks.  I personally never came across the corrupted image problem with the hackintosh setup, but since I also shoot weddings, that was something I was not willing to take a chance on.

The Eye-Fi/Dell Mini 9 hackintosh setup is still being used for family gatherings and other things, but without the CF adapter. I'm currently using it in a Canon G9 and might upgrade to the current G12 or the EOS 60D which now uses SDHC cards.

I really wish Eye-Fi would make a CompactFlash version of their product.  Apparently I am not alone in this - on the Eye-Fi customer support forums there are a lot of requests by their users to do so.  Why they continue to ignore this request, I have no idea.

Yo Eye-Fi, HELLOOOOOO?

Thankfully Canon has incorporated their WFT transmitters into vertical grips for their newer cameras making it MUCH easier to use than the WFT-E1.  They also brought down the price - still expensive at about $700, but remember, they USED to cost around $1500!

One minor gripe about using the WFT-E4 transmitter - while it replaces the vertical grip and takes the same kind of battery as the Canon, the battery only powers the transmitter and not the camera itself.

 So you have to have one battery in the camera, and one in the transmitter.  If your camera battery runs out, you have to unscrew the WFT-E4 to access the battery compartment of the camera body.  Not something you want to mess with when you're pressed for time during a shoot.

I'm hoping in the future  Canon will figure out a way to put 2 batteries in the WFT transmitter and have it power BOTH the transmitter and the camera.  I mean c'mon if Eye-Fi can do wifi transmission from a freaking SDHC card for less than $150, Canon SHOULD be able to figure out how do this at more than 4x the price and with much more space to work with (Hey, I can dream, can't I?).

Yo, Canon!  HELLOOOOOOO?

When the iPad was released, I started looking into ways that I could shoot wirelessly tethered to it.
One of the obstacles is that like the iPhone, the iPad does not allow creating an adhoc network unless you jailbreak it, something I was not brave enough the mess with.   Yet.  ;-)

Fortunately, I came across this article by Rob Galbraith which made it much easier to setup. It incorporates the use of a battery powered router, such as the Aluratek CDM530AM.

Yes, I know - lime green.  Yeek. But hey, it works and it works very well.

So this is now my current Canon to iPad field setup:

Canon 5D mkII
WFT-E4 wireless transmitter
iPad 64GB wifi version with Otterbox Defender iPad Case
Shuttersnitch app for the iPad
Aluratek CDM530AM battery powered router

Thanks to Rob Galbraith's excellent article, I had the setup working in about an hour. I have two configurations for the WFT-E4 - one field setup which sends the images via the Aluratek router to the iPad running Shuttersnitch, and one studio adhoc setup that sends the images directly to my MacBook Pro and importing into Lightroom, like I did previously with the WFT-E1.

The networking setup on the WFT-E4 is a little easier than with the WFT-E1, but it can still trip you up if you're not familiar with networking (and the included manual is basically worthless).  I found this guide by Julian Love Photography very helpful in setting up the ftp connection to my Macbook Pro.

In testing this setup (meaning me chasing our two cats around the house with my camera), the delay between shooting and viewing the images on the iPad is about 5-8 seconds, similar to what I was getting with the Eye-Fi and my hackintosh.  I have the 5D set to shoot RAW + Med JPG. Since I only plan to use the iPad for image review in the field, the WFT transmitter is set to transfer only the JPEGs, which is much faster than trying to send the RAW files (Plus the iPad's storage space is only 64GB and much of that is devoted to games and training videos).

The router's battery is said to last several hours, and the iPad's battery lasts pretty much all day, so I'm thinking this might work well in the field. The iPad fits into this case I picked up in Japan and the router fits into the side pocket. I'm thinking I can have this in a shoulder bag during a wedding and have the iPad collect images as I'm walking around shooting, then pull it out at the end to show the images to the client.

I'll also be taking this setup with me to Japan next week as I have several model photoshoots lined up.  I will try to post the field results in a later blog entry.

Eye-Fi Pro + MacBook Nano

I really like shooting tethered to the computer during a photo session because it allows for greater collaboration. Having the images come up on the computer screen during the shoot makes it much easier for everyone - the makeup artist can check for touchups, the model can refine her poses, the stylist can fix any stray hairs, and the photographer can check lighting and focus. It's also much easier on the eyes than having everyone crowd around the tiny LCD on the back of the camera.

My usual setup for model photo sessions is a 15" MacBook Pro, a 19" LCD external monitor, a Canon 5D, and the Canon WFT-E1 transmitter which sends the images from the camera to the computer over WiFi. I like it because there's no cables, which makes it easier for the photographer to move around to get the shot.


While this is great for shoots in studio, it's not that great when you're out in the field, especially at the beach. Sand gets into everything and you're always having to keep an eye on your gear in case it decides to grow legs and walk away from you.

I had been looking for a lower cost solution to use in the field. It took a while, but I found the solution in two parts - a Mac netbook and a wireless SD card.

Netbooks have become very popular recently, due to their low cost and their ability to do about 90% of what most people use a computer for - browsing the web, checking email, viewing video clips, etc.

Apple still doesn't make a netbook, so many people have taken to hacking low cost netbooks such as the Dell Mini 9, Lenovo S10, and MSI Wind to run Mac OS X. You can see a list of compatible netbooks here.

I chose to use the Dell Vostro A90, as it was available from Dell for less than $200, and is pretty much the same as the now discontinued Mini 9 in that it is one of the most compatible netbooks to run OS X on.

I found a very easy to follow guide for installing Mac OS X on this netbook. Once I installed 2 GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD, I had it up and running within a day.

It boots up and runs pretty quickly due to the SSD. I have Photoshop & Lightroom installed on it (Yes, the netbook DOES run Photoshop) and I am planning to use it in the field (the screen is only 8 inches so I'm mainly using it just to check the shots as they go into the computer). This will save a lot of wear and tear on my 15" MacBook Pro.


The next part was the wireless solution. The Canon WFT-E1 is a pretty big unit which attaches to the bottom of the camera via USB or Firewire. It's very bulky and expensive (about $1000). Canon has since come out with newer versions of this device which incorporate the Wifi transmitter into the extended grip for cameras such as the 5D MkII, the 40D and 50D.


A few years ago a company called Eye-Fi came out with an SD memory card for around $100 that included built in wifi capability. It was a pretty amazing product at the time (WiFi from an SD memory card? Wow!), it was very limited in that you needed an internet connection for it to work. It was mainly intended for consumers to upload images directly to the web from the camera. While you could upload from your camera to your computer, both had to be on the same wireless network, meaning you needed a router for the connection to work. It unfortunately did not support ad-hoc connections directly between the camera and the computer.

Thankfully, a few months ago they introduced the Eye-Fi Pro - a 4GB SDHC WiFi card ($149.99) that DOES support ad-hoc connections. This now does about the same thing as my WFT-E1, but for about $850 less.

It took some time to get it setup properly. You need to use a web browser and connect to their website to do the initial setup for the card. Firefox gave me some problems when I tried to switch on the adhoc connection on the netbook to set it up in the Eye-Fi manager software. But once I got it worked out (hint - use Safari to do the web setup), it was smooth sailing. The Eye-Fi website has a forum which was a big help in getting the problems worked out.

So now with this setup, it looks ready to roll. On the Mac netbook, I go to the menu and select "Create Network" and set up an ad hoc connection. I insert the Wifi Pro card into my Canon Powershot G9, turn it on, and we're good to go. I click the shutter and after about 12 seconds, the images pop up in Lightroom. The Eye-Fi Pro supports transmitting both JPEG and RAW files, but for now I'm just having it send the JPEGs to the computer for preview purposes only (I transfer the RAWs from the card back at the office)

I showed this to my buddy Chaz from After6Media, and his first reaction was "I gotta get this!" ;-)

In preliminary distance testing, I was able to get the camera to transmit from a distance of about 70 feet (couldn't test out further because that was the length of the room I was in at the time)

I haven't tried it with my regular cameras yet, as they use CompactFlash media instead of SDHC cards. I do have an SDHC to CompactFlash adapter card that I will use to test in my 5D. I'm also thinking of using it in my 1D MkII which has slots for both CompactFlash and SDHC.

With the Mac netbook, the Eye-Fi Pro, my Canon G9 and a Strobist light kit however, I think I may have found the ultimate mobile mini studio. I'll be testing this out in the field in a couple weeks and will post the results.