Hi all,

I've not posted for a long time and hope everyone reading this is well. This may be a dumb question, but here goes...I am wondering if there is a device out there in the world that will help cameras and laptops talk to each other without being tethered. I need to print on site and want to save some time.
Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

Anna

There is probably a way to do it... how expensive it would be, that is the question...

Are you a Canon or Nikon shooter?

Yay, a reply! I shoot Canon.

Depending on the camera, Canon has a wireless transmitter that is I think around $1000, you could just send them a computer on site, then have someone hit print as them come in...

I'll do a search on it. Any idea what it's called or model #? I have a 5D.
Thanks for your help, man!
a

No prob

This would be easy if you shot Nikon. Or at least I'd know the answer. If you're trying to save time, wireless won't help. It'll make it easier to move around, obviously, since you're not tethered to the computer.

I remember seeing a CF card that was tethered to a pack that you wore on a belt that was wireless. I think they were trying to make it less bulky. There's also a consumer card (SD only, though) that supposedly wirelessly downloads once you become in range. I saw it on the B&H site a little while ago.

We print on the spot fairly often (tethered, not wireless). I assume you have the printing part down. I've figured out an inexpensive way to do it and get text and graphics (like borders) on the prints. You don't want to use Photoshop for this. It'll take forever. With our workflow, the printing keeps up with the photography, which was our biggest bottleneck previously.

Adam, I have a Canon PIXMA 9500.

Well, I guess I don't have to be wireless, but, I don't want to be taking pictures, then running cards to the computer to be uploaded, then running back to take the next picture. See, I have an estimated 450 pictures to print in 5 hours (kind of like a prom shoot where you pose the couple, take the pic and print it out for them to pick up later. So, there will be no moving around taking pictures). I'd like to just have the picture fly to the computer without me having to run the card over to the computer. Make sense? I mean, it can be done, but can it be done less labor intensively?

I just read some reviews on the Canon WFT-E1A and they're not good for getting it set up properly. I'm not hopeful. Poo

You could shoot also shoot tethered with the 5D, you can get some pretty long USB 2 cables

Can you elaborate on how that might be set up? Or is it so simple that I'm making it harder than it is?

At least I'm thinking the 5D comes with the remote capture software... maybe I'm thinking of the 1DMKII... And all of that stuff is at the office, if no one chimes in, I'll check tomorrow.

Wait...have you really thought this through? I have done some heavy printing under the wire before, but 450 pictures printed in 5 hours?

What sizes are you printing? I have a Kodak 8500 and it takes around a minute and 15 seconds per 8x10 and that is usually considered snappy in comparison to an inkjet. Do you plan on delivering all 450 photos on the night? Because even on my printer it would take 9 hours and 22 minutes for all of those to print, and I would guess a photo-quality inkjet print like one from the Pixma would take a little longer.

I just think you really need to think this through and see if it's feasible with your printer. It may not be and you might have to consider some form of delivery after the event. Plus, what happens if you have a printer or computer error or something? That can eat into your time or sabotage you.

I thought about doing some event printing like this before, but decided against it for some of the above reasons.

Any consumer printer won't be up to the task. You need a professional event printer. We used to do this with four printers. 3 Canon postcard printers (dye-sub) and one inkjet. The dye-sub printers worked well, but tend to overheat after ten images. And we were limited to 4x6 prints. Even with four printers going at once, the most we ever printed is 115 in a little under two hours. Between the print times (about 90 seconds each) and the printers overheating (after ten prints or so), it goes slow.

We now use a professional printer and with just the one printer, we're able to keep up with the photography. This printer will print a 4x6 in nine seconds and a 5x7 in 15 seconds.

You may want to consider getting (at least) three more printers and having a runner transfer the cards from you to the computer. But it would be faster and easier to shoot tethered. I'm not familiar at all with Canon's software for downloading the images, but make sure you have that part down before attempting this.

There is a "groove" you need to figure out so it goes smoothly.

I hope this helps you and isn't too discouraging. You'll be very, very frustrated with just one printer.

Anna,

Unless you plan on doing this on a regular basis or more than once, I would suggest you dump the inkjet and wireless idea. Contact someone like Desktop Darkroom (FL), Imaging Spectrum (Tx) or Foto Club (Ca) and rent a Sony UPD-R 150 ( for 5x7 or smaller prints) and a copy of Express Digital's Darkroom Pro. The purchase price of these two is roughly $3k, but you can rent the printer for the weekend for about $250 plus shipping. 5x7 prints will cost you about 65 cents each.

Technically this printer software combination will get you what you need, but unless you plan on having 2 or more cameras working or your 450 prints includes multiple copies of each image you will be limited by how many people you can actually pose and photograph.

Feel free to contact me off line if you would like more information. Event photography is a big part of my business.

Ryan
ryansears@mac.com

Adam, just out of curiosity, what printer are you using now?

My Kodak 8500 is getting a little long in the tooth, and I like the sound of a 15-second 5x7. Does it do 8x10 as well? I may be looking to eventually replace my Kodak.

Anna, you may want to Google something like "event printer pooling" because a lot of these setups involve people pooling more than one printer to achieve this in the amount of time that they have. Googling that you should find solutions that other people are using successfully that may do this kind of work on a more regular basis.

I'm just trying to point out all the contingencies so that you know if this is doable or not. I would hate for you to have to get to the end of the event and have the last half or third unfinished and have to start thinking, "What now?"

If your printer won't be able to keep up, could you rent a pro printer?

Some more things. You need to take into account that the printer will run out of ink. You'll most likely lose everything that is sent to the printer at that time and you'd need to figure out what didn't get printed.

There's also the human aspect. Whoever is running the computer/printer is going to have to be very diligent and know exactly what they're doing. People will come and ask questions and it's a difficult job even without interruptions. Especially if you're running several printers. It's easy to forget which images were sent to which printer.

What size are you printing? 4x6s will take less time, of course.

Here's a thought. What are you charging? If you're charging at least $8 a print and you think you'll ever do something like this again, you could take a cut and purchase an event printer. There's a fantastic one out right now (Sony UP-DR-200) that has beautiful prints. We have the older model (UP DR-150) and it only does glossy prints. The new ones have a nice looking pearl finish -- just like a lab print. These are dye-sub printers. Very high quality prints. Higher resolution than many lab's printers. I think they're 360 dpi, which is very high for a continuous tone printer.

Anyway, that printer is about $1800 right now. A package of paper/ink is $400 for 5x7 and $230 for 4x6. The 5x7 pack has 800 prints and the 4x6 pack has 1400 prints. Our printer (glossy prints only) right now is going for $1095. The paper is $225 for 1100 4x6 prints and $458 for 670 prints. There might be other promotions and rebates available, too.

There is also a rental program, which might be a good option for you. It's $200 for two days, and $350 for 5 days. Only use days -- not shipping days. This is for the UP-DR-150, the one we have. You'd still have to get the paper, though.

Let me know if you have any other questions about this. If you use Macintosh computers, I have a (relatively) inexpensive way to crank out that many prints.

Or just listen to Ryan, Anna, since he seems to know his stuff.

Good advice Ryan! I'm making a note of this thread in case I decide to attempt this again in the future.

We were writing at the same time. See above post. It doesn't do 8x10s. It does 3.5x5s, 4x6s, 5x7s, and 6x8s. The 3.5x5 and 6x8 paper rolls are very expensive so most people just do 4x6s and 5x7s. It won't do both at the same time, though. The paper rolls (and ink ribbons) must be swapped out to change sizes.

Sony's new UP DR-200 has amazing-looking prints. There's also a "matching" 8x10 printer that uses the same technology for the print surface. The "E-surface" (not really, but close) finish is done in the printer, the paper is glossy to start out. I don't know the model of the 8x10 printer.

I highly recommend these Sony printers. The 4x6 prints really only take 6 seconds. Of course, that's if you send them all at the same time and you're not waiting for the computer to process them. Once it's to the printer, though, it's super-speedy. Multiple copies (like 25 of the same image) goes the fastest, of course.

We purchase everything from Event Photo Market and I highly recommend them. Very helpful and they know what they sell. I think there's free shipping on the print media, too, which is nice.

wow, all this help! yay. let me read through for a sec.

Ok, great advice everyone. I had researched the Sonys and decided that they were too expensive. After talking with a local shop here, they told me that event pros us the Canons and it sounds like they were wrong. I can't get it to do a 5 x7 faster than 1 min 20 secs. So, that's probably out. Some of the reviews I read say that people use these as an alternative to their labs for prints. Unacceptable?? there are some very nice papers out there, but that's is for another discussion, I guess.

Anyway, back to the topic, I will have two cameras going, two printers going and use PCs. But, will I need the computer at all? I need to print 5 x 7s. I'll check out Event Photo Market for sure. Yes, I hope to be doing this more often in the future, so it might be a better idea to get one of the Sonys. Sounds like with these, it's easy as pie and we may even have time to spare at the end of the night.

I haven't played with these yet but this might help ya

http://www.eye.fi/

but the cameras I have only take CF cards. Cool idea, though.

They make adapters that allow you to plug in a sd card into a cf card.

Don't know if it would work or not, but might be worth looking into....





EDIT.....

Nevermind, the website says it wont work.