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I am a photographer and would like to offer a service that would have a person behind the computer and a photographer. The photographer is at an event and a workstation (the person behind a computer) is near (ex. 50-150 m) and can 'instantly' receive the photos on their PC wirelessly without the photographer having to send it, via Snapbridge etc. The workstation can download all the photos in high-res and upload to 3rd party websites (FB, gallery and newspapers etc.) I am searching for products, is have apps, programs etc.

The only solution I had a CamRanger (on camera), iPad which is connected to PC/laptop via wire, and on the PC, the person finds the downloads folder of the CamRanger App, but that's super hard and time-consuming.

My question is this: what are the best mid to high range wireless tether systems?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Are you going to shoot the pictures? Will the images be transferred to your own pc or your clients' computers? \$\endgroup\$
    – Janardan S
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 9:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ Related, cross-stack. \$\endgroup\$
    – Peter Taylor
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 10:34

4 Answers 4

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First let me inform you that WiFi is limited to 100m which can be a challenge for you. And this is in case of open space w/o any walls, trees and other obstacles.

Nevertheless you can try this solution: qDslrDashboard. Honestly the idea of this project is a bit different, but it offer browsing images on SD card and download them to the computer/tablet. This software offer a lot of flexibility in sense of clients: MS Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android.

You will need of course WiFi router, connected to the camera :)

P.S. Be aware this software is under development

P.P.S. Let me try to explain the connections: camera->usb cable->mobile router->air (wifi transmission)->Laptop or tablet with the software installed for review and copy locally images

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I can't fully understand the architecture you're proposing. dslrdashboard looks promising, but I don't see any need for a wifi router. \$\endgroup\$
    – Peter Taylor
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 20:29
  • \$\begingroup\$ Let me edit my question to add it \$\endgroup\$
    – Romeo Ninov
    Commented Mar 4, 2017 at 3:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ Do you think that an external router will have better range than the built-in wifi? \$\endgroup\$
    – Peter Taylor
    Commented Mar 4, 2017 at 7:17
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    \$\begingroup\$ I will test qDSLRbooth. I would need to have an ethernet connection. THANKS \$\endgroup\$
    – Darren Paul Cassar
    Commented Mar 5, 2017 at 17:54
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    \$\begingroup\$ @DarrenPaulCassar, the mobile router will be attached to the camera and will act as transmiter. The terminal (computer) can use own wifi network card. P.S. Be aware ethernet is also limited to 100 meters :( \$\endgroup\$
    – Romeo Ninov
    Commented Mar 5, 2017 at 20:35
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I do not know if this is the best option, but you can try a WiFi SD card.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sd+card+wifi

http://www.eyefi.com/

To extend the range you can try a WiFi extender, booster or repeater. You will need to study the options, because some of this repeaters lower the bandwidth by 50% because the same to repeat the signal.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ This is a simple option which has the additional advantage of being camera-independent. However, since the D750 has wifi built in, I suspect that the OP is really looking for some control software which can connect to it. \$\endgroup\$
    – Peter Taylor
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 9:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ Rafael, I have my doubts such small card with small antenna and limited power can cover distance more than 10-15 meters. \$\endgroup\$
    – Romeo Ninov
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 13:00
  • \$\begingroup\$ @RomeoNinov, there are portable WiFi repeaters he can carry in his pocket, e.g. the RAVPower FileHub Plus (in Bridge Mode), amazon.com/dp/B016ZWS9ZE - no idea how good those are, though. \$\endgroup\$
    – user24582
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 15:00
  • \$\begingroup\$ @user24582 And how many of those repeaters you will need to cover the area? Why do not use directly the router, connected to the camera as I propose? \$\endgroup\$
    – Romeo Ninov
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 17:57
  • \$\begingroup\$ @RomeoNinov Repeaters are allowed to broadcast at the same power as routers are. A radio is a radio, regardless of whether it is attached to a router or a repeater. \$\endgroup\$
    – Michael C
    Commented Nov 30, 2019 at 0:39
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One thing that bothers me is how long you'll have to wait between shots, while the picture is uploading.

I sometimes use the Nikon iOS Wireless Mobile Utility as a camera remote.
If you're taking shots in quick succession, then it's fine, but as soon as you pause for more than a couple of seconds, you are then locked out until the pictures - & they are just low-rez jpg - have transferred.

I found ControlMyNikon which looks interesting, but it's Windows only so I can't test it.

There is, of course, also Nikon's own Camera Control Pro, which would appear to offer some sort of WiFi connectivity, but at $180 it's not something I've ever tested either.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I wish there is a way that creates a queue and while you take the photos. \$\endgroup\$
    – Darren Paul Cassar
    Commented Mar 5, 2017 at 17:49
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You can do some fairly simple scripting to:

  • Try to connect to the camera's AP and if it can,
  • Run an airnef command to download what you like.
  • Disconnect
  • Wait a number of minutes before looping.

Your operating system will decide how you approach this but parts of it are pretty gnarly on Ubuntu. I also found that it's hard to both be interactive and let the camera go to sleep. I very often found that my script would keep it alive indefinitely. I leave my D750 on a lot and that usually means the battery gets thrashed if I turned WiFi on and my script was pinging it every minute.

I abandoned this in the end. It's a shame because I felt like there was a good workflow possible somewhere here but it's just not quite right. The slow speed and battery sacrifice weren't worth it for JPEGs.

Instead I wrote a script where I could just slip a SD card into an easily accessible USB3 card reader. It

  • Checked it was my camera's SD card (serial ID check)
  • Automatically mount it
  • Move off all the files
  • Unmount the SD card and beep to let me know I can go back to taking photos
  • And in the background pre-process the images, make them available remotely, make a copy on B2, etc.

This is so much faster for a one-person outfit. I can see if you've got a workflow where there needs to be a realtime output, airnef (or other) might be useful but for my purposes it wasn't worth it.

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