Wifi or USB for action photography?

Open discussion about photography, qDslrDashboard
Pete O'Donovan
Posts: 7
Joined: 13 Mar 2015, 22:43

Wifi or USB for action photography?

Post by Pete O'Donovan »

Although QDSLR works fine for me using wifi I'd be interested to hear from those who've also used it with a USB cable on a Nikon DSLR.

Is it faster/more responsive (there's a bit of a lag using wifi when you're trying to capture moving subjects). Also, after shooting a burst of 3 images in continous-high mode it takes around 10 seconds before I can shoot again (Nikon D610).

I don't review or download images on the tablet (Nexus 7).

Pete.
russellsnr
Posts: 114
Joined: 27 Feb 2015, 08:38

Re: Wifi or USB for action photography?

Post by russellsnr »

Hi, Not a Nikon user but would have thought as with the Canon I use the OTG cable is going to be a faster option (a) direct link to camera (b) with wi-fi if it drops out at that important moment youv'e lost it.
JMO as I say not a Nikon user.
Russ
Pete O'Donovan
Posts: 7
Joined: 13 Mar 2015, 22:43

Re: Wifi or USB for action photography?

Post by Pete O'Donovan »

Thanks Russ.

I guess the obvious thing for me to do is just buy a USB OTG cable + a 10m standard-micro USB cable and give it a whirl.

At the moment that slight delay in capture (between pressing the icon on the tablet and the camera actually firing the shutter) and the few seconds it takes for the app/camera to re-ready itself after a short continuous burst are the only things stopping QDSLR being perfect for me.

Pete.
hubaiz
Site Admin
Posts: 2001
Joined: 27 Jan 2015, 18:58

Re: Wifi or USB for action photography?

Post by hubaiz »

Not sure if the 10m USB cable is a good idea.
Even with 2m long USB cable you could have problems.
Do you use the WU-1a/1b or MR3040?
GonzoG
Posts: 469
Joined: 24 Feb 2015, 08:52
Location: Poland

Re: Wifi or USB for action photography?

Post by GonzoG »

1. There is no difference in speed between direct USB connection and MR3040. WU-1 might be bit slower but only when downloading photos or lit bigger lag in LV.
2. You won't find 10m USB cable... And even if it won't work. USB is designed to work with maximum length of 3m. If longer you need amplifier for each 3m. Not sure if this much power can be drawn from your tablet.

3. Buy faster SD and change photo quality in camera. My D610 needs about 2s to write 3 photo burst if set to RAW. If set to JPEG it is always about 1s. :mrgreen:

And it cannot be faster because camera cannot take another photo/burst if previous isn't saved to SD.
Pete O'Donovan
Posts: 7
Joined: 13 Mar 2015, 22:43

Re: Wifi or USB for action photography?

Post by Pete O'Donovan »

I use the TPLink 3040.

I was thinking that a 10m USB cable would probably to create problems, but I was hoping amplifiers would help. I hadn't considered whether the tablet had enough power...

My setup would actually be far more cumbersome and time-consuming using cables (I shoot with the camera fastened to the end of a 12m long carbon- fibre pole) so maybe I'll try the Jpeg only + faster card suggestion and see how it goes.

Thanks guys,

Pete.
hubaiz
Site Admin
Posts: 2001
Joined: 27 Jan 2015, 18:58

Re: Wifi or USB for action photography?

Post by hubaiz »

What could maybe help is an external antenna hack for the MR3040
http://www.minipwner.com/index.php/foru ... ntenna-mod
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhIn6D_2YiE

You need to have some soldering skills for this.

Or use the Arduino Yun (only drawback that is more expensive and has no battery) that has a uFL connector and then using something like this:
http://www.exp-tech.de/sma-to-ufl-u-fl- ... pter-cable
you have external antenna.

I also doing some tests with Raspberry PI 2 and soon with this https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/18 ... every-rasp
Adding to it an USB wireless ( http://www.exp-tech.de/usb-wifi-802-11b ... i?___SID=U ) - probably you can find even cheaper - you could build your own ddserver
Adding this: http://hdmipi.com/
at the end you would have a controll box to.


But as GonzoG said a faster SD card helps a lot
Pete O'Donovan
Posts: 7
Joined: 13 Mar 2015, 22:43

Re: Wifi or USB for action photography?

Post by Pete O'Donovan »

Thanks Zoltan, you've given me lots to experiment with!

Pete.
Pete O'Donovan
Posts: 7
Joined: 13 Mar 2015, 22:43

Re: Wifi or USB for action photography?

Post by Pete O'Donovan »

A Quick update: after buying a Transcend 90 MB/s card, wifi operation with the TP 3040 + D610 has sped up dramatically. Shooting RAW, after a three frame burst the buffer clears in 5 seconds (as opposed to 10). Shooting jpeg only that drops to around 2 seconds — pretty impressive!

I'm not totally comfortable forsaking RAW, but if it means getting shots I would otherwise miss I'll do it.

Thanks again guys.

Pete.
GonzoG
Posts: 469
Joined: 24 Feb 2015, 08:52
Location: Poland

Re: Wifi or USB for action photography?

Post by GonzoG »

Try changing to 12bit lossy compressed RAWs. Should speed up more.
I use SanDisk Extreme Plus (80MB/s read, 60MB/s write)
Transcend SDs are slower then the speed written on them.
Post Reply