WFT-E2 Wireless Transmission to FTP - aka 'Remote Editing'

[Langsdon]

RIGHT!
Firstly, hi there!
I've been playing around with a WFT-E2 wireless transmitter for over a week now, with little success. Could anybody point me in the right direction? Hopefully someone out there has succeeded at this particular task:

I wish to transmit selected images from my Canon MkIII to the FTP of my picturedesk back at HQ. How is this achieved?

ANY help whatsoever would be greatly appreciated - I'm in a quagmire of DNS and IP address glitches, and any clarification would be great!
cheers guys!

[Swaffs]

RIGHT!
Firstly, hi there!
I've been playing around with a WFT-E2 wireless transmitter for over a week now, with little success. Could anybody point me in the right direction? Hopefully someone out there has succeeded at this particular task:

I wish to transmit selected images from my Canon MkIII to the FTP of my picturedesk back at HQ. How is this achieved?

Online blogs discuss local transmission technique (say, from a sports field to an edit point a few meters away) but nothing about actual GLOBAL FTP transmission : I'm a photographer out on assignment in the street, i've got a wifi connection hotspot (I can generate my own 3g wifi using MiFi) - What is the setup to transmit from the camera to the agency's FTP so that colleagues at the picturedesk can pickup those files?

ANY help whatsoever would be greatly appreciated - I'm in a quagmire of DNS and IP address glitches, and any clarification would be great!
cheers guys!

Hi, welcome to POTN, and a great opening question...

--As long as the WFT has an internet connection t the hotspot, and allows ftp traffic, and you know the IP of the ftp server you could just send from the camera straight to the external ftp, instead of a laptop one? (I haven't tried that) if I get a chance, I'll try it over the weekend to my website ftp.


I've been working on some ideas...

I currently have a ftp server running on my laptop, and transmit images from the camera to laptop (near me), and lightroom is watching the import folder to automatically import/tag/rename etc. the images so they can be reviewed and picked. I then have an export plugin to ftp the files to an external site using a 3G broadband dongle in the laptop.

I know thats not what your after, as it still requires the interaction on the laptop.

Some thoughts:

--I guess you could have a script running on the laptop that will automatically ftp anything you send over. (running an ftp server on the desktop)

--Perhaps some ftp clients can watch the import folder and synchronise it with the external ftp site every minute? (again running an ftp service on a laptop)

--I know Lightroom 3 is doing more support for external sites like flickR, I wonder if it could do some kind of auto ftp after import.

--you could map a drive to the ftp folder (I know you can do that in windows), and set lightroom to backup the auto mport to it?

But these all involve you carrying a laptop around with you!

-- It would be really cool if you could put a 3g card in the camera on a SD card or something, or even have a simcard slot in the WFT! hmmmmm thats a great idea!

[Langsdon]

Swaffs,
Many thanks for your advice and such rapid response!
Do you reckon the process can be achieved while eliminating the 'field' laptop altogether?

[Swaffs]

Ian, I've seen those mifi things, looks like a great idea.

I'll set mine up now and see how I get on (using my home wifi conn - nice and stable)

[Swaffs]

Right so I'm all setup, but getting error 45 when trying to connect to my website ftp....

I'll keep trying.

FYI
Canon File Transmission Utility Also included with the WFT-E1/WFT-E1A is a program called Canon File Transmission Utility. This software, which we think is for both Mac OS X and Windows 2000/XP, will watch a folder on the destination FTP server and automatically forward pictures that arrive there to another FTP server or a shared folder. It apparently can attach an incoming photo to an email message and send it out as well. We don't have any other information on this program, but it sounds like it could be a useful workflow tool.

[Swaffs]

Here's another method, I'd be interested in testing out:
Quick video about it here;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVz12nTEmpg&feature=player_embedded

http://www.idruna.com/pocketphojo.html

Pocket Phojo for Windows Mobile in conjunction with the Eye-Fi Pro card provides a cost effective wireless solution for acquiring high quality photos, associating data with each photo, then securely transmitting the photos directly to where they are needed via 3G. Many industries need data associated with each image otherwise they can't be processed automatically. For example, a news photographer needs to associate captions and keywords before sending a photo to the news desk via email or FTP, a photo from a car auction would need to be associated with the vehicle's VIN for it to be useful, a photo of some storm damage would need to be associated with a customer's insurance policy and so on. Pocket Phojo also has barcode scanner support for associating data with photos, and support for transmitting photos via Secure FTP for customers needing encryption.


And this:
http://www.idruna.com/remoteediting.html
Even the fastest WiFi networks can't keep up with a photographer shooting at 8 frames per second
Now imagine you have 100 photographers shooting at the same time..
IRES solves this problem by being extremely bandwidth efficient
IRES first transmits thumbnails to the editor, which takes very little bandwidth, and can be done in real time
When the editor clicks on a thumbnail, a small (40KB) preview is transmitted.
Only the images the editor selects as the best are transmitted at full size

[Swaffs]

I know I'm rambling to myself here, but it helps me keep a record, and share my findings.

OK FIXED, and WORKING.

I can send images direct from the camera over wifi to my websites ftp server.

I'll put some screen grabs together of the setings.

[Langsdon]

The pocket phojo setup isn't bad- I've seen it used combined with HTC mobile devices and Ipaq pocket PC's.. The obvious advantage is basic cropping and captioning, and the setup is way easier with windows-mobile interface.

That's awesome news about your success with the camera-to-FTP transfer! Those generic error messages are a nightmare, I'd love to know how your config beat them!

[Swaffs]

I have a HTC Touch HD, so might give it a try one day.

I'm taking screen shots now of my settings.

I must admit tro stopping using the WFT, it locked up on me once at a big football game and I had to pull the battery straight after someone scored! lost a whole bunch of celebration images!!

I need to play with it more to gain confidence again.

[Langsdon]

OUCH! Yeah I can see how you'd be reluctant after that!
Seems the WFT is best for assignments that include 'down' time, during which the transmission of tagged pictures won't impede the shooting...

Regarding your WFT-to-FTP transfer test - would your config still apply to a LONG distance transmission to an FTP, say, in a different country (again, using no more than the camera, WFT and wifi)?

[Swaffs]

Regarding your WFT-to-FTP transfer test - would your config still apply to a LONG distance transmission to an FTP, say, in a different country (again, using no more than the camera, WFT and wifi)?

The distance shouldn't make any difference. The only distance issue would be from your camera to the wifi receiver.

It's just from one IP to another regardless of the route.

I don't even know what country my web server is in.

[Langsdon]

Great! (was just checking, as most of the literature on this topic usually relates to Local Network transmission where the WFT and Laptop are both synchronized to the same wireless connection...)