What do you use to transmit?

I'm not sure if this should be here or the business of photography section but thought I might get a better response here.

I normally shoot for an evening paper in Scotland so I've plenty of time after a Saturday game to get my pics in for Monday and I've got plenty of time to get home and send for even midweek games. I also shoot for a Sunday paper often and their deadline is 7pm - Scotland isn't a big country and there's only a few grounds I've shot at where I couldn't get home to transmit, I've got round those couple of incidents by stopping somewhere with BT Openzone wireless access and sent my photos in from there.

But I've just started working for an agency and they want pics at half time and full time - I've done my first game and zapped them the pics using my phone as a modem - worked fine but my O2 contract doesn't include data and it costs a fair bit to send a couple of dozen pics.

Therefore I've been thinking this week of getting a datacard/usb phone modem. I've noticed reporters up here using 3's USB modem but I've only seen shooters using Vodafone's version.

The 3 version starts at a tenner a month contract while Vodafone starts at £25 a month, as 3 include heaps more data too I'd like to go that way if it will work - is anyone using a 3 usb modem and if so what's the coverage like?

The data plans are coming down in price ever month. I've added Web and Walk Plus onto my T-mobile tariff and haggled them down to £5 per month.

That's 3g but I believe the upload is filtered so it's not amazing but still perfectly usable.

Darren

I transmit from the field using Sprint's 3G wireless broadband modem on my laptop. As a backup I have a 3G broadband connection through Helio.

I didn't know people transmit pics right after shooting. Are they transmitted to people that edit them?

dirt lover wrote in post #4560559
I didn't know people transmit pics right after shooting. Are they transmitted to people that edit them?

It depends, Most edit, caption and send them self but some people are fortunate enough to have a special team that edit and caption and send for them. All they do is shoot!

Darren

I't's worth mentioning that you will probally not need a huge data allowance. If you are like me, you pics will be no bigger than 1MB each so a 3GB allowance is a serious amount of images.

Darren

I expect to start sending from the field beginning next year (2008) but mostly I will have access to public WiFi and will just use email or PhotoMechanic to upload depending on client. I would be curious to know more about using cell phone providers here in the USA as I haven't heard anything about it.

Since time of the year is right, I wish all of you guys in 2008, lots great wifi connections, and if nothing else, at least great and working 3g connections. Unfortunately for now, I'm still stuck with blazing speed of 3g operators around here, where I can transmit with supersonic 64kbps.
So normally I'm happy to pay for wifi access in press centers... Especially because on skiing World cups in Austria, they make it cheaper and went from 20eur/day to "only" 10eur/day (better to say 10eur/hour, because normally I don't spend much more then hour there anyway )

DwightMcCann wrote in post #4562769
I expect to start sending from the field beginning next year (2008) but mostly I will have access to public WiFi and will just use email or PhotoMechanic to upload depending on client. I would be curious to know more about using cell phone providers here in the USA as I haven't heard anything about it.

Helio so far is working out great for me. I used them last night to transmit my images from the Holiday Bowl. My Sprint card has been acting up.

I do my first rough edit as soon as the game or event is over and go thorugh and pick my best images. Then I caption them using photo mechanic and transmit via cute ftp or gift depending on what wire I am shooting for. When I get home I usually go back through my images for a 2nd and 3rd edit to make sure there isn't something I missed and then caption/transmit. Sometimes you get lucky and pick up editors assistance and will have someone running cards for you and handling the captioning/transmittin​g which is really nice, but that's reserved for super high profile games/events like the Superbowl and the Oscars.

Thank you!