I'm curious about the newest tech if it can effectively and safely transfer RAW or JPG's via WiFi in the field. Given that the Nikon Z's only have one XQD slot, I'd like to mitigate the the chances of an XQD being corrupt should we choose this camera. Personally, I love the Z's, and have researched throughly that XQD's are very stable. Without going into percentages and complex algorithms negating the risk factor, I believe the XQD's have not been around long enough to draw a comparison to SD card failure rate. Ok, so Nikon probably will add a second slot to the Z8, because if they had done this for the Z7, it would grab a lot of market share from their current high end DSLR's. I just get the willy's thinking about shooting high end clients or weddings on one card slot regardless of the many merits of the XQD. Has anyone used the GnarBox as a back up solution? I've only had two Lexar CF cards not work in many years of shooting, so know it's a stable media, but just trying to justify the shiny new camera with the associated risk of one card.
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WiFi RAW transfer in the field
- Thread starter jdphoto
- Start date
Photon42
Well-known member
What I found really useful is the Bluetooth low power connection, transparently transferring JPEGs over (lower res) and updating the camera with GPS coordinates. Wifi transfer of full size RAW files seems to resource consuming for me, but a card reader along with for instance a WD myPassport works fine. Switch the WD on, plug the card in, press a button (depending on your config you may not even need to do this) and see the progress indicators blinking. It creates a complete backup. The myPassport is battery (rechargeable) powered and with 4TB you have plenty of space. It can also be charged from a Powerbank, I would think. With a second XQD card, you can perform a backup with using the other one. Does that fit the bill?
Thank you for those suggestions. I have used/own the My Passport and indeed, it does do backups, albeit, really slow. I shot a wedding and during a break I transferred the images. It was so slow that it took almost two hours to transfer 500 or so images. I guess that's really not too bad for RAW considering it was the only option when shooting a Sony A7RII. However, I was curious if a card fails is it immediately obvious when shooting or only to find out when you upload?
Photon42
Well-known member
I would think a notebook is probably the best bet for best transfer speed, along with an USB3 or comparable card reader. In case you use the standard Sony card reader - this thing draws power when not in use - so only plug it in when you want to actually transfer something. You mention high end clients and weddings. I have never done this but a smallish notebook would not be too large, I reckon.
I can't think of any implementation of Wifi RAW transfer in the field that is really up to the transfer speed and reliability of what we want it to be.
I don't think the single card slot thing is anything to sweat. You've done your research and see to be aware of risks of the corruption with the single XQD. Keep in mind dual-card slot cameras can also have corruption issues (happened to me with my D800E once), and cameras can also get stolen or otherwise ruined in between the shot and transferring the data.
If it's still something your concerned about, for high end clients and weddings, I'd build in a small allowance in the deal/contract for an assistant and just have someone else transfer and backup onsite to a notebook and a second external hard drive when the card is filled up, and you just keep shooting while that is going on behind the scenes. That's what I used to do for important shoots. It gave me 3 copies of the data on site irrespective of # of card slots, and I'd even sometimes send a copy home with the assistant and pick it up later so not everything was in the same car leaving the gig. I'd also look into business insurance with some sort of errors and omissions coverage if you don't have it already.
I don't think the single card slot thing is anything to sweat. You've done your research and see to be aware of risks of the corruption with the single XQD. Keep in mind dual-card slot cameras can also have corruption issues (happened to me with my D800E once), and cameras can also get stolen or otherwise ruined in between the shot and transferring the data.
If it's still something your concerned about, for high end clients and weddings, I'd build in a small allowance in the deal/contract for an assistant and just have someone else transfer and backup onsite to a notebook and a second external hard drive when the card is filled up, and you just keep shooting while that is going on behind the scenes. That's what I used to do for important shoots. It gave me 3 copies of the data on site irrespective of # of card slots, and I'd even sometimes send a copy home with the assistant and pick it up later so not everything was in the same car leaving the gig. I'd also look into business insurance with some sort of errors and omissions coverage if you don't have it already.
While these are some good suggestions, the issue for me is if the XQD or other media fails while actually shooting. There's no back up in those instances. I really like the Nikon Z's and kind of think they should have followed the lead that the new Lumix S1/R's offer. FF, no AA and two media slots.
This is going to be a possibility regardless of the camera you choose or the number of card slots. If you catch the fact that your media fails while shooting, you just switch memory cards or switch to a backup body and worry about it later. Then fall back on your insurance in the event of a disaster. I also used to make a habit of buying similar memory cards from different vendors at different times to try and ensure I got cards from different production batches.
If you're concerned about failure on this level, I'd also consider budgeting in an allowance for a second shooter with your high end clients and weddings. The chances of two failures like this happening on two separate bodies in the hands of two shooters are practically nil (assuming the bodies and cards are not both from the same production batch with identical uses to that point), and in the event of a complete disaster, then at least you still have the shots from the second shooter. I brought along a second shooter for weddings for this reason, plus you get the advantage of being able to capture the same moment from different points of view/fields of view/etc.
I have survived a house fire and almost lost everything, including my entire photo catalog, so I definitely appreciate the value of a backup, and I think your clients will appreciate the level of care and thought you've put into protecting the data from their shoot. That said, you do what you can to mitigate the possibility of data loss, but at the end of the day, at some point you also just have accept that s*** can happen (like your house can catch on fire).