I have been working with the WT-2 for a few days now and first let me say that Nikon tech support has been nothing less than wonderful. Friday I must have worked with Dave for at least an hour trying to sort things out with the WT-2.
I was really hoping that the WT would be the miracle I was thinking, but I think for my uses, it will be necessary for me to shoot cabled to USB 2.
Here are my findings: First of all, the thing does work. However, it seems that if you shoot RAW like I do 100% of the time, this is where the road divides.
The RAW files from the D2x are about 20MB, over twice as big as D1x files, and the transfer times are very long. To give you an idea, if I am sitting at my G5 and the Airport BS (no more than 2 feet away) from shutter release to show time in Nikon view is about one minute.
If I move about thirty five feet into my studio and actuate, the speed drops dramatically, transfering at a rate of about a minute and a half per file, or longer. And that is if I don't get a droped connection to the G5! The range of this transmitter is supposed to be 30 meters (around 90 ft), but I would be hesitant to go any further than 20 feet.
A couple of things to note: I unplugged all cordless phones in studio (only one), I shut off my cell phone in case there might hae been some weird interferance, and I even tried moving the "Access Point" (base station) closer to the ceiling as I discussed with Tech Support.
Also worth noting for those of you using the WT for JPEG transfer, to speed up transfer a bit, it is reccomended that WEP Encryption be turned off. I am not an IT guy by any means, and I am just sharing what I know.
I just read Nick Garcia's post and I am real interested in his work flow. I realize that the D2x is able to save both a raw and Jpg file, and from what I can tell from his post, it sounds like he has a system where only the jpg's transfer to the G5 and the raw files stay on a card in the camera. Though sort of cumbersome in that you still have to use a card reader, or the camera itself to transfer the high res files, and batch rename them, maybe this is an option I could try before returning the WT.
Nick, could you post how you set that up? I think we'd all love you for that. And what is the transfer rate for your jpg's to G5?
And a final comment, wireless transfer is never going to match the speed of FW 400 or USB 2.0. At least not right now, but it probably will in the not to near future. Or something like it.
Did I mention that I REALLY wanted this thing to work out for me! I do location work and alot of that is in hospitals, and I am concerned about the interferance I would get from the gazzilion gadgets that you find around a medical center, as well as concern about people with pacemakers and so on.
Nick, any info you have that you could share would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers.
Jonathan Levin
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Set the quality on your shooting menu, image quality to nef+Jpeg pick either fine, normal or basic (basic it is a lot smaller file an if has less quality than fine the transfer is a lot faster, when I shoot with the set in fine the camera takes about 1.5 secs to send the jpeg to my computer). The other setting you need to do is under setup menu go to wireless lan, then settings, then send file as and select JPEG only then go back and under Delete after send tun it to on.
Hope this help you to set your WT.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
The RAW files from the D2x are about 20MB, over twice as big as D1x files, and the transfer times are very long. To give you an idea, if I am sitting at my G5 and the Airport BS (no more than 2 feet away) from shutter release to show time in Nikon view is about one minute.
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Sonething's definitely not right. From about 10 feet away from the AP, I can transfer 20Mb NEFs in about 17 seconds from shutter release to the file being on the server. I'm using an el-cheapo Linksys WAP-54 access point so there's no majic there.
I have noticed a quick drop-off in performance as I move more than 10 or 15 feet from the AP, or if there are obstructions like walls between me and the AP. In those situations the transfer times get up in the 45 seconds to one minute range for the same file size. Not a big surprise if you've spent any time at all with a wireless laptop. You learn very quickly that the distance numbers are just like EPA mileage figures for cars - rarely achievable in the real world. Still, you should be getting much better transfers. The symptoms would lead me to believe your AP is in .b mode, not .g. Can you verify you're really in .g mode, and what do you see when you look at the signal strength meter on the camera? All five bars?
Geoff
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Thanks for the info. I am going to try the jpg transfer. Am I correct to assume that I do this in ftp mode, as I seem to recall seeing the options for auto send and other action when that is selected?
Geoff.
When I check the settings for the AP in the Administration utility/airport, I see that mode is selected to "802.11b/g Compatible".
I also see that there is a pull down that I can select b only or g only.
On the camera, even at 35 feet awy from G5, I get a five bar signal strenghth.
Thanks.
Jonathan
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
I don't know anything about the Airports, but you may want to try forcing it into .g mode just to see if it makes any difference. I would think the camera and the Airport would figure out the .g thing by themselves, but who knows?
Geoff
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
This thread is awesome. I am still waiting for my Wi-Fi transmitter, and was hoping it would be my end-all solution too.
Nick's workflow sounds pretty good actually. I'm wondering if you are looking at your .jpgs in the Photoshop CS browser window, or if you are looking at them in Nikon View? I use the Photoshop CS browser window tethered to the D1x all the time right now, and am familiar with transfer rates of .jpg files via firewire cable.
With the D2x I really am liking Nick's strategy and will probably adopt it myself. What I am not familiar with much are networks and such, and I do not have an AP currently. I am thinking I will need to get one to make this all work? Right now I am using my G4 wireless through a DSL wireless modem, and my laptop is also wireless through the same router. I do not know if I can use that DSL wireless modem as a router (I highly doubt it), so am thinking the AP is a necessity.
Keep this discussion up. You guys sound like your'e beta-testing the system, and the knowledge that you and Nikon both get from your experiments will benefit us all. Thanks! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
The only bummer part of having the NEFS just write to the card while the jpg gets sent to the computer, seems that you would have to re-name all the nef files once those get transfered to the computer either by card reader or camera linkage.
If you are familiar with Nikon Control, you set up a naming and numbering protocol, and as the files are transfered from camera into capture control and finally into Nikon View, the files have the desired naming conventions i.e. bob001, bob002, bob003, and so on.
If the nef's stay on the card the files would probably just read the standard DSC_001, DSC_002 and so on.
Who knows, maybe the computer somehow tells the camera to name the nef's the same as the transfered jpg's as they are written to the card.
Jonathan "I'd beta learn this stuff soon" Levin
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Linear Mode
