Canod 1D in Remote location

[John_OHara]

I use Canon 1d cameras. I have hard wired two cameras together with "always on" plugs. I have an AC set up for the battery. I need to send the photos directly to a lap top.
The camera is in the roof of a very big indoor event center. I am there for nine days of continous shooting. The distance I must hard wire is no more than 200 ft. There is no practical way of getting up to the camera . Before I start trying many different things. I'm asking here if someone has already done this. Thanks John

[ThomasSapiano]

[ QUOTE ]
I use Canon 1d cameras. I have hard wired two cameras together with "always on" plugs. I have an AC set up for the battery. I need to send the photos directly to a lap top.
The camera is in the roof of a very big indoor event center. I am there for nine days of continous shooting. The distance I must hard wire is no more than 200 ft. There is no practical way of getting up to the camera . Before I start trying many different things. I'm asking here if someone has already done this. Thanks John

[/ QUOTE ]

Assuming you're using the 1D Mk.I, the simplest mechanism is just to buy an IEEE1394->Cat5 repeater box like this one. They're a bit expensive, however they're built precisely for this purpose so as long as you're within ~330ft they should get the job done for you. All you have to do is string a 1394 cable between one box and your camera, another between the second box and your laptop, some standard category 5 networking cable between the two and it should function as if they were right beside one another [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

If you've got an old laptop lying around, the other thing you can do to save some money is simply teather it to the camera and then share the target folder so the second computer can access it over a network. The caveat is that this is a much more complex setup, so there are more things that can go wrong durring the game.

I have an assignment coming up in about a month where I will need to operate my camera tethered to a laptop computer. My distance will be about 50 feet. My camera is a Canon 1D Mark II N.

While I'm pretty knowledgeable on the workings of my camera, I have never shot tethered before. Thus, I have three questions:

1) Is the above advice, specifically commented to be applicable for a 1D Mark I, also equally applicable for a 1D Mark II N?

2.) Can I plug the firewire cable, from the firewire-to-ethernet converter to the camera, directly into the camera, or, do I have to purchase Canon's wireless adapter and plug into it?

3.) Is the s/w supplied with my camera, as supplied by Canon, and perhaps updated via Canon's website, sufficient as the s/w application to use to i/f between the laptop and the camera, or, do I need to purchase something else?

Many thanks.

Best regards,

Bill Neukranz

[ThomasSapiano]

[ QUOTE ]
1) Is the above advice, specifically commented to be applicable for a 1D Mark I, also equally applicable for a 1D Mark II N?

[/ QUOTE ]

As long as the camera uses a firewire connection, the above should work. All that these devices do is act as simple media converters - they simply send the same signal down a different pipe.

[ QUOTE ]
2.) Can I plug the firewire cable, from the firewire-to-ethernet converter to the camera, directly into the camera, or, do I have to purchase Canon's wireless adapter and plug into it?

[/ QUOTE ]

I should clarify - these devices don't convert from Firewire to Ethernet, they simply use Ethernet cabling to carry the firewire signal. It can't be connected to a normal Ethernet network, nor can you connect it to an Ethernet port on your computer (asside from not working, it could do damage to the port it is connected to). You will always need a pair of these transcievers at both ends (one to go 1394->Cat5 and another to go Cat5->1394), and each must be connected to a device via a firewire cable - it's a proprietary closed system that simply uses Cat5 wiring because it's readilly available and well suited to the task.

Canon's wireless adapter (the WFT-E1) is a different beast altogether. It communicates with the camera, extracts files and then uses a normal network to transfer the files via the FTP protocol. As such, no special equipment is required on the other end - you simply connect it to either a wireless or wired network, run an FTP server on the target computer and once everything is set up your images will move to the target machine.

Which one is best suited for your needs depends a lot on what you are planning on doing with the camera. The WFT-E1A is a flexible piece of equipment, however the only thing you can do with it is send images from the camera to the computer - it does not provide remote control capability or anything like that. The transcievers are a little more special purpose (proprietary signalling, requirement for a seperate power source, etc.), however they will allow you to use the camera as if it were teathered directly to the computer - asside from pulling images from the camera, you can also fire the shutter, change exposure settings, etc...

[ QUOTE ]
3.) Is the s/w supplied with my camera, as supplied by Canon, and perhaps updated via Canon's website, sufficient as the s/w application to use to i/f between the laptop and the camera, or, do I need to purchase something else?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll leave this one to those who have used this software more extensively than I have.

Thomas, your response above is incredibly helpful. I understand a lot more.

I didn't realize the firewire product listed was simply a firewire length extension product, not a firewire-to-ethernet communications product. Thanks.

I'm going to start by purchasing the transceivers and use Canon 1D Mark II N supplied remote access s/w.

Thanks and best regards,

Bill Neukranz

Just posted as a comment in the Kodak section of this forum, in reference to using firewire transceivers to effectively lengthen the length of a firewire cable while still allowing for reliable signal transmission:

"Kodak also said that putting repeaters into the system is just helping their profit margins. Since, eventually, you will be sending in the camera into Kodak for internal repairs. It seems that the camera, over a period of time, does not like the voltages the repeater generates."

Is there factual basis to this comment? And/or is it just as applicable to the Canon 1D Mark II N and other 1D series cameras?

Thanks for any counsel.

Best regards,

Bill Neukranz

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