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Wireless Networking Hardware

Nikon D2H: Digital Camera + 802.11b Option 236

Posted by timothy from the time-we-added-cellphones-to-cameras dept.
k_stamour writes "Wow, the Holy Grail of Digital Cameras! -- the Nikon D2H. Considering the ever-dropping cost of 802.11b gear, it may not be too long before WiFi is found in lower-end Digi-Cameras. The remaining cost would be to get decent performance out of a small embedded Wifi antenna. This Nikon is Geared for Sport/Action/News Shots. Think about it: a photographer can be on a scene of a newsworthy event, and over the hours of attending, the publisher could already be printing/posting the photographer's pics before he removes the camera strap from his neck! With this cam, a WiFi access point, and Internet access, they could post their pics in real time on the web from anywhere in the world. Of course, the above conditions would need to be meet every time for real time uploads." The 802.11 access is through an optional external transceiver module, model WT-1.
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Nikon D2H: Digital Camera + 802.11b Option More

Nikon D2H: Digital Camera + 802.11b Option

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  • Battery Life (Score:5, Interesting)

    by momerath2003 ( 606823 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:14PM (#6545123) Journal
    802.11b takes up a lot of power (for a small device, anyway). The camera would either have to have some monster batteries or not be able to take very many pictures at all. Also, are CompactFlash cards able to read/write to different files at once? It seems like writing pictures would be hard if someone was trying to read one at the same time.
    • Well, digital cameras generally DO have monster batteries. Besides, the thing only has to fire up the wireless once in a while. It seems it's a "push" sort of device where the camera sends the image out, not where you visit the camera from another computer to retrieve it...

    • Re:Battery Life (Score:5, Informative)

      by imnoteddy ( 568836 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:26PM (#6545213)
      802.11b takes up a lot of power

      It only uses power when it is on. You could turn 802.11b on only when you want to upload pictures.

    • The transmitter on the D2H takes about 20% of the overall battery use.
    • I don't think it can read and write to compact flash at the same time. However, that is why it has a buffer that can store photos. Send some via wireless while they are filling up the buffer, then download to CF from the buffer, then send those over wireless.
    • This is a digital SLR camera, they are much lower power devices AND they have space for larger batteries.

      My Canon 10D which is also a digital slr gets roughly 450 photos out of one charge, this is mainly because the mirror is down and you use the view finder to compose shots, instead of the lcd, the constant charging of the ccd and displaying it on the lcd at the back is the biggest drain in consumer digitals..

  • Unlimited Storage (Score:3, Interesting)

    by coolmacdude ( 640605 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:14PM (#6545124) Homepage Journal
    This would be awesome to use as an unlimited source of storage space. No more expensive 1 GB cards to buy.

  • Second Holy Grail (Score:2, Insightful)

    by 0x0d0a ( 568518 )
    And how does this Holy Grail of digital cameras interact with the Second Holy Grail of digital cameras -- battery life?

    • Re:Second Holy Grail (Score:2, Informative)

      by abimelech ( 244219 )
      Digital SLRs have excellent battery life, normally. The Nikon D100 (a consumer DSLR) can happily take 1000 photos on a single charge, in real life applications. You can also add a power grip which takes 2 of the D100 proprietary batteries - you're not likely to run out of power in a week.

      The D2h has a newly designed battery, and whilst nobody has tested it yet, all the specs point to it being better than the old NiMh batteries used in the old D1 series cameras.

    • Re:Second Holy Grail (Score:4, Informative)

      by The Madpostal Worker ( 122489 ) <abarros@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:48PM (#6545350)
      The D2H uses a different battery pack than the D1h, but the review said it had a larger battery. That being said I've used the D1h extensivly, and with minimal LCD use you could take 1000- 1200 pictures on a single battery. These camera's aren't aimed at the average user, but rather at professional photographers shooting for newspapers and the like. Battery life isn't their biggest concern beacuse when you're already carrying two D1h bodies, a small array of lenses, and a monopod it doesn't matter if you have to toss in four extra batteries.

    • Yeah, and then they could interact with the *real* Holy Grail of digicams: cheap removeable CCD-like devices that act as both film and storage. Think optical-magetic sandwich with electricly activated sensitivity--no need to worry about exposing the "film", and you get the ability to choose resolution, sensitivity, price, and other sensor characteristics within the same camera. Put that in an affordable SLR body. OK... umm.. maybe that's more than one grail...

      Oh, BTW, please copy this and spread it ar

      • I think another Holy Grail of digital photography would be backs for all those old (now cheap) SLRs out there. Say a 4 megapixel back for an Olympus OM-2n. How cool would that be? You can get nice lenses and bodies for a lot cheaper than a modern canon or nikon and if you could make it digital it would be great!

        Just an idea:)
        • There's so much more a digital camera has to offer than simply free film.

          Instant feedback is useful, even for a professional, and means that a digital camera without an LCD is a toy or a specialty device, not an everyday tool.
          • Well, who is to say the hypothetical digital back for an OM-2 wouldn't have an LCD?:) I guess I felt this was implicit in my "fourth holy grail" but I should have been more explicit. My bad.
      • Oh, BTW, please copy this and spread it around as prior art in case some jerk tries to patent the very concept of doing this. It's so bloody obvious.

        WAY too late, bud. This has been vaporwear [siliconfilm.com] for about three years now.

  • Think of the porn applications! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:15PM (#6545135)
    Live crowd shots from Mardi Gras, up the skirt shots, etc. etc. etc... :D~~~~~~

  • Connecting to Car PC (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cosmosis ( 221542 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:16PM (#6545138) Homepage
    I think another soon-to-be application is when you are on road trips, and as you take pictures during the trip you can just hit the download key, and it immediatley upload the pics to your car PC [xenarc.com], which also just got released from Xenarc Technologies [xenarc.com].

    Planet P [planetp.cc]
  • Considering the ever-dropping cost of 802.11b gear, it may not be too long before WiFi is found in lower-end Digi-Cameras

    Forget 802.11b gear and all that. The prices of regular digital cameras are themselves not dropping as much as I would like. The other day, I assembled a great PC for $150 and I'm sure two years down the road, I can build even greater one for that money. But, digicams are still priced at $150-$200 for a decent piece and I don't feel like spending that money knowing that $150 is powerf

    • Re:the prices of digital cameras (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mrscorpio ( 265337 ) <twoheadedboyNO@SPAMstonepool.com> on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:46PM (#6545337)
      Talk about your flawed logic. You say you don't think you should have to spend more than the cost of a good PC for a digital camera. Is then a Rolls Royce overpriced because it costs more than your average house. You probably think I'm crazy then for blowing $1000 on my film camera setup (Nikon N80/50mm fixed lens/24-85 zoom)What about audio? I can get a pair of binaural microphones for $65 but I still lust after the $450 Sonic Studios (and the $250 headband-mounted accessory, and their $1000 preamp). The reverse is true; if you really wanted a bitchin' setup, I'll bet you could have spent a lot more than you did on your computer. I'd love a G5 with a huge flat panel and I think I priced that at over $4000 (maybe over $5000 or even $6000, but I don't remember). I'd even love to stick with PC and get a top of the line Athlon with 4GB of RAM and half a terabyte of HD with the newest and highest end ATI Radeon.

      You're comparing apples to oranges. You cannot say that product X should always be cheaper than product Y, because their price and quality are not related to each other.

      Chris
    • while I dont know the price ont he D2H i know that the D1H is $3700 give or take...

      I find it funny that you are comparing this camera to building a BUDGET PC for $150 that surely doesn't have all the components ie: monitor, HD, processor(with Heatsink and fan, although these usually come with the proc if you buy OEM), case, RAM, KB, and mouse (I'm assuming the MB has sound, video, and ethernet).
    • I went w/my girlfriend to drop off some of her film at walmart, and was looking around; they sell a 640x480 digital camera that accepts compact flash cards, and has a USB cable, and then doubles as a web camera (but looks like a regular camera) for $38. Oh yeah It has a thing on the bottom to mount it to a tripod. Granted, there's no zoom, but you're looking at at least $50 for a film camera with a moving lens of any sort. Considering that my digital camera does double the resolution w/2x optical zoom, but

  • Why not BT? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by sjofi ( 307114 )
    Bluetooth would make much more sense. Mobile networks are already everywhere and BT power consumption is much smaller that WLAN. But that wouldn't make /. headlines, would it?
    • Too slow, and BT networks are NOT everywhere, unless you're sitting in your office.

      And I'm sure making headlines on /. was important to Nikon when deciding what protocol to use.

  • New Spin on Identity Theft (Score:5, Funny)

    by stroudie ( 173480 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:21PM (#6545176)
    Not sure about this one...

    I find myself imagining coming home from my holidays to discover my camera's been hacked and I've got someone else's holiday photos...spooky.
    • I find myself imagining coming home from my holidays to discover my camera's been hacked and I've got someone else's holiday photos...spooky.

      A sequel for 'Total Recall' right there. You call up Total Recall, tell them what kinda holiday you want to have, and they upload the holiday photos to your camera as you stroll past their office on the way to work.

  • Transmission on the go?? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by whiteranger99x ( 235024 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:22PM (#6545177) Journal
    If said newsreporter was taking pictures where there happened to be a WAP, who's to say that he couldn't use connect his camera to a laptop and transfer the pictures from a 802.11b card on the laptop? I would think it wouldn't stress the camera batteries as much.

    I must admit though, it seems like a nifty idea, nonethe less ;)

  • See, THIS is an example of an internet appliance (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:22PM (#6545185)
    Back when "Internet Appliances" were the buzz, you'd get naysayers posting on here ridiculing the idea. And in the media. They'd sneer, "Great, now I can surf the internet from my stove, or find out what is in my fridge over the web."

    But this camera is an example of what most people with some foresight were thinking of when they talked about internet appliances... normally unconnected devices that get net access and gain cool features.

    Now bring on the powered WiFi speakers that play streamed digital music in any room from a personal media device (TiVo-like entertainment center combined with WiFi) or home computer.

    And yes, I still want a good, cheap touch-screen webpad with wifi for net access from my couch, bathroom, kitchen table, hammock outside, etc...
    • A cheap touch-screen wifi webpad would be great.

      I'm waiting on the internet-enabled clock radio. Never needs to have the time changed (thanks to NTP) ... alarms are programmable from anywhere ... plays your digital music that's stored wherever for wake up, or gathers news reports from around the world ... tells/shows you the latest weather conditions for your area.

      Anyone seen something like this?
    • If you have a digital camera, you don't need a touch screen webpad. You could point the camera at a piece of paper and draw on the paper. This could obviously be used for making drawings, but also, provided the camera can see where the tip of the pencil is (or perhaps just the tip of your finger) it can take that as the mouse pointer position. You could move your thumb in a particular direction to 'click'.

      Or, point the camera at a wall and use a laser pointer to make a dot it can follow.

  • 802.11b speed. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by james72 ( 684835 )
    Considering the size of an image from this camera (got to be over 3MB each, depending of JPG compression, or much large if RAW images), I wonder about the speed of transmission. If you've got a full 1GB microdrive to send, you're going to be waiting a while. Also, the module seems huge, and a sizeable increase to an already hefty camera. I would like to try one out though... -James.

  • Security? (Score:3, Funny)

    by cioxx ( 456323 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:23PM (#6545193) Homepage
    So if someone intercepts the signal and cracks the encryption to extract people's private images, do we call those people WarDriving Cyber-Papparazi?

  • This is not something new. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rkz ( 667993 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:25PM (#6545205) Homepage Journal
    Sony has been making cameras with bluetooth for a while, the FX77 [qed-uk.com] is quite a high spec camera which offers the ability to send pictures to other bluetooth devices. Such as a GPRS mobile phone so you can upload them to the internet. A bluetooth laptop so you can save directly to its hard drive, eliminating the need for expensive Memory sticks.

    Some of Sony's digital cameras which don't have BT built in have the ability to support the CLIE Memory Stick Bluetooh adaptor [mobtech.co.uk].
    This is not news.

  • In case anyone was wondering ... (Score:5, Informative)

    by SuperDuG ( 134989 ) <<kt.celce> <ta> <eb>> on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:27PM (#6545225) Homepage Journal
    ... it was bugging me so I looked a little closer.

    The camera's 802.11b thing plugs into the camera in two places, one to the USB port and the other to the power source. It then has the ability to transmit the photos to an ftp server.

    No mention of WEP or any other type of net xfer.

    Seems to me you'd want to set up an upload only account on the ftp server. Just in case someone gets some bright idea to start grabbing ftp accounts.

    Don't know why it requires two plugs (later hack more than likely), but this thing looks like it takes up quite a bit space and it doesn't look like you can keep the camera on the trripod when it's plugged in.

  • Digital Cameras + GPS (Score:5, Interesting)

    by four ( 110907 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:29PM (#6545235)
    When will they start putting GPS receivers in digital cameras?

    I want to know the exact location of where I've been taking pictures!
    • Actually, the Nikon D1X and D1H both have plugs for GPS input and the location is written into each picture file's header. Note that this is a feature NOT included in the D2H.
    • For that matter, do these high end SLRs encode information about shutter speed, aperature, focal length, etc into the image somehow? It would be cool to be able to examine the photos later and say "ahh okay, the ones I liked best all seem to have been shot at f/5.6 & 1/250, with the zoom lens at around 120mm -- I'll have to keep those settings in mind next time out...".

      The biggest pain in the ass in learning to use a traditional SLR camera is getting the hang of how these different variables manipulate

      • For that matter, do these high end SLRs encode information about shutter speed, aperature, focal length, etc into the image somehow? It would be cool to be able to examine the photos later and say "ahh okay, the ones I liked best all seem to have been shot at f/5.6 & 1/250, with the zoom lens at around 120mm -- I'll have to keep those settings in mind next time out...".

        Actually, yes - they do. The EXIF fields on a Nikon D1 recorded image are loaded with data about the shot, including lens type used.

  • Sounds like it's for studio (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SuperBanana ( 662181 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:30PM (#6545237)
    Think about it: a photographer can be on a scene of a newsworthy event, and over the hours of attending, the publisher could already be printing/posting the photographer's pics before he removes the camera strap from his neck!

    Think about it- 802.11b doesn't have that kind of range; even in the open, it's 300 feet tops, unless you get antennas to focus the signal, and that's not practical unless you know where the photographer is going to be.

    This sounds much more like a toy for studio photography, cutting the downtime by transferring pictures in the background. The only other option is Firewire(which most true pro cameras have; prosumer digital SLRs for the most part don't). Even the microdrives, which are some of the fastest compactflash devices around, are pretty sluggish, compared to the camera directly sending the file over firewire(without even storing it, save in temporary high speed memory).

    I can see this being a potential hit with the 'event' photography market- ie, like guys who set up at a kids sports games and offer portrait services. They like anything that reduces their clutter/setup time or gets the photo to their servers(for printing) faster. I didn't see the specs on the camera, but if it's cheap enough, they might bite(the event photography people don't usually invest in the several-thousand-dollar cameras, because it's not necessary).

    • Except that while it's probably great in the studio, you rarely need 8fps for 40 frames when you're doing studio work, you need it for shooting in the field.

      But, if you're a news photographer shooting close to your car, it's probably really easy to add a high-gain omnidirectional antenna on your car and have your shots get automatically replicated back there. Bet TV stations would sell the service to their print brethren for a hefty fee. (grin).

      But the security angle of it is worrisome, if the only pro

    • Think about it- 802.11b doesn't have that kind of range

      Ranges of a few miles can be had with Pringles(tm) can antennas [oreillynet.com].

    • Re:Sounds like it's for studio (Score:4, Insightful)

      by mr_exit ( 216086 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @04:39PM (#6546366) Homepage
      Have a look at the specs for this camera... it is a high end camera that is pitched directly at sports photographers, the camera is only 4Mp but takes 8 shots a second.... Have a sift through the dpreview.com forums, there you will see hundreds of event photographers (who often have a lacky who runs a display stand and prints out photos for people then and there) and sports photographers who are pining over this thing.

      Yes this thing is pitched to a niche market... but it is a huge niche market of people prepared to pay big money
  • So, the whole digicam-slash-mp3 player-slash-internet-enabled toaster thing didn't work out, so they're trying to hustle more convergence crap?

    I mean, what's the point of having the WiFi access? I know that when I'm on vacation, I spend 99% of my time in areas where an AP isn't available.

    If you can find a use for something like this, congratulations. By all means, buy one. I just want camera that takes reasonably good shots, has excellent battery life, and works as a USB mass storage device in Linux. The

    • I'd say this camea is targeted more at professional photogrphers than vacationers. Imagine having one of these at a sporting event - you set up your laptop with an ftp server, then just click away continuously with your camera. No stopping to change film or change memory cards (though you may have to stop and change the battery at some point). It would be great. Same with any other event where you are confined to a relatively small area - weddings, etc. It would probably be pretty useless tot he casu

  • Imagine this... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Saint Aardvark ( 159009 ) * on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:32PM (#6545253) Homepage Journal
    at the next G8 meeting or protest rally. How long 'til protestors -- or police -- are using this to keep everyone up-to-date on what's happening? And how much longer after that 'til police -- or protestors -- are using something like Driftnet [ex-parrot.com] to see what's being photographed?
    • We've done this at DC Indymedia [indymedia.org], using a variety of wireless technologies. Including:

      - live video streaming of a protest against the takeover of Pacifica radio using 802.11b

      - live audio mp3 stream of the "Sorry State of the Union" event held in front of the Capitol during Bush's address. We did this using a 3G phone. This feed was carried live by full power FM stations. We also had people upload pictures from the event site and chatted on IRC w/ people listening to the stream.

      - on the day the Iraq wa
  • The WiFi is interesting, but the lack of firewire is a disappointment, and in terms of shooting features (resolution, frame rate, etc) it is pretty much the same as the Canon 1D, a camera which Canon is expected to replace this fall. The low resolution and high frame rate show that it's intended for photojournalists rather than the general consumer market. The D2H will probably slow or stop the flow of photojournalists switching from Nikon to Canon, and maybe put a little more pressure on Canon to improve

  • See 4/3 for a holy grail (Score:3, Interesting)

    by arasinen ( 22038 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:37PM (#6545285)

    While it is quite cool (in the gadget-gee-whiz-sense) to have wireless connection to a digital camera, it is not in my view even close to the Holy Grail of digital photography. The main reasons to use this feature are a) convinience (which is eaten away by the fact that you need an external unit) or b) people who really need to send pictures to somewhere else ASAP.

    In the case b) the photographer loses his/her chances to edit the pictures later or even to choose the best pictures. Good for first impresssions, not much for anything else.

    Holy grail for professional digital photography are for example cameras that use a full-sized sensor; then you wouldn't need different lenses for digital and film photography.

    On the hobbyist front I'd like to see more standards. The Four Thirds [four-thirds.com] -standard sounds promising, and I'm hoping Canon or Nikon would embrace it.

    • Ugh. You hit the nail on the head. I enjoy the freedom I get when I shoot editorial. I lose it when I shoot in the studio, especially since we've went digital there. The Art Director acts more like a movie director in that setting, watching the photos as the pop up on the screen. The photographer has been moved down a peg to a kind of still-frame cinematographer, ceeding a portion of the creative work to his client. With Polaroids, what was on the final frame was still up to you, but with digital, the AD ca
  • Bluetooth is more suitable for applications like this. It is cheaper and consumes less power. Also with standartized Basic Imaging profile you can make your camera talk to various bluetooth-enable devices
    without special software.
  • Although I can see where this would be useful - the example of a photojournalist is a good one - I'd prefer to have a digital camera with Bluetooth. I'd like to separate the camera itself from its storage - be able to have a small hard drive on a belt loop and the camera itself just has a small cache which gets flushed over Bluetooth to the hard drive.

    That way I can take as much or as little storage as I need - I just hook on the appropriate drive pod. The drive pod has separate power supply so I don't hav
  • Far too slow. Even as a jpeg decent digital camera pictures are well over a megabtye. A 10sec plus transfer time per shot, or over a minute in raw mode, is useless. Bluetooth is intended for exchanging small amounts of data, not truckloads
  • I wonder is the photographers will be mad if I try to write a )( on their camera?

  • Not practical for uses that some are seeing (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DavidinAla ( 639952 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @01:51PM (#6545366)
    As an ex-journalist who started out as a newspaper reporter/photographer, I laugh when I see what some people are envisioning for this camera. Here's a news flash. Most of the time when you're shooting news events, there's not a WiFi access spot or the time (or NEED) to set one up. While I can certainly come up with theorectical uses for it, I can come up with even more potential problems in handling things that way. A laptop and a cable is still a much better (and cheaper) solution where Internet access is available, IMO.

    It seems to me that this is an example of geeks liking a new technical solution and not realizing that existing technology is better for the people who really use the equipment to get actual work done.
    • The D2h is targeted at sports shooters, so it's much more likely the venue will have wireless set up somewhere.

    • Re:Not practical for uses that some are seeing (Score:4, Insightful)

      by EchoMirage ( 29419 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @02:44PM (#6545661)
      As an ex-journalist who started out as a newspaper reporter/photographer

      Flamebait. Stepping back to think for a minute, however, you might realize it would be trivial to set up a laptop as a basestation that the camera could talk to, and then have that go a microwave uplink or a line connection for transmission back to your editor's office. The AP's swarming team of photographers would like to have this option, especially if it allows for what would essentially be limitless capacity for shooting (speed of CF card and 802.11b connection notwithstanding).

      It's a good technical solution, and one that people in your field will probably find a lot of uses for. I bet you'll be carrying one in a year's time.
    • It may depend on the event. Consider this recent article [slashdot.org]. Just because they didn't intend to offer WiFi does not mean that it will not become more common. OTOH, I don't think public WiFi would be popular for pro users of this camera. I doubt any pro covering an event would want to broadcast his images for someone else to capture and distrubute. It would be more likely to be connected to their laptop with an encryption key to provide at least some protection.
    • Think SPORTS. Think sitting in a photographer's well at a ball game. You shoot. Between innings you've uploaded to your editor. You can move around to various locations in the venue. Most athletic events are sufficiently small to allow this sort of camera to work and many sports are episodic enough to allow the download to happen.

      Of course this camera doesn't compare well to a Canon D1S. It's not a full frame sensor and it's simply not as good an imaging device as the Canon is. Nikon appears to be unable t
  • ...but just because it's digital and wireless, doesn't automatically make it a good *camera*. Granted, I've been following the D2H and it's definitely a sweet piece of Nikon, but this is more than a toy -- it's a high-end piece of professional equipment.

    The problem I'm facing right now (being on the market for a camera) is the fact that I can get a used F4 (or even an N100, maybe) for a quarter of the price of this digital camera, and still have excellent picture quality. Add in another four or five hun
  • you could easily pull this off with a laptop that can process the 802.11x signal and a verizon 3g RX1TT 144Kbps or EVDO 2Mbit+ connection. All major sporting events are sure to have extra coverage at the stadium. Verizon afaik rolls COW's Cell on Wheels to many sporting events and concerts to provide the extra capacity if needed.
  • A pro unit for journalists would transmit over cell phone links, using anything from GSM to Iridium to get through to the photo desk.

    This is a toy.

  • So now, instead of searching Kazaa for MVC, I can steal digital pictures I was never intended to have by carting around a WAP. Sweet!
  • All those people complaining about the fact that there's not Wi-Fi access where they use their camera - maybe there isn't now, but give it two years and there will be.

    And I suspect that all the places that throw conferences sure as hell are building in Wi-Fi access...

  • Target Audience == Sports Photographers! (Score:5, Informative)

    by SonicSushi ( 160153 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @02:20PM (#6545528)
    The Nikon D2H is a camera specifically targeted to sport photographers. You don't need 8 frames per second if you're in the studio or even out covering events. Instead, this camera shines when used to capture fast action like sports.

    Here's where wireless is a GOOD thing: one wireless access point can be placed on the mid-field sideline and allow the newspapers and magazines to grab images while the photographer shoots. This is a major advantage on nightly deadlines. Even when shooting just regular digital and using a laptop with wireless, newspapers are limited to getting the photographs at the end of each half because photographers can't risk missing a critical piece of action.

    Battery life doesn't matter as much in sporting events. The game is pretty much a set length and an appropriate number of batteries can be brought and traded out at the end of each half/quarter/etc.

    As someone who has worked at a daily newspaper that has used both film and digital and where football is a front page event, this is a great announcement. We used to have to send someone to night games to pickup and develop the film at halftime. Now pictures can be downloaded, selected and corrected for newspaper use in realtime. Newspaper staff never complain about finishing earlier rather than later!

    That said, I think wireless makes sense in THIS camera. I'm not sure I'd want it in the field or even in a consumer camera to take pictures on vacation and on holidays. In those situations, I would take the longer battery life any day.

  • Missing the point (Score:3, Interesting)

    by angst_ridden_hipster ( 23104 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @02:20PM (#6545532) Homepage Journal
    It seems to me that a lot of people are missing the point on this one.

    I think it's less targeted at "immediately beaming your pictures from the field" than it is targeted at studio photography.

    The high-end Nikon digitals may be good enough for journalism, but most of the people I know who use them are doing studio work, like product shots, fashion, etc.

    If this is well designed, it could improve the pipeline speed of a product shoot, as it's often different people doing the different processes: shooting, color correction, comping. layout, etc. Now, the initial stage of this process can be made (closer to) parallel.

    It certainly is not a revolutionary change (like the introduction of digital photography was), but it could represent an evolutionary change, where the photographer doesn't have to interrupt work to carry the microdrive over to the server for image uploading.

    Now, some people will say "but many pros already have their cameras hooked up full-time via firewire, so this won't change the process at all!" I almost agree -- this removes the annoying tether, so you can move the camera around without cable snarl.

    Then, with Sony and others set to WiFi enable the entire known universe, maybe this *will* eventually be a take anywhere, shoot, and upload kind of thing.

    We shall see...
    • The studio I work at is all digital. We use PhaseOne backs on Hassies and Sinar for the big stuff, and D1's for smaller shots.

      In the beginning, we tried moving files from the production Macs to ones in another room for client viewing during the shoot.

      It failed miserably. There is no way the bandwidth of even 802.11g can keep up with the file sizes of even the D1. We ended up running Gigabit Ethernet between the client computers and the production stations.

      Now, we have a client who carries an AirPort equippe

      • Really? You do client review comps using raw files?

        I've seen a number of studios who move jpeg comps back and forth in realtime for client viewing, via firewire then standard (cabled) ethernet.

        But I didn't think about anyone wanting to shuffle around big sets of 100MB images like that...

  • Not a Holy Grail + Links (Score:5, Informative)

    by abimelech ( 244219 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @02:22PM (#6545539)

    Unfortunatly, this isn't the holy grail of digital camera. I'm not even sure what the holy grail would be, to be honest.

    It's a very specific camera aimed at sports/news/action photographers. The Wifi addition is also a niche product, mainly for photographers in large agencies like the AP

    It probably wouldn't suit anybody else, especially since most people complain about the 4mp resolution.

    Anyway, here are some links to other previews:

    Handson Preview:
    http://www.letsgodigital.be/webpages/firstlook/nik on/slr/D2H_UK1.html [letsgodigital.be]

    Preview:
    http://www.digitalreview.ca/cams/NikonD2H.shtml [digitalreview.ca]

    Nikon expert spec analysis:
    http://www.bythom.com/d2h.htm [bythom.com]

    Personally, I'm excited because this is the first Nikon DSLR to do 8fps, plus they have a new TTL flash system, and the 2.5inch LCD on the back is the biggest yet (great for "chimping", a term for gaping at your images instead of watching the action)

  • From a total economic perspective (Score:3, Informative)

    by zip the pinhead ( 222107 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @02:25PM (#6545551)
    Someone up there ^^^^ mentioned costs of digital cameras. I'm not sure how many here have followed these DSLRs but they're not cheap by a long shot.

    This Nikon will probably arrive at a street price of around $3000 USD for the body alone. Add to that the fact that your lenses will have to be adjusted (if you own Nikon equipment already) as there is a multiplying factor that has to be taken into account for the size of the sensor; I believe with Nikon cameras it's 1.5x. This is due to the fact that the sensor is not a full 24x36mm (i.e. full frame film).

    Unless your a professional photographer or an advanced amateur that's spending his/her weekends shooting weddings in 35mm or you're independently wealthy; you're probably going to have to wait a few years before the price of these puppies comes down to the "consumer" level.

    Cheers
    Zip
    • Unless your a professional photographer or an advanced amateur that's spending his/her weekends shooting weddings in 35mm or you're independently wealthy; you're probably going to have to wait a few years before the price of these puppies comes down to the "consumer" level.

      Oh, I don't know... How many geeks spend $3k+ to put together a gaming machine that will be obsolete in six months anyway?

      The Digital SLR market now has entries that are relatively affordable. You can get a Canon 10d and a 50mm f1.8 pr
  • I've been investigating cameras to replace my CanonG2, and so far the Canon 10D in the $1300 range beats everything else hands down. Spending $3000 on the Nikon *just* to get WIFI is serious waste of money, it would be far better to get something like the Canon 10D and then spend all the money you just saved on some good lenses and hi capacity storage.

    The single most important improvement in digital cameras in the last year is that they have finally made good progress fixing the digital noise issues at


  • Until I can buy a camera body that can accept commercially-available lenses (prefereably Ultrasonic Canon ones), at a reasonable price I'm not buying. The camera makers are slowly releasing stuff in the hope that peopoe will keep buying SLRs, but the pace of digital camera development makes everyone wait.

    Olympus used to have a great 10x (not digital) zoom digital cam, but it's been discontinued.
  • 1) Use a 12" powerbook as your server. Set the PB to run while closed, switch the Airport card into access point mode, and enable FTP server. You now have a 60GB storage point nearby. The photog can either carry the PB himself, or an assistant can carry it. Several photographers can be supported by a single PowerBook.

    2) Bluetooth should be next. As GPRS data rates fall, I should be able to connect my camera to my T68i and upload data to my servers back at the office rather than carry a bulky powerbo
    • 1) Use a 12" powerbook as your server. Set the PB to run while closed, switch the Airport card into access point mode, and enable FTP server. You now have a 60GB storage point nearby. The photog can either carry the PB himself, or an assistant can carry it. Several photographers can be supported by a single PowerBook.

      I have yet to see anyone run a PowerBook (or any Apple laptop) fully closed. All of them go to sleep with the cover closed. The work arounds for this are all low-tech, usually a pencil or

      • I have yet to see anyone run a PowerBook (or any Apple laptop) fully closed. All of them go to sleep with the cover closed. The work arounds for this are all low-tech, usually a pencil or piece of foam that blocks the lid slightly open.

        Various wardriving FAQs warn against running a powerbook or ibook with the case closed due to cooling issues, so I assume it is possible. The photographer or assistant will want to use a mesh bag to allow for sufficient cooling

        And then wait awhile as the 18meg RAW transe
  • It's a nice gimmic and for sports it's pretty nice. But Nikon can't play with Canon and the D1S and it's full frame 11 MPixel CMOS chip. Until Nikon can make a camera that's even close to the D1S life will be difficult and there's no indication that Nikon will be able to compete any time soon.
  • Ya know, a camera like this would be pretty good for situations where you want to sneak into a place, get some photos, and sneak out without having to be afraid of some security guard or bureaucrat taking your film or memory card. I'm thinking here of things like "60 Minutes" reports, Michael Moore style documentaries, etc. The ability to automagically upload images as they are takeen could be a great safety net.

    Granted, much of that would already be possible with camera cell phones, but the image quality

  • Nice, but only for niche market. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kobotronic ( 240246 ) on Sunday July 27, 2003 @05:56PM (#6546795)
    I've been shooting with DSLR gear for 3 years now, and I've tried a bunch of high-end cameras including the Nikon D1X and Canon 1DS.

    My analysis of this new Nikon based only on the dpreview article, is that it seems fine for sports and news photography where framerates matter, but outside of that market it is difficult to see the how the improved features addresses the things that have been missing on the Nikon family of DSLR's.

    The big thing that's been missing is a full-frame sensor. Why is this important? Well, all Nikon DSLRs to date, including this one, have used an imager that is 1.5 times smaller than a normal 35mm film frame. This means the sensor only sees the middle part of what would have been exposed on a normal film frame, which in turn means the camera suffers from slight myopia. All attached lenses have a virtual magnification factor of 1.5x over stated spec. As such, a nice 20mm wideangle lens becomes a dull 30mm lens, which produces a constricted view. Landscape and indoor photography generally suffers from this lack of wideangle support.

    Canon addressed this problem with their (very expensive) 1DS camera which has a full-sized imager chip, but this doesn't help photographers with a gear bag full of Nikon lenses - they don't fit on a Canon. I think many photographers would have liked to see Nikon come up with a full-sized imager on their D2 series.

    There are far cheaper DSLR's with high-rez sensors. Take the very affordable Fujifilm Finepix S2, for example - a handsome 6 megapixel sensor and fully Nikon lens compatible. Same magnification factor as the D2H, at 1/4 the price. Some photographers would probably find the flimsy Fujifilm body and awkward ergonomics unsuitable for pro work, but I know many photographers who'd rather save their money and buy one of those, or an old battered D1X, and then wait for Nikon to come out with the full-frame unit they have been waiting for.

    It's also disappointing to see that Nikon apparently have dropped IEEE1394 and GPS support. USB2 is cheaper, dumber, slower and less reliable than firewire, and the GPS thing was a neat 'gimmick' that could have had many useful applications. The beautiful photos on the California Coastal Records Project were all shot on a D1X with a GPS attached - this permitted the photographers an exact shooting record of where the pictures were taken.

    The rest of the improved features just don't justify the cost unless those 8fps are crucial to your line of business. The wi-fi stuff looks like a gimmick - consider the limited range of 802.11b - but it is conceivable to imagine an assistant photoshopping the pics you shoot from a nearby laptop. Nothing I'd pay extra for, though.
  • Ricoh has had cameras with PCMCIA slots that can take WiFi or cell phone cards for years, and Sony has digital cameras and camcorders with Bluetooth.

    The Bluetooth option is probably the best of the bunch because it can be used to transmit images via regular cell phones or to a laptop. Range is comparable to WiFi, setup is easier, and power consumption is generally much less.

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