Is there a camera that can send a file to a windows folder when capture button pressed

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Name
James
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Hello,

My first post here. I am a building surveyor, so I take a couple of hundred photos per day. Boring ones, mostly on auto settings.

What would make my life easier is a camera that when I press the take a photo button on it (shutter button? I don't know the jargon) it saves the photo to the SD card but also sends a photo either to a windows folder on my laptop (which is a Windows 11 surface pro that I have on a strap when surveying) or to a cloud folder that is linked to my laptop. The first option is best as I don't always have a signal.

A big DSLR I don't need, as the pics are small. Just a normal compact camera would do the job.

If you got this far, thank you for reading!

James
 
If just a normal compact will do then what's wrong with an iphone? The iPhone uploads all the images to the cloud.

I doubt very much any camera, let along a small compact is going to have the ability to upload to a windows PC on the go unless you are using some sort of tethering software which generally only works with higher end DSLR / Mirrorless cameras.

Tethering is where you physically connect your camera to a laptop or PC with a USB cable and the software (like Lightroom) can communicate with the camera and off load images as they are taken.

It's possible that some sort of wireless devices are available (I'm thinking sports photographers where they have remote cameras setup) but again these would probably only work with more advanced cameras and not compacts. @KIPAX would probably be able to give you more info on these kind of devices.
 
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Thanks Elliot for your answer. If an Iphone had a better flash and a bit of a zoom lens that would be ideal. They are not great in dark lofts and zooming in though (I have used mine a few times when I have left the camera at home accidentally - better at wide angle than my camera though!).

What I need is a lumix or a powershot with that iPhone function I suppose.

Have a good evening.
 
Hi and welcome to TP

None too sure but what you describe makes think you could use your camera tethered (wired link) to the laptop.

As I have never used a tethered setup I hope others 'in the know ' will chime in?
 
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Phone is the answer. I would love a solution like this (I do eBay as a job and transferring photos straight onto a desktop would be a dream) but there isn't one that isn't idiot proof or doesn't require more faffing than it does to remove the card and slot it in to a reader. Tethered often requires a cable which won't work for your situation and other solutions I've looked at require setting up a wifi connection from your camera to your computer which then knocks your computer off it's (internet) wifi which you have to reconnect. It's easier to just pop the card.

iPhones are relatively slow to cloud transfer (up to the cloud, then down to your PC) so as long as you don't need the photo within half an hour of you taking it, you should be good. I don't know how Android works, but their phones are very good. Perhaps a phone upgrade to the best camera-phone you can find might be the alternative?

If you do find anything that does what you're asking, please reply to the thread as I'd be very interested.
 
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Phone is the answer. I would love a solution like this (I do eBay as a job and transferring photos straight onto a desktop would be a dream) but there isn't one that isn't idiot proof or doesn't require more faffing than it does to remove the card and slot it in to a reader. Tethered often requires a cable which won't work for your situation
I am curious, as he said he carries his laptop (Surface Pro) on a strap .....on this shoulder? Why wouldn't a suitable tether setup work ???
and other solutions I've looked at require setting up a wifi connection from your camera to your computer which then knocks your computer off it's (internet) wifi which you have to reconnect. It's easier to just pop the card.

iPhones are relatively slow to cloud transfer (up to the cloud, then down to your PC) so as long as you don't need the photo within half an hour of you taking it, you should be good. I don't know how Android works, but their phones are very good. Perhaps a phone upgrade to the best camera-phone you can find might be the alternative?

If you do find anything that does what you're asking, please reply to the thread as I'd be very interested.
 
I’d be wary about moving around with anything tethered to your surface. Don’t want to bump into anything and break the usb port!

Most cameras wireless functionality is dodgy at best, so I certainly wouldn’t rely on it myself. Any reason you’re against just sticking the sd card straight into the surface and then popping an empty spare into the camera?
 
A lot of cameras now have built in WIFI so can send files over WIFI direct to FTP server or Computer. Usually its a menu config option to tell the camera the SSID of the network to send the files
 
Didn't there use be a thing like Wifi SD Cards?
Don't know if these are still available or even if they would do what you want to do but I seem to recall something like that quite a few years ago now.

Edit: This may be worth a read
 
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I am very impressed by all the replies so quickly. That wifi SD card thing was ane EyeFi I read today, but they don't make them anymore.

USB cable won't works as I am squeezing through hatches and it would get hooked up I am sure.

I take the SD card out after a job and stick it in the slot reader, but then I have 200 plus pics to sort into categories and write a description for each. I was hoping to take the pic, alloacate it to a category, write the 'one liner' description (or pick from a list) and drop it into the report - then on the next pic. I did use folders in the Canon for a while, but changing folder every few shots is a pain, and you forget sometimes then everything is messed up.

Maybe a good camera phone would suffice - I only need small pics about 1MB each for my report. Do they upload sort of instantly? My wife will know I expect.

Thanks for all your help
 
This may be what James is looking for...


Another unit...

Or even better, the Capture One ipad/iphone option, which will upload to the cloud, auto sync with the desktop version of Capture One and allow viewing online by anyone you give access.

But it only works with cameras that provide tethering SDKs for developers and it's an expensive option, and you are limited in choice of cameras.

Maybe a bit of an overkill for this application, but with promise for professional applications.
 
Hi Andrew. Yes it would probably and I use one often.

A phone of some sort is looking the way to go perhaps. Do phones have to talk to the cloud or can they send directly to my laptop a bit quicker maybe?

Will do some googling.

Thanks again
 
Thanks Elliot for your answer. If an Iphone had a better flash and a bit of a zoom lens that would be ideal. They are not great in dark lofts and zooming in though (I have used mine a few times when I have left the camera at home accidentally - better at wide angle than my camera though!).

What I need is a lumix or a powershot with that iPhone function I suppose.

Have a good evening.
You can get good quality wide angle supplementary lenses for the iphone and one or two small portable LED video lights might give enough light to allow the interior pictures..

You can get brackets for iphones to use them for video making, that you could clamp the phone and LED light onto, and end up with a single bit of kit to handle.

I would also look at the camera maker iPhone apps. Nikon and Leica both have apps that link to their cameras and upload to the cloud. But I only have a passing interest in how these work.
 
Hi Andrew. Yes it would probably and I use one often.

A phone of some sort is looking the way to go perhaps. Do phones have to talk to the cloud or can they send directly to my laptop a bit quicker maybe?

Will do some googling.

Thanks again
It would need some experimentation to find out the "best" options.

I would have thought cloud backup was turned on, and also having a web-browser open on your laptop which can refresh (possibly automatically) to the cloud directory. It may be possible to write an automated script to download images from the cloud to the laptop. Whilst you'll be burning through data - uploading image and downloading to laptop, it may be preferable to consume data rather than be constantly battling against technology determined to put up a fight.

..but this won't work for the times where you are in an area with a poor signal.
 
It requires an App, but I think image.canon may be you're looking for

Supported Cameras:
So it supports various Mirrorless/DSLR/Compacts.

Have a look at the promotional video. (And obviously take it all with a pinch of salt).

I don't know what Nikon/Sony/Fuji/Panasonic do, but I would be surprised if at least some of them didn't have something similar.

I have not used this and have no affiliation with Canon (I shot Fuji), but I remembered seeing this mentioned - perhaps on petapixel?
 
It requires an App, but I think image.canon may be you're looking for

Supported Cameras:
So it supports various Mirrorless/DSLR/Compacts.

Have a look at the promotional video. (And obviously take it all with a pinch of salt).

I don't know what Nikon/Sony/Fuji/Panasonic do, but I would be surprised if at least some of them didn't have something similar.

I have not used this and have no affiliation with Canon (I shot Fuji), but I remembered seeing this mentioned - perhaps on petapixel?
Sony now have the PDT-FP1
Nikon have Snapbridge that links cameras to PCs and alos to iOS and Android Apps
 
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My Olympus EM5 (and a number of other cameras) can be controlled via an app (OI Share for Olympus) so I can push a button on my phone which causes the camera to take a picture, I can then import the pictures directly into the phone. That said I don't think the app is available for the Surface Pro and it would be a bit clunky to use but may be some other brands of camera have an app for the Surface Pro?
 
The more recent Sony FF cameras can be set up to automatically send any images to an FTP site as they are taken (or as a batch process later).
The A7iv I have can do this without any additional hardware, just needs to be connected to a WiFi network and the FRP site details set up.
I use it in batch mode when travelling to transfer images wirelessly to my tablet (running an FTP server app) via my phones WiFi hotspot.
 
Many years ago (about 25) I had a Sony MVC-FD98 camera that saved it's photos to a floppy disk. The camera could be configured to record a short audio file for every photo taken. You had about 20 seconds to make this audio file after you pushed the shutter button. At full resolution this camera recorded 4 jpeg photo files plus the short audio files which were assigned the same file number as the photo, but with different subtitle.

I'm not suggesting that you find one of these cameras, but you might want to search camera specs to see if you can find a more modern camera that offers this feature. Just a short message to remind you of what and where you were when you took the photo. I only used this feature a few times and it worked well, but I never used it for most of my shooting. It was a 2.1 megapixel camera that could create great photos of up to 8X10, but not enough data to allow cropping and printing at 8X10 without it pixelating.

I went totally digital in 1998 and had 2 other digital cameras before this one, with about 12 more in the past 25 years since, and 7 at the present time.

Charley
 
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The more recent Sony FF cameras can be set up to automatically send any images to an FTP site as they are taken (or as a batch process later).
The A7iv I have can do this without any additional hardware, just needs to be connected to a WiFi network and the FRP site details set up.
I use it in batch mode when travelling to transfer images wirelessly to my tablet (running an FTP server app) via my phones WiFi hotspot.
I was going to say the camera allow connectivity to an array of data transfer methods but at some point they need to send through something thats connected to the web either 5g or via a connected router. As you say this could be an iphone. Its odd that data sim that can be used in mobile routers like Netgear Nighthawk that takes a 5g sim the data only sims can be quite expensive but you can get pay monthly mobile sims that include 150GB /month data bundled for circa £12. Of course if you're wanting to remotely file transfer a lot of images on a regular basis say to an image agency it might be worth while.
 
I was going to say the camera allow connectivity to an array of data transfer methods but at some point they need to send through something thats connected to the web either 5g or via a connected router. As you say this could be an iphone. Its odd that data sim that can be used in mobile routers like Netgear Nighthawk that takes a 5g sim the data only sims can be quite expensive but you can get pay monthly mobile sims that include 150GB /month data bundled for circa £12. Of course if you're wanting to remotely file transfer a lot of images on a regular basis say to an image agency it might be worth while.
In the setup I use, no data connection is required - the phone itself is creating a purely local WiFi network, which my camera connects to , and my tablet connect to, allowing my camera to send files via FTP to the tablet.
Of course, if the Phone has a 4G / 5G connection to the internet then you could instead connect to a fully remote FTP server, if you wanted.
 
In the setup I use, no data connection is required - the phone itself is creating a purely local WiFi network, which my camera connects to , and my tablet connect to, allowing my camera to send files via FTP to the tablet.
Of course, if the Phone has a 4G / 5G connection to the internet then you could instead connect to a fully remote FTP server, if you wanted.
oh ok so your tablet is effectively an "offline" FTP server receiving files.

I guess than can be replicated in a number of ways ie Nikon have snapbridge that is to a certain extent an app bundled version of an FTP server although it isn't in some regard as if you're shooting RAW it doesnt send the RAW files it sends a JPG direct the the device running the app for display purposes. Because as we all know RAW isn't an image file it needs an interpreter to convert it to an image viewable file.

In short it seems there are many solutions to wireless transmission of what is captured and depends very much on

1) what your goal is for transferring files
2) what device you want to send it to
3) do you want full data transfer to a remote device / system that may not be in the locality of the camera.
 
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