Tethered Shooting (without a cable) Question

[Harlequin565]

Not sure if in right forum... Apologies if it isn't...

Is it possible to take a photograph with a digital camera and have it appear on a Windows computer without a cable and without any user fiddling (other than initial setup)?

Background: Our charity shop does eBay and we have about 10 volunteers doing it over the course of a week. They use a variety of methods for photographing items, with a variety of different skills, and a variety of interesting editing. For each item that gets photographed (with a variety of donated digital cameras) the card has to be removed, the image transferred to a PC (in a variety of locations). The images rarely get deleted after listing, so the PCs begin to get clogged with images. Faffing with SD cards takes time too and I wonder what toll constantly plugging/unplugging cards/cables will take on the cameras. We're looking to sharpen things up a bit and make it more uniform - including the photography, as well as make things easier for the paid staff who spend a lot of their time clearing up after volunteers.

In an ideal world, everyone would have top of the range iPads or phones with decent [enough for eBay] cameras and the eBay app on there. Unfortunately, it's a charity and justifying the expense would be... challenging. Also, some volunteers refuse to use the tablets we currently have because a) they don't like tablets, b) the cameras are truly awful, and/or c) they're awkward to use as cameras especially for older generations (most of our volunteers). The other ideal world idea is for the cameras we use to auto-upload to a year/month/day folder on a computer/server using Bluetooth or wifi, without the need for removing the card and keeping the images in one place making them easy to find, and prune.

It needs to be without a cable. Some of the items are furniture and can't be moved to a desktop computer - don't even start with laptops!

I'm a "take the card out" dinosaur which is fine for my use. I've shot portraits tethered (with cable) before and it's a faff, and not something we can train the volunteers on. Need something very simple. Budget is £0 or as close to it as we can get. Anything over £0 will need a proper business case. We have no Lightroom or any DAM to manage the images either, but as the images are only needed once, it's not a concern (that I can see). If we need new cameras or software, that's fine. I just wanted to know if it's possible, and if so, how?

Thanks in advance!

 

[lindsay]

I'm not sure if it helps but I have copied images from my Olympus EM1ii via Bluetooth to my iPhone and from there to my Mac later. In theory therefore it should be possible to go directly from a camera with bluetooth (or wifi) to a computer using the same tech?

 

[Gav.]

If you have any Canon cameras you may be able to use their software to shoot tethered by WiFi.

Just in case it's any use

Canon EOS Utility Software

Control your EOS digital camera from your computer and transfer images from your EOS camera to your computer.

www.canon-europe.com

To share to other PC's you could use google images and set up a shared folder.

 

[Harlequin565]

Thanks guys.

If you have any Canon cameras you may be able to use their software to shoot tethered by WiFi.

Yeah... This is going to be beyond the abilities of most volunteers. It'll be quicker for them to take the card in/out. My experience with that software is that it's cronky, drops out, and provides more frustration than utility.

Having done a bit more research, I'm getting the feeling this is a non-starter. There were/are a few android based compacts, but the smartphone killed the development of it as far as I can see (back in 2014). It's even foxed chat GPT (which isn't hard tbh)

 

[ShinySideUp]

I have found with several cameras that anything other than removing the card is very, very slow.

Quite why cameras with large file sizes don't have decent transfer speeds is beyond me.

Edit: I have had an idea though. If you can use Whatsapp, you can take your pictures in Whatsapp using a phone. You can get the Windows version of Whatsapp, log in under the same name as the phone and copy the picture straight from Whatsapp to the required location on the Windows PC.

Just tried it, it took me about fifteen seconds from taking a photo on my phone to saving and displaying a JPG on my PC.

 

[juggler]

The simplest solution would be a phone with dropbox installed. Set dropbox to auto-upload everything taken on the phone. Decent lighting might mitigate the phone camera quality.

.. except that you don't have the budget ..

 

[swanseamale47]

To be honest with a varity of cameras and different skill levels I'd say no chance. Yes it is possible as said above, but setting up is a PITA when I tried it (with canon and Nikon) and getting it to work consistantly another story. Plus sooner or later your going to get someones cat photos and Aunty Susan ending up in the folder.... or worse....
I'd suggest it would be simpler and easier to have one person do all the photographs (you?) and cut out the problems. Yes stuff wont get done every day, but it will get done consistantly and properly.

 

[KIPAX]

(with a variety of donated digital cameras) the card has to be removed, the image transferred to a PC

With the greatest respect I would say your already doing it the fastest and easiest way... If your thinking of a catch all solution to work on all your cameras then no its not possible I am afraid so that in itself puts you back to square one...

 

[Harlequin565]

With the greatest respect I would say your already doing it the fastest and easiest way... If your thinking of a catch all solution to work on all your cameras then no its not possible I am afraid so that in itself puts you back to square one...

Thanks. Just confirming that there's not a better way is useful in itself. Always better to ask than assume.

The simplest solution would be a phone with dropbox installed. Set dropbox to auto-upload everything taken on the phone. Decent lighting might mitigate the phone camera quality.

.. except that you don't have the budget ..

If you can use Whatsapp, you can take your pictures in Whatsapp using a phone.

Yep. My research has kinda made me think the same. Having the app on the phone/tablet makes the subsequent listing a breeze (apart from typing descriptions) The cameras on them are pretty good these days, but good = expensive. Older smartphones/tablets don't work so well, especially when you're trying to zoom in on a manufacturer label, or product details from a "thing". My understanding is that most of these crop in as a ghetto zoom making the resulting images pretty terrible quality. Pixelated even on eBay's front end. Also, some people just refuse to use them.

I've built a lighting "area" for smaller items using stuff that's been donated (mostly cheap LED lights) which has helped quite a lot, but anything guitar sized or bigger is a problem, and we get quite a lot of furniture which often has to be photographed in-situ in a gloomy warehouse. Our current Android tablets are utter pants in low light.

I'd suggest it would be simpler and easier to have one person do all the photographs (you?) and cut out the problems.

Sadly with the different shifts everyone does, that wouldn't be possible. Also, the volunteers tend to poke around the warehouse looking for things they know about. We have experts on coins, clocks, jewellery, electronic stuff, vinyl, etc. If it were just me doing it, all we'd be selling would be cameras, toys & games, and hifi equipment.

Thanks for all the replies folks.

 

[gramps]

Not sure if in right forum... Apologies if it isn't...

Is it possible to take a photograph with a digital camera and have it appear on a Windows computer without a cable and without any user fiddling (other than initial setup)?

Background: Our charity shop does eBay and we have about 10 volunteers doing it over the course of a week. They use a variety of methods for photographing items, with a variety of different skills, and a variety of interesting editing. For each item that gets photographed (with a variety of donated digital cameras) the card has to be removed, the image transferred to a PC (in a variety of locations). The images rarely get deleted after listing, so the PCs begin to get clogged with images. Faffing with SD cards takes time too and I wonder what toll constantly plugging/unplugging cards/cables will take on the cameras. We're looking to sharpen things up a bit and make it more uniform - including the photography, as well as make things easier for the paid staff who spend a lot of their time clearing up after volunteers.

In an ideal world, everyone would have top of the range iPads or phones with decent [enough for eBay] cameras and the eBay app on there. Unfortunately, it's a charity and justifying the expense would be... challenging. Also, some volunteers refuse to use the tablets we currently have because a) they don't like tablets, b) the cameras are truly awful, and/or c) they're awkward to use as cameras especially for older generations (most of our volunteers). The other ideal world idea is for the cameras we use to auto-upload to a year/month/day folder on a computer/server using Bluetooth or wifi, without the need for removing the card and keeping the images in one place making them easy to find, and prune.

It needs to be without a cable. Some of the items are furniture and can't be moved to a desktop computer - don't even start with laptops!

I'm a "take the card out" dinosaur which is fine for my use. I've shot portraits tethered (with cable) before and it's a faff, and not something we can train the volunteers on. Need something very simple. Budget is £0 or as close to it as we can get. Anything over £0 will need a proper business case. We have no Lightroom or any DAM to manage the images either, but as the images are only needed once, it's not a concern (that I can see). If we need new cameras or software, that's fine. I just wanted to know if it's possible, and if so, how?

Thanks in advance!

Why not photograph the items with the camera on a dedicated tablet, which will store the photos - then upload them from the 'photos' file directly into the eBay listing from the eBay App on the tablet.?

 

[Harlequin565]

Why not photograph the items with the camera on a dedicated tablet, which will store the photos - then upload them from the 'photos' file directly into the eBay listing from the eBay App on the tablet.?

I think I mentioned it above. The tablets are pretty awful quality, some people refuse to use them, and they're just plain awkward/impossible to use one handed if you've got one hand on the thing you're photographing (labels are pretty notorious for curling). I appreciate there are ways around this, but if the end product is slower than how it's being done now, it's not worth it.

 

[gramps]

I think I mentioned it above. The tablets are pretty awful quality, some people refuse to use them, and they're just plain awkward/impossible to use one handed if you've got one hand on the thing you're photographing (labels are pretty notorious for curling). I appreciate there are ways around this, but if the end product is slower than how it's being done now, it's not worth it.

I can't imagine how it could be slower than anything else but you know your setup.