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Reliable camera for use with eye-fi card & long-term intervalometer

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Offline Cantelllo

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Reliable camera for use with eye-fi card & long-term intervalometer
« on: 11 / March / 2014, 11:32:30 »
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Originally, I wanted to use my trusty S90 together with the ultimate interval script as a construction site camera (sitting in our future neighbours attic and uploading pictures via wifi to an FTP server). Unfortunately, the S90 is too old to boot directly from FAT32 cards and the endless memory mode of the Eye-Fi card only works with FAT32 cards.

So I decided to try a different camera for this and am now looking for a reliable camera that is not too expensive and will work both with the Eye-Fi card and with FAT32 cards. I have looked at the Ixus 310HS (ELPH500HS) but the lack of buttons is not intuitive and the camera has to be handled by different persons in case something won't work. Image quality is not a top priority as I guess most if not all Canons from 2012 onwards have sufficient image quality to work as a construction site camera...

Any ideas what to use here?

Thanks! :-)
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Offline JvdP

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Re: Reliable camera for use with eye-fi card & long-term intervalometer
« Reply #1 on: 11 / March / 2014, 18:45:55 »
It depends on what is available in the shops, really. Unless you are willing to look into the used market as well.

Although you're partly right about image quality of newer camera's being rather similar, I wouldn't underestimate the improvements made on ISO performance lately. Newer camera's have seriously better low-light performance and depending on your situation this might be worth considering spending some extra money on.

If you have a fixed situation then why don't you use USB and a small PC/laptop? Perhaps even a Raspberry Pi? This can do the job without WiFi. I'm generally skeptical towards anything wireless which has to work for many months on end...

I know it's annoying not to get an answer but your question is very, very situation dependent and thus difficult to answer. If I were you I would just scan the webshops (or comparing sites) for a P&S within your budget, check how well CHDK is supported on that particular camera and then read some reviews to make the final decision.

If I had the money to buy a new camera I'd currently go for the SX260.
« Last Edit: 11 / March / 2014, 18:48:47 by JvdP »
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Offline Cantelllo

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Re: Reliable camera for use with eye-fi card & long-term intervalometer
« Reply #2 on: 24 / March / 2014, 03:49:27 »
Thanks for the reply, I have now bought a used SX260 and it has been working (just testing taking images out of my office's window) solidly for seven days straight now (one photo every ten minutes, uploading it to an external FTP via the local wifi).
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Offline Tigar

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Re: Reliable camera for use with eye-fi card & long-term intervalometer
« Reply #3 on: 27 / July / 2014, 13:41:11 »
I am looking exactly  for the same thing. could you post some info on how you setup the Eye-Fi card?
My problem is that the installation is going to be remote and i want to connect once a week on wifi from mobile device...
Any chance i can do that with Eye-fi?
Thanks
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Offline reyalp

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Re: Reliable camera for use with eye-fi card & long-term intervalometer
« Reply #4 on: 27 / July / 2014, 15:08:46 »
Quote from: Tigar on 27 / July / 2014, 13:41:11
I am looking exactly  for the same thing. could you post some info on how you setup the Eye-Fi card?
My problem is that the installation is going to be remote and i want to connect once a week on wifi from mobile device...
Any chance i can do that with Eye-fi?
Thanks
FWIW, you might want to look at the trancscend wifi cards, since they are apparently more hackable than actually eye-fi brand cards. See
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=11262.0
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=10724.msg108341#msg108341

In any case, a setup like this will take a fair bit of development and testing to make reliable, especially if it is going to be unattended for a week at a time. If you search the forum, you can find quite a few threads on long term intervalometers. Note that the forum "search" feature can be flaky, using google with site:http://chdk.setepontos.com may get you better results.
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Offline Tigar

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Re: Reliable camera for use with eye-fi card & long-term intervalometer
« Reply #5 on: 27 / July / 2014, 16:20:03 »
Quote from: reyalp on 27 / July / 2014, 15:08:46
[quote
FWIW, you might want to look at the trancscend wifi cards, since they are apparently more hackable than actually eye-fi brand cards. See
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=11262.0
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=10724.msg108341#msg108341

In any case, a setup like this will take a fair bit of development and testing to make reliable, especially if it is going to be unattended for a week at a time. If you search the forum, you can find quite a few threads on long term intervalometers. Note that the forum "search" feature can be flaky, using google with site:http://chdk.setepontos.com may get you better results.

Thanks. I will start digging in the info but most likely I will use a long USB to download from the camera. The wireless solution don't look so stable and tested...
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Reliable camera for use with eye-fi card & long-term intervalometer
« Reply #6 on: 27 / July / 2014, 16:26:25 »
Quote from: Tigar on 27 / July / 2014, 16:20:03
Quote from: reyalp on 27 / July / 2014, 15:08:46
[quote
FWIW, you might want to look at the trancscend wifi cards, since they are apparently more hackable than actually eye-fi brand cards. See
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=11262.0
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=10724.msg108341#msg108341

In any case, a setup like this will take a fair bit of development and testing to make reliable, especially if it is going to be unattended for a week at a time. If you search the forum, you can find quite a few threads on long term intervalometers. Note that the forum "search" feature can be flaky, using google with site:http://chdk.setepontos.com may get you better results.

Thanks. I will start digging in the info but most likely I will use a long USB to download from the camera. The wireless solution don't look so stable and tested...

The Canon cameras with built-in wifi should be better.  But if I understand the problem correctly,  you want to be able to connect and download from the camera without actually having to touch the camera itself?
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Offline Tigar

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Re: Reliable camera for use with eye-fi card & long-term intervalometer
« Reply #7 on: 27 / July / 2014, 17:02:07 »
Yes.
Camera on a pole on remote area without power. planning to use solar charged battery so power consumption is critical.
Looking to cut power during nights and ultimate intervalometer to handle the weekdays shooting.
I want to download weekly to check the progress preferably with a wifi device.Alternatively a usb cable on water proof box for a laptop to be connected.
estimate duration of the project around 9 months...
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Offline reyalp

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Re: Reliable camera for use with eye-fi card & long-term intervalometer
« Reply #8 on: 27 / July / 2014, 17:09:56 »
Quote from: waterwingz on 27 / July / 2014, 16:26:25
The Canon cameras with built-in wifi should be better.
You'd have to go though the canon menus manually to start wifi mode, so this probably isn't a good solution.

If one of the hackable wifi cards can be set to act as an AP with an http or ftp server, that would seem almost ideal. I suppose running the radio all the time would take some extra power though.
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Reliable camera for use with eye-fi card & long-term intervalometer
« Reply #9 on: 27 / July / 2014, 17:47:36 »
Quote from: reyalp on 27 / July / 2014, 17:09:56
You'd have to go though the canon menus manually to start wifi mode, so this probably isn't a good solution.
You could add a little code to the intervalometer script to do that via button presses.  With a little scripting smarts,  it could wake up the wifi at the same time every week for an hour or so.  Not pretty but it could probably work.
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