[lister6520]

Any WiFi SD card will work with any camera when it comes to transferring photos wirelessly from the camera (well there are some exceptions). The camera doesn't even need to know that the SD card in the slot is a WiFi card. The 'intelligence' relating to the transfer of the images is all built in to the card. It notices that a new file has been written and then proceeds of its own accord to do whatever is necessary to transfer that photo. The only contribution by the camera is that of actually shooting the photo and putting ot on the card and supplying power to the card so it can do its thing. Increasingly nowadays cameras are being made 'aware' of the WiFi capability and can give you some extra functionality and control over the WiFi card, such as telling it to start/stop transmitting photos, selecting the destination where the photos will go and so on.

The FLU card for the K-3 is a bit different from that. The part to do with automatically transferring the photos I would presume ius identical to that of any generic WiFi card but there there is a second function that is of providing Wifi connectivity to the camera itself and this is what allows tethering. The card itself doesn't need to know anything about tethering, it just needs to provide a reliable connection between the camera and the smartphone/tablet/PC.

When WiFi SD cards were first invented they actually provided only the latter functionality and were in fact meant to provide WiFi access to PDAs (remember what those were?) at a time when very few of them had it built in. I had bought one such card for my HP smartphone back in 2005. It was much the same as installing a WiFi PCMCIA card in a laptop even further back. Those cards soon faded out of existence as devices eventually all came with built in WiFi and then reappeared some years later with a different purpose - that which we know today of transferring photos wirelessly from the camera.

The Pentax FLU card seems to be a convergence of these two functions and I'm quite sure it was not developed specifically for Pentax, even if it is branded so. The applications are of course Pentax specific but I wouldn't be so sure that those are actually developed by Trek/Toshiba.

[repaap]

Well, you wouldpropably need co'operation between companies, like Ricoh&toshiba/flucard to make this connection between equipment to work. So this would indicate that they have been workin together(formaking commands to camera from phone, or anything else). On operating manual(WiFi part) you can see what can be done with normal WiFi card, and what can be done with flucard. There needs to be in cameras menu this kind a option. And w/o programming, there would not be anything like this. Right?

[Rorschach]

Sony z1 and note 3 active

Nice phone I'm sure but way out of my price range. The one I am thinking about is this one:
Insmat Rock V20 Android puhelin. | Android | Puhelimet | Verkkokauppa.com

Can't find anything in english on it, though. Maybe it is sold under a different same elsewhere?

[lister6520]

Not really. The card itself does not need to know anything about tethering and all the camera needs to know about WiFi is how to use it to transfer information to/from another device without needing to understand the data it is transmitting. 99% of that is standard Wifi/Inetrnet protocol and the remaining 1% is the specifics of how the camera communicates with the card.

The only thing the Pentax engineers would need from Trek/Toshiba is that 1% consising of the specific protocol that needs to exist between the card and the camera. If that protocol already existed (on Trek/Toshiba side) as it most probably did then there's not much co-operation needed save for providing those protocols (at a cost) to Pentax. If not then yes there would be scope for co-operation in order to optimise the protocol for the specific application but I don;t see this as being very likely.

In other words it is the camera that needs to be developed to be compatible with the card rather than the other way round or both ways. The card is just a means of communication and the camera needs to know how to use that means of communication.

The applications could be written by Trek/Toshiba but that would be purely incidental as there is no need to.

[Col]

Nice phone I'm sure but way out of my price range. The one I am thinking about is this one:
Insmat Rock V20 Android puhelin. | Android | Puhelimet | Verkkokauppa.com

Can't find anything in english on it, though. Maybe it is sold under a different same elsewhere?

Nope looks to be for you Fins only definately makes a statement. You'll just have to confirm the ease of Android update. I believe there is an update option within settings.

[stormtech]

From the K-3 web site, it says:

Thanks for that link and quote. I really had no interest in the K-3 since I am more than happy with my K-5IIs. But I have been searching for a way to do low to the ground macro shots and be able to view and fire the camera. I can't get down on the ground anymore to do what I want - this functionality would be great. Set the camera up on a tripod down low then be able to see the view, adjust aperture, and fire the camera remotely would be just the ticket. But the cost of the camera, plus the Flu card, plus probably having to upgrade my tablet pushes the expense too far for me.

[novsky]

Hi all,
Do u think that WIFI will be the only solution for tethering ? On manual p66:
• The camera cannot be operated while it is connected to a computer.
To operate the camera, terminate the USB connection on the computer, then turn off the camera and remove the USB cable.

So we can't play with Pktether in studio ? if we need WIFI for that, i'll have to buy a stock of battery ^_^

[7samurai]

Thanks for that link and quote. I really had no interest in the K-3 since I am more than happy with my K-5IIs. But I have been searching for a way to do low to the ground macro shots and be able to view and fire the camera. I can't get down on the ground anymore to do what I want - this functionality would be great. Set the camera up on a tripod down low then be able to see the view, adjust aperture, and fire the camera remotely would be just the ticket. But the cost of the camera, plus the Flu card, plus probably having to upgrade my tablet pushes the expense too far for me.

Can you pipe the live view out the hdmi port? Then you can add a small screen and a infrared trigger.

[Quicksand]

The card itself does not need to know anything about tethering and all the camera needs to know about WiFi is how to use it to transfer information to/from another device without needing to understand the data it is transmitting. 99% of that is standard Wifi/Inetrnet protocol and the remaining 1% is the specifics of how the camera communicates with the card.

I don't agree with that.

Most -- or maybe all -- Wifi SD cards to date are capable of one primary function: identifying new image files on the memory card and using the network to send them somewhere (an attached mobile device, or the Internet via a router, or whatever). The card handles that communication protocol including all the handshaking necessary to accomplish the wireless data transfer.

This isn't a simple process, so by necessity these cards are tiny little embedded computers themselves. On at least one brand of wireless SD card, it's possible to hack into the system and run your own commands on its own little Linux-type shell.

At the moment, I don't think any other wireless card is programmed to receive CAMERA COMMANDS (set exposure values, focus, shutter, etc.) from a remote device, interpret them, and them send them through the SD interface to a camera that is capable of handling them. And at the same time, to stream the live-view image from the camera at a satisfactory resolution and frame rate. Part of this involves the card confirming that the camera is a Pentax K-3 that can receive these commands, so it doesn't twiddle interface bits in a way that would cause another camera to throw an error.

I suspect all of this is accomplished via firmware in the card, running on its tiny little embedded processor. And I also suspect that the FLUcard people -- being far from market leaders -- were the ones who were willing to "play ball" with Pentax on a custom card, or at least the ones who made the most favorable deal.

I really do think there is extra programming in the card to enable this tethering. It's probably just firmware, but at that level, I think it must be a custom card.

[stormtech]

Can you pipe the live view out the hdmi port? Then you can add a small screen and a infrared trigger.

After some more thought, that is what I am going to do. In fact just after making that post, I received an email special from B&H that had some 7" field monitors. That and either my cabled or infrared remotes will do the job just fine I think.

[GeneV]

After some more thought, that is what I am going to do. In fact just after making that post, I received an email special from B&H that had some 7" field monitors. That and either my cabled or infrared remotes will do the job just fine I think.

I use a Lilliput monitor for that purpose. It even has focus peaking. Its HDMI connection only works on the K-5, though (not the K01).

[lister6520]

I don't agree with that.

Most -- or maybe all -- Wifi SD cards to date are capable of one primary function: identifying new image files on the memory card and using the network to send them somewhere (an attached mobile device, or the Internet via a router, or whatever). The card handles that communication protocol including all the handshaking necessary to accomplish the wireless data transfer.

This isn't a simple process, so by necessity these cards are tiny little embedded computers themselves. On at least one brand of wireless SD card, it's possible to hack into the system and run your own commands on its own little Linux-type shell.

At the moment, I don't think any other wireless card is programmed to receive CAMERA COMMANDS (set exposure values, focus, shutter, etc.) from a remote device, interpret them, and them send them through the SD interface to a camera that is capable of handling them. And at the same time, to stream the live-view image from the camera at a satisfactory resolution and frame rate. Part of this involves the card confirming that the camera is a Pentax K-3 that can receive these commands, so it doesn't twiddle interface bits in a way that would cause another camera to throw an error.

I suspect all of this is accomplished via firmware in the card, running on its tiny little embedded processor. And I also suspect that the FLUcard people -- being far from market leaders -- were the ones who were willing to "play ball" with Pentax on a custom card, or at least the ones who made the most favorable deal.

I really do think there is extra programming in the card to enable this tethering. It's probably just firmware, but at that level, I think it must be a custom card.

It does not work that way. The card does not need to interpret anything. Whether it is a command or the recipe for a cake the Wifi card simply passes it on, just as a postman delivers your mail without needing to know what is in the envelope. The only thing that is 'unusual' is the use of the SD card for relaying information (any information) bewteen the camera and another device. If the card already knows how to relay information from its host to another device in wifi space (just as SD cards already did many years ago) then all that remain is to 'teach' the camera how to ask the card to relay its messages. The card just needs to receive those orders in a format it knows, and just like the postal service reads the address on the envelope and delivers it accordingly so does the wifi card relay whatever the camera asks it to relay. Just as the postman doesn;t need to know Chinese to deliver a letter in Chinese so does the wifi card not need to know anything about the 'language' that the camera speaks, provided of course that the address on the envelope is written in a language the postman can understand.

The matter of sending captured photos to a host is a different matter and that can be done completely independently from the camera, as in fact happens with most cmeras that are not even aware that they have a wifi card in the SD slot. That part is the very common part that has nothing at all specific to Pentax.

So, summing it up it is just a combination of what WiFi SD cards used to be some seven or eight years ago (a wifi card just like we used to put in laptops to make them wifi capable) combined with what WiFi SD card has become more recenlty (automatic transfer of pictures).

[monochrome]

So, summing it up it is just a combination of what WiFi SD cards used to be some seven or eight years ago (a wifi card just like we used to put in laptops to make them wifi capable) combined with what WiFi SD card has become more recenlty (automatic transfer of pictures).

With one observation: The FluCard for Pentax is bi-directional. It passes command signals from the tethered device back to the camera, which then executes a firmware instruction to change a setting or release the shutter. Whether the command interpreter resides on the card or within the camera, the FluCard for Pentax also listens for instructions coming back by radio signal from outside the card.

[lister6520]

With one observation: The FluCard for Pentax is bi-directional. It passes command signals from the tethered device back to the camera, which then executes a firmware instruction to change a setting or release the shutter. Whether the command interpreter resides on the card or within the camera, the FluCard for Pentax also listens for instructions coming back by radio signal from outside the card.

Yes of course that is self evident. My point is that the card doesn't need to know anything about the contents of the messages it is relaying. It just needs to know to read the address on the envelope, so to speak, and deliver the message accordingly whether from the camera to another device or vice versa.

[monochrome]

Yes of course that is self evident. My point is that the card doesn't need to know anything about the contents of the messages it is relaying. It just needs to know to read the address on the envelope, so to speak, and deliver the message accordingly whether from the camera to another device or vice versa.

OK - unless of course it needs to know whether the envelope contains legitimate conents. Otherwise the FluCard itself is an open hack portal. Shouldn't there be some sort of encrypted handshake between the card and both the sending and receiving devices?

I mean, if this is so facile' why hasn't every device manufacturer done the same thing for years? (Which begs the question whether Pentax is brilliant or stupid).