[Dr_who]

Got a call on my answering machine that my flu card was available for pickup. Pretty excited to give it a wirl tomorrow

[derekkite]

It is great. Have fun.

[AussieTrev]

Just ordered mine. Wondering if it will be with an App or just through a browser.

[Sandy Hancock]

No app Trev. Already well documented to work through Apple Safari or Google Chrome, and probably Mozilla Firefox.

[grahamcoad]

My Flu Card came today, (the proper 16GB Flu Card Pro for Pentax K-3, just to be clear.)

The packing.. substantial, perhaps overly so, but whatever...! Once it WAS unpacked I unfolded the multi language quick set up sheet and carefully followed the instructions to the letter.
I had already found and downloaded the Flucard set up and User Guides from the Pentax Ricoh site and had a read, through so I already had an idea.

I set the auto power off feature of the camera to 10 minutes so as not to get disconnected while I play around.

Turn camera off, insert Flucard into SD slot 2,(closest to the back, marked "2"..) close cover, switch camera on, the card gives a quiet beep then a series of quiet beeps and a visual indication on the camera rear screen as the Flucard activates.

I know my windows smartphone would not be usable for Flucard (yet?) so have given into my kids and bought one of the less expensive Android OS Tablets, a Tesco Hudl 7" tablet for £119.

I fired that up and opened the WiFi settings and there was the Flucard, clicked on it and selected 'connect' and connect it did!

I then opened the chrome browser and typed into the address bar http://pentax and it connected. a small confirmation box that "the default settings were set" appeared and I clicked OK then I tapped an arrow twice as instructed and the menu screen appeared.

(NB add the Pentax Flucard to the browser favourites so it's a one click find next time)

I was viewing the tablet in vertical position (recommended) and clicked on "remote capture" and there it was, live view on the tablet, a focus point, basic settings and a shutter button.

It all worked, fairly swiftly, and as advertised, from all around a decent sized room.

I might be easily impressed, I may still have a childlike fascination with gadgets, but it was almost like magic!

As usual on Pentax Forums, there's always someone moaning and putting Pentax down, BUT ISN'T THIS THE FIRST DSLR WITH OPTIONAL WIRELESS TETHERING THAT DOES NOT NEED SPECIAL SOFTWARE OR EXPENSIVE HARDWARE? No trailing wires, no clip on attachments, no big laptops, just a special SD card and a standard Android or Apple Tablet or device which many people already have anyway?

I bought the Flucard and a budget Android tablet for £219 British Pounds total and it just works great! Shouldn't this be something we can shout about?

Isn't this another classic understated Pentax First, in the true tradition of the brand?

[awaldram]

Agreed,

The functionality 'as is' is good and the potential is frightening.

Having looked under the hood this little computer (O-fc1) is running Linux and has an inbuilt clock.

The clock resets at every power off but is easily set to the correct time (I would imagine could be automated from the cameras RTC)

http://<ip>/cgi-bin/datetime?action=set&yyyy=year&mm=month&dd=day&hh=hour&min=minute
- ip: Flucard® IP address
- year: year, e.g. 2011
- month: month, e.g. 08 for August
- day: day, e.g. 07
- hour: hour, e.g. 09
- minute: minute, e.g. 03

This would allow any multitude of 'timed' events from scheduled shutter release, multi exposure and delayed firing, as is easily read

http://<ip>/cgi-bin/datetime?action=get

Integrating this into the current 'server' would be trivial with only an extra tab require to set 'time events' then 'remote capture' woudl instigate the set events.

[dodel]

Got a call on my answering machine that my flu card was available for pickup. Pretty excited to give it a wirl tomorrow

Where did you buy your Flucard in Canada? How much for it ?

[jpzk]

Interesting that it is already available here in Canada. (maybe Henry's ?).
Anyway, I am puzzled: (as always with anything technological) ... what happens when you're "out in the boonies" with your K3 + FluCard + your Android device ....

Can you still use the K3/FluCard - device set up, or do you need to be able to access the Web ?
I am lost, sorry.
I have checked this thread and watched the videos: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/252964-too-much-k-3-k3-coffee-review.html but it doesn't answer my question.

JP

[derekkite]

Interesting that it is already available here in Canada. (maybe Henry's ?).
Anyway, I am puzzled: (as always with anything technological) ... what happens when you're "out in the boonies" with your K3 + FluCard + your Android device ....

Can you still use the K3/FluCard - device set up, or do you need to be able to access the Web ?
I am lost, sorry.
I have checked this thread and watched the videos: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/252964-too-much-k-3-k3-coffee-review.html but it doesn't answer my question.

JP

It connects to the Flucard as it would to an access point. So no, you don't need internet access for it to work. It creates it's own internet.

[Dr_who]

Where did you buy your Flucard in Canada? How much for it ?

I bought it from Digital Cameras, DSLRs, & Photography Store, Shop - Canada, Edmonton, McBain Camera Ltd. it isn't even listed on the site I believe, it was a special order but they did get it in. I live in Edmonton, Alberta. It's a local chain. Not sure if there is a McBains in Calgary or not, there is on in Red Deer thou. It was $119 CAN + gst.

[rskura]

I bought it from Digital Cameras, DSLRs, & Photography Store, Shop - Canada, Edmonton, McBain Camera Ltd. it isn't even listed on the site I believe, it was a special order but they did get it in. I live in Edmonton, Alberta. It's a local chain. Not sure if there is a McBains in Calgary or not, there is on in Red Deer thou. It was $119 CAN + gst.

Do you remember who sold it to you? I am in Edmonton too and I just called McBain's. They said they have not been able to get them in yet. I even asked if he was sure because of what I read here and he went and asked someone else. They also said that they have not received any of them yet, although they have been trying. By the way, I called the main store on 107th.

[Dr_who]

Do you remember who sold it to you? I am in Edmonton too and I just called McBain's. They said they have not been able to get them in yet. I even asked if he was sure because of what I read here and he went and asked someone else. They also said that they have not received any of them yet, although they have been trying. By the way, I called the main store on 107th.

I bought it from the Edmonton Downtown location. If you call just tell them you know Steven came by and picked up his today, I bug them enough on my lunch break I'm sure they'll know who you mean lol.

---------- Post added 03-04-2014 at 11:17 AM ----------

P.S. from my personal experience while playing with it, I have to say my firefox app on my samsung tablet handles the pentax app way smoother. Video is faster and the touch options to focus and go into the menu is much more snappier. On a side note is there a way to review the camera settings on a picture from a previous session. It seems to come up right after taking a new pict but I don't see it while going back to say the first image I took. I might be missing something, but it would be nice to have. Also I wouldn't mind if it said the MP the jpg was taken at as that is variable depending on your camera settings.

[rskura]

I bought it from the Edmonton Downtown location. If you call just tell them you know Steven came by and picked up his today, I bug them enough on my lunch break I'm sure they'll know who you mean lol.

I just called them and they said they don't have any on hand and would have to special order it, just like they did for the last person - that must be you. Anyway, I will stop by the downtown store later and leave a deposit. They said it would likely take 2-3 weeks.

Thanks for the info!

[Dr_who]

I just called them and they said they don't have any on hand and would have to special order it, just like they did for the last person - that must be you. Anyway, I will stop by the downtown store later and leave a deposit. They said it would likely take 2-3 weeks.

Thanks for the info!

I did indeed special order it a few weeks ago. Doesn't look like many places will hold extra stock in them as Pentax sales in general tend to be less. I told them they should put it on demo...maybe I'll go over there and demo it :P

[DDoram]

I am expecting delivery from Edmonton Don's Photo (156 St location) tomorrow.

Dale