[bigdave69]

Hi there;
Dont know if this has been posted, but does anyone know if the k7 has tethering capabilities? ( i.e. - to Lightroom 3)
What about the k-200?
Thanks

Dave

[amoringello]

Nope, none, nadda. Pisses me off too.
BUT, the eye-fi X2Pro 8G card does a pretty darned good job allowing transfer to your laptop via ad-hoc wireless network connection.

I think their software was written by a summer intern, but it does the job. On the other hand, the card is great! I think the images transfer faster than they did with my tethered K10D.

Still, this leave no remote control ability... only file transfer back to the laptop.
For my workflow, this is perfect.

[ytterbium]

Nope, none, nadda. Pisses me off too.
BUT, the eye-fi X2Pro 8G card does a pretty darned good job allowing transfer to your laptop via ad-hoc wireless network connection.
....

With my k200d annoys me as hell. One of the reasons i went for k100d and Pentax. Unfortunately it had to be replaced due to warranty issues and i got k200d.

The eye-fi cards cost darn good money in here. I could almost buy older second hand Canon DSLR for tethered work, at that price.

[davemdsn]

I had not heard the Eye-Fi finally had a card compatible with the K-7. Now I know where the next bit o' camera money is going.

[amoringello]

I had not heard the Eye-Fi finally had a card compatible with the K-7. Now I know where the next bit o' camera money is going.

Yeah, the compatibility chart on Eye-Fi was mixed up for a while. It would say compatible one day and TBD the next and NO the next, then suddenly Yes again sometime later.

It is horribly expensive for an 8G card, but it helps a lot when I'm at a shoot and can show images right away.
I am no longer interrupted to help instruct my assistant how to download images from the card, and the images appear as I'm shooting rather than batch downloads that seem to take forever to complete.
I am able to keep doing my job taking photos and she can do her job selling them.

The cost doesn't seem quite so high any more. :-)

Although I'd really have prefered Pentax kept tethering. The R&D is already spent, it had to almost cost more to remove the feature than to keep it in the firmware!

The eye-fi cards cost darn good money in here. I could almost buy older second hand Canon DSLR for tethered work, at that price.

he, he, believe me, I've thought about it. Only problem, is now you need good lenses too. (And live with the guilt of buying Canon :-) )

[davemdsn]

Picked up the card today. Transfer of raw files is a bit slow, which is to be expected, but it was nice to have images pop up on the computer without stopping to move the card.

Preview images on the back of the camera don't tell me enough about what I'm shooting for my tastes so it will be nice next time I'm shooting studio portraits to be able to see what the images will look like in the raw processor on the larger screen. I won't see them as quickly as I can shoot them, but at least I can check out a few at the beginning of the shoot and periodically throughout.

[amoringello]

Yeah, when I'm on site, I shoot in RAW+JPG and allow only the JPG to transfer (configure the card to do so). It may not be a perfect rendering, but certainly close enough for everyone to look at and decide if they want to buy. Most people cannot tell the difference, especially on the laptop screen.

I'll then still have the RAW files from which to do the actual RAW/post-processing work.

[davemdsn]

I just ended up taking it back to the store. What I really wanted to do, with either tethering or the eye-fi, is see the unprocessed raw image so I can see what the "real" exposure looks like, not the tweaked jpeg preview. Sadly it is just too slow. I checked today and I clocked about 1 minute per raw file. 10 shots back to back and it will take 10 minutes to see the last one.

I can see it working perfectly when selling images on site and needing to show them to customers right away for that emotional sale.

For me it would be quicker to pop the card into the laptop to check the first few images and then just shoot normally for the rest of the set.

[amoringello]

Thats too bad.

One minute per RAW also seems way too long. JPEGs should take about 5 seconds.
RAW files may be 50-100% larger. For me, I had an 8M JPG (five seconds) and a 12M DNG (PEF same size) which took about 8 seconds.

Do you know what sort of network card is in your machine? Is it an old 802.11b?
You may want to look at upgrading to 802.11g or 802.11n. Although honestly you're wasting your money on 802.11n with a Class 6 SD card... I am on 802.11g with these speeds.

I am also kinda surprised you're seeing that much difference from the JPG v.s. RAW.
Of course, I'm probably a lot less picky, previewing on my laptop rather than on my desktop monitor. I'm certainly not doing any post-processing on site either. (usually entails removing/replacing backdrops, etc... )


Still, the best option would be for Pentax to get back in the game and stop removing features from their "flagship" cameras!

[ytterbium]

...

he, he, believe me, I've thought about it. Only problem, is now you need good lenses too. (And live with the guilt of buying Canon :-) )

Some ist(x) or k100d/k10d is also an option for larger markets. Here Pentax is too rare to go very cheap even for a very old model.

[kxr4trids]

if you are just using it to preview them because the camera lcd is too small, couldn't you hook a display to the hdmi out and let the camera do the processing work?

[amoringello]

Ha! I finally see the big issue with the EyeFi speeds.

Normally I am in a studio type environment and remain quite close to the laptop. Upload speed for the K7 JPEG is about 5-7seconds.

But,walk about 15 feet away (direct line of sight) and you get into 10-15 seconds.
Walk to another room in the house about 30 feet away,and you're talking a long, long time to upload. i.e. more than a minute?

When within a few feet, I get xfer speed of up to 1.8MB/s.
When in another room, xfer speed was down to 0.1MB/s (i.e. 100KB/s) or less.

So, when possible walk back to the laptop or router to get decent upload speeds.

[jboyde]

Ha! I finally see the big issue with the EyeFi speeds.

Normally I am in a studio type environment and remain quite close to the laptop. Upload speed for the K7 JPEG is about 5-7seconds.

But,walk about 15 feet away (direct line of sight) and you get into 10-15 seconds.
Walk to another room in the house about 30 feet away,and you're talking a long, long time to upload. i.e. more than a minute?

When within a few feet, I get xfer speed of up to 1.8MB/s.
When in another room, xfer speed was down to 0.1MB/s (i.e. 100KB/s) or less.

So, when possible walk back to the laptop or router to get decent upload speeds.

Yeah, it says 90 ft but really its no more than 10 for fast speeds. I use it for my studio work so Im normally about 6-8 ft away.

[amoringello]

I wonder if different cameras provide more power and/or have less interference in the body and allow greater range...

The range with the K7 is shorter and the speed drops off much quicker than I would have expected.
Still, its a lot better than dragging a USB cable across the studio or having to swap cards after every subject is completed.

I am not unhappy with it for my purposes. I could certainly see how this would be darned mear useless, lets say while visiting the local coffee shop and expecting to quickly upload photos.

[melponder]

Of the threads I've read so far, looks like you have posted the most about Eye-fi cards.

I just bought the eye-fi pro x2 for my K7. But I have been getting 'memory card error' when I turn on and when I try to format the card. Talked to Eye-Fi today and will follow-up. They suggested formatting card on another camera, which I did (Nikon point and shoot) and it works from that camera.

Any ideas?

Thank you,
Melissa

P.s. This is what I received this morning (I think the guy meant to return the 'card' not 'camera'

"Jackson K., Oct 27 08:19 (PDT):

Hello Melissa,

Thank you for contacting Eye-Fi Customer Care.
Unfortunately the Pentax K7 camera is not compatible with our cards anymore due to it's current firmware and we will soon be updating our site accordingly.We advise you to return the camera to the place of purchase if possible.

Please feel free to contact us again if you have questions or would like further assistance.

Kind regards,
Jackson
Eye-Fi Customer Care"