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Camera download ?

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woodsguy

woodsguy

Ride Red
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Rob
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Vaughan
I'm looking for a small, fairly cheap camera for off road rides. Is there a camera that you can put pictures on the 'net like from your phone without downloading to the computer first? Guess I asked that correctly, lol.
 
I wish I could help, but I really don't know much about the Point and Shoot market. I know that a lot of the DSLRs and the interchangeable mirrorless cameras have wifi and apps. You use the app to connect from your phone and then you can edit and upload from the phone. In my case, I'm running around with big cameras and just use the phone for my point and shoot stuff. I figure for simple stuff from the big camera it has to go through the phone anyway, I might as well shoot with it too.
 
I know of no camera that's not going to require an intermediate device that is network capable.

What are you using for a phone?
 
Kman198 said:
I know of no camera that's not going to require an intermediate device that is network capable.

What are you using for a phone?
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My phone does fine, just not comfortable taking in on offroad rides and maybe crushing it. Just was thinking it'd be nice to have a cheap camera to grab in a hurry.
 
Roger that crash thing.

Perhaps a direction you could investigate. Assuming your phone has a SIM port relatively easy to access. Search for a small camera that uses the same SIM. After shooting, swap SIMMs and upload your images.

If you have a newer phone, you may be able to "cable" between the camera and smart phones charging/smart port.

I've not looked into this approach before, not sure if such a camera is available. The cable idea might be the best place to first search.

Not that you're asking... I've found photo/video recording my rides always leads to some amount of post-production work. Everything from, as in your case, uploading and sorting. To to creating a presentation such as a slide show or video short. One thing always seemed to lead to another and post-production went from an hour, to 4 hours. After day three of the ride, I would get tired of all the post-production stuff.
 
What about using your phone as an intermediary device. There are cameras with wifi built in that connect to an app on your phone and allow you to share them through your phone.
 
gixxerjasen said:
What about using your phone as an intermediary device. There are cameras with wifi built in that connect to an app on your phone and allow you to share them through your phone.
Click to expand...

A bluetooth connection. That would be an good idea too. If you had a crap-ton of large photos, transfer speeds might be slow. Worth looking into that question before a purchase?
 
I do have a video camera, an Ion, it has a detachable NIC card which my phone/app connects to. But it has absolutely painful transfer speeds on any video longer than 2 min.

Slow transfer speed isn't the only limitation of the Ion.
 
There was a thread (last year?) that dealt with the challenges the big camera manufacturer's face from the cellphone camera industry. One of the main talking points was people just want to shoot and post - no intermediate downloading, etc. To my knowledge they have yet to address that spectrum of the marketplace.
 
Quick search on Amazon and I found a Canon Cameras US 1084C001 Canon PowerShot ELPH 190 Digital Camera w/ 10x Optical Zoom and Image Stabilization - Wi-Fi & NFC Enabled (Black). $159

I've not researched this camera, just a quick search. As you see, it shows the Wi-Fi & NFC enabled.

The bold type and pretty pictures make it sound like the camera is simply plug-and-play. Personally, I doubt it's that simple.
 
txbanditrydr said:
There was a thread (last year?) that dealt with the challenges the big camera manufacturer's face from the cellphone camera industry. One of the main talking points was people just want to shoot and post - no intermediate downloading, etc. To my knowledge they have yet to address that spectrum of the marketplace.
Click to expand...
Thanks, that's what I'm looking for, maybe someday. Not worried about videos.
 
Perhaps another idea is a super duty hard case for the phone with a tether line. I started using the tether line last year. Saved my phone once from what could have been a massive bone-up.
 
Kman198 said:
A bluetooth connection. That would be an good idea too. If you had a crap-ton of large photos, transfer speeds might be slow. Worth looking into that question before a purchase?
Click to expand...
A bunch of cameras have bluetooth and/or wifi built in. B&H Photo lists 325 Point & Shoots with WiFi. If I were shopping, I'd take a close look at the 'tough' Oly here. I had a much older version of this, and you can bang 'em around pretty hard, soak and freeze it and not worry a bit. The zoom range isn't amazing, but that's what you get for a small, light, tough camera...
 
IF you crash hard enough to trash your phone, posting pics will likely be the least of your worries :-P
 
Sounds like you are looking for an Android Based Camera. I have absolutely no experience with any of these types of cameras, so I have nothing else to add.
 
Tourmeister said:
IF you crash hard enough to trash your phone, posting pics will likely be the least of your worries :-P
Click to expand...
I get your point but it isn't just "crashing" but the dirt and bouncing. I want to be able to have the camera handy. When I ride off road with my phone it's buried in my fanny pack wrapped in a rag. Not easily accessible.
 
Lots of cameras have wifi now, so that you can direct-move your pictures without an intermediate step if you're in a wifi location. My p/s camera is a 2 y/o Canon SX730 - a dandy little camera, by the way - that has wi-fi. And almost anything newer will. Go to Amazon and look up "point shoot camera wifi" and you'll be amazed at the options. My Nikon SLR also has wifi capability. To be honest, though, I've never bothered to use the feature on either camera because it's so easy just to pull the SD card out the camera, stick it into the slot on the laptop, and copy/paste.

But I think what you want is something that gives you direct internet access without passing through wifi. I don't know of any camera with that capability, except the one in your phone. If the feature were built into a camera, I can't see how it would work unless you had some sort of 4G subscription, similar to paying a monthly phone fee. That's a pretty expensive way to save your pictures. So if you're looking for something that can upload pictures real time, so to speak, while you're riding & snapping pix, I have no idea how to do that with what's on the market.

If you are willing to do an upload once or twice a day, that becomes much more manageable. You can use your phone as a hot spot, although I don't think passing through your phone to the internet would be very fast. Or you could do a daily transfer, by moving the SD card to a laptop or tablet. Or, with wifi, I suppose you could also go sit at McDonald's and upload pix to the cloud while taking a lunch stop.

Hope this helps.
 
I suspect that Canon camera listed above uses the same Canon Connect app I use with my big cameras. So you could use the phone at break times to upload pictures.
 
Most smartphones these days is capable of taking great pictures. I've got both a DSLR and a serious amateur P&S (kind of an oxymoron?), but I hardly ever bother to bring either on trips any more. I always have my phone with me and it's just so convenient. The best camera is one you always have on you. I carried a good ol' Samsung S5, up until late last year. 5yr old is ancient in smartphone years. Still takes great pics. Gives me the option of posting directly from the phone, but most of the time I download to a PC, as I can adjust resolution and file size easier.
 
The biggest issue I have with using my phone as my camera, is LACK of convenience. On my trip through South America I had a waterproof Panasonic Lumix that I hung from my jacket with a lanyard. The button was easy to reach, even with gloves, so I could reach down and snap a photo even while riding. The phone really doesn't work well with gloves and while mine is supposedly waterproof/dust proof (IP67) it would difficult if not impossible to use it like I did my Lumix. I took many, many more photos of that trip, some quite remarkable, that I would not/could not have taken with my phone. The Lumix was eventually damaged by dust and would no longer focus. Now, I take many fewer photos with my phone because it is inconvenient to stop and get it out.

I do like the convenience of the automatic upload of photos to Google photos on my Android phone, it makes it very easy to upload and post. With my Lumix I had to remove the SD card, load it into my computer, then upload when I found good WiFi. The best of both worlds would be if I could use a camera like the Lumix with the big button for the ease of photography, then automatically upload photos like my phone does, for ease of posting.
 
I have one of these. Didn't pay that much though. I carry it while riding on retractable reel thing that is for a trucker cb mic or something like that. I use it in burst mode and use it with my left hand.
bb2eaee8b41d721baabc7df9323f2e56.png
 
I just picked up one of these to use as a GPS on the handlebars

You could use it as a camera and also a direct upload to twt if so desired. The camera is not the greatest at only 5 megapixels

$25 Cheap burner Android, and you don't even have to activate it. It will work via Wi-Fi. Just make up a new Google email account and don't put any of your information on it that way if it's lost you have not lost anything important. Then you can get into the Google Play Store and download apps for it

Walmart Family Mobile Alcatel TCL A1 Prepaid Smartphone https://g.co/kgs/gbHhdk
 
StromXTc said:
I just picked up one of these to use as a GPS on the handlebars

You could use it as a camera and also a direct upload to twt if so desired. The camera is not the greatest at only 5 megapixels

$25 Cheap burner Android, and you don't even have to activate it. It will work via Wi-Fi. Just make up a new Google email account and don't put any of your information on it that way if it's lost you have not lost anything important. Then you can get into the Google Play Store and download apps for it

Walmart Family Mobile Alcatel TCL A1 Prepaid Smartphone https://g.co/kgs/gbHhdk
Click to expand...
The phone will send pics without activation??
 
Its Fully functional as a wi fi device. Good for Email, apps etc. Just no voice or texting.

It has a GPS module but no magnetic compass so good for nav apps.

As I mentioned the camera is kind of poor but will certainly take basic photos/video and can be uploaded as per your intention.
 
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