Flucard comments

I put the Flucard through its paces yesterday at Hampton Court Flower Show. Nice to be there again on press day

Many of the gardens are large and benefit from unusual viewpoints. I had almost perfected a use-self-timer-with-monopod-in-the-air approach, but the trial and error approach wasn't always the best.

This time, having the K3 and a Flucard enabled me to hold the K3+DA12-24 very high up on a monopod while composing the scene with my iPhone in hand. Actually, the setup drew a couple of comments from interested parties.

The Flucard is not without its downsides though:
* Takes 30 seconds before it's really ready
* About 20 seconds of that time the camera is frozen...
* ...so you should only use the Flucard when you need it
* Total tether time is more like a minute.
* A real battery drainer on the iPhone - should've brought a charger, and in the end switched to iPad mini (which was better actually)
* When K3 battery life gets low (I had two bars on the LCD) the Flucard would spontaneously reboot and I'd hear it bleeping again (that was irritating)
* During one of these blips, I think the K3 saved the RAW to the Flucard rather than Slot 1 - so be careful! Scour the Flucard as well as the other SD card when copying files.

(Though the frozen bit might have been because there were quite a few ad-hoc networks around on the day)

My wishes for the Flucard:
* Faster boot time
* More stable
* Landscape orientation support on the web page (it shows landscape but you lose the shutter button. Doh!)
* A custom app (like for the Pentax cameras with built in WiFi)

Personally I'm not bothered about moving images over WiFi, except in extreme cases where I need to email low-res images.

Overall, though, it's a useful addition. I can see using it in a studio setting too.

Here's a high shot taken with the K3+DA12-24+Manfrotto monopod + Flucard:



And the same thing, but holding the K3 upside down right on the ground:



The conceptual garden is "Equilibrium" and won the prestigious Gold medal

Matt