K-5 + Eye-Fi + Aperture 3 = Successful Wireless Tethering

Not sure if this is interesting but not being able to tether would have been a deal-breaker for me and the K-5 would have had to go back, so I am very happy that the combo mentioned in the title works like a charm.

The recipe is:
1. Shoot Raw + 2mb lowest-quality Jpeg.
2. Only upload the jpeg wirelessly.
3. Use Aperture Hot Folder to automatically import the jpegs into Aperture where you can view them full screen and rate them as you shoot.
4. From clicking the shutter to the image appearing in Aperture is about 20secs. The first 8 secs seems to be the camera dealing with the raw file because if you just shoot the jpeg the whole thing takes only 12 secs.
5. When the time comes to import the raws into Aperture, you can either import the lot or use Aperture's matching functionality to only import raws that match selected jpegs.

One thing I found while trying this out is that the camera time and mac time must be synchronised or the import to Aperture part just doesn't happen :shrug:

The 2mb lowest-quality jpeg is quite good enough for assessing the image while shooting.

Obviously this won't work if you need to process raws while you shoot.

It is quite possible to do this with raws but it is glacial.

I am sure this can also be done with Lightroom too but I have no idea how.

I do exactly the same thing, but don't need Aperture and import directly on to a tablet, the Eye-Fi software automatically opens and displays the image.

The Raws are left on the card for later import to computer.

Works with PC and old version of ACDSee using largest JPEGS.
Lightroom is also reported to work.

Just the Eye-Fi software works, but I'm not sure how big the
preview is.

For the RAWS I copy the whole lot over later via card reader and
delete from PC any I don't want.

Good thinking. I guess the reason I use Aperture is that I'm accustomed to it and the matching function means that when I import the raws from the card Aperture will only import the ones I have selected from reviewing the jpegs. Saves importing a lot of dogs - and I get plenty.

What I'm not sure about is whether Aperture is the best raw convertor. Looks okay so far but if there's something significantly better, I'll switch.

I guess this is just the excuse I need to get an iPad

Same for me but I found importing a large jpeg took around 45 secs on my system - too long for me.

The preview is Full Screen, although you'll need to rotate the Tablet from Portrature to Landscape each time to fully benefit, I leave it in portrait when shooting and go back if necessary.

Definately is interesting, good to know it all works especially with the way you have organised the importing of only the rated raws. Will definately have to look into that.

Have just got the latest iPad too so lots of options to investigate there as well so any working ideas are always welcome. One of interest so far is Air Display. This allows you to use the ipad as an external monitor with no wires and does work very well albeit with a bit of lag.

It is strange to have a 9.7" monitor with a 2048 x 1536 resolution sat next to your laptop but is very useful in Aperture having the second monitor showing your images at such a high resolution in such a small space. Makes you see your images in a completely different way.

Also of interest is the HiDPi support built into OSX. If you want to know what laptop screens of the future will look like, I can highly recommend it!

Seems like an interesting option. Can I ask which card one should buy if you want to transmit straight to a windows 7 laptop when on location? What sort of range can be expected indoors and outdoors?

Thanks for any pointers.

I use the 8GB Pro, it was the only one to state it handled Raw files, but as above they take toooo long to download. if you just shoot Jpeg go for a the 4GB.

In terms of range, not tried it outside yet, in-doors the max I've used is about 30ft, don't know if it'll do more, not needed to find out yet !

Thanks Chris. I'm amazed at that range figure tho - 30 ft wouild make it very vesatile.