I have believed for quite some time that the best camera to have is the one that gets technology out of the way. The sooner I can enjoy my photos, the better. Wouldn’t it be awesome to get home and have all the photos I have taken that day already waiting for me in Lightroom?
More expensive cameras such as the Sony A7III and the Sony A9II have a built-in FTP transfer app. Not the cheaper ones though. This needs to change.
What you see above the FTP uploader app running on my Sony a6300. It’s a third-party app, installed via OpenMemories and it could only transfer 4 out of the 7 photos on the card. Not that the ones that managed to get on my computer in a quick manner. And that’s the first problem.
The a6300, along with other Sony APS-C cameras, have a really slow built-in WiFi chip. If I were to transfer 50 RAWs from 5 kilometers, I’d choose running with the SD card to my computer. Luckily Sony seems to be on the right path: the upcoming A5, their cheapest full frame camera yet, will have fast WiFi. This might be a sign APS-C cameras are next in line to have this feature.
This is the most secure way to transfer photos to your computer from a distance. Canon’s “Image” service has already proven to be unreliable and even worse: not safe. Setting up a home server isn’t difficult at all. With a couple of hundred dollars, you could get yourself a home server (a thing I’m very eager to do at some point) and have your photos (and videos) waiting for you when you get home.
