Nikon D5600

[stenrasmussen]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is that Snapbridge is intended for social media and should not be relevant to many here. It bridges a DSLR through a smartphone to sites such as Instagram that do not accept uploads from computers.

Dave Hartman

It also works as a remote controller (albeit lacking a few obvious features).

[Bjørn Rørslett]

You are correct, Dave.

However, this customer base probably would regard all the Nikonese gizmos unnecessary and complicated  thus rather use their smartphone cameras directly instead of any DSLR. They might lack the understanding of image quality, or even don't care these days.

[Akira]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is that Snapbridge is intended for social media and should not be relevant to many here. It bridges a DSLR through a smartphone to sites such as Instagram that do not accept uploads from computers.

That's right.  You cannot transfer RAW files via SnapBridge in the first place.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Only up to 2 M 'previews' no RAW no TIF, which is a tell-tale sign that 'social' media are not concerned about quality on any level.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

Few images published online are more than FullHD resolution, as monitors typically are around that resolution anyway and to have text around the images as in a layout, the images are still smaller. 2K/FullHD therefore seems like a reasonable size of an image to transfer to a mobile phone. For larger images, printing or publishing in print, a computer can be (should be) used. E-mail platforms have quotas and transferring large jpgs on a routine basis would quickly fill them and annoy the recipient as well. When I photograph people at events or portraits, many people never want to see anything larger than that since they don't print the images. Those that do print do want the images in high resolution, so I give them a USB memory stick or DVD with the images at different sizes. 

If I understand correctly, full size jpgs can also be transferred in the Snapbridge app (via wifi, by selecting the images from the thumbnails on the mobile app). But to me a mobile phone doesn't seem like the right platform for large image files. The storage space is small (Apple in particular give 16GB on the base model and charge a lot for the models with larger memory and there is no "upgrade" option, if you run out of storage, you're stuck with that problem) and transfer times of large jpgs are slow even with conventional wifi implementations. By contrast, transferring images from an XQD card via USB 3 reader to internal drive happens at 250MB/s on my PC. That's about ten raw images per second. Even the D5 + WT-6A transfer speed is just 130 Mbit/s per second, so the cable connection is 15 times as fast as the wireless.

I have the Manfrotto digital director which allows me to connect my iPad mini 4 to my camera for remote control and transfer of images. However, the handling of large jpgs is awkward on the mobile device. I bought it to use as a video monitor basically. In theory it allows transfer of large jpgs but in practice it is like bringing an elephant in a glass shop. I just don't see mobile devices as the right platform for handling large image files.

I don't object to Nikon trying to find a different solution as I found the D750's conventional WiFi to be annoying to use - the connection is cut off if the camera power is recycled and it has to be re-established from the settings menu on the iPhone. I have not used the high end Nikon WiFi transmitters (i.e. WT-5, WT-6) but I read the connection is lost if the camera goes into standby mode! This is totally ridiculous. (I'm not sure if that applies to the latest D5+WT-6).  A pairing of two devices should only have to be done once and thereafter they should always be connected if in range, unless the connection is explicitly terminated by the user. If I shoot in my home studio, my iPhone connects to the WLAN for my internet connection and there is no way to make it prioritise the D750's Wifi as far as I know; if I want the connection I have to select it manually every time I turn the camera on.  One reason Nikon gave for the hybrid Bluetooth LE / WiFi implementation is that Nikon wanted people to be able to maintain the wifi access to internet on the mobile device, and at the same time receive the (arguably small) files from the camera via bluetooth.

For serious remote camera work e.g. at a sports stadium, or if you want the images to a laptop in the studio while shooting and do not want to use a cord, the WT-6/7 and connection to a laptop would seem to be the appropriate solution.

I don't understand why people object to transfer of 2K images -  that's about the size of images people post here on nikongear as well. If nikongear allowed posting 36MP images and people had 8K monitors and internet transfer speeds would accommodate that - then I would understand that 2K is too small. But this is not how images are used online.  Even FullHD images do show quality differences between images and online presentation can be done well, or it can be done poorly.

I totally understand that people object to pairing difficulties, slow transfer times, and limited functionality on the mobile applications, if these problems are present. Hopefully Nikon is able to address these over time and improve the functionality.

[arthurking83]

..... Hopefully Nikon is able to address these over time and improve the functionality.

I suspect that this will be very unlikely!
As for pairing difficulties, you get that anywhere and everywhere.
My last phone, had much trouble pairing via Bt to the truck radios for the purpose of handsfree phone use.
It paired easily with my own car radio tho.
My new phone pairs instantly with the truck phones now. It's just Bt .. and manufacturers use idiotic protocols to confound users!

What I think is happening is that Nikon are being as cheap as cheap can be.
It wouldn't surprise me if they used the lowest grade/brand of Wifi chip in the cameras, and similarly with the Bt chip too.
End result will be manufacturer induced uselessness for the lifetime of the device.

You get the same result in computer hardware, and why many people think that Macs 'Just Work' .. whereas PC's have issues.
PCs don't have issues in themselves, the el cheapo chip manufacturers cause these issues. Choose and use good quality devices that use chips from respected chip makers and almost certainly there won't be 99% of the issues that people report on.

I reckon if you break open a snapbridge enabled Nikon camera and located the Wifi chip, it's probably some 10 yo design from Via or some other lowball chip manufacturer.
if this is the case, all the best hoping for Nikon to improve it.

Until they commit to a philosophy that gives the user the best experience, which may involve a slight higher cost base, nothing will change.
Nikon at this stage are in defense like mode, looking to save a few cents where they can per unit. This will drive customers further away, at Nikon's future expense.

I'm sure someone else has mentioned this previously too .. but until Nikon realise that whoever they allocated to steer their software department course is totally inept, there is no future for any of their software implementations.
If it's outsourced, then they need to change quick smart, before more damage will be done to the brand. If it's internal, they need to outsource(to a capable provider) even quicker!

[Ilkka Nissilä]

They use Bluetooth LE so that power consumption is reduced (since Snapbridge is active even when the camera is "off", power usage is an important consideration). However, BLE is slow for transferring large amounts of data. Probably some of the problems that users have are that BLE is not widely used so only relatively new phones support it and there may also be issues on that side.Canon is now using BLE also (M5); it will be interesting to see if they can get it to work well.

I don't think low cost is the primary motivation for the BLE/WiFi chip choice. The D500 is an expensive camera; they could have use any components available. I think the main problem is that they rush out stuff before it is ready. Of course, the D5600 is a less expensive model and component prices may come into play here. This may be why in the D3400, some features were omitted to make it possible to include Snapbridge and keep the price low.

I'm wondering if an external dongle (with antenna) could be used to improve BLE/WiFi performance of Snapbridge. Perhaps EMI and antenna design within the confines of the camera chassis which is packed with other stuff are causing some of these problems. Nikon's new radio controlled flash (using an external component the WR-R10) works brilliantly.

[bjornthun]

I post a link to a thread in the Fredmiranda Nikon forum about a software called Airnef, http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1459951

There are further links in that post, which seem at least to me to explain more about how Nikon's implementation of Wifi and BT works. There is also some info on Snapbridge. The Airnef software can be made to work with Snapbridge enabled cameras, by going through some extra loops and hoops.

(To the moderators: I hope it's ok to post a link to another forum, since it seems very relevant for understanding a bit more about Wifi, BT and Snapbridge.)

[Ilkka Nissilä]

Thanks. I wonder how fast the built in wifi of Snapbridge compatible cameras transfers images to laptop using this airnef software.

So Nikon could make things easier by allowing a direct wifi connection to be established without snapbridge, and things would be better in the sense that third party software could be used for wifi control and image transfer without use of Nikon's app to initiate the connection. Perhaps Nikon can do this with a FW upgrade.

I wonder if sending Nikon some feedback would help.

[Akira]

Just found out that D5600 cannot be released via IR remote ML-L3. 

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Just found out that D5600 cannot be released via IR remote ML-L3. 

Now, that is a really  dumb dumbing down of  the feature set.

[Akira]

Yeah, that's a real bummer.  Strangely D3400 retain the IR sensor (even though only on the front) for ML-L3.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Even the D600 has ML-3 support ... and the D5xxx up to at least D5300.

The pinnacle of the D5xxx series is without any doubt D5300. I'm pleased I got one as foundation for an IR modification. A red camera body of course as it is for IR only

[Øivind Tøien]

That is really brainless thinking, removing the IR remote. I have been struggling with the same on Nikon 1 AW1. Last week I got myself a WU-1b to play with using a smartphone as remote release, just to find that it causes the camera to switch into program (P) mode, with no way of adjusting shooting parameters on the phone in the Nikon app. Well at least it retained exposure compensation and ISO so I sort of worked for the moon shot I tried, but then with wide open aperture, as it did not know the camera was on a tripod. Oh well, at $16.50 off ebay it was an inexpensive experiment, and I could sit in the warmth of my cabin fire repeated moon shots, and with no remaining vibrations from touching the camera.

[Akira]

D5500 still has the IR sensor, but I agree that D5300 is better featured.

I stopped looking at Nikon 1 Jx bodies because they dropped the IR sensor after J2.  I was thinking about a Jx body as a potential platform for the long lenses.  I'm not interested in V2 or V3.