£100 Canon File Transmitter...

hyakuhei

hyakuhei

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Robert
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Hi All,

When not photographing stuff I work as a software engineer - I've got a bit of spare time coming up and an interesting project to work on.

I'd like to have a file transmitter for when I'm working at weddings and other events as well as when I'm working in the studio, however at the price Canon charge, I'd rather spend the £600 on some decent glass. £600 is a *lot* for what these transmitters do. I'm sure that I can build a device with much better features for a fraction of the price.

I'm going to build a WFT-e2 replica out of gumstix hardware (http://www.gumstix.org) the total cost should be about £100 for parts

So, I'd like to know what features you'd like to see in a Canon WFT and if you'd be interested in buying one. This project would be completely open source, meaning any of you guys would have the rights to use, copy, modify and even sell these devices if you wanted to. I don't intend on making any money from this but if people wanted them constructing then we might be able to arrange something there.

Crucially, I'm looking to borrow a Canon WFT (Preferably an E2) so I can reverse engineer the communications between the WFT and the Camera.

I'd love to hear from you if your interested in this project or have a WFT I can borrow.

Cheers
-Rob
[MEng Software Engineering]
 
I would love one..... As long as you told me in words of one sylable how to use it and what system I would need.

Jenny.
 
The idea is that it would work a bit differently to the Canon one. Basically once it is turned on you can configure it by simply pointing your web browser at it and then it will have nice simple options to set up and use.
 
Interesting project, and as a software engineer myself it becomes doubly interesting.

How do you intend to reverse the protocol?
 
Hi dfrear, I've had some experience reverse engineering serial protocols before and I anticipate this will go much the same, putting my laptop in the middle of the serial communications between the WFT and the Camera body and then spending some time reading through hex dumps to work out what is going on, slowly changing variables and perhaps even camera bodies to observe the changes in outputs. A fairly typical Man-In-The-Middle affair

First we observe, then we mimic, then we improve :D
 
Glad there is some interest in this, I just need to get hold of a WFT somehow. :thinking:
 
Sounds like it will be a long and painful process, reading through raw hex dumps. Good to hear you have experience in doing it already though - that has to count for quite a lot. Never seen the Gumstix hardware before, looks interesting. C/C++ or are you going to be using straight assembly?

Do photix do a grip for the 30D? If so you could use a cheap grip as a base for the hardware.
 
Like most painful things, its not that bad if your used to it.

I already have a photix grip but I don't think I need to start worrying about hardware casing yet, as for a while its not really going to be relevant.

It will be easy enough to rig up some software to decipher and identify parts of the protocol once the basic work has been done - it depends partially on if Canon has attempted to obfuscate or encrypt the data at all, its unlikely to be very complicated though.

This device could also work as a remote control for the camera, becoming a wireless bridge to the Canon Professional software that allows you to do this with the 50D etc.

Should make for some fun software :-D
 
I wouldnt be surprised if they had tried to encrypt it in some way - it's very easy to do these days and can cause a real nightmare.

Can't say I've ever done much work in the area myself, I tend to be a little higher level (C# work these days..)
 
Perhaps, though you'd be surprised where corners get cut some times - I'm looking forward to finding out either way. Decryption should be fairly trivial as I know what the original data is going to be i.e I supply the images for transfer.

Its going to be a very interesting project as soon as I get hold of a WFT :-)
 
Hmm, I just had a thought, once the software is written this would work on any device which can operate as a USB Host device and accepts the software (which will be pretty much any device).

This means that you could install the software on say, a Neo Freerunner. Which is a mobile phone with GPS. The software will be free which means that for £270 you could buy a neat touch screen phone, which can connect to your EOS body, transmit files to your laptop using WiFi or transmit straight to an editors desk using GSM, it can geotag photos using its GPS too.

Lots of possibilities for cool stuff here.
 
Erm, wow!

No idea what most of this means, but id be interested in file transfer stuff that doesnt cost £600. The price is crazy money!

Go for it fella :)
 
MJ Stebbings said:
Erm, wow!

No idea what most of this means, but id be interested in file transfer stuff that doesnt cost £600. The price is crazy money!

Go for it fella :)
Click to expand...

:plusone:

But I'm unsure who's going to willingly donate £600 quids worth of equipment for experimental purposes..

:popcorn:
 
Tim Sainsbury said:
But I'm unsure who's going to willingly donate £600 quids worth of equipment for experimental purposes..

:popcorn:
Click to expand...

Maybe someone who wants one of these and will sell their £600 worth of gear on fleabay :lol:
 
If you could manage it, I'm sure some Chinese factories would be really interested!

I'm personally interested though and would buy one.
 
SimonTALM said:
Good idea but what's wrong with an Eye-fi card and an SD-CF adaptor.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting this Simon, adapter £20 in Maplins and 2GB transmitter card thing £60 or so.

Not sure it does exactly what the OP had in mind but good sounding solution that I'm definitely tempted by, to save the camera from continually dragging cards or USB in an out if nothing else.
 
After reading through this thread I'm more WTF than WFT. What I can understand sounds good though, just not sure how much I'd use one of these things.
 
ranarama said:
After reading through this thread I'm more WTF than WFT. What I can understand sounds good though, just not sure how much I'd use one of these things.
Click to expand...

I'm with you on the WTF? What is the aim of this thing? i don't get it.
 
For most purposes the device I'm proposing would work identically to a Canon WFT.

The aim of this project is to make a 3rd party device which would allow Canon EOS users to have WFT functionality at a fraction of the (ridiculously high) cost.

For those of you with the "WTF" questions, :thinking: Google will help I'm sure, failing that, try the intro here: http://www.usa.canon.com/content/WFT-E1A_origPOP/interface.htm

Regards the Eye Fi - As pointed out already, it won't do raw - it will slow down your photo taking dramatically (if you require high fps) and crucially, it has very poor range due to the small size of its antenna, very slim power supply and the fact that its embedded inside the camera body.

One classic use of a WFT is at weddings as shown in the into, another is studio work, your unlikely to get very far with either using the Eye-Fi (that said, if someone finds a way to get around the problems listed above then thats great news - I'll buy two!).

I agree that finding someone to part with their £xxx device is difficult, I'm looking into alternatives.
 
Hyakuhei - sorry, the WTF was just my poor attempt at a joke. I think I understand how this works but I did get a little lost in the technical bits. Does it connect to a local laptop or can it connect directly to the internet? Just checking as you said point your web browser at it.

Thanks for the link as I was struggling to see how I could use this at a wedding. It's still no use to me as I shoot alone and even so I still don't think it would transform the way I work. I can see how these are invaluable to sports and news 'togs though who have tight deadlines but just don't get it for weddings where the images are generally presented a week or so later.

Great project though and good luck with it.
 
ranarama said:
Thanks for the link as I was struggling to see how I could use this at a wedding. It's still no use to me as I shoot alone and even so I still don't think it would transform the way I work. I can see how these are invaluable to sports and news 'togs though who have tight deadlines but just don't get it for weddings where the images are generally presented a week or so later.

Great project though and good luck with it.
Click to expand...

Some wedding togs like to show images on screens at the reception :)

Sounds like a fantastic idea...would solve a problem with wildlife shooting for me! I could fire remotely, and review and retake remotely too!
 
I for one would love one of these!! the idea of being able to send straight to the picture desk gets me!! even if it can only do Jpg!! thats all id need for that! although it would be nice for it to do RAW too..
 
What would the range be on this and how would it be powered?? i dont suppose thats been looked into yet..
 
fraggle101 said:
I for one would love one of these!! the idea of being able to send straight to the picture desk gets me!! even if it can only do Jpg!! thats all id need for that! although it would be nice for it to do RAW too..
Click to expand...

The project being discussed will hopefully allow the transfer of RAW files...
 
Sounds very interesting.

If one cannot be bought/borrowed could it be hired? Those interested could donate to a hire fund? Just an idea...
 
sounds good to me, but im sure the hirer wouldn't want their unit taken to bits!! lol..
 
fraggle101 said:
sounds good to me, but im sure the hirer wouldn't want their unit taken to bits!! lol..
Click to expand...

they dont have to know as long as it goes back together without a problem;)
 
fraggle101 said:
sounds good to me, but im sure the hirer wouldn't want their unit taken to bits!! lol..
Click to expand...

Agreed

:thinking:
I won't be taking anything apart though so thats all good, basically the WFT plugs directly into your cameras USB socket. For development purposes I'd knock together some adapters and the WFT would plug into my computer and then my computer to the camera.

Normal:
WFT---->Camera

Man in the middle:
WFT---->Laptop---->Camera

The advantage is that the laptop can be used to analyze all of the data exchanged between the WFT and the Camera - fun huh ? :-)

Power wise, the existing WFT's are powered by a Cannon battery Cell - Bp11 or something similar off the top of my head. The intention is to power my device in the same way.
 
it sounds a very good idea, im convinced there will be a market for it for sure!!..

You make it sound very simple! hehe.. im sure its not though..

What would the range be? also would you use the same Frequencies as the Canon one? or could you use one that is more efficient? then theres the licensing laws (Radio Freqs) would there be an issue there? if it uses the same as say a wireless router 2.4GHZ or there abouts would you need to get authority or is it an unrestricted band?

I should know as im a radio amateur!! lol.. i don't look in to that stuff these days!
 
Without wishing to poo poo an excellent idea what is the score with reverse engineering Canon's device and the legal consequences?

Obviously Canon make the kit you want to work from but what stops this being useable on other camera makes?
 
im sure sigma have been doing this sort of thing with lens mounts for years, and i would be surprised if nikon havent had a few 1ds in there workshop having a good mess about with, if they are getting away with it im sure a man trying to save himself a few quid, but i may be wrong
 
For the WTF'ers amongst you, the WFT-E3 adapter, which I have for use with my 40D and 50D, allows....

1. Direct connection of USB mass storage - e.g. a 120GB HDD in an enclosure, so that you can shoot for a really long time without changing cards :) You can also dump shots from the cards to the USB device with no computer involved.

2. Facility to attach a GPS Unit to geotag your images;

3. PTP Connection : Wireless emulation of remote/tethered shooting via EOS utility, so that you can control the camera from a distance and adjust focus/exposure and fire with no wires. e.g. you might have the camera fixed in an awkward or hostile environment (outdoors in winter) and be able to take photos from the cosy warmth of your armchair;

4. FTP transfer of images straight from camera to computer, either via a router or a direct ad hoc connection. I use this a fair bit. I can shoot away and when I get back to my laptop the images are already there.

5. HTTP transfer : If you have the camera connected to a router on the internet, either wirelessly or via a CAT5 cable, you can access the camera from anywhere in the world to take photos and transfer them back to where you are.

If it helps, the WFT-E3 manual can be downloaded here - http://rapidshare.com/files/111534697/WFT_E3_E3A_E.pdf.html

This site may provide further helpful information - http://web.canon.jp/imaging/wft/index.html.

There is a review and video tour here - http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon_WFT_E3A/

Canon's own video on the WFT-E1 - http://www.usa.canon.com/content/WFT-E1A_origPOP/interface.htm
 
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