Using a D300 to Send Photos on Phone

Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED VR

05/28/2009 05:04:21 PM · #1

Ok, here's one for you true geeks :)

Mainly for kicks, I bought an SD/SDHC CF Card adapter. I thought it would be cool to be able to use this adapter (and then yet another adapter so I can use a MicroSD card) in my D300. This much of the process works just fine... I am able to shoot photos directly from my D300 onto a MicroSD card.

I thought this would be an interesting experiment so that I could stick the MicroSD card into my phone (an LG Dare) and upload photos to Facebook, or send picture messages. Long story short, I thought it would be an interesting way of using my D300 as an extremely expensive cell phone camera :)

Anyway, I run into trouble with the phone not recognizing the photos, I'm guessing because the D300 doesn't put them into the folder where the phone stores photos. The D300 seems to only allow me to put photos into folders that the camera creates.

Just wondering if anyone else has tried anything similar with success (could I be the only one to do this...?), or if there are suggestions for getting the phone to recognize the shots. Muchos gracies!

stultsphoto

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

05/28/2009 05:21:06 PM · #2

couldn't you use a card reader on your computer and take the photos out of the folders and put them directly on the card.

Shane

Sirashley

Nikon D7200

05/28/2009 05:26:14 PM · #3

Well you would have to shoot in jpg first. If you shoot in arw the phone will definitely not recognize them. The next problem you will run into is the size of the files. The phone may not recognize some images over a certain file size. Next, regarding that same issue, your cell phone carrier will not allow you to send files that size via text message or picture message. So that will be an issue as well. Next, if you upload photos of that size to facebook, they are going to scale back the quality and size of the image. So it really is almost pointless. Obviously, even a scaled back image from a D300 is going to look better than a cell phone camera, but it may be more trouble than its worth for the end result...

Intelli

Nikon D300

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED

05/28/2009 05:29:56 PM · #4

I think he knows all that... he's just a nerd and wants to do it.

lol..

my first thought was... set the folder name in your d300 to match exactly the folder name of where the phone saves it's images.. but I doubt that will work.

Edit: does the cell phone shoot in jpg? maybe it's some weird format? that's why it's not recognizing jpgs from the d300

Message edited by author 2009-05-28 17:31:54.

Dirt_Diver

Nikon D3s

05/28/2009 05:39:49 PM · #5

Actually I'm not sure if the phone records in Jpeg. I want to say it's something else but when you email it, it converts it to a Jpeg. I don't have the program on my machine anymore but I would try to find out where the phone stores the photos and what extension it's giving them.

BTW if anyone has Bitpim I would use that to see the files.

Message edited by author 2009-05-28 17:40:46.

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED

05/28/2009 06:35:25 PM · #6

The whole point is to be able to do this without the computer :)

Yes, I am shooting in JPG (and the phone does record in regular JPG when you use its camera), and I'm aware of the size issues. I have no problem transferring shots to the phone by using the computer, and sending them by picture message from there. This was actually how I wound up transferring shots to the newspaper when I covered the Super Bowl earlier this year -- the media area I was in didn't have WiFI, which I thought was absurd!

If the shots are over 500k, the phone will resize them (shooting them in the smallest, most compressed form of JPG yields a shot around 700k-ish).

Anyway... I don't think the D300 allows me to change the name of the folder aside from changing a number in the folder name. If I could get it to drop photos into the directory the phone uses, I think this would work, but I can't figure out a way of doing that.

Originally posted by stultsphoto:

couldn't you use a card reader on your computer and take the photos out of the folders and put them directly on the card.

cdrice

Nikon D7000

05/28/2009 06:49:11 PM · #7

Originally posted by alanfreed:

Anyway... I don't think the D300 allows me to change the name of the folder aside from changing a number in the folder name. If I could get it to drop photos into the directory the phone uses, I think this would work, but I can't figure out a way of doing that.

I think I read or heard somewhere that the menus on the D90 and D300 are very similar -- if that's try, this might help -- if not, well, I tried. ;)

Shooting Menu -> Active Folder -> [ Select Folder | New ]

I'd recommend formatting the card in the camera, moving the card to the phone and taking a picture (saving it to the card, obviously). Move the card back to the camera, and select the folder the phone used to store it's picture (you might want to put the card in a computer as an intermediate step to verify where that actually is).

Haven't tried this myself, as I don't have a fancy-smancy phone that does stuff like that, but it sounds like a nifty/nerdy idea, so you have my support. ;)

Now, the REAL deal would be to use one of those wi-fi memory cards, set up an ad-hoc network between your camera and phone, and......... :D

Message edited by author 2009-05-28 18:51:20.

k4ffy

05/28/2009 06:54:01 PM · #8

the resolution of the photos might also be too high for the phone to handle?

jazzmik

Nikon D300

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Nikon

05/28/2009 08:16:48 PM · #9

get the wireless transmitter for the D300, sync to the phone and go!

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED

05/28/2009 08:33:43 PM · #10

Originally posted by cdrice:

I headed down this road, and what hoping that this menu would allow me to do just that. BUT... When I get to "Select Folder" there is no "New" option, which kinda halts me in my tracks there...

cdrice

Nikon D7000

05/28/2009 08:36:31 PM · #11

Originally posted by alanfreed:

I headed down this road, and what hoping that this menu would allow me to do just that. BUT... When I get to "Select Folder" there is no "New" option, which kinda halts me in my tracks there...

But, does "Select Folder" allow you to choose between the existing folders on the card? If so, follow the steps I outlined above, and I bet you can get the D300 to put its shots in the phone's directory (just let the phone create the directory and use it first).

Message edited by author 2009-05-28 20:37:13.

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

05/28/2009 08:46:54 PM · #12

Originally posted by cdrice:

But, does "Select Folder" allow you to choose between the existing folders on the card?

Unfortunately it only seems to allow you to choose folders within the DCIM directory the camera creates. Interestingly, my D70s will allow me to create a new folder, but even then, it sticks a number before it and it will be stuck within the /DCIM directory.

For kicks, I took a shot and used the computer to move the file from /DCIM/108ND300 to /my_pix, and the phone recognized the shot perfectly well. I guess my only stumbling block is to get the camera to somehow get the shot into the directory that the phone will recognize.

Message edited by author 2009-05-28 20:47:21.

dassilem

Nikon D90

05/28/2009 09:53:57 PM · #13

geez, Alan you got me playing with this now....but all I have seemed to be able to do is prove what you already know....

thought I was on to something but as you said the camera will only create a new folder by placing numbers in front of the folder name and store it within the DCIM folder. But the phone will only recognize photos within the my_pix folder.

Sorry, that is all I can figure out, and have been of no help to you.

05/28/2009 10:09:49 PM · #14

I was excited about this when I first got the idea... I really thought it would be a no-brainer. But it turns out to be quite a brainer indeed! :)

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D

06/09/2009 02:59:35 PM · #15

I was finally able to get this to work, in case anyone was interested. Unfortunately, it involves one extra step and another piece of geeky equipment to pull it off, though. I was able to find an application for my Palm TX that will allow me to move the file into the proper directory. Once I do that, the phone will let me send it as a picture message. So it takes an extra step in the process, but I can still do it without having the laptop along!

tate

Apple iPhone 15 Pro

06/09/2009 04:24:32 PM · #16

When I first read this post, I was reminded that you might be a tad loony. But then I started to think it would be cool.

So I created a device using a paper-clip, a rubber band, and a keychain.

OK I made that last part up. But I would imagine that features like this might show up on future cameras (A conversion mode and USB output cord to link directly to "smart" phones).