Camera for teachers with wi-fi

[zx2012]

Can you suggest a camera from a well known brand that can be used by teachers in their classroom that has Wi-FI so that photos can be directly uploaded to a specific folder. Or if much cheaper where can we buy new cameras that cost around 30-40 pounds?

[sted]

cheap android phone with no sim card?

[elsiegee40]

cheap android phone with no sim card?

 

Or ipod touch equivalent

[Ant]

Or what about trying one of those Wi-Fi enabled SD cards? Could potentially make any camera do this.

 

No idea how good they are in practice mind.

[strawberry]

eyefi pro x2 will do this.

[Oddbod]

eyefi pro x2 will do this.

 

Second the eyefi pro sd card. Configure the card before inserting it into an sd card enabled device and bingo! IoT compatible device…

 

My doxie scanner is now connected, or my camera, or my freeview digibox from ebay… they do have a list of compatible devices, so do check the eye-fi site beforehand.

[dhicks]

Or what about trying one of those Wi-Fi enabled SD cards?

 

If you mean the Eye-Fi SD card with built-in wireless, we have 8 or so around the building. They were impressive when we first bought them 4 years ago or so, but it's probably cheaper to buy a camera (or, as suggested above, a smartphone) with WiFi built-in. Eye-Fi's software doesn't run as a service, it runs as a desktop application, so you need an always-on PC to run the software to sync photos with the network. It also doesn't support network file areas. We've set up a virtual machine to run the software and have a script watch for new Eye-Fi photos arriving and copy them over to a network drive, but it's a bit cludgy. Saying that, I haven't actually checked for software updates recently, so a newer version might be available.

[Alis_Klar]

If you have multiple eyefi cards (1 per class for example) will 1 copy of the software support multiple cards and paths to save to? Of do you have to have a instance of the software for each card? Therefore the VM approach.

 

If we were going the iPod touch route what apps are available that utilise the camera and save directly from app to a SMB share? Would rather not have to manage the camera roll on each device.

[strawberry]

The former. Is fine with multiple cards.

[jmak]

cheap android phone with no sim card?

 

Or ipod touch equivalent

 

 

If we were going the iPod touch route what apps are available that utilise the camera and save directly from app to a SMB share? Would rather not have to manage the camera roll on each device.

 

Or a windows tablet that you could put on the domain and access network shares directly.

[dhicks]

If you have multiple eyefi cards (1 per class for example) will 1 copy of the software support multiple cards and paths to save to? Of do you have to have a instance of the software for each card? Therefore the VM approach.

 

One copy of the software will handle, I think, something like around a dozen separate Eye-Fi cards. We currently have 11 on the network, so we might be almost up to the limit.

 

If we were going the iPod touch route what apps are available that utilise the camera and save directly from app to a SMB share? Would rather not have to manage the camera roll on each device.

 

If you go for Windows or Android rather than iOS then your browser (i.e. Chrome) can support the getUserMedia interface, so you can write a web page that can grab pictures straight from the camera, by passing the camera roll.

[Alis_Klar]

Or a windows tablet that you could put on the domain and access network shares directly.

If I can't find a Android app/ iOS app to do this I may look into writing my own program for Metro/Modern to do this. Would be a good excuse to learn some Visual Basic.

 

All the app has to do is invoke the camera ask for permission to access camera and save the resulting file to a network path. Can't believe this hasn't been done already!! When googling the only thing like this being done is using a Raspberry pi and Samba.

[smithson83]

We use some old tablets as auto upload cameras. Asus TF101's with Mobilock restricting to just the Camera and FolderSync moving everything from the DCIM folder to a WebDAV share on the network (however we use Foldr for that bit, its essentially a WebDAV share).

 

Seems to work ok in the Reception class

[Alis_Klar]

One copy of the software will handle, I think, something like around a dozen separate Eye-Fi cards. We currently have 11 on the network, so we might be almost up to the limit.

 

 

 

If you go for Windows or Android rather than iOS then your browser (i.e. Chrome) can support the getUserMedia interface, so you can write a web page that can grab pictures straight from the camera, by passing the camera roll.

 

Ahh Genius! iOS now support upload from Safari browser uses

[Alis_Klar]

We use some old tablets as auto upload cameras. Asus TF101's with Mobilock restricting to just the Camera and FolderSync moving everything from the DCIM folder to a WebDAV share on the network (however we use Foldr for that bit, its essentially a WebDAV share).

 

Seems to work ok in the Reception class

 

So FolderSync runs as a "service" in the background monitoring the DCIM directory. Isn't foldr designed as a foreground app?

[smithson83]

Foldrsync runs as a service in the background checking every x mins for changes.

 

We use Foldr for our iPads and External WebDAV access. In this case it's just acting as a WebDav destination for FolderSync to hook into, the Foldr App is not required.

Edited September 29, 2015 by smithson83

[rbelson]

With Foldr for iOS, you can take photos within the app that are uploaded straight to the network, without leaving a copy in the device's camera roll.

[box_l]

For android devices I have been using this

 

Sweethomewifi

 

It Works a treat, install and forget and all photos appear on the server.

 

For IOS I have been using

 

Tonido

 

I just don't enable the cloud part for schools unless they specifically request it.

 

BoX

[Alis_Klar]

With Foldr for iOS, you can take photos within the app that are uploaded straight to the network, without leaving a copy in the device's camera roll.

 

Thanks! Did not know that! We have foldr and iPads for the kids already! Will look at putting it on a few iPod Touch's. Hmm if I need to get new devices I wonder does the foldr Android app have this functionality. Will ask minnow.it

[mikeprice]

I hate to think how many unidentifies random photos would end up clogging up the sever if I let my lot loose with the ability to send the files directly!

 

I keep them under control - and the images accessible - by always copying the images to a separate folder with the date and subject

Then at the end of the year I have a clue as to which to delete - sorry - archive

[Alis_Klar]

For android devices I have been using this

 

Sweethomewifi

 

It Works a treat, install and forget and all photos appear on the server.

 

For IOS I have been using

 

Tonido

 

I just don't enable the cloud part for schools unless they specifically request it.

 

BoX

 

@box_l

Great app tips thanks!

 

• For Sweethomewifi you configure a different path on the device and voila? e.g. \\server\pictures\tablet1, \\server\pictures\tablet2 etc does it require webdav folders?
  
• For Tonido if you are not using the cloud functions does it still need access outside the firewall? Can I it connecto to tonido server running on windows machine internally? Is the enterprise version any better?
  

[mikeprice]

I hate to think how many unidentified random photos would end up clogging up the sever if I let my lot loose with the ability to send the files directly!

 

I keep them under control - and the images accessible - by always copying the images to a separate folder with the date and subject

Then at the end of the year I have a clue as to which to delete - sorry - archive

 

Having said that - this thread has given me an idea of how to make things far easier for the teacher in infants as they have to take photos of all the kids work - put it on the server - then log the process on Target Tracker. Using a tablet to put it direct onto the server would reduce the workload for this by loads

 

Thanks for the idea!

[box_l]

@ Alis_Klar

 

Sweethomewifi

Correct, you set each tablet with its own folder in a standard SMB share, (no WebDAV required), the software will create the dated folders and put you photos in them accordingly.

 

Tonido

If you do not need the cloud bit then it does not need to go out to the net for files, but I think it needs to when it sets up and when you login to the console part.

If your iPads have 3/4G then the cloud bit is great for having the photos back in school before you are. Please check in dataprotection rules regarding the content of the photos etc as I cannot remember where the data is stored in the cloud.

 

I have not tried the Enterprise version as the standard free does all the schools need.

 

HTH

 

BoX