Nikon Imaging Cloud

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EricBowles

EricBowles

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Nikon has a new function with the Z6iii to support automatic transfer of images to the cloud. The camera has wifi capability, and when configured properly can upload the images to Nikon Imaging Cloud and support automatic transfer to various cloud services including Nikon Image Space, Dropbox, Lightroom, and OneDrive. Google Photos and Google Drive are coming soon. There is a Digitutor series that walks through setup and configuration - although it could be better.

I set up my camera to work with Nikon Imaging Cloud and Nikon Image Space for a test. It worked pretty well. I had 40 images automatically transferred into the Imaging Cloud, and then transferred them from there to Nikon Image Space. At this point RAW files are not automatically transferred and require manual intervention. That makes sense because the files are larger and you could eat up a lot of bandwidth in a hurry.

The instructions are not great at this point, and it will take some trial and error to make everything work. I was a bit impatient and got error messages because the transfer was in process when I tried to transfer them a second time from Cloud to Image Space. Ultimately they did get transferred a second time, so I had a lot of duplicated images to clean up. The browser or review tool in Image Space is not great and was difficult to navigate quickly.

Overall it's an interesting idea. I still need to explore the tool and truly understand how it works. Hopefully Steve (@Steve) will have a video walking through setup. It's pretty clear the intent of this is to deploy it in other cameras. If they have wifi, a firmware update should be all that is needed.

My upcoming use will be photographing the PGA Tour Championship. If I can be more selective about what is transferred, I'll try transferring images live in the field to Dropbox for a second person to handle downloading, quick editing and posting on social media in near real time. The person handling the editing does not even need to be in the same city. I'm sure the wire services will be all over this capability.

There will be an impact on battery life. The firmware in the camera allows you to send the images even if the camera is turned off, which means it may be active or polling longer than you think.

You can also use the same Imaging Cloud to automatically update camera firmware at the time you set. Just keep in mind that the camera needs to be plugged into a charging cable so it has power for a firmware update.

Here is a Digitutor link with four videos:
www.youtube.com

Digitutor

Welcome to the Nikon Digitutor Channel on YouTube. "Digitutor" is a Nikon website featuring various information that includes basic knowledge, useful techniques, and tips on taking good photos with Nikon Digital Cameras.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
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I really like the “modern-day EyeFi” idea; files automatically pushing into my chosen cloud whenever I’m within WiFi range would eliminate my need to pull my card, and let’s me do a “lazy cull” for vacation photos and such, where I don’t care so much about teasing apart a RAW file.

The devil is in the implementation, and I’ve yet to see a camera (or WiFi SD card) do this well. I’ll believe it when I see it, but I’m hopeful.

I’m not enthused that Apple Photos is not among the supported platforms. I’d love to shoot RAW+JPEG and have my camera send flagged JPEGs directly to my Apple Cloud. So would my family, who are generally held hostage by my reticence to spend an evening in Lightroom screwing around culling a whole vacation of photos.

I’m also excited to see if the Image Recipes can produce a similar SOOC capability to Fuji’s film sims. A large percentage of photos I take with my Zf are casual, and I’d be happy if I could file away RAWs to Lightroom but post finished-ish images directly into my Apple Photos cloud, for easy sharing.

I hope Nikon is successful with this, and it leads to a new area for camera makers to compete. Usability and low-effort sharability are the primary issues with camera adoption in the smartphone era, and if Nikon Imaging Cloud, Frame.io, or whatever Sony/Canon/OM ends up doing breaks that barrier, we’ll start to see more “real camera” usage again.
 
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I must be overlooking something because I don't see how this is offering anything new relative to SnapBridge. I've used that system to select files and quickly transfer to my phone. Once on my phone, I can send via cell service to wherever I want, no WiFi required. Watching those videos left me thinking the new system is another multistep way to accomplish the same thing. What am I missing?
 
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John Navitsky said:
so basically it waits till it has wifi?
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Yes - it only works through a wifi connection you set up. So it can start uploading images as soon as you walk in the door, but it won't do anything while you are in the field unless you have a connection. I was out this morning without wifi and it gave me an error message saying that it did not have wifi access.

There is an impact on battery life. It is active and looking for a wifi network for upload when you are in the field. If one is not available, you should turn it Off. You can also pause uploads. I need more testing to evaluate how to balance battery life with my needs. For now, I will have it turned off unless I am actively using it.

You can decide what images you want to upload, NEF + JPEG, NEF only, JPEG only, or even selected individual images. I would not want to routinely use it to transfer every NEF file on a card. If you press the i-button on image review the images are tagged for upload. Ideally you would only upload tagged JPEG or NEF files, but it depends on your bandwidth and workflow.

Matt Irwin and Ricci both have videos on YouTube discussing the product. Ricci has actually used it extensively. Both offer insights about setup and operation - but Irwin did have some errors in his comments.

Nikon may offer a paid cloud subscription in the future. Right now they offer free storage, but limit that storage for 30 days. Anything left on Image Cloud more than 30 days will be deleted. It's supposed to be an interim tool to support workflow - not long term storage.
 
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Jerry Heitschmidt said:
I must be overlooking something because I don't see how this is offering anything new relative to SnapBridge. I've used that system to select files and quickly transfer to my phone. Once on my phone, I can send via cell service to wherever I want, no WiFi required. Watching those videos left me thinking the new system is another multistep way to accomplish the same thing. What am I missing?
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This is far better than Snapbridge since it supports a full workflow. It fully supports moving images to Dropbox, Lightroom Cloud, or other destinations for handling. Snapbridge is a one person solution for a smartphone or tablet. This eliminates a lot of connections and equipment for photographers working as part of a team with another person doing image evaluation and/or editing. And it's much faster than Snapbridge.
 
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Chris K said:
I’m also excited to see if the Image Recipes can produce a similar SOOC capability to Fuji’s film sims. A large percentage of photos I take with my Zf are casual, and I’d be happy if I could file away RAWs to Lightroom but post finished-ish images directly into my Apple Photos cloud, for easy sharing.

I hope Nikon is successful with this, and it leads to a new area for camera makers to compete. Usability and low-effort sharability are the primary issues with camera adoption in the smartphone era, and if Nikon Imaging Cloud, Frame.io, or whatever Sony/Canon/OM ends up doing breaks that barrier, we’ll start to see more “real camera” usage again.
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If your goal is image sharing, my guess is you would tag the images you want to share using the i-button. Then only transfer the images you want to share - in NEF or JPEG format. I would transfer to Imaging Cloud via wifi, and once there to Nikon Image Space on an automatic basis for sharing. This workflow means you would take the time to make sure your settings and picture control choice are reasonably correct and significant editing is not needed. I don't think you even need a smartphone for this workflow - just log into the wifi on your camera at breakfast, your home, or your hotel.

It is possible to due some quick editing in the camera or in Nikon Image Space. It's not what you could do with the raw file later - but certainly good enough to share or post on social media.
 
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John Navitsky said:
can you set up a filtering criteria, like rating?
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I'm not sure. I know you can flag images to transfer from the camera. But if you are going to automate the process, I think that is your only option. You can add ratings in the camera so the rating is there later, but I don't see the rating as being a criteria you can use in an automated upload.
 
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Thanks for all the info, Eric! I’m excited to give this a try when it releases for the Zf and Z9. I really hope Apple Photos is added as a cloud service at some point. I could use Dropbox as an intermediary via automation, but that would be pretty clunky compared to simply sending the files right to iCloud.
 
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I like the idea of Nikon Imaging Cloud for use as an extra backup when traveling, 30 days free is sufficient for this. The main issue I see is the hotel WiFi is 1) usually slow 2) often has a data transfer limit.
 
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Chris K said:
Thanks for all the info, Eric! I’m excited to give this a try when it releases for the Zf and Z9. I really hope Apple Photos is added as a cloud service at some point. I could use Dropbox as an intermediary via automation, but that would be pretty clunky compared to simply sending the files right to iCloud.
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How old are you? I am 66 and I don't expect this is my lifetime, given that it took Apple 8 months for Z8 RAW support. Just an opinion.
 
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I'd expect to see this capability rolled out to additional cameras that have strong wifi capability. There is a hardware requirement. It's also important to use the product for the right purpose. Wifi can be very slow for large files, so if you have a large number of large files you would use the function in a different manner from someone with a smaller number of files or a smaller file sizes. If you have the option of a normal download, that takes seconds. This can be an easy option for downloads if you have a strong wifi and are plugging your camera in to charge the battery after a shoot. Workflow will be different if you have a weak or slow hotel wifi or other limited wifi function.
 
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