My Nikon D7000 & iPad a match made in heaven

Learn how I use my DSLR and iPad wirelessly on location to edit and upload photos or video. Leave the laptop at home...

I was torn in my decision between a Canon 60D and a Nikon D7000 for filming.

After a great deal of research and a number of Pros and Cons it came down to the last 2, The Canon's 720p 60fps v the Nikon's better low light Video. There are of course many other decisions but these became the deal breakers. As the title suggests I went for the Nikon and am very happy due to an unforeseen benefit....

The Nikon has 2 SD card slots and you have a few options:

• Use slot 2 as overflow
• Use slot 2 as backup 
• Use slot 1 for RAW and slot 2 for jpeg

The last option has a very useful feature. I have an 'old' Eye-Fi Card and for those of you that don't know this is an SD card with wifi built in. Every time you are near a wifi hotspot it will upload the images to your online account. So why is this useful? Did I not mention that there is an accompanying app.....

So I set up the card to access my school and home wifi networks (as well as my iPhone Hotspot, more on that later) so that when I get to either destinations the photos on my Wifi Card start to upload automatically (I can add another post for those interested in the Eye-Fi).

I had to think carefully at this point as I do a lot of filming and didn't want my iPad to fill up in a few days with Film so I set up my Nikon in the following way:

Images: Slot1 RAW - Slot2 Fine jpeg 

Video: Manually set to Slot1 only

This meant that all my large files, RAW images and 1080p video was stored on my large SD card and only the jpeg's were on my Eye-Fi card and loaded onto my iPad via Eye-Fi. Allowing for a much higher quality of image beyond the built in one. Adding depth of field and could be used with older iPad 1's as a wireless camera.

However I did want the ability to upload my video to iPad as well. No worries the Nikon D7000 has another great feature, copying between cards on the camera!

So any video that I want to use on the iPad via iMovie or the like I simply copy to the Eye-Fi Card. Just so I can keep track of the video I created another folder on the Eye-Fi card as demonstrated below (again I can expand this process for those interested). 

Now using the iPhone (or 3G iPad) Hotspot feature I can tether both my iPad and Eye-Fi card meaning that I no longer need to take a laptop to do simple edits and publish to the internet when on location. A great space saver! This small but freeing step can not be underestimated!

Hope you like it and if you're after a mid to high range DSLR for filming you might consider a 2 slot DSLR with similar features or just go for the Nikon D7000 

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. 

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