Canon Wireless File Transmitters (WFT-E2A)

So ever since I bought my 1Ds Mark III I've been looking into the WFT-E2A. Often times I'll go to a location for a shoot and want to be able to transmit the files in real time to my laptop without being tethered. My question is do you have to have a wi-fi connection to do this or can the laptop directly connect to the transmitter? I'm not so worried about studio applications because I have a wireless connection and I know it's possible. From what I understand trying to transfer the files in real time isn't possible without being tethered and having the transmitter. Does anyone have first hand experience using any of the Canon wireless file trasmitters?


Thanks,


Fred~

I don't have first-hand experience, but do believe that it's possible to do an ad-hoc (i.e. no access point) wireless network between camera and laptop. Would you have ANY power available onsite? You could simply take your own access point and improve your range and reliability (you'd need to manually assign IP addresses to camera and laptop, unless your access point also had router functionality and therefore DHCP services onboard).


I have read that the Canon WFT stuff is quite finicky and has a steep learning curve. I've also seen folks swear by it (the photographer for our local minor-league hockey team uses it religiously - he uses the facility Wifi, and his assistant sits wherever she likes with a MacBook and selects the keepers in DPP as the pictures arrive on the laptop).

You can use ad-hoc or infrastructure, as you like. The setup is different but the functionality is the same.