Nikon Transfer is such a piece of SHIT

[Phil Harvey]

OK.  Knowing about the numerous documented problems with Nikon Transfer corrupting files, today I tried to use it anyway because pulling and re-inserting the SD card daily will eventually have its toll on the connections, and I wanted to cut down on the wear and tear to the camera.  But, spoiler alert, Nikon Transfer just plain SUCKS!

1. Even though I can make a WiFi connection between my Mac computer and the camera, Nikon Transfer doesn't work over Wifi.  I need to plug in the USB3 cable (yeah, I know, more wear and tear).

2. I have only an SD card in the camera, and no XQD card in slot 1.  After I plug it in via USB3, Nikon Transfer doesn't recognize that there are any images in the camera.  And the pull-down (not-very-easy-to-find) card selection menu doesn't work until a loooooooong time after the camera is plugged in (I think it is trying to read from the empty slot 1 or something).  Finally, after a loooooong time I am able to select slot 2 and actually see my images.

3. My workflow is to download images shot each day, but I leave older images on the card until I have backed up my hard disk.  So in Nikon Transfer I sort the images by date, then select and download only the files for the day.  But SURPRISE!!!!  Some images for today actually show up under yesterday's date in Nikon Transfer.  What idiots.  How could they possibly get this wrong?  I almost missed copying a number of images because of this bug.  Luckily I remembered some good shots I took that I couldn't find on my computer, and finally found them on the memory card under the wrong date in Nikon Transfer (and no, the camera clock wasn't set incorrectly).  Good thing I hadn't erased the memory card yet.

What a piece of SHIT.  Nikon obviously isn't a software company, but crap like this really makes them look bad.

Ok.  Rant finished.  Nikon Transfer is permanently filed in the circular filing cabinet.

- Phil

(can you tell that I am very annoyed at Nikon right now?)

[Alan Clifford]

I've always avoided it.  It allows you to put metadata in the photos as it transfers them so that rang a big warning bell for me that is wasn't simply copying the files from one place to another.

But I think you are right about worrying about wear on the hardware.  One of the slots on my D7000 has stopped working.

How about changing to micro sd and leaving the adapter in the camera?  I think I  might have a try at doing this.

[Phil Harvey]

I found a utility that allows download via wifi: airnef

It supports Windows/Mac/Linux.

The GUI is really clunky and buggy, but luckily it has an underlying command-line utility that is slick and allows this process to be automated.

The only problem is that downloads are really slow now.  About 1.5 MB/s or so (about 15 sec per NEF file).  So I have to set up the process then go do something else for a while.

- Phil

[Alan Clifford]

My D7000 is too old for wi-fi.  And I just looked up the price of the wi-fi adapter - how can they charge so much?

[Phil Harvey]

I've established a new workflow using a modified version of airnefcmd.py (attached).  This new version adds a --filelist option which allows you to download specified files, and speeds things up for me by only downloading NEF files that I want to keep.  To use this, you'll also need the other Python files from airnef.

So my workflow is now:

1. Run airnefcmd to download all new JPG images from my camera to a temporary directory (I always shoot JPG+NEF):

airnefcmd.py --action getfiles --ipaddress 192.168.1.1 --realtimedownload disabled --logginglevel normal --extlist JPG --outputdir ~/tmp --ifexists skip --slot firstfound --transferorder oldestfirst --cameratransferlist ignore

2. Delete all JPG files I don't want to keep.

3. Run airnefcmd to download NEF images corresponding to keeper JPG's:

cd ~/tmp
airnefcmd.py --action getfiles --ipaddress 192.168.1.1 --realtimedownload disabled --logginglevel normal --extlist NEF --outputdir . --downloadhistory ignore --ifexists skip --slot firstfound --transferorder oldestfirst --cameratransferlist ignore --filelist `ls *.JPG`

This works well for me.  It is slower than downloading directly from the memory card, but without the wear and tear on the memory-card slot connections.

- Phil