Picture Transfer Protocol over IP

[Suhit Gupta]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.dpreview.com/news/0409/04091301nikonptpip.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.dpreview.com/news/0409/04091301nikonptpip.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Nikon Corporation is pleased to announce the implementation of PTP/IP (Picture Transfer Protocol over Internet Protocol) - developed by FotoNation Inc. - as a new computer interface for more convenient image data transfer from digital cameras. Based on the current ubiquitous PTP technology (ISO 15740), which up until now has been limited to the USB transmission, it enables communication between a digital camera and a PC via wireless LAN."</i><br /><br />Nikon will be implementing PTP/IP in coming products, and will thus be pioneering the way for digital camera communication technology. The collaboration involves Nikon, FotoNation and Microsoft commercializing and enhancing this technology, whose further refinements for professional use will be released soon. The technology will be also applied to products for general consumers in the near future. The press release linked here will also provides some background into the development of PTP/IP. Of course they say "near future" which makes me think that it won't be something released this year, although we can hope.

[dean_shan]

Would this mean that your WiFi enabled camera would be able to upload to on server on the fly? If so this could be huge for photojournalists.

[Suhit Gupta]

Would this mean that your WiFi enabled camera would be able to upload to on server on the fly? If so this could be huge for photojournalists.
Exactly. But I met with some Nikon people today at a press event about digital media stuff and they had no idea about this technology. :( Although it may just be that the sales/marketing/PR people have not heard about it yet.

Suhit

[OSUKid7]

That's cool, but what makes it PTP/IP different from TCP/IP? I mean, you're still just dealing with files. What can a PTP/IP-enabled camera do that a standard camera with WiFi couldn't?

[Suhit Gupta]

That's cool, but what makes it PTP/IP different from TCP/IP? I mean, you're still just dealing with files. What can a PTP/IP-enabled camera do that a standard camera with WiFi couldn't?
This is a good question and I was basically thinking the same thing when I posted on this. The article tries to do some handwaving around the whole issue, trying to show how it will do some cross between FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and MTP (Media Transfer protocol). But ultimately it doesn't seem to give any details. From what I can gather, it is actually built well above TCP/IP. I don't think it is as low level a protocol as TCP/IP. Plus, apparently it is supposed to have some sort of standardized format for transferring images between devices. There is a little more information here - http://nikonimaging.com/global/news/2004/0913_01.htm

Suhit