digital camera

Not all of us have switched to smartphone photography. Whether you use a DSLR or just a bespeak-and-shoot camera, in that location are ways to automatically upload and sync photos like y'all would with a smartphone.

Some companies have tried to solve this problem by marketing "smart cameras," but you lot don't need a digital camera with touch-screen or even Wi-Fi built into exercise this.

Automatically Upload Photos via Your Computer

RELATED: Take Control of Your Smartphone's Automatic Photo Uploads

Your digital camera probably doesn't have a congenital-in Wi-Fi or cellular information connection, so you tin can't automatically upload photos directly from it without any additional hardware. Yet, when you connect your digital camera to your estimator via a USB cablevision — or remove the SD card and insert it into your figurer — y'all can have your computer immediately accept over and automatically upload those photos.

Dropbox has this nicely integrated. If you utilize Dropbox on your computer, you lot'll run into a "Camera Upload" dialog when you connect a digital camera or SD card containing photos to your computer. You lot tin can accept Dropbox automatically import the latest photos when you connect your camera or SD card so they'll exist stored forth with the rest of your files and synced to a standard place on all your computers.

For Google Photos, yous tin install the Google Fill-in and Sync application for Windows or Mac. If you use Windows 8.1, OneDrive can automatically upload images you place in your Photographic camera Roll folder. Import images to the Camera Roll binder when you connect them to your Windows PC and they'll automatically stored in OneDrive. Apple'due south new Photos app for Mac volition allow you to import your photos into your iCloud Photograph Library.

If you prefer another service, it may also accept a similar feature. You can upload to any sort of cloud storage service or remote folder by configuring camera import software to automatically import the photos from your photographic camera or SD card into a cloud storage folder — or a remote binder stored on a network-fastened storage device.

Wi-Fi-enabled SD Cards

RELATED: How to Buy an SD Carte du jour: Speed Classes, Sizes, and Capacities Explained

Yous can add wireless uploading and syncing features to a standard digital camera by ownership a Wi-Fi enabled SD card. These are more expensive than the typical sorts of SD cards you'd buy for a photographic camera, of form. They contain a standard SD card with storage, but likewise a Wi-Fi chip and some software. They essentially add Wi-Fi features to camreas that don't ship with wireless, and that feature tin automaticlaly upload your photos to a cloud service or merely transfer them to a nearby estimator without any cables.

The EyeFi is the well-nigh pop type of Wi-Fi-enabled SD carte, then it's the one you may accept heard of. However, in that location are also many other options. Perform a search for Wi-Fi SD cards on Amazon, you'll see options from other manufacturers like Toshiba and Transcend.

Do consider the software when you purchase such an SD card, though. Ensure it will actually practise what you want it to do — unlike with standard SD cards, which don't need any special software, getting your photos and videos off of a digital photographic camera with a Wi-Fi-enabled SD card is all about the software it offers.

"Smart," Wi-Fi-enabled Cameras

Yous can also buy digital cameras with Wi-Fi built in. You'll notice many for sale if you perform a search for Wi-Fi cameras on Amazon. This is just one option though — you don't demand to purchase a fancy digital camera with a touch screen and apps, or even one that just has built-in Wi-Fi. Y'all can get those sorts of features with a Wi-Fi-enabled SD carte du jour, assuming you're happy with your current camera. Or, you can skip all that and just connect your digital camerat to your reckoner occasionally. Information technology may even exist able to upload those photos while it charges the photographic camera via the USB port.


There's not a lot else to it. Just option a solution — software on your computer, a Wi-Fi-enabled SD card, or peradventure even a Wi-Fi-enabled camera if you're looking for a new 1. Automatic photo uploads and syncing are a big perk of smartphone photography, but you tin get similar features without ditching that dedicated photographic camera with its optical zoom and other features smartphone cameras can't lucifer.

Paradigm Credit: Eddie Yip on Flickr, Norio NAKAYAMA on Flickr


The in a higher place commodity may contain affiliate links, which help support How-To Geek.