Gimic or real deal - wireless SD card????

[cyber_m0nkey]

Just came across this - http://www.eye.fi/

Has anyone heard of or tried this??? For the price, even if transfer speeds are slow, might be worth a try. Certainly a lot cheaper then the alternative...

[PacAce]

Wireless, my foot. How can they call that memory card a wireless memory card when you still have to take it and plug it into a card reader that plugs into the computer. Anybody who buys this gizmo for its so-called wireless capability really has no clue.

The only thing wireless about this memory card is the fact that there really are no wires (cables) used to get images from the card to the computer because the card plugs into a reader which plugs directly into the USB port of the computer, again, without a cable. :rolleyes:

[Jon]

Uh . . . Leo . . . it claims to have a WiFi set so it doesn't need to be plugged into a reader, or to have the camera plugged into the computer. It says the card will let your camera connect directly to your WiFi network and transfer the files a la WFT E-1, 2, or 3.

Whether it all works or not, I can't say. I can't think of a lot of situations I'd want to be bothered with it for, though.

[PacAce]

Uh . . . Leo . . . it claims to have a WiFi set so it doesn't need to be plugged into a reader, or to have the camera plugged into the computer. It says the card will let your camera connect directly to your WiFi network and transfer the files a la WFT E-1, 2, or 3.

Whether it all works or not, I can't say. I can't think of a lot of situations I'd want to be bothered with it for, though.

It did? I must have missed all that. I know in the beginning, they alluded to the fact that the images could be transferred from the camera to the computer without the operator doing anything or pushing any buttons. Well, I just dismissed all that as hype. I'll go see that video again to see what you're referring to.

[Nolleos]

see this thread.
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=401064&highlight=eyefi

It tells you all about it.

rgds

Ton

[PacAce]

OK, you're right, Jon. My first post was just based on what I saw in the video. It didn't occur to me to read through their specs. But then, based on what I saw in the video, I saw no reason to. :|

[Jon]

Time for the engineers to shoot the ad execs?

[Zilly]

how easy would something like this be for a average non computer tecnican to set up

i dont know about you guys but im fairly pc/mac compitent but i have no idea how i would go about setting this sort of set up out.

[Jon]

If you've already set up your wireless network, it shouldn't be hard. If you're new to wireless, you'll need to learn about WiFi networking to make sense of it, but then you will need to set up the WiFi for your network as well as for the camera.

[_aravena]

Be annoying to me. But what are the speeds? The same?

[Jon]

It's WiFi, but they don't say whether 802.11b or g. So your transfer speeds are going to be whatever it can manage on your wireless network. OTOH, with 2 GB of storage as well, it should be able to provide a bit of a buffer for you.

[modemanual]

Eye-Fi Card works with 802.11g, 802.11b and backwards-compatible 802.11n wireless networks

http://www.eye.fi/a-wireless-memory-card/#specs

[Jon]

Yeah, but g's backwards compatible with b too. A device that does b can connect to all of the above, albeit at the lower b data rate.

[j-paka]

so is it saying that it tansfers the pics to the card reader that is atached to computer

[Jon]

No - it'll transfer, via wireless, the pictures to whatever volume you want. The Marketroids oversimplified the video to the point they're actually downplaying what it's supposed to do.

[rhys]

It only transfers JPEG files

[cyber_m0nkey]

It only transfers JPEG files


How does it do that? Data is data, wouldn't it transfer whatever is in the directory it polls?

[rhys]

How does it do that? Data is data, wouldn't it transfer whatever is in the directory it polls?

The camera stores the image onto the card. The card looks for a JPEG image and transfers it via wifi then having transferred it, deletes it and looks for the next JPEG file. This is a card designed for amateurs - not professionals. Having said that, it should be possible to reprogram the card.

[TeamSpeed]

Great for the 1D series, or if you shoot ebay pics using small jpegs on the 40D using settings stored on one of the 3 custom slots. On the 1D, you just shoot raw+jpg, and have the jpegs go to the SD card, and they would transfer to your computer for you. For the 40D, you need the SD-CF converter, and then it would work.

[Zonieart]

This technology has been voice as a concern for areas that are worried about security of their IT systems. It wouldn't be too hard to use this technology to insert a virus without even having to make a connection or access an outside source. It might require some mitigation in areas of military or company private systems. Of course, the software to read it would already have to be resident on the computer, so I don't see it a a major problem.

[SuzyView]

Everything I own electronics-wise is messed up with wifi. I can't imagine adding this in the mix is going to help me. Is it so hard to take the card out of the camera and put it into a card reader? I know it has it's uses, but just JPEG files, that's really sad.

[nutsnbolts]

It's fun to use if you have it working. For actual work...well...

[TeamSpeed]

It's fun to use if you have it working. For actual work...well...

I agree with this statement. If I were shooting pictures of things to sell on Ebay, or installation pictures of a wired component on a vehicle, etc for forum posting, this would be great. Just shoot what you want/need, and by time you get back to the computer, it is there. For paying jobs, it would be more of a hassle I would think, and with roughly 2gb/sec, it would take a long time if you were doing rapid fire.

[cyber_m0nkey]

The other use would be in the studio. Setup the 1D as TeamSpeed suggests (thatnks for that BTW, completely forgot about that). Then instead of having a 3" preview you get a 14 - 25" preview depending on how big your laptop or computer screen are. Again, comes back to the transfer rate whether it would be useful or not.

[rme8494]

Hey guys just thought I'd post a video I created on Eye-FI. It is very easy to set up and use.

http://ev.instantspot.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/12/28/EyeFi

Ryan

[_aravena]

I come back to this to say, what a waste of money. I didn't read the OP, but worth the money!?! $100 for 2gb or I can get 8gb for the same price or a dozen other things. What's the point of this really that you need to transfer photos so quickly, JPEG at that. And that's if it's quick.

[Jon]

I picked one up for the experience (the things we do for you).

The software necessary for installation and operation is provided on the card.

If you use IE, setup's easy. It doesn't like SeaMonkey, and I don't have FireFox installed. Once you connect to the EyeFI website it'll do a firmware upgrade if necessary. In my case, it was, and ran smoothly.

On placing the card in your PC's reader (they provide one) it walks you through the process (which is web-based) of connecting to your WiFi network (whatever security you may be using up to WPA2); if you're broadcasting, it'll offer that. If you're not broadcasting your SSID, you can tell it what one to use. It connected easier than my laptop!

If you use one of the various (SmugMug, PhotoBucket, WalMart, Costco, . . . ) commercial hosting sites, you can have your pictures sent there. Otherwise (or as well), you can specify the directory on your PC where you want the files to go.

Once you've set all that up, you move the card to your camera. The card's formatted FAT16; it picked up right off on my A620. Shots at Large Superfine transferred very quickly (the computer you set up the card on must be running). It merely copies the files; they're still on the CF for later use elsewhere, too. Files go into a subdirectory based on the date.

I had to reformat the card (or any other SD card) as FAT32 to use it with my Jobo SD-CF adapter in the 5D. (copy the installation software somewhere else first). All the WiFi configuration info remained intact. Once I did that, the (reformatted) card worked just like any other card, only the JPEGs were copied to my computer. RAW and JPEG remained on the card too.

Conclusion: It works. It may not do everything the WFT-2 or -3 can, but it works for a lot more cameras than they will for. Aside from not transferring RAW, it does what WFT-1 does, and AFAIK it won't stop when you hit the 100 shot/folder limit like the WFT-1 does. It's also reasonably fast. And at $99, it's a whole lot cheaper than Canon's options.

I can see, in addition to studio uses, setting it up to feed back to a running laptop in the field, or for surveillance purposes. It may not be for everybody, but I'm more impressed than I thought I would be with it.

[TeamSpeed]

Thank you Jon for the great writeup. I am seriously considering this in my MKIII. Set the file storage type to RAW->CF and JPG->SD, and as I am just casually taking shots within my wireless network, I could just walk over to my laptop later, and it will all be there, no need to pull out the card or hook up the usb cable. Then later pull all the raw files off for archival or regeneration of better jpg images.

Any feel for speed? Like if you took 10 shots, how long before those 10 all are available on your home network (I won't go to web, just to WLAN->laptop).

[Jon]

A 7 MP seemed to download in under 10 sec. I photographed one of our dogs, walked 15 ft., and it was popping up on the screen.

[TeamSpeed]

So that seems to match the supposed rate of roughly 1-2mb/sec. Not great, but for a casual shoot, it would seem to work.

[Jon]

If I'm at home, it's fine that it connects to my WLAN which is secure. If I were out in the field, with the current interface, I'll need to carry my wireless gateway/router/access point. It does, apparently, support multiple networks (once you configure them), but not ad-hoc connections, which would be nice. Bluetooth would be cool as an alternative, although it doesn't have the range.

I may give it more of a "field test" this weekend. Suzie and I are meeting at NASM's Udvar-Hazy Center and I may just let it dump to my notebook over lunch.

[turbodude]

i say this is a great idea for studio work, and not having to run wires to your computer for on the fly proofing. Or for On site printing. A photog shooting the pics, while someone is on the computer printing the images. Possibilities are endless. and far better than pay $$$ for the WFT,

[tstowe]

I am the yearbook advisor for my high school. That's French for "screw you"

One thing we do is take basketball photos through the glass. I have a wireless trigger and a couple of bogen magic arms.

We also post the shots at http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/talon/sports

What drives us nut is that we can't see the photos until the last game is over. It would be great to know if we are getting the shots. Are we taking them too soon? Too late? etc.

I'm thinking about getting this just for the basketball photos.

[TeamSpeed]

I just got this card for my MK III. I have the camera settings such that when I choose the ebay settings, the camera writes L JPG files to the CF and S JPG files to the SD. After running the installation (completely contained on the SD card), and pointing it to my wireless network (SSID and WEP key), then giving it a directory on my laptop, it is ready to go.

It works very well within my house. I take fun family pics or pics of things to sell on ebay, and a little later, I have the shots on my laptop ready to go. I actually like this card. The only gotcha was that the camera had to do a low level format, as it did not recognize the format of the card before writing to it. However, the formatting has no impact on the wifi part of the card, and the card worked fine afterwards.