Eye-Fi Revisited

 When I first started the Lucky-Star Photo Blog, I brought the Eye-Fi WiFi SD cards to everyone’s attention. At that time I didn’t have one of my own. A couple of months back I finally picked one up on sale at Best Buy.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but knew I wanted to try it. I made the purchase and quickly headed to the studio for some testing. The initial setup was a breeze on a Mac and a little more hectic on a PC (go figure). Popped the card into a Nikon D60 and it worked perfectly directly to my MacBook and Mac Pro. Again, the PCs gave me a bit of a hassle. Snapping a picture in studio would deliver a quick review of each shot. All this being said, the card can only be setup on an existing network. This is a bit annoying if you’re out on-location with no Internet connections. The folks over at Eye-Fi fixed this problem with an Ad-Hoc version that will allow the card to connect directly to your computer. This is much better and accommodating. Problem is, it costs over $200. Ouch! So for now, I use the card for in-studio applications, which is perfect. I purchased an SD to Compact Flash Card for my Sony Alpha, but the Eye-Fi card didn’t send the photos over the network, it merely saved the photos onto the built-in memory. So for now shooting with the Nikon D60 or 90 are the only DSLR options for us. The card also worked well with a few point-n-click cameras I tried out. Slower delivery over the network than the Nikon’s, but still worked.

 

So, in short the Eye-Fi card works great over the in-studio network we have setup. It also saves us the trouble of tethering and the hassle of all the cables. I still don’t think it has practical everyday use. If you’ve got some extra cash and an SD camera, then go for it. It will save you a few minutes of plugging up your USB to your computer to download your photos. Besides that, not so much! The new cards have some benefits, but you can find the 1^st and 2^nd series at a discounted rate.  If I had to rate it with stars, I’d say 3 out of 5. Helps with a quick review of each shot, beyond that it’s just a cool tech toy.

Comments

[Mario Rodriguez]

http://www.eye.fi/google is also a great deal.

[Lucky-Star Staff]

Thanks for that link. Very cool to know!

[Berend]

"Problem is, it costs over $200."

The most expensive Eye-Fi Card model, the recently-shipping Eye-Fi Pro X2 is $149, so I'm not sure where you're seeing Eye-Fi Cards sold for $200. The Pro X2 is a class 6 card with an 802.11n WiFi radio, offering much faster read/write and wireless transfer speeds.

Berend

[Lucky-Star Staff]

I stand corrected. When I visited the Eye-Fi site I misread the $99 and $149 versions as $199. Thank you for clarifying. It's a cool product and would be super excited if a Compact Flash version could be created.