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Author Topic: Anyone using an eye-fi card  (Read 6301 times)

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« on: October 06, 2010, 07:48 »
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Anyone using an eye-fi card?

I have been intrigued by these cards for a while and yesterday I saw someone using one so I was inspired to check them out again.  Is anyone here using them? It seems like it could be a nice solution to shooting tethered (wirelessly) or having your images geotagged if shooting in a rural area.  I don't usually shoot tethered but some times it could be nice to see the image on a larger screen right after I shoot it to check lighting and sharpness.


« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2010, 08:01 »
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Do they make them in CF format?

« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2010, 08:07 »
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no, I don't think they do .. there are a few adapters but it looks like they reduced the range to about 3 meters and the speed is reduced as well.  I wonder why they don't have a regular CF card?

« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2010, 08:19 »
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no, I don't think they do .. there are a few adapters but it looks like they reduced the range to about 3 meters and the speed is reduced as well.  I wonder why they don't have a regular CF card?

I've been looking at these also, and wonder why they don't make these in CF format.  The adapters seem to be giving problems with range/speed/compatibility on canon cameras.

Patrick.

« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2010, 08:22 »
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Yes, I bought the 4GB card. I used it briefly but found the transfer of data just too slow to be any use to me. I have decent internet speed (usually about 8GB when tested) although I'm not sure how that relates or exactly which is the limiting factor. I suspect it is the card itself.

I shoot food in the 'studio' (aka my living room) and wanted to display images on my monitor so that I could make any adjustments from the results. It's amazing how often a harsh reflection from a single potato chip or something can ruin a series if not spotted in time.

When shooting food I need to move fast, whilst the subject still looks hot and tempting and before herb garnishes start to wilt, usually at the rate of about 15-20 frames per minute. Unfortunately images from the eye-fi card only transfer at about 1-2 per minute if I recall correctly so it is quickly left behind.

Even when taking the 'lazy' option of letting the eye-fi card upload to my PC, after the shoot was over, it was more hassle than just inserting the card directly into the PC. The eye-fi card requires the camera to be 'on' when transferring and will therefore stop as soon as the camera goes into 'sleep' mode. For a shoot of say 200 images it could take over an hour to transfer. I found the eye-fi card a bit slow to wake-up and realise it needed to start transferring images too. The card itself has wide 'shoulders' and so can effectively occupy 2-3 USB slots when inserted. The eye-fi card is a nice idea but practical issues prevent it being much use other than as a toy.

« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2010, 08:33 »
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thanks for the thoughts gostwyck.  So what do you use now?  Are you shooting tethered some other way?

« Reply #6 on: October 06, 2010, 08:47 »
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thanks for the thoughts gostwyck.  So what do you use now?  Are you shooting tethered some other way?

No, I don't bother to shoot tethered. Fortunately food doesn't move about much so I have enough enough time to bracket the shots and ensure I'm shooting from enough different angles to eliminate most issues.

« Reply #7 on: October 06, 2010, 09:21 »
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I picked one up to use with my LX3 about a month ago and have been having fun with it, but agree with what gostwyck is saying (though I found the transfer speed to be about 30 seconds for an 11MB file). It is much slower than shooting tethered via cable and I wouldn't suggest using Eye-Fi as a replacement if you can shoot that way, but I think it has some good uses when that isn't an option.

Here's a rather novel use.

I believe the geotagging is based on where your Internet connection is as opposed to where you were shooting at a given moment, but I could be wrong about that as I haven't looked into that part too deeply.

You can also set it up to also directly upload to various online photo sharing sites (flickr, facebook, smugmug, etc.), which might have appeal to some folks.

For me, I was more curious about finding solutions for shooting tethered for cameras that don't otherwise have a tethering option (such as my LX3), and while the 30 second wait was a bit of a drag, it was easier than popping the card after every shot to copy it to my computer and import it into Lightroom. Instead with Eye-Fi I was able to set it up to save to a folder watched by Lightroom and have it automatically import while I was shooting. I could not ever do that before with that camera.

I have been having fun with it though. I took my LX3 out just shooting for fun, along with my Verizon Mifi, and was automatically uploading to Flickr while I was out. Could be useful on trips for sharing with friends/family. When I came home I just set the camera next to the computer and went off to do other things. Came back and all the shots had been automatically imported into Lightroom.

So, I think it is novel. I think it has potential to solve some problems for some folks. Was that worth the $129 I paid? Not really to be honest. I mean, I certainly don't need to shoot tethered with the LX3 when I can do it with my DSLR instead.

It does suck the life out of your camera battery much faster.

It is much slower than you'd want in a studio setting.

The $129 model is currently the only one that will transfer raw files (I think), so you'd have to decide if all that novelty was worth the price for you.

Now, if that transfer speed ever drops under 10 seconds it might be a whole lot more useful.
« Last Edit: October 06, 2010, 14:44 by Rob Sylvan »

« Reply #8 on: October 06, 2010, 09:43 »
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I believe the geotagging is based on where your Internet connection is as opposed to where you were shooting at a given moment, but I could be wrong about that as I haven't looked into that part too deeply.



the geotagging is done using wi-fi triangulation, a similar way to how the old iPhones had location services when they didn't have GPS. 

The link to Rob Galbraith's post was interesting.  doing something like that sounds quite interesting but it looks like it would work better with the Canon wifi transmitter ... assuming you wanted to fork over the large amount of cash it costs.

« Reply #9 on: October 06, 2010, 09:57 »
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Thanks for that bit on the geotagging. I think the key sentence is "There simply needs to be Wi-Fi networks within range." I'll have to test that out a bit more and see how it works in the somewhat rural area I live.


 

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