To eye-Fi or not to Eye-Fi, that is the question...

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To eye-Fi or not to Eye-Fi, that is the question...

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spraynpray

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While I wait to receive my D90 which is stuck in transit in England due to the Christmas rush (who'd have thought we'd get another Christmas - it only seems a year since the last one), I am thinking that I would like to try an Eye-Fi Pro to download my raw files without the fiddle of those seemingly fragile connections behind that horrid plastic door.

Is anybody here using one? I'm keen to know if they are reliable and durable.

I have a wireless router which I am using in a wired network. Is it as simple as screwing in the aerial and setting up a wireless network for it to talk to or maybe plugging in a dongle? I like the idea of automatic uploads to a private folder on photobucket when I'm out, and just plonking the camera down next to the computer in the house - in fact I posted wireless uploads as my top wish list item a while back, so this would be super-great if there aren't any problems.

Posted 2 years ago #
jmschwartz

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I am. Works great with my D90. Have used software both on Windows 7 and Mac Snow Leopard OS. Been using the "Pro" version for 2 months, approx. 700 images.

Cicso Wireless network. Plug the supplied adapter into a USB port and configure away. Easy.

Rgds,
Jim

Posted 2 years ago #
gelu88

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I plan to get one for my D7000.

I figure i can get the basic model(jpeg only) and shoot with 2 cards in RAW+Jpeg mode.

also, note that the supplied adapter is a normal SD-USB adapter, any(including ones built into laptops) will work.

Posted 2 years ago #
MaxiVisVires

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I use one on my D7K as well. I use it for wireless tethering to my iPad. Works great.

Posted 2 years ago #
adamz

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if You use jpg's it's ok, but if You shoot RAW it's TOOO slow

Posted 2 years ago #
spraynpray

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Thanks guys.

I don't want to only shoot .jpg so I guess it is a case of either shooting .nef and .jpg and only transmitting wirelessly the .jpg's (pointless) or going for the pro only shooting .nef and putting up with it being slow.

Seems expensive to me - anybody think the price will reduce or have they got the patent sewn-up?

Posted 2 years ago #
MaxiVisVires

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It's slow in jpgs as well. With the D7K's dual card slots, I have a 16gb that takes the raw, and the eye-fi card takes jpgs strictly for the transfer.

Posted 2 years ago #
gelu88

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spraynpray said:
Seems expensive to me - anybody think the price will reduce or have they got the patent sewn-up?

I have been keeping an eye on these cards since the moment they were first announced, and have almost gotten one twice. The price points have never changed, though at this point i am waiting until February as their previous X2 cards were announced at CES. Its possible that they will refresh the lineup next month.

If they do they will keep the same prices and increase features and capacity (for $150 they better give us more than 8 gigs)

Posted 2 years ago #
spraynpray

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I still don't really unnerstan the installation - do I have to use a wireless router or just some USB dongle to communicate with my PC?

Thanks

Posted 2 years ago #
gelu88

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The pro model is able to directly connect to a laptop without any extra equipment, otherwise you need a pre-existing wifi network and you need to set the card up in advance.

So when you first set it up at home, you plug the card into you computer, run the software, which teaches it all the info about your router setup.

if you go to another house you have to do this again.

There is an exception to this, eye-fi has agreements with a number of places to provide automatic connection:

"HotSpot Access is provided by AT&T Wi-Fi, Easy Wi-Fi and Harborlink, and it only takes a one-time setup to reap the benefits. AT&T Wi-Fi offers Wi-Fi access at tens of thousands of locations, including Starbucks, Barnes & Nobles, restaurants, major hotels, airports, and more. In addition, the card will upload from any open network."

see their site for more details.

Posted 2 years ago #
TaoTeJared

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EyeFi "WTF was I thinking" of the day. I have two cards (4gb Connect x2 & 8GB Pro X2) one I use in a Jobo SD/SDHC to CF adapter for my D300 (for snapshots around the house and the other in my G11 which goes everywhere I do.

Took about 3gb of photos - didn't pay any attention and double loaded almost 3 weeks worth of images onto my system. Did lightroom catch that? Yes. Did I just click away without looking? Yes. Can I really tell which I edited and didn't edit. No. AHHHHHHHHH
----------
They work great for normal 10-20 shot uploads at a time but for anything more they are not so hot. I haven't fiddled with them much but set up is easy. Not fast enough for for the way I shoot and I have seen very fast battery drain on my parents Oly Pen EP-1 which has a small battery to begin with.

A word to anyone looking to purchase one, 4gb is larger than most need - as long as you are not on vacation. There are settings in the software to remove photos after it has downloaded them.

Posted 2 years ago #
TaoTeJared

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spraynpray said:
Thanks guys.

I don't want to only shoot .jpg so I guess it is a case of either shooting .nef and .jpg and only transmitting wirelessly the .jpg's (pointless) or going for the pro only shooting .nef and putting up with it being slow.

Seems expensive to me - anybody think the price will reduce or have they got the patent sewn-up?

Look out on the web and there are many wireless tethered options and many do it yourself ones as well. What I have seen is that these are really intended for the casual shooter. I fired off 300 shot the other day and my G11 (which was fully charged at the beginning of the day) died during the loading and only got off about 40 or so. My Sandisk fire-wire reader can download 4GB (1500) in just a few min. Neat for what it does though.

Posted 2 years ago #
spraynpray

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Hi Tao/gelu88,

Battery life isn't too much of a concern as I have a battery grip. The aim is to completely remove the need to be using up connector insertion life so it needs to be wireless. I don't need to be uploading at every Wi-Fi hot-spot, just at home to Lightroom.

I'm interested in these other options you mentioned Tao, any suggestions?

Posted 2 years ago #
JorPet

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I just bought one to play with, but haven't gotten it fully set up yet. The configuration and getting it to connect to your in home wifi network is a breeze. I'm currently stopped at trying to get a SD to CF Type-1 adapter so I can put it in my camera. From there I want to get it to stream pictures to an iPad. Once I have that working and can see how it goes, I will get the Pro version and set it up so it can transfer to the iPad directly.

So, haven't had a chance to actually try out the transfer capability yet as I don't have a camera that takes SD natively. I did post on my installation questionnaire that a CF version would be a really good idea with the number of CF users that want to start using them with the iPad specifically, but any pad type computer.

Posted 2 years ago #
JorPet

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As for the set up (installation). The card comes with its own USB dongle that you just put the card into the dongle and put that into an open USB port. The computer will recognize it and install the listening software and get you set up. Then you open their software and look for your network, enter the password and you are all set. They can be set up to recognize 30 private networks this way and will automatically attach to any open network that may be at McDonald's or Starbucks, etc.

The one issue I ran into is that one of my wifi routers has a hidden ssid and the other is open. It set up with the open ssid router fine, but I had to unhide the other router to get it to configure properly. Once that was done, I was able to hide it again and it still was OK with that.

The other bit the Eye-Fi will do is geo tag your photos based on wifi signals it gets around the location you shoot. The software will then add the geotagging information when you upload.

Posted 2 years ago #
gelu88

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If anyone wishes to have their images transfer to an ipad on the spot, the method i hear works the best is to set up the eye-fi to upload to a shutterfly, flickr, etc account. Then use a dedicated APP on the ipad to view the files. As these apps auto-sync its the best way, plus its backed-up online automatically.

I don't know which services have their own ap at this point, as i don't have an Ipad.

Posted 2 years ago #
Seshan

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I have a old 2gb version in my D7000, I shoot jpegs to it and raw to a 16gb card. I only wish that my card supported the endless memory option.

Posted 2 years ago #
gelu88

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today we got another reason to get an eye-fi.

neat announcement today means that all the X2 cards can now connect ad-hoc to a smartphone!

One less advantage to getting a PRO card, now smartphone users can download an app which will automatically sync and upload pics.

i figure i can set up a system to automatically download said pics back to a PC. $100 saved!

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/04/eye-fis-direct-mode-unites-phone-and-camera-in-holy-matrimony/

Posted 2 years ago #
gelu88

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engadget just posted a video:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/eye-fis-direct-mode-hands-on-from-camera-to-tablet-in-seconds/

it transfers from the card to the android phone/tablet in "seconds"

Posted 2 years ago #
NikoDoby

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If a manufacturer wants to discuss or promote their product in our forum then they need to contact us (Nikon Rumors) first about sponsorship opportunities. We would welcome the chance to learn more about your product and how our members can benefit from it.

Thank You.

Posted 2 years ago #
gelu88

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lol, no corporate shilling going on here. Just over-enthusiastic fanboyism. Having an eye-fi card is the next best thing to a camera running android. i cant wait till more cameras take the plunge and allow for apps and unlimited connectivity.

I just imagine a situation where all those innovative camera apps can use better and faster optics and lenses than that of smart-phones.

Posted 2 years ago #
NikoDoby

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gelu88 said:
lol, no corporate shilling going on here.

I wasn't referring to you Gelu88. There was another post after yours that broke the forum rules.

Posted 2 years ago #
spraynpray

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I have resurrected this old post as I am (finally) going to get an eye-fi card, but I just read that some problems can occur when using a D90 - does anybody on this forum have experience of the Eye-fi Pro in a D90? I read that it can give problems including a situation where the card has to be reformatted (lost images?) to recover it. I know it is slow with .nef's, but I don't care about that - I do care about possibly losing images though!

Thanks to all.

Posted 1 year ago #
DutchNikon

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Hmm , atarting this year, there are also cards from Sandisk & Eye-fi, as there are new Cards from Toshiba called FlashAir cards... wonder how al those compare...

The Toshiba's will start selling early next year, support WiFi an 802.11 b/g/n , and ...can work two way ( send and receive) .... , for other functions we will have to see i guess.....

Posted 1 year ago #
spraynpray

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Tech support at Eye-fi tell me that the X2 range does not have any problems, so the new card is in Santa's sack as I type this.

Regarding the other makes Dutch, I've prevaricated long enough on this so I've pulled the trigger now. I am paying £63 new so I doubt the competition will beat that by much for an 8Gb card.

Posted 1 year ago #