Eyes on Eye-Fi
The Eye-Fi Pro X2 is an aptly-named SD card for your digital camera that includes built-in wi-fi. This allows you to download your pictures from your camera automatically to your computer, simply by leaving the camera on. We’ve been testing out their current top-of-the-line model, the Eye-Fi Pro X2 8 GB Class 6 SDHC Wireless Flash Memory Card. Class 6 here indicates that it’s a super-fast card, but only pros will likely notice much a difference.
To start up this system, you’ll need to download their software, install it, and configure it. Once installed, just keep your SD card in the camera (and the camera on) — as long as it is within a certain radius, the computer will detect any images taken and start the process. The card takes a while to initially connect — around 30 seconds. But it’s great for downloading a few pictures that you’re too tired to go through a complicated process over.
Pictures are generally downloaded to a specified central folder. Trying to find out what that place was initially presented a few problems. After I changed the location of the automatic download folder, then all photos were from then on transferred there, leaving me with only the task of sorting them and transferring them to a new folder. Geolocation, another feature for this device, works pretty well as long as there are wireless networks around. It won’t help you in the middle of Yellowstone, however.
Eye-Fi has several useful settings including the ability to rename photos automatically upon transfer. Photos can also be set to automatically delete from the SD card, as long as they have been successfully transferred, a feature they call “endless memory”.
RAW images appear to present some difficulties for the device. They have to be handled separately from the JPEG images, so while the JPEG transferred automatically and easily, the RAW files had to be setup separately. Also, if you’re the type to take RAW images, you might have quite a few large files on your SD card. In that case, perhaps just hooking it up directly to the computer is still the best bet. Transferring through most connections directly is still much faster than whatever wireless connection you might possess. Also, the Eye-Fi card drains the camera battery life much faster, perhaps even twice as fast, so with large sets of pictures, probably no time is saved using the Eye-Fi.
You can’t adjust the settings for the card onboard the camera. We understand why it is this way, but it is still frustrating. Instead you have to plug a card into the computer that has the software installed in order to connect the card to any new wireless network. You can enable automatic joining of unencrypted open networks, but if you find yourself abroad in an area that requires logins, you might find yourself having difficulty.
Overall, this is an interesting, if mixed product, that is probably perfect for certain people with certain methods of handling their pictures. Available for just under $150 on Amazon.
Also, though Eye-Fi doesn’t directly support it, there are now apps that allow you to direct your pictures towards your iPad or iPhone instead. You’ll still need to have a router nearby that all devices can connect to, but ShutterSnitch offers a neat bit of functionality at a reasonable price. We had issues getting it to work, likely due to the brand new card and device, but at $8, it offers some fun extras like warnings when settings exceed pre-determined rules.
