{"id":2916,"date":"2011-02-11T00:14:45","date_gmt":"2011-02-11T04:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stayfocusedpress.com\/blog\/?p=2916"},"modified":"2021-02-05T20:42:06","modified_gmt":"2021-02-06T01:42:06","slug":"from-camera-to-computer-wirelessly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arnielee.com\/sfp\/?p=2916","title":{"rendered":"From camera to computer – wirelessly"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Eye-Fi SD Card<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few months ago I had read about this product – an SD card with wi-fi capabilities. You could say that I’ve been “eyeing” it for a while. Anyway, I made it a point to stop by their booth at CES in early January to learn more about the Eye-Fi<\/strong> card. There I spoke with Berend Ozceri, one of the founders of the Eye-Fi Company.<\/p>\n

After he explained its features and capabilities, I was sold on the Eye-Fi and decided to review this interesting product. When I returned home, I visited a local computer store and picked up a 4GB model on sale for $39. It’s slightly more expensive than a plain vanilla SD-card so I was curious to see if the extra features were worth the price.
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The Eye-Fi fits into any camera that accepts an SD-card. Its one unique capability is that it is able to wirelessly connect to a wi-fi network while still inserted in the camera. How would someone use this capability? I can suggest three ways:<\/p>\n
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  • use it to make an automatic backup of the images onto your computer<\/li>\n
  • use it to transfer images to a computer while the camera is still being used to take additional photos<\/li>\n
  • use it transfer images from the camera to a computer without any intervention – for lazy photographers<\/em> such as me<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n
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The Eye-Fi package includes the wireless SD-card, a USB adapter for the card, a CD-ROM and a short instruction manual. One preliminary step is to install the Eye-Fi software on my PC. When I started the software I was asked to insert the adapter with the Eye-Fi card into my PC’s USB slot and to identify my wi-fi network (entering my WEP security code). This information is written to the card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the setup complete, I removed the adapter from the PC, inserted the Eye-Fi card into my digital camera and started taking a few test pictures.<\/p>\n

About 30 seconds after pressing the shutter, I saw a small thumbnail of my first picture appear on the PC taskbar. The image was being wirelessly transferred to my computer!<\/p>\n

To the right, you can see that the Eye-Fi Center software shows the transferred images – arranged by date.<\/td>\n

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I measured the transfer speed. After a fifteen second delay (the software seemed to be connecting to the Eye-Fi card), it took about 90 seconds to transfer ten 3 to 4 MB jpg images to my PC. Not bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to transferring them to PC, the Eye-Fi Center software can forward the images to many online sites for either sharing or printing.<\/p>\n

According to Eye-Fi, the most frequent sites are: Flickr, Picassa, mobileMe and Facebook. I successfully used the Eye-Fi Center software to share my photos with all four of these sites. This has been a real timesaver for me.<\/p>\n

As you can see from this screen, Eye-Fi lets you forward your photos to many other sites as well. The Eye-Fi Center can also send an email, Facebook SMS or Twitter message when the forwarding has completed.<\/td>\n

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There are actually several “versions” of the Eye-Fi card.<\/p>\n

Connect X2<\/strong> This is the card that I purchased. All of these cards transfer jpg stills and videos to both PC and Mac computers.<\/p>\n

Geo X2<\/strong> This card add location data to your images – geotagging.<\/p>\n

Explore X2<\/strong> This card adds one year of Hotspot support that lets you share your photos from thousands of open networks such as Starbucks, McDonalds, Barnes & Noble and others. Also includes geotagging.<\/p>\n

Pro X2<\/strong> This card lets you transfer RAW files in addition to jpgs. Also includes geotagging and Hotspot support.<\/p>\n

One caveat is that you’ll need to be no further than about 50 feet or so from your wi-fi receiver. And like other wi-fi devices, the Eye-Fi may not be able to transmit the images through walls or other structures.<\/p>\n

Eye-Fi has a few other features such as:<\/p>\n