Eye-Fi hands-on, impressions
by Ryan Block 
posted Oct 31st 2007 at 10:13PM
Gallery: Eye-Fi hands-on, impressions
We're excited as anyone about Eye-Fi giving the humble SD card -- and by association whichever camera you own -- the uncanny ability to shoot photos over WiFi to your machine and the photo sharing service of your choice, including Engadget fave Flickr, as well as the rest of the gang: dotPhoto, Gallery 2, Facebook, Fotki, Kodak Gallery, Phanfare, Photobucket, Picasa Web Albums, Sharpcast, Shutterfly, SmugMug, Snapfish, TypePad, Vox, Walmart, and Webshots. Good stuff, right? Well, it could actually be a lot better.
It's easy to see that the need to wirelessly transfer photos to your computer or web services is most apparent when you're on the go. Maybe you run out of memory on the card and need to clear out your camera, or maybe you just spotted your favorite Engadget editor on the street and want to put it on Webshots to show your friends ASAP. Sorry, you're out of luck. The Eye-Fi only connects to trusted, encrypted, pre-configured networks, and doesn't have any means of tunneling back to your home computer. That means you can't just grab a seat at your local Starbucks and have the the card to dump the day's photos to Flickr or your home RAID array.
What's more, the home usage scenario isn't much more interesting. Assume you just got back from a long day of snapping shots. You turn on your camera and your Eye-Fi will immediately start uploading your photos to a web service (or a folder on your machine). All of them -- every photo on the card -- and usually at native resolution, too. This kind of sucks because if you're like most people, you: a) don't upload EVERY photo you took to your photo stream, b) don't upload said photos in full resolution (read: 2-10MB+ each), and c) you don't just throw all your photos into a folder on your computer -- you probably use use a photo organizing / browsing app like Picasa or iPhoto. So basically Eye-Fi takes a step forward by cutting out the middleman (in this case, a USB cable to your camera, or a media reader for your vanilla SD card), but two steps back in making the assumption that you want all of the tens (or hundreds) of megs of photos on the card uploaded in full res using your camera's batteries, and yet don't need said photos in your photo app, not just some folder.
The crazy part, though, is that we're still really excited about Eye-Fi. A few small tweaks, like the ability to try to connect to open access points (via an encrypted port 80 connection, of course), find your computer through the service, and dump those shots to a desktop application plugin, and maybe this product could turn right around. (We won't hold our breath for resizing before upload, we doubt the Eye-Fi has the horsepower to take a 10 megapixel photo and shrink it to a web-ready SVGA.) Ultimately, the things the Eye-Fi needed to focus on the most (desktop photo application integration, uploading on the go) were the things left out; for now it'll remain in the novely add-WiFi-to-everything category, so don't be surprised should you find yourself leaving the Eye-Fi at home in favor of something more practically convenient, like a USB SD card.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
AKBlade13 @ Oct 31st 2007 10:22PM
The product sounds decent for a first gen product. Hopefully V2 will be able to fix all of that. I would definately get one of those if the problems are fixed like you stated above.
Great job!
AKBlade13
gunner @ Oct 31st 2007 10:27PM
i really don't see what the problem is with dumping all of the files in one folder- i always do that and my canon camera then dumps all of the photos into a separate folder for each date so the wi-fi sd card isn't so bad as portrayed
Josh @ Nov 1st 2007 12:05AM
That was my thought as well, i just dump and then browse with bridge and take my favs, save them as JPG and throw them into a portfolio or where-ever they are headed off to.
Anthony Dalesandro @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:00PM
I also agree. I usually connect to iPhoto and only import the pix I want but it's not that big an inconvenience to have a 'pix download' folder first. Also, I ALWAYS download the pix at FULL REZ and even upload them to Flickr (Pro) at full rez. I'm surprised Ryan resizes them. Does anyone else resize their photos? Full rez uploads to Flickr is also a nifty backup plan!
Jay @ Oct 31st 2007 11:24PM
Did you guys stick that thing in a Treo?
Midknight @ Oct 31st 2007 10:31PM
Imagine the possibilities for smartphones! Blackjacks, Moto Qs, blackberries, all with WI-FI....
okay....
maybe in version 5 Micro-SD Smartphone Edition(TM), that will be possible. But until then, we can dream.
sean.boots @ Oct 31st 2007 10:59PM
True - the possibilities are definitely interesting.
Although, the point of this card is to provide the wi-fi itself. In a smartphone, the wi-fi is built into the device, so the card would be unnecessary. What would be good is smartphone software (plus home computer -side stuff, maybe) that would do the same thing.
But yeah - the concept is definitely great for smartphones, but leave the wi-fi to the phone and make similar software for the phone, not the card, and just go with normal storage cards. Then you'd also have a phone interface to set up the system with.
(The plus of this thing, of course, is working in any camera (if I understand it right). And getting it to fit in, and be powered by, an SD card slot is dang impressive.)
Midknight @ Nov 1st 2007 3:46PM
I'm talking about a microSD card that'd give cellphones with no wi-fi, like the Moto Q and Blackjack, wi-fi.
Jim @ Nov 7th 2007 1:04AM
I want to see inside one. Take it apart.
iheartbeer @ Oct 31st 2007 10:46PM
JPG only, no RAW or movies.
Michael Wendell @ Oct 31st 2007 11:13PM
In a production environment, shooting product photos all day, having those photos immediatly uploading to the computer in the studio would save a step and save lots of time over the course of a day. I can't wait to put one in the D40.
Ryan Block @ Nov 1st 2007 1:18AM
In a "production environment, shooting product photos all day" why wouldn't you be using professional image capturing software? Do you realize how much of a bottleneck this would put on a serious photographer? Bad idea, my friend.
Jon @ Nov 1st 2007 6:28AM
Not everyone works the same way as you Ryan. Some like to dump them into a folder before manually processing/deleting through them. I know I do.
Mile @ Oct 31st 2007 10:54PM
Pretty freaking amazing that they fit a wi-fi transmitter in that small a package. An engineering feat. Guess that's not enuff these days, what with the kids wanting WLAN and WIMAX or whatever the letters are these days...
Andy @ Oct 31st 2007 11:15PM
I have that USB SD card in 2gb and it's indispensable. Easily my most useful 'gadget'
John @ Oct 31st 2007 11:23PM
None of those flaws seem so bad. I mean, sure, it would be nice if it did more, but I don't think it really adds much more hassle - you'd have to sort through your photos and recompress them eventually anyway. Less cords, less problems
SteveJ @ Nov 1st 2007 7:42AM
But transferring all those full resolution photos would eat up the camera's battery and require you to connect to a power source more often, thus a cable. Moreover, while it's transferring photos you can't swap the card for another one so you can keep on shooting and charging a camera takes a lot longer than transferring photos from a card via a card reader.
MickJP @ Nov 1st 2007 3:47PM
Yeah - put it in a Treo 680 and see what it can do.
skhawaja @ Oct 31st 2007 11:37PM
"but two steps back in making the assumption that you want all of the tens (or hundreds) of megs of photos on the card uploaded in full res using your camera's batteries, and yet don't need said photos in your photo app, not just some folder."
You did goto the site and follow some of the FAQ's right? Please clarify.
This is definitely a revolutionary product - you should be giddy at the very least.
I will be getting these for anything with an SD slot that takes photos - I believe that the settings software can easily be updated for allowing different types of files - so that you could grab some video and throw it onto youtube :D
I'll patent this idea now - definitely revolutionary product - worth $99 even when normal 2GB miniSD cards are still $75.99 in some places.
Go Eye-Fi and Go Atheros
Ian @ Oct 31st 2007 11:44PM
My Nikon Coolpix has wi-fi, which I originally thought was a gimmick (which is, of course, why I bought it!)
However, it's become most useful.
I used to bring the camera in, download the photos, then forget to take the camera with me next time I went out. Photo opp; no camera.
Now, I can set a transfer going from the car because our wireless router covers the garage and the camera stays in the car where I'm likely to need it. (And, being built-in to the camera, there's menu options to make it more flexible)
You can always move/delete/resize your images on your PC once they've transferred. Wi-Fi bandwidth at home is free!
PAt Cable @ Nov 1st 2007 12:04AM
If only they had this in a CF card. I work for a large newspaper, and when we're at special events being able to get those pictures without having a runner to run the CF card between the photo editors and the photographers would make life so much easier.
drosing @ Nov 1st 2007 12:30AM
get an SD to CF adapter. I'm pretty sure it would fit in a CF slot with the SD in it, and it would probably still work...
goldcd @ Nov 1st 2007 4:46AM
I'm pretty sure in the last article about this, there was mention of a CF adapter.
I'm nearly tempted to get one, what I'd really like is the ability of it to hook onto defined private, or any open hotspot and dump all photos to an FTP. As long as this thing has updatable firmware *crosses fingers* maybe..
Patrick @ Nov 1st 2007 3:01AM
First of all... I'm totally excited about this product. I would love to be able to dump all the photos instantly onto a folder. From there, I can just go into the folder itself and erase the photos that I don't want on the computer itself. That would be awesome.
I hope that you can use the ad-hoc protocol to connect to a computer directly using this service. The reason is this... let's say you are on a shoot, let's say a wedding. I think it would be awesome to have your laptop there to download photos instantly to the computer as your are shooting the wedding. That would be amazing. You can do this on the wifi adapter for both Nikon and Canon DSLR's but who wants to spend almost $1000 on those wifi adapters? I can't wait for this thing.
BBoy @ Nov 1st 2007 6:20PM
I wanted the same thing. No ad-hoc this for current version.
Ziv Gillat @ Nov 10th 2007 3:01AM
Guys,
To clarify, please take a look at these pages:
http://www.eye.fi/making-it-effortless/
http://photojojo.com/uncut/2007/11/07/how-to-download-photos-with-eye-fi-without-an-internet-connection/
http://photojojo.com/uncut/2007/11/07/maximize-your-eye-fi-range-for-event-shooting/
Many of you have asked if you can shoot straight into the laptop, in ad-hoc mode.
So..
Although the Eye-Fi Card does not support ad-hoc, it doesn't mean that you can't have a router with you, connect both your laptop and the Eye-Fi Card to the router, put the Eye-Fi Card into local mode only, and shoot away.
The Eye-Fi Card has 3 modes, Upload to Web, Upload to Web + Computer, and Upload to Computer. If you choose Upload to Computer, your images will not upload to the Eye-Fi Service first, and back down. They will go directly to your laptop, through the router.
The above pages really explain it well.
Thanks ---
Ziv
Thomas @ Nov 1st 2007 8:29AM
I told ya.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/30/eye-fi-wifi-enabled-sd-card-finally-shipping/comments/8418680/
Think_tanker @ Nov 1st 2007 6:26AM
In this age where everything just "has" to be wireless, I don't see all that much of a time saving between transferring a days worth of huge photos from say your DSLR or point and shoot through the air or simply taking the card out of your camera and sliding it into a SD slot on your computer (most new computers and laptops come with them)...Isn't that a wireless solution right there?
TurboGreg @ Nov 1st 2007 4:20PM
Isn't the advantage of this, is that the files are transferring while you're walking around shooting. You're thinking about this as a serial task. Shoot->Dump->Edit.. Where in Shoot/Dump would be a singular action.
John @ Nov 1st 2007 7:38AM
I also think this product would be useful just to eliminate the need to remove the card from the camera to upload the photos to a workstation. Forget all the uploading to web features.
I primarily shoot with a Leica M8 and in order to take the card out the leather half case and bottom plate must be removed. They don't list that camera as being compatible, though.
One thing I can't find is the r/w speed of the flash ram itself. It'd suck for the RAW-shooters out there to have this card slow down continuous shooting.
tdroza @ Nov 1st 2007 8:19AM
Seems like this has potential to be useful for live blogging?
Gibbs @ Nov 1st 2007 9:10AM
Canon has been selling something like this as a $1000 add on to their higher end DSLRs for awhile now, and now has a cheaper one for the new
40D.
http://www.usa.canon.com/content/WFT-E1A_origPOP/interface.htm
More configurable options sure, and software to do all sorts of things to the pics and send them anywhere in the internet, but the main intent is the same:
pics you shoot go straight to the PC via a wireless router that *you
have to provide*. If you are shooting a wedding or a sport event with an
assistant sitting at the computer, the photog keeps on shooting and
the assistant looks at and processes the pics. Best case, assistant
has a photo printer and is selling pics right there at a desk as
they are taken.
badbob001 @ Nov 1st 2007 10:24AM
It would be awesome if somehow this can work in reverse and allow the device to view the photos on a remote storage. I have a digital picture frame that takes a storage card... it would be nice to view all my centrally-stored photos from the frame without having to refresh the photos on it.
RijilV @ Nov 1st 2007 11:19AM
"via an encrypted port 80 connection, of course"
umm, that's called HTTPS, and it runs on port 443. And I dunno, what's wrong with rsync over SSH?
Bart @ Nov 2nd 2007 2:31PM
Hmm... I usually just have iPhoto grab all the photos from my camera. There really isn't any other automated way unless you delete unnecessary photos from your camera before plugging it in, besides just having iPhoto not import your photos and manually grabbing them from your memory card onto your computer. I just import all straight into iPhoto and organize them there. That's what iPhoto is for.
I also have a Flickr Pro account so it stores full-resolution versions of my photos (so other people can print them out and for archiving purposes) and Flickr makes smaller-sized versions of them automatically.
Seems like both home and Flickr use would be great with this card, as long as I had some control of when the uploading happens (and which photos get uploaded for Flickr... maybe have the card set to not upload locked photos?).
Midknight @ Nov 1st 2007 3:44PM
Imagine the possibilities for smartphones! Blackjacks, Moto Qs, blackberries, all with WI-FI....
okay....
maybe in version 5 Micro-SD Smartphone Edition(TM), that will be possible. But until then, we can dream.
Marc Brooks @ Nov 1st 2007 3:48PM
Your negatives are exactly what is cool about this device. You get the full original image dumped to the main "inbox" folder of your PC and the web-site of choice. This lets YOU be in charge of when and how you do the pruning an publishing of the images... not being a slave to the capacity of the card and when you last synched.
My only complaints are:
1) lack of RAW support for all the cameras
2) inability to use your laptop as a proxy for public hotspots (e.g. let your laptop run in adhoc mode and accept connections from the card, then let it use its login-provided internet connection to send the images on).
Chris @ Nov 1st 2007 5:34PM
As to the section in the review about the Eye-Fi not being able to "take a 10 megapixel photo and shrink it to a web-ready SVGA", I would like to point out something. The Eye-Fi doesn't DIRECTLY transfer photos to either the computer or the site. What it does is send them, unless you choose to only send to the computer, to the Eye-Fi Service. My assumption is that, if the service can hold onto your photos until your computer turns back on should it sync while your computer is off (Which it can), it should be fully capable of resizing photos. Perhaps this will be a version 2.0 feature, but who knows.
brayno @ Nov 2nd 2007 11:19AM
Wii! Wii! Wii!
The SD card limit for a Nintendo Wii is 2GB. Hmm and this card is 2GB. Nintendo doesn't want to add a hard drive to store all the games people download. Consumer may delete and re-download each game or buy lots of SD cards. Now the Eye-Fi solves this!
Assuming though that it'll fit inside the SD slot of the Wii.
or_alfred @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:38PM
how much...? i think quite for a first gen don't you.
or_alfred @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:43PM
correction... "I think quite HI for a first gen don't you".
Rik @ Nov 3rd 2007 3:16PM
Well actually, I do dump all of my pictures into a folder :-P
But these days... since I have a N95, I just resize the photoś on the phone itself... go to a website where I sometimes post photos... and basically do the same thing as on a PC.
Ziv Gillat @ Nov 10th 2007 3:02AM
Guys,
To clarify, please take a look at these pages:
http://www.eye.fi/making-it-effortless/
http://photojojo.com/uncut/2007/11/07/how-to-download-photos-with-eye-fi-without-an-internet-connection/
http://photojojo.com/uncut/2007/11/07/maximize-your-eye-fi-range-for-event-shooting/
Many of you have asked if you can shoot straight into the laptop, in ad-hoc mode.
So..
Although the Eye-Fi Card does not support ad-hoc, it doesn't mean that you can't have a router with you, connect both your laptop and the Eye-Fi Card to the router, put the Eye-Fi Card into local mode only, and shoot away.
The Eye-Fi Card has 3 modes, Upload to Web, Upload to Web + Computer, and Upload to Computer. If you choose Upload to Computer, your images will not upload to the Eye-Fi Service first, and back down. They will go directly to your laptop, through the router.
The above pages really explain it well.
Thanks ---
Ziv