$0.00 donated so far. You can be the first to donate.
It does not have to be a lot; even a dollar can make a difference.
Posted on March 1, 2008 | Category: Cameras, Memory Cards, News, Photography, Technology
The Eye Fi card is the both an SD memory card and a Wi-Fi card that can automatically send your photographs to your computer and a website. On top of that you can even pick which photo sharing website you want to send your photographs to. There is plethora of choices: including Costco.com, dotphoto, facebook, flickr, Fotki, Gallery2, Kodak Gallery, phanfare, photobucket, Picasa Web Albums, RitzPix, Sharpcast, Shutterfly, SmugMug, snapfish, TypePad, VOX, Wal-Mart, webshots, and Windows Live.
On the downside the card can only be set up to send photos to one of these afore mentioned websites at a time. If you want to change the website the photographs are sent to you need to change the setting on the card, which this must be done through your computer using the Eye Fi manger software. The card will automatically send the photos through their web based Eye Fi service if your computer is off. Previously, Eye Fi would always go through the web based Eye Fi service first, even for photos being stored on your computer; however they have recently introduced an update called “smart boost” which will send your photographs directly to your computer when it is on and the Eye Fi software is running.
By sending your photographs to your computer first the transfer will be much faster especially if you are using 802.11g which can transfer data up to 54 megabits per second as opposed to the slower 802.11b which can only transmit data at 11 megabits per second. The Eye Fi card supports both the wireless b and g standards, but cannot take advantage of the wireless n standard so if you have wireless n, it will need to be reverse compatible with the older standards.
On the downside, the card does not support hot spots and other Wi-Fi connections which have an additional log in layer. Also the upload times from the camera are comparability pretty slow if you actually fill the card, as I mentioned before a there is a speed maximum of 54 megabits per second compared, with USB 2.0 maximum speed of 480 megabits; and your camera is required to be on in order to transmit the images. So at 2GBs is about 2000MBs and about 16,000Mbs which would take about 33.3 seconds to transfer via USB 2.0 and about 5 minutes to transfer over wireless g.
Furthermore, when you consider the small size of the card and the fact that the memory card is usually locked away inside your camera the range of the card may not always as good as the purported 90+ feet outdoors and 45+ feet indoors. Lastly, the actual speed of the writing photographs to the card may not comparable with the high speed Scandisk cards of similar capacity which can currently be had for about half the price of the Eye Fi card; this could translate in a slight lag which would be especially more noticeable in higher end digital SLRs.
All in all, the Eye Fi card is a nice novelty item, which seems as though it may be extremely usefully if you want to send your photographs straight to the web as soon as you get them, and you are using a slightly no using a higher resolution digital SLR camera. Such as if you are a blogger and want to be uploading photographs of an event in real time. However, the lack of support for hot spots and other internet connections with additional login layers makes this item much less useful for actually sending your photographs on location, or from an event in real time.
In conclusion, the Eye Fi memory card is a good option if you will be in range of a computer or wireless internet connection when taking only jpeg photographs of about medium resolution, and don’t mine the slightly high price tag of just under $100; which was about the price for a standard 2 gb memory card 3 years ago and the price for an 8gb to 16gb memory card today, depending on brand. The 16gb cards are not out yet in all brands and will probably be more like a $150 for a while the standard 8gbs cards can actually be found for closer to $50. Just be aware if you purchase any SD memory card over the 2gb threshold it will be the SDHC (secure digital high capacity) and the firmware in your device must support the new SDHC standard.
Memory Cards on Amazon
Below is some of the buzz on this Eye Fi card, which has already won 5 awards from various tech magiznes:
“The Eye-Fi is actually one of the few truly amazing products on the market because it really shouldn’t work, but does.”
eCommerce Times, Rob Enderle, February 11, 2008
“The Eye-Fi card was one of the truly useful new products I reviewed last year and it appears visitors to both of January’s major tech shows agree.”
Chicago Tribune, Eric Benderoff, January 18, 2008
“A cool little memory card made by Eye-Fi, which allows you to wirelessly send photos on your camera’s SD card directly to a PC or 19 online photo services (no computer required), announced at Macworld it now will supports Leopard Mac OS X (10.5), the iPhoto online photo sharing service, and the Safari browser.”
PC World, Tom Spring, January 15, 2008
“Got an Eye-Fi and a Mac? Good news! An upgrade means that the WiFi enabled SD card will send photos straight into iPhoto.”
WIRED, Charlie Sorrel, January 15, 2008
“One of the most interesting chip trends I saw last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was encapsulated in a little device called the Eye-Fi.”
Fortune, Michael V. Copeland, January 14, 2008
“The Eye-Fi recently claimed the prize for Last Gadget Standing at CES 2008. There’s a reason for that.”
WIRED, Danny Dumas, January 10, 2008
“When we came across Eye-Fi during the pre-show tours and they offered simple conversation and the non-stalking approach getting their message out. Mindy Whittington and Jef Holove took their wireless 2GB Memory Card from the booth to the awards stage by, in my opinion, letting the product do the talking.”
CNN.com, David Williams, January 10, 2008
Keep your eye on this
USA Today, Ed Baig, January 9, 2008
“This tiny, wireless SD memory card isn’t much to look at, but it’s what it does that’s so cool. Inserted like a regular SD card into a digital camera, it will automatically wirelessly transmit photos to your home computer.”
–Top Tech Toys of 2007, AdAge, December 27, 2007
“You come home, take off your coat, turn on the camera and walk away, confident that your photos will shortly be safely on the computer and online.”
– Gems in the Back of a Closet - New York Times, David Pogue, December 20, 2007
Signs of New Life in Wi-Fi Cameras
“Eye-Fi may be the revolution’s best hope.”
– The New York Times, Roy Furchgott, December 5, 2007
“Because of its innovation, utter simplicity, and reasonable price, the Eye-Fi Card earns our Editors’ Choice award in the digital camera accessories category.”
– PC Magazine, Molly K. McLaughlin, December 5, 2007
“A marriage of innovation and vision may have hatched the Eye-Fi, but something larger is also at work here. Next-gen Wi-Fi networking is finally allowing lowly hardware to be integrated with web apps and software.”
– WIRED, Cliff Kuang, November 9, 2007
“…imagine this ideal use case: John is a 21 year old college student and has an Eye-Fi card in a tiny point-and-shoot camera that he takes with him to parties, fraternity functions and so on. At the end of the night, all John has to do is turn on his camera when he gets home and a short while later all of his pictures will be on Facebook. No fidgeting with any confusing photo uploading software or websites.”
– Paul Stamatiou, November 7, 2007
Popularity: 13% [?]
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
» Filed Under Cameras, Memory Cards, News, Photography, Technology
Leave a Reply
Top|
XHTML |
CSS |
Copyright © 2005-2008 Jonathan Haynes. All Rights Reserved |
Design:
YGoY