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Darkmage
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EyeFi SD cards

Mon Jul 12, 2010 1:02 pm

Anyone have experience with the wireless enabled SD cards? How do they work? How well do they work? How do you configure them?
If there is one thing a remote-controlled, silent and unseeable surveillance/killing machine needs, it’s more whimsy. -- Marcus
 
ludi
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Re: EyeFi SD cards

Mon Jul 12, 2010 2:11 pm

Huh, didn't even know this product existed. They have some description of it on their website as well as a known camera compatibility table. Looks like my Canon Rebel XS would work although it might need the latest firmware update.

Could be quite useful for situations (e.g. weddings?) where it would be helpful to make backup copies in real-time.
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Darkmage
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Re: EyeFi SD cards

Tue Jul 13, 2010 12:55 am

The use case I'm working on is for a war photojournalist. Ideally, he should be able to upload the day's photos whenever he can run across some WiFi. The laptop stays in the hotel room most of the time.
If there is one thing a remote-controlled, silent and unseeable surveillance/killing machine needs, it’s more whimsy. -- Marcus
 
Airmantharp
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Re: EyeFi SD cards

Tue Jul 13, 2010 1:20 am

Cool stuff, had to dig around the site a little bit to answer my questions, and it appears to do what you're asking. You can add up to 32 secured networks, ATT hotspot credentials, and it will use any open networks. The biggest issue I see is the cost, and that the largest card offered is only 8GB, which would seem to limit the card's usefulness. What good is it if you have to swap cards to keep snapping? And what's the usefulness if your journalist is going to be at the hotel each night with the laptop anyway? How prolific is Wifi in a warzone, that he'd expect to encounter Wifi away from the hotel?

I do like this technology, however, it seems to be that the best solution in a war zone is simply to have a stack of large SD cards. I don't know how many pictures he can get on an 8GB card, but having to swap it out because he's out of space and not near Internet connected Wifi defeats the purpose of this card. Finding a network and Wifi connected camera on the other hand would be much more useful; heck, just carrying around the USB cable would make up for that. Then for the same price he can carry more space. I'm also assuming that war photojournalists work under the auspices of getting 'stuck' places, and not being able to return to their hotels on occasion. At that point, finding a serviceman that has access to the internet and is willing to let your journalist do some uploading would be his only option.

I really think this is cool technology though- it would be great for anyone living in a city, or around Wifi in general- but what does it do for the camera's battery life? How practical would it be, given the basic assumption that more power draw means carrying around more batteries for the same number of pictures? Wouldn't it be easier to carry around more cards than more batteries?
Last edited by Airmantharp on Tue Jul 13, 2010 1:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
 
ludi
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Re: EyeFi SD cards

Tue Jul 13, 2010 1:32 am

Darkmage wrote:
The use case I'm working on is for a war photojournalist. Ideally, he should be able to upload the day's photos whenever he can run across some WiFi. The laptop stays in the hotel room most of the time.

How critical is the backup transfer? You could equip him with a smartphone that is capable of creating a WiFi hotspot and have full-time wireless upload. Would peg the phone battery pretty hard, of course.

As an alternative to the EyeFi solution, you maybe need something like this if it's available for your photojournalist's preferred camera body.
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Darkmage
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Re: EyeFi SD cards

Tue Jul 13, 2010 11:55 am

ludi wrote:
How critical is the backup transfer? You could equip him with a smartphone that is capable of creating a WiFi hotspot and have full-time wireless upload. Would peg the phone battery pretty hard, of course.
That is the ultimate goal, but right now we're just working on an emergency pump & dump. If we can configure the EyeFi to automatically upload to Picasa or some such through the connection, then that would be slick. But if all we can do is transfer to a laptop file system, that is less useful.
If there is one thing a remote-controlled, silent and unseeable surveillance/killing machine needs, it’s more whimsy. -- Marcus

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