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Archive 2015 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...

  
 
rikz944
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...


I tried "Gear-Talk" and no responses.

I have completed various searches in most of the appropriate forums here, but haven't found anything. Am I missing it?
Has anyone tried these cards?



Jun 04, 2015 at 05:03 AM
glort
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...



Yes.
The Eye Fi and the Flucard.
IMHO, both are garbage.

The eye fi came with instructions that just plain didn't work. I have set up servers and networking both hardwired and Wifi and have a grasp of it and don't have any trouble setting networks up. The Eyefi instructions didn't work but I did find something on YT that was plain, simple and logical that did.
Frankly I was pissed that eyefi should supply instructions that were complicated and DIDN"T work when someone else had a much simpler way of doing it that did.
I was never able to get the eyefi setup to work on any of the 3 cameras I meticulously followed their directions on but the other way worked on all of them... as well as the things do work that is.

I wanted to use this sort of setup on jobs where it needed to be reliable and I couldn't even get that with the camera sitting on the desk 3 f away from the computer. When it worked I could get a 50M range then it would stop and refuse to work without a thing being touched.

I wasted hours trying to get it to function but in my research found many others had the same unreliability issues as I was having. Whether it works or not seems to all be in the luck of the draw more over than what equipment you have or how you set it up.

After the failure of Eyefi I got a Flucard and found it to be equally flaky, maybe moreso.
At least the instructions supplied were better and it did have it's moments of good performance punctuated by hours of frustration again.

Mistakenly I thought it was me doing something wrong but I now realsie it's the devices that are useless and I wish I had just taken the things back as soon as I couldn't get them to work.
From what I have read some people do get them to work as they should but many like myself don't. I think I'm smarter than the average bear with this stuff but even if someone isn't, the things are promoted as being a simple thing to setup that any digital camera and computer user should have no trouble with. I found that to be an extremely irritating insult to me intelligence because the thing are far from what they are cracked up to be in my experience.

My wife put the Eyefi card in one of the little cameras that has a specific setting for the eyefi cards the other and and I saw the thing show up on my eyepad when I was remotely controlling the Gopro. ( which DOES work as advertised and relatively flawlessly). As usual, I was unable to connect to the eyefi card through their stupid software or otherwise.

I wanted to use the cards to transfer pics from remote cameras for sports work.
I ended up tethering to a laptop sending the pics to a hot folder and then transferring them back to the server through Wifi. I used a USB wifi with an external aerial which I fitted a Home made High gain antenna and also mounted the USB's themselves via an extentoin cable inside an old light reflector aimed at the base station. I used a DC adapter or inverter on the laptops and camera which powered everything all day long.
Eventually I mounted the whole thing to cheap 2 wheeled trolleys so they could be pushed into position, Fired up and were off and running. I attached telescoping Tent poles which allowed me to get the antennas up high which shot the signals back to the trailer and made for good transfer speeds. It' looked all very High tech but was completely off the shelf and straightforward with basic networking rather than the garbage the cards required.

It was kinda large, heavy and clunky setup but the bastards were reliable, fast, easy to setup and connected themselves when plugged in at each new event.
I was able to transfer images a couple of hundred meters at a speed that kept up with the shooting rate which people here laughed at when I initially asked about it.
A bit of a search on the net quickly turned up info on how loads of people can use wifi at good speeds over distances of Miles. Using a bit of their info, I was able to achieve what I wanted easily and ultra reliably.

I'd buy a camera with the wifi built in but from what I have read so far, it's more of a gimmick to pad out the features list on the sales brochure than something that will actually do useful work which is what I want not half arsed tiddly winks.

My advise on the Wifi cards..... Buy one if you can get your money back. Take it home and see if you can get it to work and test it under the conditions you want. Make sure to turn everything off and move it round to different locations and see if it will still work without problem.

Don't spend hours on it, if it doesn't work as advertised with your gear, take the crap back and get a refund. If you are one of the lucky ones and it works the way you want, I'm sure it would be a great and nicely compact thing.

My go pro can stream almost live video pretty damn well, you would think that transferring still images was not that damn hard but it seems to be for the eyefi cards.



Jun 04, 2015 at 05:08 PM
rikz944
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...


Seems like I can put you down for "No".
kidding aside, thanks for the input. I have read online reviews, but wanted to get feedback from real photographers.



Jun 05, 2015 at 04:06 AM
Paul_K
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...


I'm a approx 6 month's (since last November) user of a 8GB Eyefi Mobi on a Nikon D800 and DF (settings RAW and JPG basic). With the D800 I write the JPG's to the Eyefi card and RAW to the CF slot, the DF only has one slot so both JPG and RAW files go on the Eyefi card, no writing/slow down problems while shooting.

I send the JPG basic files from either camera to a Samsung Galaxy Pro 12' tablet which I always keep within a couple of feet from me while shooting.
Never tried it on my Pro Macbook, but that's mainly because I'm too lazy to install the app on my Macbook as I already have a working platform with my tablet.
The Mobi card will only send JPG's, I understand there's a newer Mobi Pro card that will also send RAW files (more on that later).

Use it eg when shooting catwalk, to be able to quickly peek at the shots taken while shooting without need for (time consuming) chimping, and to be able to show the pics taken on a larger then camera LCD display immediately after the show (a very handy sales tool).
Or during studio/location shoots, again to be able to look at/show the pictures on a larger display then the camera LCD to eg see what I'm doing, or give feedback, without need to hook up/ keep the camera tethered (and constantly fight with/stumble over cables, and keep a laptop physically connected nearby).
So no intricate/complicated kind of set ups as was described in an earlier reaction.

As I'm not sending large files (JPG basic files are between 600kb for the D800 and 400Kb for the DF) I have no problems with the transfer time of the file between shooting the picture and receiving it on my tablet which usually is around 3 to 4 seconds.
No time to study the shots during a runway show (other then from the corner of my eye) anyway, and no need for instantaneous display during the other shoots (maybe I'm laid back, or not so nervous that I demand that kind of action).

Wifi connection between Eyefi card and tablet is pretty much OK/stable, sometimes the tablet needs a bump up to reconnect if not used/no files send from camera to tablet for a longer period.
Yes when shooting tethered the transfer of the JPG basic files will probably be faster (near instantaneous I guess) .
But a D800 14bit lossless compressed RAW file can go over 44 MB which makes Wifi transfer not a realistic option anyway, and will even when shooting tethered slowdown any system and take at least a few seconds.

I find the Eyefi Mobi for what I'm using it for (and the files I send) a pretty neat, pretty decent working system which compared to 'real' Wifi options is low cost, easy to use, and considering price vs (commercial) result well worth the money, as others also seem to think https://community.eyefi.com/eyefi/topics/pro-wedding-photographer-approved-seriously .
And they also have a very approachable, communicative and service minded Customer Service department, which is kinda nice.



Jun 05, 2015 at 08:03 AM
rkgatteleport
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...


Hi,

I use an eye-fi pro x2 to try and get raw files out of my D800 to a computer with a big screen on it for fine detail checking (for product work).

I actually have two wireless networks running. One to do a wireless connection to the camera so I can do composition/focus/control of the camera/etc with a tablet (the hot ticket when you're working amid a sea of light modifiers FWIW), and the other to get the raw files off to a real computer with a high quality color managed monitor so I can check for fine details/exposure/problems, etc.

Its a mess. You have to use specific wifi channels to get the eye fi card to work at all (though to be fair this is due to electronic noise generated by the D800), and I find that the wireless router has to be within a few feet of the camera to get it to link up at all as well and/or get a decent transfer rate (not that big a deal with jpeg, but with the raw files...). also, I don't know if its a camera specific thing, but they eye-fi card as a mode where its supposed to start overwriting images so it acts like an infinite buffer - it doesn't work on on my camera - it stops transmitting after the buffer gets full (again, may be a nikon problem).

I also find that its touchy get running - I always have to go through the sequence of rebooting the router that talks to the eye-fi card, restarting the eye-fi software, and then often power cycling the camera to get it to start talking. Then its usually good for the day (well, aside from the infinite buffer that isn't issue).

Eye-fi have stellar customer service to get you up and running, its just unfortunate they seem to need it so badly.

Good Luck,

rkg
(Richard George)



Jun 05, 2015 at 11:01 AM
markd61
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...


I used Eye-Fi and switched to CamRanger because the Eye-Fi was so flaky.
Annoying and confusing setup, unreliable connection, and images that cannot be deleted unless you delete the app and re-instal!!!!
The CamRanger is rock solid and has actual functions that make my WiFi experience a pleasure.

Use the Eye-Fi if you want to look like a dork to your clients.
The CamRanger makes you look like you ARE a real pro.



Jun 07, 2015 at 12:17 AM
jamez
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...


I was up for the EyeFi when it was bleeding edge (even talked to the developers). I had it up and running in my D3 (yup) and D4's.

Ultimately it came down to this: the EyeFi is a consumer product. It is not stable or capable enough to depend on for my professional work.

The end result is I spend the $800 for the D4 wireless dongle and you'll never pry it out of my dead hands. It is stable, and with my current workflow (and a cell signal) my images are available on our internal Image Management System in less than 2 minutes from when I took them (or uploaded as the case may be)

My clips may help if you want to peruse it further using EyeFi in CF format:




Edit: Whowh it's been a while since I've posted - lookie at them embedded videos!



Jun 09, 2015 at 09:17 AM
glort
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...



I bought one of those adapters to use the eye fi in my 7D. It did work but was flakey and unreliable.
I thought well I am trying to do something the card was not designed to do so hardly a surprise.
I then went and bought a camera with an SD slot and had the eyefi card function built in.

The card was no different than before. It was still difficult to set up required the use if idiotic software, was not stable or reliable and didn't in anyway live up to it's promises.
It did work with the adapter quite well, when it felt like working, but over all these things are just over hyped rubbish that go no where near living up to their claims and here at least would in fact be in breach of consumer law because of that.

I'm amazed eyfi is still in business given the lousy product quality.



Jun 09, 2015 at 09:58 PM
ShotByTom
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...


Hmmmm....let's see...$300 for a camranger or $49 for eyefi...that's a tough one.

If you want to transfer images from your camera to a computer or tablet as you shoot, then eyefi is the way to go. It works well and with the new mobi pro you can transfer jpeg and raw. I haven't used that one, but I've used it to transfer jpegs and it works well. Took a little effort to get used to it, but there's not reason to spend $300 on a product if you are just trying to transfer photos to a computer or tablet.



Jun 16, 2015 at 05:33 AM
markd61
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...


a123 wrote:
Hmmmm....let's see...$300 for a camranger or $49 for eyefi...that's a tough one.

If you want to transfer images from your camera to a computer or tablet as you shoot, then eyefi is the way to go. It works well and with the new mobi pro you can transfer jpeg and raw. I haven't used that one, but I've used it to transfer jpegs and it works well. Took a little effort to get used to it, but there's not reason to spend $300 on a product if you are just trying to transfer photos to a computer or tablet.


It was a tough one for me to until I actually experienced Eye_Fi flakiness in the field on paying jobs. When it will not connect and constantly drops connections even when adjacent to the iPad you are wasting time and annoying the client. They don't get to view images easily as you promised.

Fine for hobbyists but not pro gear. The Camranger is more money but you get more functionality and stability. If you are cheap they have free software that mimics Camranger that you can pad and use the Wifi device that costs $50.



Jun 17, 2015 at 02:38 PM
kdlanejr
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...


I have four of the 8GB+Wi-Fi Pro X2's. I've only had one instance where I couldn't make a connection and was forced to tether a camera. It was at a convention center and I suspect they convention center was purposely interfering.

For all other uses I've only experienced intermittent connectivity one time. My wireless router receiving the signal from the eye-fi card was being shielded by the crowd. I transferred to a wireless tether to remove the issue. I didn't have to transfer to a tether, but made the decision to keep the line moving.

Outdoors without interference (forms of shielding) I've transferred files from the "portrait" station to the print station about 125 ft away without any issues.

The primary issue with using them professionally is that it (the eye-fi card) stops transmitting each time you capture an image and has a small delay, after writing the image to the card, before it starts transmitting again.

This behavior will slow you down at a busy event.

I have used them successfully with the 1DmkIIn, 1Ds, 1DmkIII, 1DsIII, 1DmkIV, canon powershot A4000 IS.

They are also supposed to be functional for video transfer from my Canon Vixia HF S21 HD camcorder, but I've not tried using one of my eye-fi cards in it. For the jobs I do video on, I prefer to write to removable SDXC card and just remove the card to transfer video files.

Initially setting the card up is what seems to give users the most trouble.



Jun 20, 2015 at 03:53 PM
gschlact
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...


a123 wrote:
Hmmmm....let's see...$300 for a camranger or $49 for eyefi...that's a tough one.

If you want to transfer images from your camera to a computer or tablet as you shoot, then eyefi is the way to go. It works well and with the new mobi pro you can transfer jpeg and raw. I haven't used that one, but I've used it to transfer jpegs and it works well. Took a little effort to get used to it, but there's not reason to spend $300 on a product if you are just trying to transfer photos to a computer or tablet.


You can buy the identical hardware router as the camranger for $29 for the TP Link.
Here are a couple of links.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=VEGXVYe_O4qZgwSbn5X4BQ&url=http://www.dslrfilmnoob.com/2013/12/13/camranger-tp-link-tl-mr304/&ved=0CB8QFjAA&usg=AFQjCNE82vSHVYuHStqlOmGkfFiLYrLqtA&sig2=nVQW_6XaNPCSmCyzJj9ubQ

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=VEGXVYe_O4qZgwSbn5X4BQ&url=http://nofilmschool.com/2014/01/dirt-cheap-wireless-monitor-hacked-tp-link-mr3040-router-will-help&ved=0CCIQFjAB&usg=AFQjCNFGeWmtiNcaqc5I4mli4dyb53DzOg&sig2=LHuITxIeKByJFjGQ7UmPdg

Guy



Jul 03, 2015 at 09:17 PM
markd61
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...


gschlact wrote:
You can buy the identical hardware router as the camranger for $29 for the TP Link.
Here are a couple of links.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=VEGXVYe_O4qZgwSbn5X4BQ&url=http://www.dslrfilmnoob.com/2013/12/13/camranger-tp-link-tl-mr304/&ved=0CB8QFjAA&usg=AFQjCNE82vSHVYuHStqlOmGkfFiLYrLqtA&sig2=nVQW_6XaNPCSmCyzJj9ubQ

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=VEGXVYe_O4qZgwSbn5X4BQ&url=http://nofilmschool.com/2014/01/dirt-cheap-wireless-monitor-hacked-tp-link-mr3040-router-will-help&ved=0CCIQFjAB&usg=AFQjCNFGeWmtiNcaqc5I4mli4dyb53DzOg&sig2=LHuITxIeKByJFjGQ7UmPdg

Guy


This is an inexpensive solution. I had considered it but went for the Cam Ranger as it is fully sorted.
This seemed to possibly have a certain DIY aspect that would demand a bit of tweaking to settle into a good workflow.
As I have had less than wonderful experiences with gear like this I wanted to go with something that I could run immediately.
Again, with paying customers I don't want to look the prat. $300 is nothing compared to the cost of looking like you can't operate your gear.
So far it has been flawless and my clients have been very happy.



Jul 04, 2015 at 11:28 AM
kedan
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...


Sorry didn't have time to read all the posts but here is my take.

I'd consider myself an IT expert I've setup, servers, workstations, call centers, routers, etc, all PC based stuff, no mac, and setting this up wasn't easy (definitely not Plug and Play) and I still don't have it working. It works when I use a USB reader that they supply, but in camera it doesn't transfer. I've tried Canon 5D III, Nikon D750, and both didn't work, I want to say I also tried sony Alpha but don't remember. It's been few months, maybe I'll revisit it some day.



Aug 07, 2015 at 03:57 PM
Paul Mo
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...


5D3 - JPEGS - EyeFi card in SD slot - Nexus 7 tablet w/EyeFi app = flawless. Not sure what all the confusion above is about.


Aug 08, 2015 at 10:01 PM
markd61
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...


Paul Mo wrote:
5D3 - JPEGS - EyeFi card in SD slot - Nexus 7 tablet w/EyeFi app = flawless. Not sure what all the confusion above is about.


Because it is not flawless for others.

The setup is clunky.
The connection easily broken.
When connected the images transfer fine. However, even if you delete the images after a session they are still resident on the device. Only deletion of the app deletes the images.
That is crap programming.



Aug 09, 2015 at 12:39 AM
slrl0ver
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · I'm looking for feedback or review of the EyeFi cards...


No personal experience, but you might want to look at this as well:

http://www.toshiba.com/us/wifi-memory-cards




Aug 15, 2015 at 11:14 PM





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