back to article Photo finesse: Eyefi Mobi Pro Wi-Fi SD card

When Eyefi launched its first wireless-enabled SD cards nearly 10 years ago, they had the promise to free photographers from the grind of having to repeatedly take the card out of their camera and insert it into their computer to transfer images. Eyefi meant that, for the first time, images captured could be instantly sent to …

  1. Conundrum1885

    Yay

    Now can they make a microSD variant so that we can install it in gopro etc.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Stuart Moore

      Re: Yay

      My gopro already comes with wifi-handy to connect to a tablet and review on a bigger screen.

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Annihilator

      "suggests a transfer rate of just 8Mbps, which seems much slower than it should be."

      Presumably because it's a tiny chip with barely an antenna and it has to transmit through a reasonably sturdy/chunky camera body.

      1. Mark 65

        But then, if that really is the case, this is then an interesting statement...

        Remote shortcomings aside, the Mobi Pro is a seriously useful piece of kit that should speed up the workflow of any photographer, particularly those producing a lot of studio-based work

        It simply will not speed up the workflow. Macs and most laptops have SD card slots and USB3 capable readers should be readily available. These should all be far quicker than wi-fi from a little card. Removing a card and placing it in a reader to transfer the contents whilst a replacement card is then in the camera for continued shooting is more practical. Anyone doing proper studio work will likely do a tethered shoot or use their camera's wi-fi capability, whether that is in-body or via a hot-shoe accessory for techno-laggards like Canon.

        1. Ivan Headache

          I was talking to a pro snapper recently about getting one of these.

          He talked me out of it in the time it would take to download one of those files.

          He said he had tried one and had decided that there was no benefit at all in using it. The time taken to take a standard card out of the camera insert it into his mac, download the pics and display them was less than it took faffing about with the software.

          Most of them time he used a cable anyway.

          1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. Eponymous Bastard

          "whether that is in-body or via a hot-shoe accessory for techno-laggards like Canon."

          Pray, to what kind of hot-shoe (sic) accessory do you allude Mark 65? I don't have any problem tethering Canon DSLRs via Capture One.

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Because their cloud storage costs £35 a year, which is why the desktop client has been nobbled too.

  3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    More cloudy stuff

    You'd almost think these "services" were being vetted by the various security services before being allowed out in the wild.

  4. Anonymous Blowhard
    Headmaster

    Litchfield of Lichfield?

    Did you mean Rebecca Litchfield?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Litchfield

    Or did you really mean Lord Lichfield?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Anson,_5th_Earl_of_Lichfield

  5. oopsie

    Disable Cloud Option

    Is it possible to disable the cloud upload? If not, does blocking whatever IPs the software uploads to stop it working locally?

  6. Zack Mollusc

    I don't understand. I could take as many pictures as I liked and they would transfer automatically as jpg, but not RAW? What is so special about RAW bytes? Are they imperial measure or something? I wonder if the manufacturers would have taken payment in thousands of penny coins, but no notes?

    1. ckm5

      EyeFi has supported RAW since at least 2007

      Just because the author is a 'journalist' doesn't mean they are able to get their facts right....

      Src: http://www.amazon.com/Eye-Fi-Pro-Wireless-Memory-Card/dp/B002UT42UI

      "Wirelessly uploads your photos (RAW and JPEG) and videos via Wi-Fi or via an ad hoc connection"

      "Date first available at Amazon.com: September 27, 2007"

      I have had one of these for at least 5 years....

    2. K.o.R

      I believe RAW is to JPG as something like a CD track is to an MP3 - the unmodified data without any sort of compression algorithm. Just as you'd want to work on the original CD rather than an MP3 for making some processed audio, so too do people want the unprocessed data from the camera's imaging device to work with when producing a picture. So similar in concept to, but probably very distinct from, a BMP image.

  7. FatGerman

    So, what's it for again?

    Er... RAW files still need to be imported into your copy of (insert name of RAW processing software here); Anybody wanting immediate upload in a studio will currently be using a tether, so this card introduces an extra step into the process. Now, instant WiFi import directly into Lightroom, via a plugin.. THAT would be useful. This is a gimmick looking for a mug.

  8. Ol'Peculier
    Meh

    In the field

    Studio use, linited. But the ability to transfer an image to a tablet whilst I'm in the middle of knowwhere to check on a bigger screen rather than lug a laptop around is worth it. Although, of course in this scenario I'm not looking at needing RAW files until I get back home,

    Sat on the fence on this one.

    1. Colin Miller

      Re: In the field

      Don't most tablets support USB-on-the-go, allowing it's usb port to work as a master as well as a device?

  9. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    Kudos for the 'Obscured by Clouds' bit

    One of my favourite Floyd Albums. Very underrated IMHO.

    I have one of these cards in my D800. I agree about the WiFi connection. The problems I encountered were due to too many other networks being on the same channel (Linux to the rescue here). When I reached a spot where there was no other WiFi networks competing for the channel it worked perfectly.

    My other issue is that the write speed is not excatly fast. Sure it is a class 10 device but it can't hold a candle up to the SanDisk 95Mb/s cards that I normally use.

    Now that there are 280Mb/s cards available, I can't see much use for this in the future.

    http://www.sandisk.co.uk/products/memory-cards/sd/extremepro-sdxc-sdhc-uhs-ii/?capacity=32GB

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    While shooting in studio..

    ... I can't understand why the upload speed of my Internet connection should limit the upload speed of my wi-fi. Give me a version that can upload to a local system, otherwise the wi-fi add-on for my camera, although obscenely expensive, is a far better investment, if a USB cable isn't the solution.

  11. Gordon 10
    FAIL

    All that review

    And they forget to mention what version of 802.11 it supports. Presumably a cack one.

  12. ckm5

    Hmm, my 5 yr old EyeFi card supports raw

    Since the day I bought it actually. It will even separate raw files into different folders... I think only the first gen can't do that.

    The major problem is the slow transfer speed - I have a full-frame camera and it's hopeless - I just take it out and stick it in the computer....\

    Edit: Looking at Amazon, the model I have (EyeFi 8gb X2 Pro) was first available in Sept 2007 - so 8 years ago. The author apparently has done zero research....

  13. Tim Kemp

    Indeed the older cards do support pro. I've had mine ages and for me the best thing is that you can have a mifi running, and with a couple of photographers covering one event the images are backed up as they are shot. I seldom sent RAW that way but to know that if your camera was stolen that the images were safe was a big bonus.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A solution to a non-existemt problem

    - Use a cable between camera and PC

    - Have multiple SD cards and swap between PC card reader and camera

    - Use a wifi enabled camera

    All faster and more elegant solutions than a slow file transfer, faffing with cloud browser methods

  15. sarum
    IT Angle

    in a usb reader

    If I put this in a usb reader and insert it in a freeway box can I use it to copy a file directly to a pc?

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