When the new Eye-Fi wireless SD card was first released to consumers it promised to be the next must have photo accessory. While the new technology has been well received and reviews seem to be mostly positive, this Wi-Fi enabled SD card has a few drawbacks that have left some users less than satisfied.
What Does The Eye-Fi SD Card Do?
The main job of the Eye-Fi SD Card is to move photographs automatically from the camera to a computer or to an online photo sharing service. The Eye-Fi card connects to the Internet through any properly set up wireless access point. Software that comes with the card is used to install a special client program on the host computer.
Once installed in a camera, the card connects via Wi-Fi to a special server that receives the photographs and then sends them on to any of over a dozen online photo sites. It can also be configured to download the photos from the server back to the host computer via the client software. Any digital camera that uses a standard SD card can utilize the Eye-Fi SD Card.
What Does The Eye-Fi SD Card NOT Do?
While the idea of transferring files from camera to computer automatically and without wires is very appealing, the technology does have its limits (at least in this initial version of the product). High end photographers that shoot in the RAW photograph format will not be able to use the Eye-Fi to do wireless transfers.
The 2gb card can still be used like any other SD card however, and RAW images can be transferred to a computer manually through a standard card reader. Likewise, the Eye-Fi also will not transfer video captures. JPEG is the only format that the card and service will work with at this time. Still, new updates and additions to the Eye-Fi service promise new functionality that may offset these issues in the future.
Other Considerations Regarding The Eye-Fi
Some users have reported that transfer speeds from the Eye-Fi to the Internet are occasionally problematic and rather slow. This experience was not shared by a majority of customers however, so it begs to reason that a users personal experience will largely depend on the stability and versatility of the user's wireless router. Special settings must be added to some routers in order to get the Eye-Fi to connect properly.
Other users have reported that the battery drain on a camera is quite significant if large amounts of data are being transferred on a regular basis. Still, despite these rather minor downsides the Eye-Fi is still an excellent way for amateur photographers to simplify and speed up the hassle of managing and transferring digital photos from camera to computer.
