What is your opinion on the Eyefi Card?

kstoltenburg

I am thinking about purchasing the Eyefi Card so that I can view photo's on my tablet as I take them or allow someone else to see as a take photo's. Does anyone have one or have you tried one? I am a beginner photographer and I am really starting to enjoy it, and trying to broaden my talent. Maybe this would be something that should wait until I have more experience.

ohyeahar

I've got an Eye-Fi X2 Pro card.

Pros:
Easy setup
No more USB cables or card readers to get photos off the camera.
Free (temporary) cloud storage.
Allows fast and easy sharing to other cloud services (Facebook, Google, Flickr, etc).

Cons:
Transfer speed is just OK.
Slows your work flow especially if you shoot a lot due to how long it takes to transfer the files.
Uses your camera's battery for transfers. If transferring to a smartphone or tablet, they also take a battery hit.

My initial impressions of the Eye-fi card is quite good. I actually feel it's great for beginners since many people take pictures and never get them onto the computer for sharing or printing.

About a year ago, I shot a photo booth for a friend's wedding. I linked my Eye-Fi card to a tablet and had the shots transfer over so people could see their own photo moments after it's taken. It worked wonderfully, but compromises were made to speed up the transfer. I shot in medium basic JPG's to minimize the file sizes.

kstoltenburg

Thank you so much. I was afraid of how fast I could take the pictures. Because I am more of a beginner I do take several shots in succession and then choose which ones I like the most. I'm still playing with and learning all the setting and what settings I prefer. For that reason, transferring right to a bigger screen where I can see a good sized image seems great. I will continue to do some research. Thank you so much for your help. :) I just want to clarify one thing, it won't let you take another picture until the file has been sent? Is that correct?

ohyeahar

The WIFI transfer doesn't interfere with how fast you shoot. You can just keep on shooting as much as you want, it'll just keep on transferring until it catches up to you.
This becomes a problem when we're dealing with large file sizes. So if you shoot in RAW and you keep the shutter button held down in continuous release, the WIFI transfer will certainly never catch up to you. Even if you shoot in Large Fine JPG, there's going to be significant lag between your shot and the moment that picture shows up on your tablet.

If you're intention is to use the WIFI transfer as a way to quickly review pictures in the field, then I'd have to say that it won't really be that practical. Let's say you took 3 quick shots of the same subject and scene and just wanted to pick one. First, you'd have to wait a bit for the Eye-fi card to initiate the connection to your tablet. This varies from 1 sec to 30 sec. Then you have to wait for the transfers. This takes about 1 sec per MB. What I'm trying to say is it's not instant. You're better off either using your camera's screen or just reviewing them later after your shoot.

kstoltenburg

That makes total sense, thanks for clarifying. That helps a lot. Probably doesn't have practical use for me right now but maybe in the future. :)