Eye Spy

Last week Brian reminded me about the Eye-Fi SD card that allows you to wirelessly transfer images from your camera to your computer via Wi-Fi. I checked into it about two years ago, but dismissed it since my D700 uses CF cards for storage. Since then I've acquired my Olympus PEN e-PL1 and iPad and didn't look to see if that technology had advanced.

After visiting their site, I discovered that they released the Eye-Fi X2 Mobile which works with Apple IOS and Android operating systems. So during lunch, drove to Best Buy and picked one up.

Installation has to be done on a computer connected to your own Wi-Fi network for the purposes of "pairing" the card with your mobile device. Once the software is installed on your computer, you then download the app for your Mobile device, my iPad, and then pair the device with the SD card.

All went well until it came time for transmitting the images. So I'll jump to the What I Learned.

• Make sure you disconnect your mobile device from any wireless networks
• Make sure you can save your image in RAW + Small JPG

Once I did that, everything worked flawlessly. I was able to shoot from 20' away with my PEN and the image took 5 seconds to show up on my iPad. After it transfer, you can upload  your images to a multitude of sites, including FLICKR, Facebook, etc...

The user interface on the iPad looks pretty much like iPhoto, but what's cool is that once the transfer occurs, the image pops up full size. 

Q1) So when would I use this?  Good question.  I planned to do a model shoot tonight using PEN, speedlights, Pocket Wizards and some modifiers and have the iPad near the model, so we could shoot and she would get instant feedback, without having to "chimp" on a 3" LCD screen.

Q2) Aren't there SD-to-CF adapters out there? Yes, and that is my next purchase so I can use this on my D700.



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