Wireless (802.11g) SD Memory card? Anyone using them?

Anyone using the new wirless (802.11g) SD Memory cards?

The supposedly transfers shots directly to your computer via wireless network. (when taken with camera within range of the computer/wireless-router or transfer when you get back within range).

Company named Eye Fi makes them
Eye-Fi » Home


Amazon.com: Eye-Fi Card, Wireless 2 GB SD Memory Card: Electronics
or EYE-FI-2GB/N42684 Eye-Fi Wireless 2 GB Secure Digital SD Memory Card

I have one.....its fun to use depending on what you want to do. However, there are serious limitations which makes me use my plain 4gb SDHC

1) It will not wirelessly transfer RAW files
2) 2gb is too little for RAW
3) It must be used through your own network. You have to enter settings...can't just use any public network
4) I have found that even for fun pics, I would much rather edit/touch up a bit before uploading to the web.
5) It's pretty slow. Convenient but slow.

In short, I have found that by the time I have shot enough to fill up the card, it's time to change the batteries. If I have to open my housing to change or recharge the batts, I may as well swap the card or copy out the images via a USB adapter.

However, it can't be beat for the ease of sending pictures up to websites like Flickr or Facebook for example. It will even resize the pics automatically (actually, I believe the websites do that).

When you say it must be used through your own network, can you use it "point to point" (peer to peer) like directly to PC without a wireless router or does it have to go through your wireless router, get an IP, etc.

pretty funny to think that digital cameras will start having IP addresses.

thanks.

It has to go through a wireless router....not straight to the laptop....silly eh?

Eskasi:

It has to go through a wireless router....not straight to the laptop....silly eh?

Click to expand...

really silly.. .(or stupid).

because it means I can use it's wireless feature ONLY when I'm at home with my home network and not if you're out with your camera and laptop anywhere else....

I guess I could turn my laptop into a DHCP server when not connected, but that would open up security holes for others to get IP's to my laptop also....

Eskasi:

It has to go through a wireless router....not straight to the laptop....silly eh?

Click to expand...

It has to??? If you use your laptop as the access point it should make no difference to the device connecting to it. In other words the laptop would be the "router" and a client at the same time. The wireless card connecting to it does not know or care that it is a laptop.

I looked into this too, and the speed and network issue (well, and size) is what turned me off on the idea.

Oh, and it does connect to the NETWORK. So yes, you should be able to set your laptop to ad hoc mode instead of the normal infrastructure mode (although I strangely see no notification of that in the FAQ). But then you've gotta switch your laptop settings anytime you want to connect elsewhere (e.g. connect to a normal WAP).

Eye-Fi Help Site » Getting Started

Real pain....the effort required to do any of these changes negates the convenience....

Yeah, and at the limited memory size and actual wireless speeds obtained...the convenience isn't even that high.

I wish someone would do a waterproof USB bulkhead connection you can pigtail to your camera internally. The abillity to pull the memory without cracking the case seal is the real 'advantage' to the idea of a wireless card for UW photography, IMO. But as long as my memory card is big enough to last as many dives as my battery does, I guess the extra expense and risk of another failure point bulkhead just isn't worth it.

On both XP and MacOS, the "connection sharing" mode is fairly easy to operate, and *should* work for this. Connection Sharing basically enables ad-hoc mode and enables your laptop to serve DHCP to anyone who cares to connect.

I have one of the Eye-Fi cards but really haven't had a chance to put it to use yet. I'm a little disappointed that there's no "connect to any open AP" mode, but that has it's own challenges.

If you're serious about using this to avoid opening up an enclosure, a couple of vendors such as D-link make "travel" accesspoints that should work VERY well for this -- they are very small, and can be USB powered. Note that the Eye-Fi card required the camera to be on for it to upload, so camera battery life may be an issue -- probably not if you shoot with external flash since most cameras will do several days worth of shots without flash.

Unfortunately, the coolest scenario I could see for this -- leaving your laptop in your room and having the camera automatically start downloading as soon as you get back on the boat -- will probably not work on most liveaboards due to the steel boat construction. I know that on the Aquacat they had an access point in the main salon that provided access to a shore-based connection while they were docked, and it's signal was not visible when on any other part of the boat. And this was with a "real" access-point.