Eye-Fi: A report from the field

[GreggVicik]

Chris P, Just a quick thought. Do you have a Firewall up and running? If so you will need to either turn it off or config it to allow the Eye-fi card. I ran into that issue early on.

[ChrisPerry]

If you format the card in the camera you'll have to put it back into the computer to load the wirless config back on it. You can erase images on the card, just don't format it! (ask me how I know this)

It take a minute or two for the first image to get going, but then they come over pretty fast and regular.

I wouldn't think you'd have a firewall issue, but check on that, as well as if you have WEP or WPA enabled you'll need to put that info in the program so the card gets it.

[Tony_Gamble]

"How fast can you push the shutter button?"

Thanks Chris,

I had misread some posting seen elsewhere. It said that it could take 10 to 15 seconds to download a file. I had not realised that the card acted as a buffer.

Rgds

Tony

[Ken_Shelton]

I gave event wireless a try for the first time this past Saturday at the Atlantic City Beer Festival. 12,000 people came through the AC Convention Center on Saturday & Sunday over three 4-hour sessions. I had a photographer set up at an intersection of the show floor, about 30ft/10M from my booth. The Canon 1DMIII had an eye.fi card in the SD slot. It is supposed to give 45' of range indoors, 90' outdoors. As we were in an open convention hall, we probably could have gone out further but needed to take the shot then point the subject to me in the booth.

By the time they got to me, 10-15 seconds later, I had the image imported into Lightroom on a laptop and showing on an out-facing LCD to the customer. One click added a logo of the show, two more printed it on a Sony Snap Lab. Total time from image capture to 5x7 print was under 2 minutes.

The eye.fi card worked well most of the time. The first one stopped working for no reason so I changed it for a backup. The second worked for a while and then it crapped out, then it started up after a couple of minutes. Then after another 50 images or so it stopped, & then started up after several minutes. No predictable causes or cures. The first card might have started working on its own like the 2nd if I had given it a chance. Eye.fi is a great idea, its unpredictability scares the hell out of me and its setup & use are cumbersome. Their service line is very responsive though & they have issued updates & promise more improvements.

So, the technology worked for the most part. The business was a disaster! 95% of the attendees were Generation My Space who could care less about prints. They'd walk up to the monitors, oooh & aaah at the image & walk away. 'Buy a print? Why? Will it be online so I can copy it? $10 for a picture, are you crazy? I'll give you $3, $2.'

The few people who did buy prints were generally over 40; there were too few of them. The low point of the experience was the woman who walked up to the monitor, looked at her boyfriend's image, and took a picture of it with her P&S. She looked at her lcd, shrugged, and walked away happy.

Ken

PS: Pardon for cross posting to the Event thread. The business side of this belongs there also.

[GeneCarl]

when i insert my eye-fi card in the laptop it comes up as EOS-Digital. is this because i formated the card in my 40 d first? any thougths would be appreciated

Gene

[Ken_Shelton]

Correct. But it should not be a problem; Both my eye.fi cards show that in Explorer.

Ken

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