Have you Converted to Eye-Fi?

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I learned about the Eye-Fi memory card some time ago from Klout when I received a 4GB Eye-Fi card. Since then I am a loyal Eye-Fi user. So when Best Buy handed me a 8GB Eye-Fi memory card I thought I was in heaven. I had been looking to purchase a back up memory card for my camera. There is nothing worse then being out taking photos to find you are out of memory (or battery for that matter). My 8GB however is now my main card and my 4GB is in my point-and-shoot camera. I also have a 32GB traditional memory card. I don’t think I will be running out of memory anytime soon.

The features of the Eye-Fi memory card are amazing and have come in extremely handy. The basis of the card is to upload to your computer or mobile device within seconds of taking the photo. This means you don’t have to remove your card or connect to your computer to get your photos uploaded. In fact I have a light box set up in my bedroom and often use it to take some photos for reviews. If I’m in my room taking photos I will find by the time I’m done and have sat back down at my computer all my photos are sitting there waiting for me.

As a tech geek I absolutely love this new technology. The only disadvantage I’ve found is, because I rarely need to take my Eye-Fi card out of my camera, I sometimes forget to delete old photos. It only happened once where I was out of memory with no back up. It actually took me a while to figure out there was nothing wrong with my camera and it was just that the memory card was full. I had to painstakingly go photo by photo to make some room. So just a note of caution, once in a while do some clean up on your Eye-Fi card.

The new 8GB Eye-Fi memory card I have with my camera settings will now hold 1850 photos. It would have to be some kind of huge photo shoot (LOL yeah right me and a photo shoot that is funny) to use that many photos.

Another neat feature with the Eye-Fi memory card that I’ve known about but hadn’t taken the time to really figure out is the ability to transfer your photos from your camera to your iPhone or iPad. You might ask why this is important? There are times when I have been at a conference or just out with the family and I’ve brought my big fancy camera with us. When you have a nice camera you tend to shy away from using your iPhone camera (nothing against the camera in the iPhone). However there are times when I might want to upload directly to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, especially if I’m on an assignment.

With the Eye-Fi app for the iPhone/iPad I can set it up so that when I’m away from my Wi-Fi settings at home I can use Direct Mode. Direct Mode will send my photos directly to my iPhone/iPad. At first I thought this was great but then I thought, that means I will then have to upload the photos to my computer when I get home (yes that is me being lazy wanting the photos to magically appear on my computer). It turns out you can also have your iPhone upload the photos directly to your computer as well.

I’ve only tested half of this out at the time of this post. I was indeed able to take photos on my camera while away from home and have them show up instantly on my iPad. I had not yet turned on the interface to upload from my iPad to my computer so that will be my next testing phase. I’m interested to see if the photos stay in the same large format as when they were taken. I also plan on writing detailed instructions on how to accomplish all of this because when searching for them it took me a while to find the information I needed.

All of your Eye-Fi needs are handled right at  your finger tips in the Eye-Fi center that you download when you first receive your Eye-Fi card. To give you a quick synopsis, you will receive an Eye-Fi reader, which I believe is just a way to plug your memory card into your computer via USB. You will download the Eye-Fi center and then you will need to add your Wi-Fi network to your Eye-Fi card. This will tell your card what network to download your photos too. Photos can only be downloaded to one device at a time so they are not able to download to your iPhone and computer at the same time. This is why there is the capability to upload from your iPhone to your computer.

I do have the Eye-Fi center uploaded on both my computer and laptop and am able to switch between the two of them. This is helpful when I’m away from home and need my photos on a computer in order to work with them for any reason. You can center your Eye-Fi center to upload your photos to Eye-Fi view and they will stay there for 7 days. From here you can send email, publish to social networking sites, or send someone a link to your photos. You can upgrade should you wish to keep your photos here for longer then 7 days.

When you first set up your Eye-Fi card in your Eye-Fi center you can have your photos if you wish automatically uploaded to a handful of sites such as Facebook, Flicker, etc. This means at the same time they are uploading to your computer they will upload to your prefer site. I personally do not have this turned on, or have I tested this. I prefer to do most social media connections manually so I have control over what is posted and what is not.

The Eye-Fi card is another awesome product that you can purchase at Best Buy and though the price is much steeper then your traditional memory card the benefits more then make up for the additional expense. If you are like me and love all the cool techy stuff then you have to get an Eye-Fi card.

Note: Not all cameras will work with Eye-Fi, some of the older models do not have the correct technology to work. I ran into this with my older point and shoot camera. You can find out if you have an Eye-Fi Compatable Camera here.