Kirk's Technology Blog

I received my Eye-Fi 2GB SD card yesterday. I blogged about it just a few days ago and I'm pretty excited to check out what could be one of the coolest new combo gadgets in the past year.

Setup was as easy as it gets. In fact the software was loaded into the SD card. There isn't even an instruction manual, just a simple "getting started" guide. Which is fine because an instruction manual was not needed! Once the software was installed it re-directed me to the Eye-Fi webpage where I had to register and setup my Eye-Fi card. I picked the wi-fi network I wanted to use (you can only use one wi-fi network at a time with this card) and then setup my online photo account.

Preferences were slim but the basics are there. It would be nice to have a few more options in the future. Resizing before it uploads to your online photo account would be nice, an option to only download pics form the camera once a day or even the ability to upload pictures on an open wi-fi network that isn't registered (aka coffee shop). With that said, the fact that this SD card has wi-fi built-in is amazing enough by itself!

We did have a few issues with my camera, the Nikon D40. The D40 turns off power to the SD card as soon as it's done saving a picture to it. The D40 gets amazing battery life and I'm sure this has something to do with it. Eye-Fi has a guide to change your settings so that your camera will keep the SD card powered long enough for it to upload your photos. Afterall, the Eye-Fi card powers the wi-fi using your camera's battery. Once the settings were changed, I still had to turn the screen on and leave it on for the Eye-Fi card to upload the photos. A minor pain but well worth it to avoid the USB cable shuffle.

Once everything was setup, it worked great! I was shooting pictures in my home, well within my wi-fi network, and the photos were uploaded to my computer and my Flickr account within minutes!

Killer use: Imagine that you setup a computer (or even a media center) to run a slideshow in the folder where Eye-Fi is uploading photos. Set this up at your next party and take photos while everyone is having a good time. As you take those photos, they'll be added to the slide show within seconds! How much fun would that be? Plus, the photos could be on Flickr before the party is even over! I love it!

I'm planning a further review on Good Day Utah in a week or 2 so keep your eyes peeled for that. In the meantime check out the video of my un-boxing and testing below!