Eye-Fi Share 2 GB Wi-Fi SD Flash Memory Card EYE-FI-2GB (OLD VERSION)
by Eye-Fi
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Eye-Fi Share 2 GB Wi-Fi SD Flash Memory Card EYE-FI-2GB (OLD VERSION)
Customer Review: Love the concept, but some HUGE flaws
Summary: 1 Stars
I REALLY want to love the Eye-fi card... the concept is great. It is a 2GB SD memory card, with built-in wireless. So if you are in range of a wi-fi access point that you have configured the card to recognize, it will effortlessly load your pictures to the Eye-fi site, and also to the photo sharing site of your choice, AND to your computer. Great concept. The Eye-fi software that comes bundled with it is good, and compatible with Mac which is great.
The HUGE problems with this card are:
* The transfer speeds of this card are too slow to support video transfer. They SAY it will, but I can tell you it doesn't for my Panasonic TZ5 camera except on the lowest quality setting. Eye-fi refuses to publish their transfer speeds. Here is what their tech support said in response to an email from me: "We do not share the information about the Eye-Fi Card's specific read/write speeds. I can tell you that our card is on par with the speed of basic consumer SD cards on the market." Translation: Our card is so slow, we can't tell you how slow it is, or you wouldn't buy it. In my camera, taking still pics is OK, but it won't let me record video.
* The battery drain is significant when you are transferring photos.
* It will ONLY transfer JPEG photos via wireless, not movies.
So.. for $99 I got a card that is great for still photos, but useless for video recording. Now I have to carry multiple cards, and switch them out, which is a hassle.
If Eye-fi would fix the transfer speed of the memory card, I would have absolutely no problem recommending this card.
Customer Review: A word about support
Summary: 4 Stars
I got the Eye-Fi card and it didn't work. New and right out of the box it did nothing. I could see that it didn't have a notch cut out to enable writing to the card, but I decided not to play with it and get in touch with support. It was late, so I sent an e-mail and in the morning I called and spoke to a tech who processed the return (they were smart enough to match the written and verbal request). There was some delay because I had to reply to their email in order to process the return (defeating the expediency of the phone call). I sent them the entire Eye-Fi with box (had to be priority mail) and got a new one in the mail two days later. I'm really annnoyed to be out $6 and the inconvenience of the RMA because their quality control missed cutting out a notch in the card. In the end I have a working unit, but the excitment I felt about getting the card is gone.
The Eye-Fi manager is easy to use. I do wish they put the MAC address somewhere. I filter my wireless router by MAC and I had to run through several iterations of failiures before the EYE-Fi manager gave me that information. Once I got it, the software loaded properly and it works fine (if a bit slow but that could be for many reasons). I'd prefer a registration process that doesn't require internet access or require a firmware update before proceeding.
The packaging is impressive, but I'd rather have had a working unit on the first try. I have been waiting for such an option for my Canon EOS XT and purchased a SD to CF card adapter. I'm going to try it out with a number of different configurations.
Customer Review: Great product for anyone
Summary: 4 Stars
Typical workflow with a digital camera:
1) take picture
2) connect camera or memory card to computer
3) copy photos to computer
4) move photos from computer to sharing site, like Flickr or Facebook
New workflow with the Eye-Fi:
1) take picture
That's it. Eye-Fi automatically copies your picture to your computer and to your website. The photos will be kept private until you make them public.
One downside to this is that your camera obviously must be powered on while the Eye-Fi handles steps 2-4 for you. This may take 30-60 seconds, which may remind you of the old Polaroid days while you waited the minute for the picture to develop. It runs the batteries down a bit faster, too, since you change your "auto-off" settings to give Eye-Fi time to do its thing.
Remember, too, it only works with a Wi-Fi network which you can configure. So, Eye-Fi is connected to my home network, and when I'm home and take a picture, it functions as described above. If I'm out and about, the upload won't occur until I'm home and power up the camera again. You know how you can go to a hotel and get a password at the desk to connect to their network? You'll have to go in the Eye-Fi configuration and add the hotel settings there -- it's not enough to have your computer find the network, as the Eye-Fi operates independently. (If this is an issue for you, buy the other Eye-Fi that works anywhere).
You will love this, especially if you share pictures. It's one of the best gadgets I've purchased for the camera.
Customer Review: BUYER BEWARE
Summary: 1 Stars
This is the letter I wrote to them:
Hello,
I am writing to let you know that I am returning your most expensive version of the EyeFi card with geotagging ($130+ USD). To describe my experience with your card as disappointing would be a vast understatement. I don't care if you can fix the problem with all of your cards, because the pictures that were taken with this memory stick were irreplaceable. I took approximately 50 pictures at my father's 60th and my only nephew's first birthday party of family and friends, many that I will never see again. I trusted your card to work perfectly. The first 12 or so pictures were uploaded safely, but all the rest were never uploaded and now the card can not be read in any device. I have tried software to recover the data, but the memory stick is simply not recognized in any device. My wife was crushed when she found out that the I can't access the card (I build computers and have never run into this problem with ANY memory card, EVER). I want EyeFi to recover my images and give me a full refund. Please do not send the card back to me as I have lost trust in your company and have no faith in your products.
I wanted to put this message up as a warning to other users considering the purchase of this device. This message will be placed on all websites that I can place a review on this product for, as apparently, I am not the only one with this problem. I have read numerous similar stories like mine in forums and on the web.
Thank you for the wonderful experience.
Customer Review: I'm a hardcore techie - and I'm amazed by this product!
Summary: 4 Stars
This thing is the size of a postage stamp, and not much thicker, yet it contains 2GB of memory, a microprocessor, a wi-fi transceiver, and an antenna! It boggles my mind, and I've been doing stuff with computers and electronics since the electron was invented. ;-) It worked great on the first camera we used it with (a cheap little AIPTEK that I got free when I bought a 65" TV at Circuit City), but I haven't been able to get the wi-fi functions to work with it in our Nikon Coolpix 5700. The only real complaints I have about the gizmo are: 1) the configuration method kind of sucks - you have to plug it into your computer (understandable) and sign up for an account on Eye-Fi's web site (why, if I don't want to use their web-upload service??) and 2) the company tells me (although I haven't gone out and tried it yet) that the device will only work with the wi-fi hub it's configured for - not with any nearby, publicly available hub. It would be more fun if you could have it with you and just start snapping pictures in a coffee shop or bookstore or one of the other million places free wi-fi is available and have the pictures immediately show up on a web site or in a blog. Still, the company had a great idea, and maybe some of these things will be corrected down the line with software or firmware upgrades. (Oh - and for the Linux users in the audience, the Windows Eye-Fi software installs and runs fine on my Ubuntu 7.10 laptop using WINE.)