Photo and Article by Fred Johnson
Being the photo-geek that I am how could I resist the opportunity to play with the world’s first SD+WiFi+FTP enabled memory card?! Like many of my gadgets, once I played with it for a while, a few “gotchas” emerged.
The Eye-Fi is an intelligent SD memory card with a built-in FTP client and wi-fi circuitry. Essentially, the card is a little computer that plugs into your camera, and after set-up will automatically upload the photos you’ve just snapped to the photo-sharing site of your choice.
When the Eye-Fi guys initially spoke with me about this card I had really high hopes. As a photographer, I envisioned being able to travel around shooting, then stroll into any Internet café or Starbucks and upload my images for all to see. The days of having to plug-in, log-in, and upload were about to be a thing of the past…. but not so fast Johnson. In reality, the card requires an initial set-up for each network you plan to use it with. For example, I have mine set up for use on my home network, and you can set it up to recognize multiple networks. But if I travel to a friend’s house, I’d need to bring my computer, the Eye-Fi dongle, and the card to set it up on her network. Now this is a one-time set up, but it’s still a hassle and what if I’m somewhere new and I need to upload images in a hurry?!
