You know, I have heard a lot of chatter about these new Eye-Fi SDHC memory cards for your camera that are supposed to transmit photos you take with your digital camera straight to your computer over any wireless network with no human intervention. I'd been putting off getting one since I couldn't really figure out why I, a sports photographer, would need one.
In hindsight, with an assistant captioning and cropping photos for me at an NCAA game was going from the media room, I can see how maybe having select images "popup" automagically in Photomechanic could be pretty cool. Saves me from having to run cards back and forth, etc. I'll have to really test that model next season.
Well, Google sends me this email telling me that if I spend $50 on advertising, they'll send me a 4GB Home Eye-Fi SDHC card for $50. That's about $100 cheaper than the last time I looked at them, so I said "What the hell? Let's give it a shot!"
While I waited the two weeks for it to arrive, I searched the web for anything I could find relating to these devices. I am a member of SportsShooter.com, so I searched there. Nothing really positive to say by anyone. I searched other message boards as well. Again, nothing to positive to say about these little SD cards.
I couldn't figure out, like I said, what the hell I would need one for. I mean, I shoot sports. I take 750 photos, go home, do my little workflow and I'm done. At no time did I need my pictures to "fly'' from my camera to my computer.
Then, like a hammer to the back of the head, it donned on me. I cover events, too! How cool would it be if I could, with my Canon 1D Mark II (both a CF & SDHC slot) to shoot in backup mode where the images are being written to both cards and have them transmitted to my laptop connected to a projector? Then, there would be "live" photos from the event being shown on a big screen or a wall somewhere. Of course, there would be some "promotional" imagery there telling them that they could order prints online, etc.
Now, what if I could have these images displayed in another room? Maybe out in the hall? Maybe even outside? I started thinking about the possibilities and then realized that not EVERY photo I take at an event is one I would show. I put the card in my desk... disappointed.
THEN, I read where you could have it only "ask" your camera or for your camera to only "send" protected images. How awesome? When I take a shot, it doesn't go anywhere. BUT, when I like it, all I have to do is "lock" it on my Canon and off it goes to the laptop - ready to be shown in a live slideshow.
Now, the question is, "How are you showing a slideshow live without having to stop and start each time you have a new image to add?" Well, the answer is simple. Photomechanic's Live Ingest Slideshow feature. See, I already use Photomechanic as an integral part of my workflow. All I have to do is tell it which directory to "watch" and randomize the order of the images contained in the directory. When I setup the little USB card reader/wireless receiver that came as part of the Eye-Fi package, all I had to do was make sure that the directory specified (normally MM-DD-YY folder inside /My Pictures) matched up with PM and it's settings.
Well, let me tell you... I tried it at a party I had at my house. The "WOW" factor was amazing. People thought I was magic and couldn't believe that within about 10 seconds of me shooting their picture, it was on the big screen. NOTE: It worked for me around walls and up and down stairs. I never really had a distance issue. I did notice that a few didn't transmit. I'm not sure why, but I am pretty sure it was user error and I forgot to protect or "lock" the image to initiate the transfer.
Now, there are subscription options for the Eye-Fi SDHC where you can have the images post instantly to online services like Flickr, Facebook and a bunch of other ones I will never need. I think that the possibilities are endless, though. Here's why...
The Pro version for $150 allows you to connect to an ad-hoc network (right now you have to have access to a regular wireless network - 3G hot-spots won't work). Why is this a huge opportunity? My iPhone is a jailbreak version that runs PDANet and MyFi.
With the Pro card, I could feasibly connect to my iPhone as my "ad-hoc" network and have these images sent anywhere I wanted in almost real-time without ever touching a computer. Spot news, in-game sports photo updates - the opportunities are endless.
If you have a Mark III or Mark IV that allows you to record RAW format on the CF card and JPEG on the SD... you're really set! You can record your images that you plan to edit later and wirelessly transmit or email using my iPhone solution instantly any of the JPEGS to your editor. Again, in damn near real-time.
My verdict... GET ONE NOW! If the Google offer has expired, just go grab a Eye-Fi SDHC directly from them. You'll start finding uses for it immediately. Get creative if your a gadget-geek or tech savvy and the sky's the limit.
