eye-fi Mobi - Review

I have looked at getting an Eye-Fi card for sometime but for whatever reason never actually got round to ordering one. In my mind I was looking for something to use professionally. Something to enable me to seamlessly transfer selected images to my laptop. I always use dual card cameras and shoot Raw to slot 1 and JPG to slot two so the eye-fi card would always sit in slot two. In an impetuous moment, having read a review written by a press photographer I clicked order and bought myself a card - the wrong card! The excellent review that I had read detailed how the photographer was able to send selected images to his laptop ready for captioning etc.using the Eye-Fi pro card. I had stupidly ordered the Mobi card. The pro card has levels of configuration  but the mobi card just sends all images to the device it is connected to.

Anyway,fast forward a few days and my Eye-Fi Mobi card was delivered. My first thought was to return it and order the pro model but I decided to keep it and have a play. I downloaded the relevant software or apps to my iphone, Android tablet, MAC Book and windows laptop. First impressions with the Windows Laptop - frustrating, it seemed to connect intermittently. At this point I almost gave up but decided to try the card with the iphone. Again I seemed to have problems maintaing a connection I also couldn't work out where the images were being stored on the iphone.

The next morning I took he dogs for a walk and decided to take a camera with the Eye-Fi card installed plus my phone. Out in the fields away from any other networks I took a picture and quickly, very quickly the image transfered to my Phone. Well actually it transfered to the app running on the phone. From the app you can share on social networks or save to the phone which copies the image to the camera roll. The app itself is very simple but effective arranging images in day order but also giving the option to tag and create albums.

eye-fi mobi review
eye-fi mobi review
eye-fi review-2
eye-fi review-2

I am a keen Instagramer - I love the concept of taking a picture and sharing it there and then. With my new set up I can now do this simply and efficiently. I take the picture with my DSLR, it transfers to the phone magically, then from the app I save the image which in turn allows me to be able to select it in Instagram. If you turn off the camera connectivity will be lost but simply turn the camera back on take a shot and the connection will automatically resume. At this point I must mention that this wasn't what I bought the Eye-Fi card for.

I did try the card on a work day and my day's worth of JPGs all transferred to my laptop by the time I arrived home. I had also set Photo Mechanic to auto-ingest so the images were all sat there ready for captioning etc. I am not sure how much of an advantage this is but it did seem pretty cool. One immediate issue is how this process would cope with using two bodies.

I am a convert and love the simplicity - it works how it works and not how I thought it should. Once I embraced this I realised just what a fantastic tool it is.

My original 'need' was for something to use for press work. The reality however is that rarely do I need to do real time uploads. but when I do I now have a simple cheap solution. I would still like a way to upload selected image to an app which enables me to caption, do some basic editing, and then FTP to a client. This clearly will not work with the Mobi card so perhaps it is time to purchase a Pro card which after all was my original intention!!

Alan Langley