Let's Talk 5D3 & Eye-Fi (you're holding it wrong)

My use of Eye-Fi cards is two fold. Originally it was for events, prom/ball photos etc, sending images to computer 10M away for sales/printing. It was to replace my two Canon WFT units which were cumbersome to use with cables hanging out of cameras,WFT unit. The Canon WFT units also crashed occasionally, yes they were faster when running, but when they crashed they would not automatically send images that where not transfered when restarted due to battery, cable coinnection problems. You had to go into menues and force the images through! Not ideal in a fast flowwing event.

I have used the Eye-Fi cards in 20D, 30D, 40D, 5D, 5DMKII and also in a Nikon D3100. Basically I tried another photographers D3000 and found that removing the CF adapter just increased speed/range to the point that I could just sell my WFT units and just use Eye-Fi. The D3100 body is a cheap option whilst dealing with drunken revellers at some events, and quality is fine as we usually just output to 8"x 6" at these events.

My main business is commercial photography, as soon as the iPad was announced I new it was what I needed to present images to clients on location or in the studio. Originally I used to take a router and just plug it in at any venue to give a personal network for the images to be sent to the iPad. I know that that I struggled with the CF adapter for the 5DMKII, but the quality of the images was more important than the speed of transmition. I have a resonable set up now in that when out on location I can either plug in a router for faster transmition, or normally just rely on direct mode. It only takes 5-10 seconds to transmit and compared to 60sec for the old Polaroids I don't find this a major issue. Shooting RAW plus small jpg for transmitting to the iPad is a working method I find very enhancing. Clients can see where you are going, comment on any issues whilst you are still able to be creating the next options whilst they are viewing.

The MKIII is hopefully what I am looking for with the seperate SD slot, I really need hear/see a comparative test set up with 5DMKII and Eye-Fi/CF adapter and MKIII + Eye-Fi. What difference is there as regards range/speed etc. I know having RAW to CF and small jpgs to the 8GB Eye-Fi will give greater capacity for images. At the moment I have 1x 8GB and 2x 4GB Eye-Fi cards but hate having to swap out during shoots. What I tend to do is back up the RAW to Laptop/or iPad during a break in shooting, then re format the card and continue shooting. Not ideal I know.

Anyone with 'old' MkII and CF adapter and now the MKIII please can you do a comparative test for us at some point. Thanks.
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John Cooper
http://www.studiomk.co.uk