Questions about using the Eye-fi X2 Direct Mode for viewing photos on iPhone.

I have read with great interest the threads by those using the Eye-fi Direct Mode and I am very interested in it. But I have a couple of questions:

I want to use it in order to be able to better examine photos shot during a wedding. So I would use a Sandisk UHS1 in slot 1 of the D7000 and an Eye-fi X2 card in slot 2. I would save RAW files to slot 1 and jpg copies to slot 2. Both for jpg backup and for sending to the iPhone for proofing. My questions are:

1) Does this setup make sense?

2) What initiates the wireless transfer from the card to the iPhone? Is there some button that says "Transfer Now"? or does it continually transfer everytime a photo is saved?

3) If it is not continuous, do you then need to select the photo(s) to be transferred on the LCD first and then click some kind of "Transfer now" button?

4) Since the camera battery is powering this, does it create significant drain on the battery?

5) Does this iPhone need to be in some kind of "Waiting to receive transfer from Eye-fi" kind of mode? And does that lock up other iPhone functions such the phone itself?

I realize that is a lot of question but I thank you for any help.

Bo

Bo said:

I have read with great interest the threads by those using the Eye-fi Direct Mode and I am very interested in it. But I have a couple of questions:

I want to use it in order to be able to better examine photos shot during a wedding. So I would use a Sandisk UHS1 in slot 1 of the D7000 and an Eye-fi X2 card in slot 2. I would save RAW files to slot 1 and jpg copies to slot 2. Both for jpg backup and for sending to the iPhone for proofing. My questions are:

1) Does this setup make sense?

Click to expand...

It's the same basic setup I've been pursuing. D7000 with Eyefi card in slot 2, set to receive jpegs. I've been trying with a number of Android and iOS devices. Android: Nexus One, Nook Color rooted to run Android 2.1
iOS: iPhone 3GS, iPad2

In short, what I've found is that EyeFi's hardware is solid but their software is lagging. Fortunately, they've been updating the software quickly since release, as people find issues. It's gotten better but there are still problems that make it a frustrating solution.

The Eyefi software you install on the iPhone is really only good for enabling the transfer of photos from the camera to the phone. It's really not a great gallery app or even good for trying to view the photos at full size. The stock photo app is better for that.

Bo48138 said:

2) What initiates the wireless transfer from the card to the iPhone? Is there some button that says "Transfer Now"? or does it continually transfer everytime a photo is saved?

Click to expand...

On iOS, I don't think it uses any background multitasking so it's basically initiated by launching the app on the iPhone and making sure the camera is on. If they're paired, they should establish a direct connection within a minute or so. There is no "transfer now" button, although that might be helpful at times when it seems slow to detect the eyefi card in proximity.

Bo48138 said:

3) If it is not continuous, do you then need to select the photo(s) to be transferred on the LCD first and then click some kind of "Transfer now" button?

Click to expand...

No, see above. It's just a matter of the phone and the eyefi card in the camera detecting each other. Once they do, photos are automatically transferred, based on which ones hadn't already been transferred.

Bo48138 said:

4) Since the camera battery is powering this, does it create significant drain on the battery?

Click to expand...

Yep, it sure does. I haven't quantified it exactly, but it's a noticeable drop in battery life, if you're prone like me to just keep the camera on between shooting. Normally that wouldn't cause a major drain on the battery but with an eyefi card inserted (and enabled to send), it does.

Bo48138 said:

5) Does this iPhone need to be in some kind of "Waiting to receive transfer from Eye-fi" kind of mode? And does that lock up other iPhone functions such the phone itself?

Click to expand...

See #2. It does "lock up" the phone in the sense that on iOS it doesn't seem to multitask so you have to deliberately run the app. On Android, it's different because the app takes advantage of multitasking there and can run in the background.

I am not sure if the iphone does better job in proofing than the rear lcd monitor with rgb histograms. It will be more useful on larger screens like a tablet pc.

My experience with Eye-fi.

It works best if it is practically next the wi-fi router. I got a pocket type that fit my shirt pocket to minimize distance. It is also a dedicated wifi router just for the eye-fi card, I set it to zero security and on the first channel for fastest possible transfer.

Despite firmware revision, the eye-fi card can be flaky and D7000 will prompt card errors. I would then remove the eye-fi card and re-insert, reformatting if necessary to get it to work again.

It will hang sometimes and stuck in transmitting mode but nothing gets uploaded. Which is also why I have I have a dedicated computer using a fanless asus eeepc so the setups remains unchanged and easy to troubleshoot.

Tested it on a live shoot. The clients who were lawyers were pleased and the session was over in 30 minutes. Perhaps it will take forever with fussy brides on their big day.

I wanted to add a few clarifications to your very detailed and thoughtful responses.

1. If you set up your Eye-Fi card for Direct Mode, by default, it will transfer all new items to your iPhone. If you want, you can change it to "Selective Transfer". Then, only the items you mark using the lock/protect feature on your camera will be transferred.

2. Yes the Eye-Fi card requires battery power from the camera, so there will be some impact to battery life. We try to be as respectful of battery power as possible. The Eye-Fi Card will turn on the Wi-Fi radio only if there are new photos to be transferred for example.

3. Transfers begin when there are new items to be transferred, a network connection between the Eye-Fi Card and mobile device is established and the app is running.

4. On iOS, apps are allowed to run in the background for up to 10 minutes. So your iOS app can receive and send items in the background for this period once you run the app and start receiving content.

We hope that helps.

Randhir (Eye-Fi)

Eye-Fi Support said:

4. On iOS, apps are allowed to run in the background for up to 10 minutes. So your iOS app can receive and send items in the background for this period once you run the app and start receiving content.

Click to expand...

Sorry, didn't mean to misrepresent this part. Unfortunately, in my experience on both the iPhone and the iPad, it just didn't seem to initiate transfers until the app was launched.

Excellent info, ersouza, tankhar and Randhir! thank you very much.

I get the feeling that this would work best as a way to check selected images (using teh method Randhir mentioned - locked images) every now and then. But not as a "replacement" for the LCD monitor. As tankhar mentioned, one serious issue is that the iPhone does not show the histogram.

With the sometimes dodgy communication between the card and the iPhone, as well as the drain on the battery, it seems like one should use this moderately on a long event like a wedding.

tankhar, it sounds like you are using an extra piece of hardware in the middle such as a mini router. Out of curiosity, why are you not using the Direct Mode?

ersouza, do you feel the shuttersnitch software would solve some of the issues you mentioned?

Randhir, when not using the transfer capabilities, does the Eye-fi card behave any differently than a standard SD card? Is there a speed hit from carrying all the extra radio hardware for example?

Thank you all.

Bo

Bo said:

ersouza, do you feel the shuttersnitch software would solve some of the issues you mentioned?

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I've not used Shuttersnitch yet, unfortunately, so I can't say how well it might alleviate some of the issues I've experienced.

Bo48138 said:

Randhir, when not using the transfer capabilities, does the Eye-fi card behave any differently than a standard SD card? Is there a speed hit from carrying all the extra radio hardware for example?

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The Eye-Fi X2 cards are all Class 6 cards so they work pretty well for HD video and rapid shooting. Class 6 is not the fastest speed class on the market (Class 10 is) so unless you absolutely need that type of speed, which most of our users don't, you should be in good shape.

Randhir

tankahn said:

I am not sure if the iphone does better job in proofing than the rear lcd monitor with rgb histograms. It will be more useful on larger screens like a tablet pc.

Click to expand...

Shuttersnitch does a really nice job on the iPad (and iPhone, I'm assuming) and is more tailored toward the pro. So you can choose between our app, or Shuttersnitch. Brian, the Shuttersnitch developer did an amazing job.

Member said:

My experience with Eye-fi.

It works best if it is practically next the wi-fi router. I got a pocket type that fit my shirt pocket to minimize distance. It is also a dedicated wifi router just for the eye-fi card, I set it to zero security and on the first channel for fastest possible transfer.

Click to expand...

Security should not add too much overhead. But you don't really need to secure the router because it's not going to the web, so you should be fine. My advice would just be to change the default password and login on the router, so that some mean person won't just connect to your router, plug in the router address into their browser, log in, and change your router settings.

Member said:

Despite firmware revision, the eye-fi card can be flaky and D7000 will prompt card errors. I would then remove the eye-fi card and re-insert, reformatting if necessary to get it to work again.

Click to expand...

This should never happen. If it does, please contact our support, and we'll swap your card. Your card should be solid in the D7000. Are you running the latest firmware in the Eye-Fi Card and in the D7000?

Member said:

It will hang sometimes and stuck in transmitting mode but nothing gets uploaded. Which is also why I have I have a dedicated computer using a fanless asus eeepc so the setups remains unchanged and easy to troubleshoot.

Click to expand...

It's always awesome to have another device to manage the set-up, but you really should not have any issues with reliability.

Further, by using a router, the card doesn't go into Direct mode. It's using the router to connect to the other device. That's a fine set-up, but most people will not want to carry an extra router with them, so for them, we've created Eye-Fi Direct.

Member said:

Tested it on a live shoot. The clients who were lawyers were pleased and the session was over in 30 minutes. Perhaps it will take forever with fussy brides on their big day.

Click to expand...

Awesome.

Thanks,

Ziv
Eye-Fi co-founder

I got the ProX2 card on Friday. The hardware is really quite amazing when you think about it. Setting it up to Direct Mode took a while. I think a lot of planets need to be aligned just right. Not sure where to point the finger for that part. Probably the nature of wireless communication on such a tiny piece of hardware. Again, the amazing thing is that it does (eventually) work.

The iOs EyeFi software is a different story. Let's just say that as far as a user experience it is really bare bones. On top of that, I think that the way Apple handles their photo Albums on the iPhone is incredibly weak and restrictive. Way more restrictive than the way they let you manage music. The EyeFi software is not only rudimentary but also seems to rely too much on the Apple photo management.

So I downloaded Shuttersnitch. At first, it appears steep that you have to fork another $15 for an iPhone app (how spoiled we are!). But you quickly realize that, from a photographer's pov, it is a far superior app. I haven't explored it too deeply but it manages photos much more comprehensively (it lets you create your own albums / collections!), its viewer is much better (and less buggy) than the Eyefi one and... it has an option to display RBG histogram.

So I think that the combination of EyeFi's excellent hardware and Shutternitch's excellent software makes for a very interesting option for photographers.

Bo

Thank you for the feedback. It's awesome that Shuttersnitch works for you. Like I said earlier -- Brian did a phenomenal job with it.

BTW, 3 days ago, v2.0.26 was released and it fixed a few bugs.

Agreed on the restrictions of the iOS's photo management. Hopefully, one day, we'll be able to work with Apple to improve the experience.

Thanks --

Ziv.
Eye-Fi co-founder.