Eye-Fi Geotagging

[pacmania1982]

OK - so I've just been reading about the Eye-Fi Pro SD Card with WiFi and geotagging - I can't quite get my head around it.

I'm gonna ignore the WiFi thing for a sec - so you swap your SD Card with this bad boy and go out on your vacation/trip snapping pics, and it automatically geotags them? Is that the general idea?

The WiFi thing, how do you configure it for your wireless network? I'm sure my little point and shoot Samsung cam doesn't have some magic menu that appears once you pop it in. And some lady says on their testimonials page 'i walk in and forget about the pics I've taken until I'm ready to share or print them'. Does this mean she walks into her house, the Eye-Fi picks up the network connection and uploads them somewhere? If so - does the cam have to be on for this? Where does it get the power?

Any advice would be appreciated, as I'm in the market for something to easily geotag my pics

thanks in advance

pac

 

[davegregory]

I tested an Eye-fi SD card a while back, I still have it actually. It's pretty cool, it comes with an SD to USB interface that has it's own software built in to program the card to connect to your WiFi connection. You can set it up to automatically load the files into iPhoto or upload directly to flickr, facebook, and some other photo sharing sites. Obviously, if you want them in iPhoto you need to have your computer on. The camera does require being "on". It doesn't need to be in playback mode, it can be in any mode. It also works with certain HotSpots in the US. I couldn't test this feature since I live in Canada. It's not lightning fast uploading. A 10 MP image will probably take 30-40 seconds to upload to your computer wirelessly (depends on your network connection), so, it's not as fast as USB. The geotagging, I believe works based on wifi locations. So, if you're not anywhere with wifi access points this feature will not work. There is no GPS radio inside.

Advantages:
No cables
No removing card from the camera
Straight uploading to photo sharing sites
Can upgrade features through software. (Add Geotagging for example)

Disadvantages
It's not as fast as USB
It uses a lot of your camera's batteries to upload (although the site shows you how to turn on power saving features for your camera to conserve energy)
If you edit photos in Lightroom or Aperture then there's not much point to uploading straight to the net.

If you're a casual photographer, and just want to upload straight from the camera, it's an excellent product. It works exactly as the company says. I was really impressed with it.

 

[peskaa]

They work like any other SD card in terms of the camera dumping images to them. However, once the file is on the card it then Geotags (using WiFi, which is a rubbish way of doing it - I reckon you'll get an accurate fix about never) each image, and then squirts them over WiFi to wherever you want them.

Set up for the WiFi is done beforehand, and stored on the card. The camera doesn't know about any of this, and simply sees them as an SD card.

 

[dlegend]

anyone have one of these yet or know how accurate they are?

 

[salvatore]

Do they support RAW yet? Previous Eye-Fi versions did not.

 

[Krikke68]

I never used such a card (and probably never will) because of the WiFi-based geotagging. About 75% of all the photos I take are in areas where WiFi-based geotagging just doesn't work.
The automatic uploading of the photos seems to be a really neat, user-friendly feature, but I'm gonna stick with my geotagging workflow based on the GPS in my iPhone 3G.
GPS-based geotagging always works and is more accurate than WiFi-based geotagging.

 

[TheReef]

Wait, WiFi geotaging?

You're connected to your own network, your location will always be the same anyway - am I missing the point?

Do cities these days have full free WiFi coverage?

 

[jampat]

Wait, WiFi geotaging?

You're connected to your own network, your location will always be the same anyway - am I missing the point?

Do cities these days have full free WiFi coverage?

It looks for networks in the area. The MAC addresses are always available even if you can't connect. It then has a database of MAC addresses vs physical location. That way, by recording what addresses it could see, using the database it can figure out (roughly) where you are.

 

[TheReef]

It looks for networks in the area. The MAC addresses are always available even if you can't connect. It then has a database of MAC addresses vs physical location. That way, by recording what addresses it could see, using the database it can figure out (roughly) where you are.

Ah, very clever! You learn something new every day.

 

[davegregory]

@salvatore - eye-fi pro supports RAW and JPEG files.

 

[salvatore]

@salvatore - eye-fi pro supports RAW and JPEG files.

Thanks Dave. Love your site, too.

 

[davegregory]

Thanks salvatore, appreciate it!

 

[dlegend]

anyone have one of these yet? I just got iLife 09 and I'm interested in it.

 

[superflush]

It looks for networks in the area. The MAC addresses are always available even if you can't connect. It then has a database of MAC addresses vs physical location. That way, by recording what addresses it could see, using the database it can figure out (roughly) where you are.

Is this how the iPhone is doing it if you have an original iPhone.? I have an original iPhone, and it doesn't geotag all of the photos I take. But it does get some of them

 

[superflush]

anyone have one of these yet? I just got iLife 09 and I'm interested in it.

I'd be interested in the Eye-Fi Pro to tide me over until I get a camera that does geotagging via gps. But the Eye-Fi will only work when you're near WiFi, and it is a bit expensive as well.

 

[Galarina]

Is this how the iPhone is doing it if you have an original iPhone.? I have an original iPhone, and it doesn't geotag all of the photos I take. But it does get some of them

You're right. The original iPhone has no GPS aboard and uses Skyhook's WiFi-based positioning to geotag photos.
The coverage is limited to places where WiFi base stations are nearby AND registered in the Skyhook database.

 

[superflush]

You're right. The original iPhone has no GPS aboard and uses Skyhook's WiFi-based positioning to geotag photos.
The coverage is limited to places where WiFi base stations are nearby AND registered in the Skyhook database.

Makes sense. But it seems like it will also work when I'm connected to a WiFi connection (one that maybe isn't in that Skyhook database)