Share photos easily with Eye-Fi card

Published 10:46 pm Friday, November 5, 2010

Product: Eye-Fi Connect X2, a camera memory card for wireless photo and video uploads.

Features: When the camera is turned on and in your Wi-Fi hotspot, the Eye-Fi memory card inside will send the photos and videos you take to your computer. It also can send files to several photo-sharing websites, including Facebook, Flickr and Picasa.

You can automatically free up memory card space after media is transferred, and choose to upgrade the card with features such as geotagging and having it automatically work in any public AT&T mobile hotspot, for an extra yearly charge.

Price: $49.99.

Ups: No need to ever connect the camera to the computer to back up your pictures. Just turn the camera on when you enter your Wi-Fi network, like at home, and it starts transferring. You don’t even need to have your computer turned on. The photos will start uploading to the computer the next time the computer is on and connected to the Internet.

There’s also the option to be notified via a text message once the camera starts transferring photos over Wi-Fi.

Downs: Because this has Wi-Fi technology built into it, this memory card will drain your camera’s battery slightly more than a regular card when it transfers files. And transferring a large video file can drastically drain a battery in minutes.

For it to transfer photos, you first need to connect the card with your laptop and program the Wi-Fi network’s name and password into the card. So unless you have your laptop with you, there’s no way to log in to any Wi-Fi network you stumble upon (but a few cameras have software that let you enter a network password from the menu options).

You can pay an extra $30 a year to have it work in AT&T hotspots at places like McDonald’s and Starbucks, which may only be worth it for a frequent traveler.

It does work with many cameras, but only a select number have special Eye-Fi software built into the camera. I tested it with a camera that didn’t have the special software, so I couldn’t pick and choose which photos got transferred and uploaded to the Web, and which didn’t. The special software also will automatically shut off a camera when it finishes a transfer — and I just had to keep mine on and wait for a text-message notification.

Bottom line: The technology is pretty nifty. But aside from the benefit of never having to plug it into your computer when you get home, it’s more worth the cost for someone who wants to share photos often online. And it’s also better if you have a camera with the special software that lets you be selective with which photos get uploaded.