The Gadgets Page

I have a Sony DSC-F828 digital camera that I’ve been quite happy with. It’s a full-frame camera with a large, attached lens that was Sony’s premier camera before they acquired Konica-Minolta’s camera business. It’s not an SLR, but it’s fine for my needs, and with its 8MP imager it’s still quite a good camera. It takes Memory Stick (MS) and CardFlash (CF) mediate types.

But I know that modern cameras have useful features like Wi-Fi connectivity that allows you to automatically upload photos to your computer and to online sharing sites such as Facebook or Flickr. I’ve also gotten quite enamored of the Geo-tagging feature that my iPhone supports for photos. So I’ve been very tempted to update to a new camera for quite some time, even though I’ve been happy with my old Sony and I’ve got quite a few accessories for it. It would be expensive to replace, to say the least.

As I was browsing the isles at Fry’s Electronics, I saw an SD to CF adapter and a plan instantly gelled in my mind: If I could fit an SD card into my Sony, then I could use the Eye-Fi WiFi SD camera card to automatically upload and Geo-tag my photos. So I bought both the CF to SDHC card adapter ($20) and the Eye-Fi Explore 4GB ($100).

The Eye-Fi is a standard SD flash memory card made specifically for cameras that includes integrated WiFi and GPS. Basically, you set the card up using your computer to associate with your Wireless router, and then put the card in your camera. When you take pictures with the camera, the photos are uploaded automatically either to your computer or to Eye-Fi’s servers on the Internet. Eye-Fi’s servers, the photos can be transmitted back to your PC whenever it’s on, and also to online photo sharing websites.

The setup was a piece of cake—you just plug the Eye-Fi card into a USB slot, run the software contained on the card that shows up, answer a few questions and create an account, and then plug the card into your camera and take a picture. The software opens a website that walks you through the process completely, all the way through to receiving your first photo. It was really amazingly easy to setup.

The Eye-Fi also worked perfectly fine in the generic $20 SD to CF adapter I’d bought. My Sony camera recognized it with no issues even though it doesn’t normally take SD cards.

I’m really quite pleased with the Eye-Fi. For about $120, I saved the $1000 it would cost to replace a camera that I’m otherwise completely happy with. With a CF Adapter, the range of cameras that can utilize this amazing little card is dramatically increased. Before you spend the money on upgrading, consider this alternative and save yourself a bundle.