[rodneyr]

Hi,
Has anyone used or tried the SD WiFi card. I have read some details on the card but unfortunately they don't ship to Australia. I'm mainly interested in the card as I carry my laptop with me and that has WiFi connectivity. I thought that due to my poor eyesight it would assist in transfering the images directly into Lightroom via Auto import. As an owner of a Kx it can't be tethered to the laptop so looking for alternate idea.

All ideas welcome.

[Adam]

There are a few threads on this topic here: PentaxForums.com - Threads Tagged with eye-fi

The cards work with the K-x, but I've heard a lot of stories of failures and file corruption.

[bigdog104]

I have heard these cards are hit and miss. The compatibility chart on the Eye-Fi website does not list the K-x. This doesn't mean it won't work, but it might be difficult to get technical support.

[Derridale]

I suppose if you had a laptop with no SD card reader, then it may just cut out one step of the transfer process by not having to hook up the camera to a USB cable.

But I have a Macbook Pro 17", that has no SD card reader but does have a PCExpress Card slot. So I have a Kensington 7-in-1 Media Card reader that fits into the PCExpress card slot. Works perfectly, and is MUCH faster than the Eye-Fi card transfer (a friend had one of those that I saw working - it was quite slow).

I think most of the other laptops and Macbooks etc have SD card reader slots directly. It is only the 17" that doesn't - I think And the Kensington adapter gives it an SD card reader slot.

Here is the thing I'm talking about:

7-in-1 Media Reader for ExpressCard® slot - K33407US - Kensington

[amoringello]

The EyeFi card comes with its own USB reader. Most USB readers I have come across cannot support the power requirements of the EyeFi card and will not detect it.
Luckily my laptop USB reader works fine. My other three external and internal for the desktop machines do not work with *that* card.

I tried starting a forum post on their website to track what works and what does not.
Hopefully there has been some additions and you can check there to see if a specific reader might be capable of handling the EyeFicard.

Anyway, YES it is great to have the basic functionality of tethering without a cable. (especially now that Pentax decided we do not need tethering! Argh!!) I create an AdHoc network on my laptop and dump photos off as I take them. About five seconds for JPG and about 10 seconds for DNG (approx 8M v.s 16M per image).

Seems slow, but since I am working with the client as they download, the images are usually on the PC by the time we walk over to look at them. Otherwise I need to put the card in and sit and wait, doing *nothing* for 30 or 60 seconds or more while the client *waits* and gets bored. (i.e. sales are lost). Additionally, other clients back up waiting for their photos to be taken, get bored, distracted, (and again sales can be lost).

Besides, compared to the download speed of a tethered K10D, I think the EyeFi speed is comparble. More than that, it is a LOT more stable! (Pentax's RemoteAssist was the one of the worst pieces of software I've ever had to use. You cannot sit swearing in front of clients while your PC *AND* your camera locks up!!!)

Download speed directly through USB interface is of course at full speed as spec'd for a Class6 SD card... I forget off the top of my head, but look up as suggested above and you'll fid the timings I found for read-write speeds.