[voyager13]

Hi Guys,

I would have loved to have a tethered setting on my K-7 or K-x but there isn't. So either I get a different camera or what I have read about Eye-fi Pro x2 which is a SDHC card plus a wi-fi connection and can be replaced for the normal SDHC card into the camera so that it will help to connect the computer(PC) to the camera wirelessly and transmit jpegs (and RAW's?) to the computer as if the camera was tethered.

I seems that the Eye-fi card had given 50-50 results on non-Pentax cameras (according to what I have read online)
Has anyone tried that on Pentax cameras and with what results? Is it worth buying one of those cards?

[Frogfish]

I have one - it works but can be a little slow (as files get larger so of course the transfer rate slows). But it does as advertised.

[selar]

There is a competing card from the inventor of the USB flash drive - :::: Flucard pro :::: Its advantage is that it can be configured to upload to any ftp server you specify, rather than the eyfi server only in the case of eyefi. I have setup a ftp server on my home pc, so now I have endless free storage.

On holidays, my media gets home before I do.

[voyager13]

Thanks frogfish and selar.
Selar - Yes I have read that the Eye-fi tries continuously to connect to its own server/s when we are online. Your idea of setting up an ftp server on your home pc is very interesting. Am gonna look into the Flucard pro, sounds great.

[Docrwm]

Why do both makers of these cards only offer Class 6?

[voyager13]

Why do both makers of these cards only offer Class 6?

I guess its gonna take some more time to come out with class 10 as the technology catches up on such cards, I think.

[Docrwm]

I guess its gonna take some more time to come out with class 10 as the technology catches up on such cards, I think.

Class 10 cards have been out for a couple of years now. I keep waiting for a dSLR to just incorporte WiFi directly into the camera thus killing these cards utility.

[voyager13]

Class 10 cards have been out for a couple of years now.

Yes they have been out for a while but they are simply faster storage cards, but not with wifi support. But yes won't that be absolutely great to get wifi built into cameras. I guess that shouldn't take much for camera companies who can make such advanced and complicated cameras to put a by-now common technology like wifi into the cameras. I wonder why they haven't done it already.

[amoringello]

Weather they work is very difficult to say... it seems to differ with every firmware upgrade (wether that is a change in camera firmware or the EyeFi card firmware), compatibility changes. I've had a perfectly good card go from working to not-working several times over the past years. I keep two cards, but only upgrade one until I know if the change will adversely affect the behavior.

EyeFi probably has no Pentax cameras to test on, so their compatibility chart is not reliable.
The card does work with K7 and K5, and so far that is true with the latest firmwares as of late June.

The EyeFi card X2 Pro can now create its own hotspot, so not more need for a device such as a laptop to create an insecure ad-hoc network nor for a hotspot router.
You may now Direct Connect, lets say, your iPad to the EyeFi in your camera and have your images uploaded to any compatible software. (EyeFi Center, or ShuterSnitch, etc...)

Distance between the two devices makes a huge difference. The EyeFi does not suck out a lot of power so its range is pretty limited.
Anything over about 7 feet is going to exhibit dramatic reduction in data speed, and you want no walls or obstructions if you can help it.
But it will work to quite a distance... I've forgotten to turn off the software and had the EyeFi connect to my router two stories above me from my basement. Xfer was abysmally slow, but I did see photos go through.

I will normally shoot in RAW+JPG mode, and set JPG quality to 6MP **, and then tell the EyeFi card to upload only RAW images. These take about 5 seconds per image to upload. The quality is more than enough to show on screen to the customer, and I'll download the RAW files later when I have time.

[bobmaxja]

I have the Eye-fi Pro X2. It work , the photo are dowloaded to my Ipad without any issues

I have the K-5

[jake14mw]

I have a quick question for those that use this in direct mode with a tablet or phone. I have one and have the eye-fi app installed on an Android tablet. When trying to lauch the eye-fi app on the tablet outside with no wi-fi avaialable, I got a message saying something like, "could not connect to Eye-fi Servers". I should be able to have my K5 with the eye-fi card in it download folders to a tablet without an internet connection, right?

[voyager13]

Sorry for interrupting jake14 but I couldn't resist my thoughts.
You should be able to move files & folders between two devices using Wifi(no internet connection needed) and hence it should have worked in your case. But I believe since the eye-fi card would be first dialing in its home server, and if it connects via internet to the server, only than will allow the transfer between your two devices. Since the internet wasn't available(I suppose that's what you meant when you wrote '...with no wifi available) it couldn't connect home-base and hence did not let you use wifi either. If that's the case, than I don't think I am gonna buy this particular card. I like Selar's suggestion of purchasing the Flucard Pro as a much better solution.

[Docrwm]

The different versions of the Eye-Fi cards apparently have distinctly different functionality. Some of the reviews I've read have been very critical about the confusion between the different versions and the lack of clarity by the company in its advertising that some versions do not do RAW, will not transfer from platform to platform directly, etc.

[amoringello]

I guess a quick question would be if you had gone through the direct connect workflow while the card was connected to your PC. The card is great and is wonderful when it works. Sadly, the EyeFi Center software, although many times better than it was a few years ago, still sucks. I swear it was written over a weekend by a pair of interns with no senior developer overview. The workflow is horrible. The hoops one must jump through to make it work are non-sensical. The whole interface is just non-intuitive.

For example, in order to change whether you want to transfer RAW, JPEG or both from your card to your device, you need to connect to the Internet.
If I'm out on location in a remote area and have no Internet, to make trivial configuration changes I may need to drive thirty minutes into town, find WiFi, make the three second change then drive back! Truly DEMENTED!

So, my point being... your card needs to register itself with the mothership at least once before you can use it remotely. I believe you must also connect your device to the EyeFi card while you have Internet connection. (not really sure, remember, the whole thing is so damn confusion, non-sensical and non-intuitive -- and be happy this is the second and improved revision!!!) Once done, it needs no further Internet connection for use in Direct Connect mode. (until you need to change the config... )

It may be also possible that you have it configured to connect to open WiFi. If it detects a WiFi nearby, it may be trying to connect through that instead of going into Direct Connect mode. Ditto


Anyway, I would call EyeFi or email them and get their help. They are actually quite helpful, but seem to be in deep denial about how truly horrible their software is.

[jake14mw]

I guess a quick question would be if you had gone through the direct connect workflow while the card was connected to your PC. The card is great and is wonderful when it works. Sadly, the EyeFi Center software, although many times better than it was a few years ago, still sucks. I swear it was written over a weekend by a pair of interns with no senior developer overview. The workflow is horrible. The hoops one must jump through to make it work are non-sensical. The whole interface is just non-intuitive.

For example, in order to change whether you want to transfer RAW, JPEG or both from your card to your device, you need to connect to the Internet.
If I'm out on location in a remote area and have no Internet, to make trivial configuration changes I may need to drive thirty minutes into town, find WiFi, make the three second change then drive back! Truly DEMENTED!

So, my point being... your card needs to register itself with the mothership at least once before you can use it remotely. I believe you must also connect your device to the EyeFi card while you have Internet connection. (not really sure, remember, the whole thing is so damn confusion, non-sensical and non-intuitive -- and be happy this is the second and improved revision!!!) Once done, it needs no further Internet connection for use in Direct Connect mode. (until you need to change the config... )

It may be also possible that you have it configured to connect to open WiFi. If it detects a WiFi nearby, it may be trying to connect through that instead of going into Direct Connect mode. Ditto


Anyway, I would call EyeFi or email them and get their help. They are actually quite helpful, but seem to be in deep denial about how truly horrible their software is.

Thanks very much, I totally agree, set up was much harder than I thought it would be, and I still don't really understand how it works. I wil try what you said.