This is not a review but a testimony that the Eye-Fi Pro X2 8GB wireless card just works!
In my last post I wrote about LockPort USB the perfect gear and port saver for photographers who tether a lot, like me. The trouble is not every assignment and situation makes sense to roll out the 5m USB cable and fire up the chunky 17-inch laptop. One such assignment was Muffins&Co at The Souq where I was moving in and out of the shop quite a bit; I was also forced into a corner, literally, where I could not even see the back of the camera LCD. This is when images magically appearing on my iPad is a huge welcome.
I looked at the possibility of CamRanger to make that happen. Everything looked good, reviews were extremely positive and I came so close to ordering one but I just couldn’t get past how awkward it would be having the CamRanger device take up the USB port and camera hot shoe — I need the hot shoe for a Phottix Odin transmitter. In addition to this, wireless transfer speed isn’t better than the throughput of the Eye-Fi after several Q&A emails with CamRanger’s Dave. The CamRanger is a very powerful and versatile solution for anyone who other than tethering also requires wireless control of their Canon or Nikon DSLR. I don’t.
Visit Eye-Fi for a list of cards that work in the EOS 5D Mark III. Pro supports RAW files.
It helped that an associate picked up an Eye-Fi Pro X2 days earlier and had great success tethering his EOS 5D Mark III to the HTC Smartphone. Previous Eye-Fi cards were a hit and miss for cameras that did not have a native SD slot.
“Canon has released a firmware update for the EOS 5D Mark III that resolves an issue where the camera may not function properly with an Eye-Fi card inserted. Please be sure that your camera is running firmware version 1.2.1 or later to avoid any problems. Do not use an Eye-Fi card when updating firmware on the camera. EOS 5D Mark III Firmware Update Version 1.2.1“
Eye-Fi Pro X2 8GB Card inserted into the SD slot of my EOS 5D Mark III. Eye-Fi wireless transferring is disabled by default. Inserting the card into the camera brings up an Eye-Fi settings menu.
I set mine up to capture RAW (Large) on Compact Flash and transfer JPEG (Large) from Eye-Fi to the iPad. I was very surprised that a large JPEG from the 5D Mark III took a reasonable 6 seconds to complete transfer. And that’s all I really need, an opportunity to critically review my images (double tap screen to view full resolution). I followed discussions on Eye-Fi forum to re-look the possibility of using the Pro X2 card in the EOS 5D Mark II. The good news is this CF adapter has been tested to work exceptionally well.
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The Eye-Fi Photo Gallery on my iPad 2. A Large JPEG from the 5D Mark III took 6 secs to download.
