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Eyefi Review: Hands-On With the Mobi Pro 32GB WiFi-Connected SD Card

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Apr 12, 2001
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Popular WiFi-connected SD card manufacturer Eyefi recently released a brand new product, the Eyefi Mobi Pro. For those unfamiliar with Eyefi, the company makes WiFi-connected SD cards to give people a way to quickly transfer photos from their cameras to their Macs, iPhones, and iPads, even when a WiFi network is unavailable.

The company's newest card, the Eyefi Mobi Pro offers 32GB of storage, support for RAW file transfers, and a wireless transfer feature that lets users selectively choose which photos to upload. When used on a home WiFi network, the Mobi Pro lets users transfer images at high speeds, but when away from home, it creates its own WiFi hotspot, so it's always possible to get pictures from the SD card to an iPad, iPhone, or Mac.

eyefiincamera-800x600.jpg

MacRumors went hands-on with the new Eyefi Mobi Pro SD card to check out all of the new features and to figure out whether or not it's worth the $99 price tag.

What's in the Box

The Eyefi box contains one 32GB Class 10 SDHC WiFi card, a USB card adapter that's used to configure the Mobi card, and an activation card that lets the Mobi Pro pair with desktop and iOS apps. The card also allows users to sign up for a free year of access to Eyefi's cloud service, which allows unlimited photo uploads and storage.

eyefiinthebox-800x600.jpg

Setup

The Eyefi box directs users straight to a setup website, which makes finding the setup steps easy. The website has instructions for setting the Mobi Pro up to connect to a mobile device or a computer.


Click here to read more...

Article Link: Eyefi Review: Hands-On With the Mobi Pro 32GB WiFi-Connected SD Card
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/review/eyefi-mobi-pro-wifi-sd-card/
Interesting wifi SD card

Looks good – but I don't understand why I'd need their cloud service.

I'm just looking for an easier way to download images from my Canon 6D. The USB works ok in the studio, but out on the field it's hard to get access to photos (Canon's iOS app is awful).

Do I need a subscription in order to sync to an iPhone/iPad for HD viewing on a photo shoot outside?

I really don't want to sync RAW photos –*I hope this wouldn't sync everything that I don't want into the cloud from mobile.

The user on-boarding process seems like too much work for me, otherwise I would consider buying one of these cards. Until they can make it super smooth –*I'll keep doing what I've been doing.
 
I bought my wife an Eyefi a long time ago for her D90. I thought it was a fantastic idea, she never used it.

Why?

The Eyefi app. At the end of the day she traded one step for another step and didn't really save much time or effort. The transfer speeds of her (early) card were not all that fast, and then once in the Eyefi app she had to export all her images into iPhoto or Photoshop or whatever program she used to edit them. When she just used a card reader the transfer rates were much faster and she could import the photos directly into an app with useful editing tools.

Sounds like not a whole lot has changed, which is unfortunate. The iPhone is one of the most used camera's because all your photos go to the same place. I wish there was a way to use the Eyefi to directly import into iPhoto/Photos. That would make me buy one.

On that note, does anyone know of a wifi card/adapter/camera that will wirelessly transfer directly into iPhoto/Photos? Nikon has wifi adapters now, but I believe they only "talk" with the Nikon app too.
 
Both my wife and I use the mobi cards, mines in a D5100 and hers is in a V1. I use the d5100 in raw and JPEG basic so the pegs transfer to my phone when out and about for quick sharing whilst my wife uses hers exclusively with her MacBook. Simply turn the camera and MacBook on and the photos transfer to a folder automatically. I've set Lightroom to always look at this folder for new photos so she can easily import them to her library to edit.

Works great for both our needs but don't feel the need to be able to transfer raw files too.
 
PaulSolt said:
Looks good – but I don't understand why I'd need their cloud service.

I'm just looking for an easier way to download images from my Canon 6D. The USB works ok in the studio, but out on the field it's hard to get access to photos (Canon's iOS app is awful).

Do I need a subscription in order to sync to an iPhone/iPad for HD viewing on a photo shoot outside?

I really don't want to sync RAW photos –*I hope this wouldn't sync everything that I don't want into the cloud from mobile.

The user on-boarding process seems like too much work for me, otherwise I would consider buying one of these cards. Until they can make it super smooth –*I'll keep doing what I've been doing.
Click to expand...

No, you don't need a subscription to sync photos to your iPhone or iPad. You also don't have to sync RAW files, you can turn it off. Setting it up definitely isn't super simple, but it's pretty easy to use once you have the app installed and everything activated.
 
It's pretty expensive for what it is. Also you will need an extra battery or two.

Personally, I just bring my cards home and stick them in my iMac.

However my new camera arriving in a few days, will have built in WIFI, so I'll explore a few other options then.
 
lowercaseperson said:
On that note, does anyone know of a wifi card/adapter/camera that will wirelessly transfer directly into iPhoto/Photos? Nikon has wifi adapters now, but I believe they only "talk" with the Nikon app too.
Click to expand...
I had a Canon point and shoot with WiFi last summer. After using Canon's app on my iPad to browse the pictures in the camera, it would download the selected (or all) pictures to "Photos" directly.

Still, the camera required quite a few awkward menu selections to activate WiFi, I had to change my WiFi settings on my iPad to connect to the camera's WiFi network (we did not have a WiFi network in the hotel room) and then I had to start Canon's app to connect to the camera's "photo library" and wait for the over-the-air download to complete.

I enjoyed the ability to look through my pictures on my iPad during vacation, but using an SD card adapter felt easier.
 
lowercaseperson said:
Nikon has wifi adapters now, but I believe they only "talk" with the Nikon app too.
Click to expand...

The Nikon app is also pitiful in how it performs... or at least the built in wifi on my Nikon d750 is awful with the Nikon app. It's hard to connect and when you finally do get the thing linked up, it drops the connection very easily so you spend a lot of time nursing your wifi connection instead of shooting so I gave up and stopped using it as part of my workflow.

If the EyeFi app will at least allow for a stable WiFi connection, I might have some interest in it as an alternative.
 
Stavros Konstantaras and Connor Dillon from the University of Amsterdam reversed the protocol from EyeFi Mobi, it's completely broken now (compared to EyeFi Pro X2), as the key is static for all eyefi cards - simply 000...0! That's a real mess and broke the entiere scheme, as everyone is now able to compute it.
https://www.os3.nl/_media/2013-2014/courses/ot/connor_stavros.pdf
 
I thought about buying one of these for my own DSLR but it didn't seem to be any more convenient than just plugging the USB cable in to my camera and importing the pictures directly.

It's a good idea but it is poorly implemented. They would be smarter to create a virtual USB device for Windows and Mac so that when you connect to the EyeFi it appears on your computer like a USB storage device. The same way a real camera plugged in over USB would. That would allow direct importing into Aperture, iPhoto or the new Photos app without faffing around in their app first.

It can be done as I have iKVM devices for server IPMI's (remote access tools for servers) which can create virtual USB devices locally for what is plugged in to the server over the internet.
 
I'm simply waiting for positive reviews from pro's before I buy into the system. I would love nothing more than to eliminate the USB cord to shoot tethered to the computer and Pocket Wizard Plus X's when using the Profoto's. Until then, I'll stick with the workflow that consistantly works.
 
I bought an Eyefi card for my Canon point-and-shoot a couple of years ago, but it took so long to transfer photos that it was faster for me to dig out a cable, physically connect the camera, transfer the photos, and put the cable away again.

When I bought it, I thought it would save me time, but I've given up using it. I didn't want to spend more to try again with a faster model.
 
My photo teacher said these things were going to be great to streamline editing back when they first came out. Both for us to edit down stuff for yearbook, and then for education purposes.

Would never think about buying one just to eliminate using a cable. Rather have a bigger sized card for that kind of money.
 
One decent use for it

I have an older model that just sends jpg files. I usually shoot in RAW, so this was not much use to+ small jpg and synced to my iPhone 6+. They were able to see their pictures on the bigger screen and I could keep shooting.

Otherwise, with no raw support I found it pretty useless. Didn't see enough value to buy the upgrade, although there are a few times I'm shooting and my assistant is on the laptop working on the pics. Instead of ping-ponging memory cards it could just stream straight to her.

Otherwise, not so much.
 
Transcend WiFi cards are a good alternative, they cost less and have had the 32gb version for a while. They are definitely for the pro-sumer/pro shooters as they do require a little more setup. But the plus side is that is doesn't have all the extra cloud stuff. Both the EyeFi & Transcend apps are awful though.

I use ShutterSnitch to transfer photos. You import to the app, transfer just the photos you want to your camera roll. You can sync via mac on WiFi when you get home to get all the photos off of the app or throw the card into a reader. You can also send photos from SS to FTP, DropBox, etc etc.

Either of the cards will probably be fine but the app you import with is the difference maker.
 
i could see this being useful for people who want the nicer screen real estate of an iPad or macbook on assignment, working along side others who need to see in a hurry - as long as the transfers were fast. but what would really clinch it, is if the app allowed for Events/ Favorites management. then you could use the bandwidth for only pics you really wanted to see. not sure by the description whether this is possible.
 
teslo said:
i could see this being useful for people who want the nicer screen real estate of an iPad or macbook on assignment, working along side others who need to see in a hurry - as long as the transfers were fast. but what would really clinch it, is if the app allowed for Events/ Favorites management. then you could use the bandwidth for only pics you really wanted to see. not sure by the description whether this is possible.
Click to expand...

This is possible in ShutterSnitch. When I travel, I create sets by day/location and then you can rate the photos, etc. You can move photos between sets, you can send over BT photos from the iPhone app to the iPad app...so many features, really.

I just want to be clear that I don't have any stake in ShutterSnitch, it's just really a great app for photographers and want to spread the word to support the very hard working Dev.
 
Last edited:
cyprian.pl said:
I find them useful for waterproof camera since you don't need to open any seal to get the pictures.
Click to expand...

If only there was a microsd version that was compatible with go pro... Im pretty sure microsd cards are still too small to do this king of thing though.

Im surprised that they can fit all the wifi stuff in such a small little sd card to begin with.
 
lowercaseperson said:
I bought my wife an Eyefi a long time ago for her D90. I thought it was a fantastic idea, she never used it.

Why?

The Eyefi app. At the end of the day she traded one step for another step and didn't really save much time or effort. The transfer speeds of her (early) card were not all that fast, and then once in the Eyefi app she had to export all her images into iPhoto or Photoshop or whatever program she used to edit them. When she just used a card reader the transfer rates were much faster and she could import the photos directly into an app with useful editing tools.

Sounds like not a whole lot has changed, which is unfortunate. The iPhone is one of the most used camera's because all your photos go to the same place. I wish there was a way to use the Eyefi to directly import into iPhoto/Photos. That would make me buy one.

On that note, does anyone know of a wifi card/adapter/camera that will wirelessly transfer directly into iPhoto/Photos? Nikon has wifi adapters now, but I believe they only "talk" with the Nikon app too.
Click to expand...

This.... When the first 8GB SD EyeFi cards came out, I bought two of them for my wife and my cameras. The idea was great, but the time it took to transfer drove us insane. Sometimes it wouldn't even connect and we would have to reboot the camera for it to start magically working again (and these were on fully EyeFi supported cameras). Eventually we just ended up using them as 8GB SD cards and when it came time to get bigger cards, we just went back to standard high speed SD cards. If we could get someway to transfer directly into iPhoto at faster rates, maybe....

Then again all of this is based on EyeFi cards from 5? years ago.... I have no opinion/experience on newer models, but the early ones were virtually useless to me so I have no interest in spending money on them again. A USB cord is fine with me.
 
Class 10 only.
the 2 most important things are missing from this review.
How long does it take to transfer a Raw Image?
Then compare that to transfer over USB so you can make an informed choice.

Also what type of wifi is it? The website doesn't say.
If it was the latest spec 802.11AC then it might have decent transfer rates.
However I doubt it based on the lousy read/write times of just recording to the SD card.
 
Quu said:
I thought about buying one of these for my own DSLR but it didn't seem to be any more convenient than just plugging the USB cable in to my camera and importing the pictures directly.

It's a good idea but it is poorly implemented. They would be smarter to create a virtual USB device for Windows and Mac so that when you connect to the EyeFi it appears on your computer like a USB storage device. The same way a real camera plugged in over USB would. That would allow direct importing into Aperture, iPhoto or the new Photos app without faffing around in their app first.

It can be done as I have iKVM devices for server IPMI's (remote access tools for servers) which can create virtual USB devices locally for what is plugged in to the server over the internet.
Click to expand...

Strictly, remote management cards on servers do nothing virtual. They are connected to a physical USB port in the host server, and they present a hub with several attached devices (keyboard, mouse, and potentially several mass storage devices). That's why something similar couldn't really be done with the EyeFi card.

Software could conceivably be made to talk to the EyeFi card as a remote filesystem, much like mounting a WebDAV share (look up FUSE), but that's much more difficult and error-prone than just transferring the files. After all, if you have a spotty WiFi connection, what happens if your machine tries to write to the remote volume? Data inconsistency, that's what.

The way they do it now is much simpler. Files just appear in a folder. One-way data transfer. With a little scripting, you can automatically import the contents of that folder into whatever DAM software you use. After Aperture's discontinuance was announced, I switched to Capture One, but I'm sure Lightroom could do the same.
 
Zimmie said:
That's why something similar couldn't really be done with the EyeFi card.
Click to expand...

No this is not true, it is completely possible to mount USB devices in software only. Both Synology and VMWare have a USB Mass Storage device emulator available. All you need to do is write a driver for it, just like mounting a RAID array. It's all a software driver.

I've seen it done.
 
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