If you had asked me 6 months ago what was highest on my “must have” list of upcoming gadgets I would have told you all about the Eye-Fi. The Eye-Fi is one of those rare products that gets me excited long before anyone has even seen one in real life, let alone actually reviewed it. The Eye-Fi card is a 2Gb SD card, so it fits in the majority of digital cameras produced at the moment. But what sets this product aside from the 100’s of other 2Gb SD cards is that this one also has WiFi built in. This card is the exact same size as any other SD card, but as soon as you take a photo, it goes to work uploading the photo(s) to your PC or one of 18 (and growing) photo hosting sites.

Let me repeat that; this card is the same size as any other SD card AND it has WiFi inside. It’s hard to comprehend what Eye-Fi pulled off without actually holding one of these in your hands. Unlike WiFi SD cards of the past there is no antenna, so no part of the card sticks out of your camera.

The Eye-Fi comes in a small cardboard box with a manual, card reader and the SD card itself. Before you can use the WiFi portion of the card you have to configure your WiFi settings and (optionally) your photo hosting web site. After that the card is ready for use.

The Eye-Fi Wireless SD card next to a regular SD card.

With the Eye-Fi card you have 3 options; upload to your PC, upload to your photo hosting website or both. Eye-Fi supports almost every major photo hosting sites, from Flickr to Smugmug. The most recent list of supported sites can be found here. Support is even included for Facebook, Vox and the open source “Gallery” photo package.

Getting a photo on your site (or PC) is as easy as taking the photo, and leaving the camera on for at least 30 seconds so it can finish the upload. And that really is the only downside to this card; since the camera doesn’t even know it has been equipped with WiFi you will need to keep it on a little longer for the card to finish uploading. That downside is also one of the main advantages of the card; no drivers or other modifications are needed to the camera, as far as it is concerned it’s just another SD card. Eye-Fi suggests disabling the auto power-off feature of your camera so it will always have enough time to transfer photos.

Another drawback is that the card has to be configured so it can access a secure WiFi hotspot. This is fine if you use it at home, or somewhere with open access, but when on the road it’s not that easy. Anything with web authentication won’t work, and it won’t be practical to change the settings for every hotspot you visit. In fact, the only place I end up using mine is at home. As soon as I get home I turn on my camera, and every photo that has not yet been transferred to my PC and Smugmug gallery get uploaded. No messing with cables, and no checking which photos have been copied yet. The software sorts photos into a new directory for each day keeping things neat and tidy plus it uploads them to my Smugmug gallery, so I’ve always got a backup of my pictures.

The Eye-Fi card only supports JPEG files, so professionals shooting in RAW, or people with video files will still need to manually transfer those files off the card.

To give you an idea of how the process works, I’ve made a short video clip. You’ll see me take a photo, and 15 seconds later the photo is uploaded to my PC. The camera is not connected (by wires) to my desktop, so the Eye-Fi card is doing all the work.

Despite a few minor limitations I find the Eye-Fi a perfect addition to my camera equipment, it’s great to not have to fiddle with cables at home, and uploading photos from a trip is as easy as turning my camera on when I get home.

Eye-Fi costs $99 and is available from most photo equipment retailers, buy.com and Amazon.com