Eye-Fi uses Secure Digital (SD) card slot for Wi-Fi in cameras

In a recent product teardown, Portelligent analyzed Eye-Fi's Share, a Wi-Fi-enabled Secure Digital (SD) card that makes it easy and affordable to add Wi-Fi connectivity to any digital camera with an SD card slot. Eye-Fi's product line-up includes five Wi-Fi SD card/service combinations between $50 and $150.

The only marketed hardware difference is the inclusion of either 2-GB storage in the Home and Share versions or a 4-GB storage in the Share Video, Explore Video, and Pro versions. Photo sharing website uploads, Wi-Fi triangulated geotagging service, free Wi-Fi hotspot uploads, and the ability to upload RAW files provide the remainder of the differentiation between the five solutions. For this teardown, we paid $60 for the 2-GB Share version, which includes the ability to upload pictures to photo sharing websites.

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Combining Wi-Fi and a digital camera dates back to 2003 when Nikon introduced the WT-1 wireless transmitter, which attached to the bottom of a Nikon D2H DSLR. With the transmitter at a cost above $700 combined with the $3,500 Pro D2H, the benefits of bringing the two technologies together were well out of reach of the average consumer. The 2006 availability of the $350 Nikon point-and-shoot 5-MP P2 featuring integrated Wi-Fi enabled consumers to finally afford and realize the benefits of a wireless camera. Other camera manufacturers including Kodak, Canon, and Sony soon released their own point-and-shoot digital cameras with integrated Wi-Fi.

Spotting an opportunity to provide wireless connectivity while letting the consumer choose the camera, Eye-Fi was founded in 2005, the same year that the affordable Nikon P2 made its debut. Any camera, including high-end DSLRs, can benefit from Eye-Fi's solution as long as it has an SD card slot. Immediate Wi-Fi connectivity is not required since the embedded 2 GB or 4 GB on the card can store the images until the camera comes within range of a wireless access point.

After unwrapping the 2-GB Share version, the SD card was inserted into the included USB card reader and connected to a laptop PC. The Eye-Fi software comes pre-loaded on the card and self-installs on the PC. After registering on the Eye-Fi website and setting up Picasa as the on-line destination for photos, the card was placed in the SD slot of an old, 4-MP Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2 camera. In no time, I was taking pictures in my office and watching the images get uploaded to the Eye-Fi website and into the selected Picasa album. I was thoroughly impressed with Eye-Fi's technology and implementation.

The honeymoon phase faded a bit once the flashing red low-battery indicator appeared on the camera's LCD. My primary concern going into this experiment with the Eye-Fi Wi-Fi card was the impact it would have on my camera's battery life and the red flashing light was confirming my fear. Since I didn't place a fresh set of AA batteries into the camera prior to the test, it wasn't fair to place all of the blame on the newly inserted Wi-Fi card. The only way to truly understand the impact of transmitting each photo via Wi-Fi was to bypass the power supplied by the four AA batteries and connect the power and ground leads of the Wi-Fi card to the Portelligent source measure unit while inserted in my camera.