Popular WiFi-connected SD card supplier Eyefi just recently released an all new item, the Eyefi Mobi Pro. For those unfamiliar with Eyefi, the firm makes WiFi-connected SD cards to provide people a means to swiftly move photos from their cams to their Macs, iPhones, and iPads, also when a WiFi network is not available.
The company’s latest card, the Eyefi Mobi Pro offers 32GB of storage, assistance for RAW file transfers, and a wireless transfer function that allows users precisely select which pictures to submit. When used on a residence WiFi network, the Mobi Pro allows users move images at high rates, but when away from home, it produces its own WiFi hotspot, so it’s consistently possible to obtain images from the SD card to an iPad, iPhone, or Mac.
MacRumors went hands-on with the new Eyefi Mobi Pro SD card to have a look at every one of the brand-new functions and to find out whether or not it’s worth the $$ 99 cost. Exactly what’s in the Box
The Eyefi box contains one 32GB Class 10 SDHC WiFi card, a USB card adapter that’s utilized to configure the Mobi card, and an activation card that allows the Mobi Pro pair with desktop and iOS applications. The card likewise enables users to authorize up for a free year of access to Eyefi’s cloud service, which enables unlimited picture uploads and storage.
Setup
The Eyefi box directs users directly to a setup site, which makes locating the configuration steps simple. The site has directions for establishing the Mobi Pro as much as connect to a mobile device or a computer.
Linking the Mobi Pro to a mobile device initially requires a download of the coming with Eyefi app. On iOS, the application is called Eyefi Mobi and is readily available totally free in the App Store. Once installed, the application requests an activation code, which is consisted of in the box, and it will certainly ask you to install a provisioning profile to permit the iPhone to recognize the Mobi Pro card.
From there, you have to put the SD card in the cam, break a couple of pictures, and leave the video camera on while you go to the Settings app on your iPhone. Browse to WiFi and select the Mobi Pro card network. You’ll need to get in the activation code as a password, however the application does not specify that, which makes configuration a bit much more tough compared to it should be.
Attaching the Mobi Pro card to a Mac is a similar procedure, and includes downloading the Eyefi Mobi Desktop app then following several of the exact same activation actions. On the Mac, you do not acquire a full app– merely a small app accessible from the menu bar. Connecting the Eyefi card into a Mac with the included USB adapter will bring up some innovative arrangement settings, allowing you bring in a home network to make submitting pictures in your home less complicated.
Eyefi Mac application
Both the iOS and Mac applications will urge you to link the Mobi Pro card to an Eyefi Cloud account. You acquire a free year of Eyefi Cloud solution with the acquisition of a Mobi Pro card, and it’s $$ 49.99 each year later on. It’s not a bad offer due to the fact that you obtain unrestricted storage space and it sustains both RAW and JPEG documents.
Eyefi Cloud is not required to make use of the Mobi Pro card, but it serves considering that it syncs images across all devices and makes them readily available via the Eyefi Cloud web site.
Establishing the Mobi Pro isn’t exactly difficult, yet it’s not totally straightforward. Documentation is not as clear as it can be, and there were some traits we located perplexing. For instance, attaching to the Mobi Pro’s WiFi called for a password that ended up being the activation code, yet that information wasn’t provided anywhere. As another instance, when we downloaded the Mac app from the Eyefi website, it downloaded an older version of the software that did not car current.
Exactly how it Works
Once set up, the Mobi Pro card is easy to utilize. When far from residence, the card will develop its very own WiFi network, so images (or videos) can be published to an iPhone, iPad, or Mac even when WiFi is not readily available. Linking to the card’s WiFi is done with the Mac’s WiFi bar or the iPhone’s settings food selection, much like other WiFi network. When connected, all pictures you have actually taken will certainly be transferred to the device you’re linked to (one link is sustained each time).
If you’re away from WiFi and upload your photos to your iPhone using a direct link, you can take place to submit those photos to the Eyefi Darken cellular if your information plan allows for it, making them easily accessible anywhere right away.
In the advanced settings menu, obtainable by plugging the Mobi Pro into a computer, you could also establish it up to deal with a house WiFi network by adding your network’s name and password. With your residence WiFi network brought in to the card, it will certainly use your house WiFi to immediately post pictures to the Eyefi Mac app without the need to link your Mac directly to the card.
Eyefi Settings menu, accessible by means of the Mac application
Once you get home from a picture shooting session, merely open up the Mac application and turn your video camera on to acquire each one of the photos that you shot from the Mobi Pro to the Mac. If you have actually also authorized into Eyefi Cloud, pictures will certainly post to the cloud, which also makes them obtainable through the iPhone application. If you’re contending house, images will move to the computer automatically for simple modifying as long as the Mac app is open.
So basically, you’ve got numerous means to acquire your photos to every device quickly relying on how you wish to make use of the Mobi Pro card. If you do a direct link to the iPhone app and make it possible for cloud syncing over mobile, photos will be moved to the iPhone, posted to the Eyefi Cloud and accessible on a Mac using an internet browser. If you wait until you get home, you could move the photos to your Mac, where they’ll additionally be uploaded to Eyefi Cloud and available on the iPhone.
Whenever you’re submitting photos from your camera to an iOS device or Mac, the SD card slot on the camera has to be triggered. On many cams, power is set to close off after around 30 seconds to protect electric battery, so this will certainly have to be prolonged in the electronic camera settings food selection to ensure the card remains on. Leaving the camera on to transfer pictures can drain the battery much faster.
This isn’t much of a trouble with JPEGs because the file dimension is relatively tiny and it takes merely seconds to move them, but it could be a concern when publishing bigger RAW data since those take a bit longer. It’s wise to maintain an extra battery handy if you’re planning to utilize the Mobi Pro to post a bunch of files when far from residence.
Functions
Speed sensible, the Mobi Pro is a class 10 SDHC card, so it sustains read rates of 13MB/s and write accelerate to 23/MB/s. That means it could tape-record complete 1080p video or consecutive high-quality still photos. When shooting RAW, we had no problems taking several burst photos, and there were no issues tape-recording 1080p video clip.
Literally, the card is similar to a common SD card, and it must be kept in mind that it is a lot more resilient compared to previous-generation Eyefi cards that leaned to damage. Just like many SD cards, there’s a physical compose safeguard activate the side.
Eyefi’s Mobi Pro card supports numerous picture and video clip styles, consisting of RAW. RAW files will certainly be published to the Mac automatically, however when you try to move RAW documents to the iPhone app, they’ll be transformed right into JPEGs. The full RAW files will then should be moved to the Mac later, but they can additionally be uploaded to the cloud via the iPhone if you’re authorized right into the Eyefi Cloud solution.
Among the new features special to the Mobi Pro is careful transfer, which allows you decide on the images that you would like to sync to your devices. With previous Eyefi cards, publishing images was an all or nothing offer, but that’s not the situation with the new card. To use selective transfer, you should enable it utilizing your Mac and after that select photos to maintain using the “protect” feature in your electronic camera’s settings. You need to separately flag each image with the protect choice, which isn’t the most stylish solution, yet it behaves to have the option if you just really want to sync a handful of pictures.
The Mobi Pro, like all the Eyefi SD cards, works with a vast range of video cameras. Business like Olympus, Nikon, and Canon also have Eyefi assistance built-in to their cams. You could inspect whether your electronic camera is appropriate utilizing Eyefi’s website.
Eyefi Applications
The Eyefi Mac app is basically just used to facilitate image transfers and to readjust the Mobi Pro’s settings, but the Eyefi Mobi iOS app has a couple of more attributes. Unlike the Mac app, it will display every one of the images that you’ve submitted from your Mobi Pro card, and if you’re signed right into the Eyefi Cloud, it’ll present every one of your cloud images as well.
There are some standard modifying tools for cropping and aligning pictures integrateded, plus it arranges all of your images right into cds by day. It additionally supports tags, includes EXIF info, and allows you erase information. Settings within the app provide you the option to send out images you’ve published to the cam roll, and there’s also a setting to import images you have actually handled your iPhone, giving you a way to obtain every one of your images, tackled cam or iOS device, right into the Eyefi Cloud if you’re using that.
Customer support
During our screening of the Mobi Pro, we bumped into a major insect that induced the card to be almost unusable and unable to connect to a residence WiFi network. It wasn’t being acknowledged by the Mac application since as it turns out, our card was never ever triggered properly. This was a mistake that turned up throughout the activation process, and it ended up being an error the Eyefi team stated it hadn’t viewed prior to.
We had a conversation with an Eyefi item manager that, with the assistance of engineers, chatted us via reactivating the Mobi Pro card and after that pressed a repair so it would not take place once more to other users. As we had an evaluation device, we clearly obtained straight to the leading of the customer care ladder, however we were excited with the firm’s support data source and its willingness to invest a number of hrs on a Friday night dealing with a rare bug.
Which’s it For?
The Eyefi Mobi Pro is a card that agrees with for DSLR users who really want a method to instantly move RAW and JPEG files to their computers or cell phones. Generally, a 32GB course 10 SD card could be acquired for under $$ 20, so at $ 99 for the Eyefi Mobi Pro, you’re paying quite a premium for convenience.
Is that additional money worth it? It relies on your workflow. If you want a way to quickly obtain photos from your electronic camera to your iPhone, the Mobi Pro is an excellent remedy. If you require a method to obtain images to your Mac or iOS device also when you don’t have Internet, the Mobi Pro does that. If you do not intend to headache with eliminating the SD card from your cam and plugging it right into your Mac after a lengthy day of shooting, the Mobi Pro will certainly post them automatically, and for some, the time saved will make the Mobi Pro worth the cash.
For computers that do not have SD card ports, like Apple’s upcoming MacBook, the Mobi Pro will be particularly beneficial, especially during the very early months when no SD card adapters already existing.
Many DSLRs and mirrorless cams these days feature integrated WiFi. If you currently have a WiFi-enabled camera, the Mobi Pro may go down feeling, yet lots of WiFi cameras are rather much more limited. As an example, with Olympus’ line of mirrorless video cameras, you could upload to iOS through an app, but there are no alternatives for instantly syncing all photos to the desktop.
If you’re going to acquire a Mobi Pro SD card, bear in mind that it functions ideal with the Eyefi Cloud service. With Eyefi Cloud, all of your photos are available on every one of your devices virtually instantaneously for quick sharing and modifying, which’s a perk that can not be ignored. You acquire a free year with purchase, but you’re possibly visiting desire to maintain using it after keeping a year’s well worth of photos, so take right into account the $$ 49.99/ year fee.
Pros
Uploads photos automatically at house
Uploads pictures by means of direct link when no WiFi is available
Practical
Sustains RAW and JPEG data
Eyefi Cloud makes photos available anywhere
Cons
Arrangement is a bit complicated
Pricey
Some battery drain
Selective transfer is time consuming
The best ways to Purchase
Eyefi’s brand-new Mobi Pro 32GB WiFi SD card can be bought from the Eyefi web site for $$ 99.99. That rate includes a free year of the company’s Eyefi Cloud service, with limitless syncing and storage space.
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