When I first told people about the Eye-Fi Card ($99 list), I was greeted with little enthusiasm. "So what," they said, "it's not that hard to transfer photos from your camera to your PC." But then, when I actually showed these naysayers how the Eye-Fi Card works, their interest was measurably piqued. You go out and take pictures. You return home, turn on your camera and, within 20 to 30 seconds, your images (JPEGs only) begin uploading wirelessly—in full resolution—to your hard drive and your favorite photo-sharing sites. All you need is a Wi-Fi connection, a camera that accepts SD cards, and a PC or Mac. It's really that simple. 
The 2GB Eye-Fi Card looks like your basic SD card on the outside, but it's got Wi-Fi technology hidden inside. When your Eye-Fi-Card-equipped camera is powered on and in-range of your Wi-Fi connection, the card communicates with Eye-Fi's server and your network, then uploads your photos. Your computer doesn't even have to be turned on. All images are saved on Eye-Fi's server until they're successfully loaded onto your system. If your computer is powered on, your image thumbnails will pop up on the lower-right side of your screen as they're uploaded. And you don't have to do a thing.
If your camera takes SD cards, it's likely to work with the Eye-Fi Card. For a list of compatible manufacturers, visit support.eye.fi/compatibility. I used the Eye-Fi Card with a Canon PowerShot SD750 and a Fuji FinePix Z10fd without a problem. I also tested it with an older camera, the HP Photosmart E317, which was released in 2005. I had to reformat the card first, but it worked like a charm after that. Two things of note: First, formatting the card wipes it clean, so be sure to back up any files before switching cameras. Second, images can be shot with one camera and transferred with another: I took pics with the HP, then removed the card and put it in the Canon and snapped more pictures. Then I left the Canon turned on within range of the wireless network, and all the new images from both cameras were transferred before my eyes. Pretty cool.
To get started, you have to install the Web-based Eye-Fi Manager on your PC and set up an account. The setup file is preloaded on the card itself, and a card reader that connects to your PC via USB is included. The Eye-Fi Manager interface is clean and easy to navigate with four tabs: Home, Upload History, Settings, and Account. Once installed, you're directed to the Settings tab where you can detect and connect to nearby wireless networks. For a secure network, you can input and save the password. You can't, however, use a public Wi-Fi hot spot. Public wireless networks usually require you to log in or accept terms of use on a splash screen within a browser. The Eye-Fi Card isn't currently able to connect this way.
On my tests, the initial installation went smoothly and I was up and running in minutes. When I attempted to install the manager on a second PC, however, I got an error message stating that the setup file was "corrupted." I went to the company's site www.eye.fi and found a link to download the setup file support.eye.fi/downloads, a small hassle, but not a huge deal. I tried the service with several different wireless networks, some secured, some unsecured, and all with equal success.
Next, you specify where on your hard drive you want your images to be saved and choose which, if any, online photo sites you'd like to associate with the card. You can set up an unlimited number of photo sites in your Eye-Fi account, but you can select only one at a time. After specifying that I wanted my pictures to be saved to the "My Pictures" folder on my PC, I added my Facebook, Flickr, Kodak Gallery, Snapfish, and Shutterfly accounts to my profile. Eye-Fi also supports dotPhoto, Fotki, Gallery2, Picasa, Photobucket, Sharpcast, SmugMug, TypePad, Vox, Wal-Mart's Photo Center, and Webshots. Conveniently, you can open a new account with any of these services and associate it with your Eye-Fi Card directly from the Eye-Fi Manager. You can also specify privacy settings and, with some services, add tags automatically.
Once I completed the setup process, I spent a few days shooting pictures at home, at work, and wherever the day took me, checking the Eye-Fi Manager periodically to make sure it was working correctly. All of my images appeared on my hard drive and in each of my photo-sharing accounts. As I said before, you can select only one account at a time, so I cycled through all my accounts day by day. You can see the upload history in the Eye-Fi Manager organized by date and separated into "uploaded to Web" and "uploaded to computer." Images will upload in full resolution to your hard drive, but they may be resized to fit the requirements or limitations of a particular photo-sharing site. The Eye-Fi Card will upload only JPEG files. You can shoot and store RAW and other formats as well as video, but you'll have to transfer these files the old-fashioned way.
If you shut off your camera or move out of range while transferring images, or if you've reached the storage limit on your selected photo account, you'll notice incomplete uploads listed in the Eye-Fi Manager. Eye-Fi will save these pictures on its server until you take further action. All of your images will also remain saved on the SD card until you delete or transfer them manually. Simply turning on your camera within range of the wireless network will enable these uploads to continue where they left off. If your camera has a power-saving feature it may shut off prematurely during upload, so you should disable this feature while transferring images.
There is a downside: The Eye-Fi Card can be a drain on your camera's battery. When uploading images, the card is powered by the camera, so depending on the number and size of photos, and the speed of your wireless network, it can take a toll on your batteries. If your camera uses AA batteries it's a good idea to keep extras on hand or invest in rechargeable cells.
The Eye-Fi is a truly innovative product—and with the right equipment it works flawlessly. If you're an avid photographer who likes to share your shots instantly, this card is a great alternative to a wireless camera, and much more versatile. For $99 you can make any camera wireless, and that's nothing to sneeze at. Because of its innovation, utter simplicity, and reasonable price, the Eye-Fi Card earns our Editors' Choice award in the digital camera accessories category.
Eye-Fi offers a 90-day warranty on the card as well as phone (877- 873-9334), e-mail (support@eye.fi), and online support (support.eye.fi/downloads).
Requirements: The Eye-Fi Card works with 802.11g, 802.11b, and backwards-compatible 802.11n wireless networks and supports static WEP 40/104/128, WPA-PSK, and WPA2-PSK. Shared WEP and Apple's version of WEP TSN are not supported. The Eye-Fi Card requires the use of a wireless router or access point; it does not support ad hoc (computer-to-computer) wireless networks or public hot spots. It requires Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Mac OS X (10.3 and 10.4). Eye-Fi software works with Internet Explorer 6 and 7 (Windows only) and Firefox 2.0 (Windows and Macintosh).
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 at 05:58AM 
Four by six-inch digital prints through HP’s Snapfish service now cost just 9 cents each. In addition, prices for pre-paid prints are as low as 8 cents each. Either option provides more than 50 percent savings compared to those of other photo-sharing sites. “The best value in photography just got better as we’re now offering our 45 million members prints for mere pennies,” said Ben Nelson, vice president and general manager, Snapfish by HP. 
