For years now, it’s been unfortunate that Eye-Fi doesn’t make a Compact Flash (CF) version of their Eye-Fi camera cards for professional DSLR cameras that lack the consumer appropriate SD card slots.
However, the latest Eye-Fi cards do work with proper SD/CF adapters in CF based DSLR cameras, at least the set of items I have work fine:
Canon EOS 7D 18 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera
Eye-Fi Pro X2 8 GB Class 6 SDHC Wireless Flash Memory Card EYE-FI-8PC
SD/SDHC/SDXC to High-Speed Extreme UDMA mode CF Type II Adapter support 16/32GB and over 64GB Sells for under $15.
I think the key to making this work is the adapter. Not all adapters are created equal, and this one appears to be pretty fast, and doesn’t block the WiFi signal. I’ve seen numerous comments from others saying the Eye-Fi won’t work in the Canon 7D, or other DSLRs that are CF based. Hopefully this clears up some confusion, especially when it comes to what’s needed in a Compact Flash Adapter.
The SDHC Eye-Fi card has a max speed of 6MB/s (48mbps), which is too slow for 1080p on the Canon 7D, but plenty fast for taking pictures (either not in burst mode, or for short bursts).
The Direct Mode of of the Eye-Fi works great, and is really easy to set up if you understand the basics of what an ad-hoc network is. Better yet, the Eye-Fi app is free for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.
Pictures transfer really fast over 802.11n between the Eye-Fi and your iOS device, but will also transfer just fine over 802.11b/g.
Images that get transferred show up in the Eye-Fi iOS app and in the “Camera Roll” photo album. The Eye-Fi app is multitask and push enabled, which means you can have images stream over to your iOS device automatically, and get little badge alerts when they arrive.
It gets better…
You can set up your social networks and photo services like Facebook and Flickr with your Eye-Fi account, so images can go directly from your camera to your iPhone and then over 3G be sent automatically to the sites you want. This also includes having them sent via FTP to your blog or website. All of this can also be manually or semiautomatically set up.
A nice companion app would be Adobe Photoshop Express, also free in iTunes. You can use this app to crop and apply all kinds of effects before uploading to wherever you’d like.
If you think about the workflow here for a second, it’s really pretty cool. Imagine being somewhere and having that perfect scene for a nice Facebook profile update. You can take the picture with your DSLR, transfer it quickly to your iPhone, crop and adjust the image, and then upload to Facebook over 3G, or pretty much anywhere with any number of apps and services.
This could also work well for client previews. Of course if there’s WiFi at the location, you don’t need to be in Direct Mode (the ad-hoc network) and can send the images even faster by going directly to the Internet from the camera where a client could be reviewing the shoot in progress.
I would imagine the other Eye-Fi X2 cards work as well, and that they work in the Canon 5D MKII as well has other DSLRs. I’ll be testing other CF cameras out as I get access to them. Meanwhile, the Eye-Fi X2 Pro is working well in other SDHC based cameras such as the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V and the Canon SD4000is.
Thanks for the information, Can it be set up to shoot raw and jpg on the 7d but only transfer the jpg to the ipad and not the raw image ?
I just happened onto your post and have ordered one of these adapters to experiement with my 5Dmk2 and my 7D. Hopefully it works out as well. If it does, I’ll upgrade from the standard X2 card to the Pro so I can do wireless RAW.
Thanks for posting this.
@Tony Hickey
Yes. I just tested this. I set my 7D to do maximum JPG and RAW, and Eye-Fi gives you the option of transferring either or both.
One bug came up with my iPhone app. It transferred both the JPG and the RAW (as set) to my computer, but on my iPhone only the JPG. When set to only transfer the JPG (and not the RAW even though it was saved to the card), it worked correctly on both my Mac and my iPhone.
Is this really working? I read about this issue for days and many people said that no CF adapter is working with eye-fi. Please confirm! I want this badly. Thanks
@Yan,
I don’t what other possible ways I can state that yes, the Eye-Fi with a CF adapter is working for me with my configuration. Specifically, the Canon 7D, the Eye-Fi Pro X2, and the specific CF Card Adapter I purchased from Amazon (see the link above). It’s working both in WiFi Direct mode to my iPhone and iPad as well as working in regular mode over the network to my MacBook Pro.
loving this. is is possible to steam live view – i.e. in video mode, so that the ipad can be used as a focus monitor?
Not by use of the Eye-Fi card, and I don’t believe there’s a current solution on the market at this time that would allow this.
I don’t believe the Eye-Fi card could be hacked for video streaming either. It’s far too slow.
Kevin,
I have canon 5d mark 2, Eye-Fi Pro X2, and the specific CF Card Adapter. It works fine in WIFI, not Direct Mode. My iphone can not find eye-fi network that I set up in Direct Mode. How cai I do?
I keep getting an ERR 02 with this setup in direct mode. With direct mode off, I don’t get the error. I’m using direct mode in ShutterSnitch….Any ideas?
Just ordered the set. Reading on the Eye-Fi web site, it mentions some cautions about using these cards in CF adapters. Did you format the Eye-Fi card while in the adapter or in another adapter or card reader? or did you basically just follow the Eye-Fi instructions completely?
[…] finding one. I’d wait a few months, then search again. Then…..I found this one -> Kevin Edwards post. He doesn’t provide much of the details, so I’ll fill in a few items he neglected to […]
Does anyone know if the High Speed Extreme CF adapter mentioned above works with Sony’s alpha DSLR-A850/A900?
Just tried the kit you suggest with my 7D and 5D MK2 both work but the range is limited so i would suggest ensuring your router is not to far away or you plug in one of those extension aerials to improve reception. Having said this I’m please as i will not need to continually remove the CF card and download images.
@kevin When you say that this set up works with an ad-hoc network…are you saying that the eye-fi card itself creates the ad-hoc network? Or do you need a jailbroken iPhone / iPad to make this work? What I’m wanting (needing) to be able to do is be on the beach (that’s where I take a lot of my shots), take a picture with my 7D and have the picture instantly transferred to my iPhone or iPad. I obviously won’t have access to a normal wireless network on the beach. How is the ad-hoc wifi network created? Thanks!
@tanner2001byu,
“are you saying that the eye-fi card itself creates the ad-hoc network?”
Yes.
“do you need a jailbroken iPhone / iPad to make this work?”
No.
“How is the ad-hoc wifi network created?”
The Eye-Fi card needs to be one that supports the ad-hoc wifi network creation (one of the newer cards) and then it’s configured on your Mac or PC to do so. You use a free app on the iPhone or iPad, and then then connect to the wifi network the Eye-Fi card has created.
Keep in mind, an ad-hoc wifi network like this won’t provide internet connectivity. It’s just allowing the iPhone/iPad to connect to the Eye-Fi card and allowing photos to be downloaded to the iPhone/iPad. You’d still need some method of internet connectivity to upload/email the photos (3G for example).
Another option for you though is to get the Apple camera connection kit for the iPad/iPhone. This may be easier if you don’t need to be wireless.
Thanks Kevin ( and Darren http://www.darrenmathews.com/2011/06/canon-7d-eye-fi-pro-x2/).
Set up my Eye-Fi and Canon 7d today. A few issues with getting the adhoc setup. Finally turned off my wireless router all together and then it began recognizing the Eye-Fi in camera. I’ll continue tweaking. Thanks for sharing the info.
Thanks for this test…
I wonder how reliable this set-up is in a real-world situation. Clients sitting on a couch, you shooting… I’m just thinking that in at least a fairly enclosed studio shoot, a tethered situation is more realstically reliable. I would love the opportunity to shoot a wedding and have the photos on my computer, ready for post-pricessing…but I get the feeling I’ll be stuck in the ‘old-school-more-reliable’ group for a while longer.
Let’s face it. Instant-gratification of the clients seeing your initial results seems like a fun thing, and I do like the tethered option…. Just seems a bit too early to commit to something like this….
No, I wouldn’t use this in a pro mission critical situation in front of clients if there were other options such as tethering available. On the other hand though, that’s not every situation. Since originally posting this article, I’ve used the Eye-Fi quite a bit, but it’s only used for quick camera->iPhone->Internet posting when I need it on the spot while being mobile. It works very well for that.
I have a Canon 7D with latest Firm ware 2.0.3 with a Eye-Fi X2 4GB and recently purchased a SDHC SD MMC to Compact Flash CF Card Reader Adapter from eBay and works perfect with iPhone 4s IOs 6 and 2012 MacBook Pro running Mountain Lion using Eye Fi App. The only problem with the Eye-Fi card I have is is that RAW picture do not get transferred. So if you chose to shoot RAW with this particular set up I think it is not possible.
I just purchase a SDHC/SB 6 Generation CF adapter to use my 8bg+Wi-Fi Pro X2 Eye-Fi Card on my Canon 7d. When I turn on Canon message on my display says ” Card cannot be accessed. Reinsert/change the card or format card with camera.
I don’t know what to do. The Eye-Fi card is fine because it works in my Nikon 800. Someone please help me 🙂
@Carolyn,
Do any other SD cards work when you put them in the CF adapter? I’d look to the CF adapter as the problem.