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Over time technology spawned possibilites to transfer images as easy as possible from the camera to a laptop or similar. One of that possibilities are wireless SD cards. These cards are equipped with an internal WLAN module which makes it possible to connect to laptops, mobile phones, tablets etc. without cables.
I have considered long if i should buy one of those Eye-fi cards. It would be pretty nice to view pictures on a 10"-Tablet instead of the small camera display. But the product reviews of the Eye-fi cards weren't that inspiring; teething troubles, reliability... just read the reviews by yourself.
By chance i discovered a competitor product called "FlashAir" from Toshiba which seem to be more perfected. The costs are also in an acceptable range. So i bought a 16GB card and want to share my experiences here.
One of the alleged disadvantages of FlashAir compared to Eye-fi is that just taken photographs are not transferred to the connected device via "Push"; you need to download those files manually whereas Eye-fi transfers the images automatically within a few seconds and shows them on the display of the device. But there is also an advantage: The FlashAir cards are equipped with a adequate access point, which has also "Internet-Pass-Through" capabilities when performing a firmware update of the card. With this, up to 7 devices can connect to the card at the same time. With IPT they can also use an internet connection to upload the pictures directly from the camera to any location in the internet.
The necessary tools can be downloaded from the Toshiba website. For the FlashAir-Config-Tool .NET 4.0 is necessary; this will be downloaded automatically during the installation if necessary.
After the card was delivered, the first step was to update the firmware (as it was recommended). The update consists of 3 steps, taking about 30 seconds each. After each step the card need to be removed and re-inserted again to perform a "hard reboot". The final 4th step verifies the update.
The setup of the access point of the card is really easy. Simply enter any SSID and any password,
save, done. After the settings were saved, the card appeared in the WLAN list of the tablet while
the card was still in the laptop. Connecting the tablet with the card with the FlashAir app was
also no problem. In the app you should enable the "Auto refresh" feature.
As a test i copied some pictures to the DCIM folder of the card; they were almost immediately
shown in the browser of the app.
What i noticed during the tests: the card gets warm; more than a "normal" SD card. But that
should not be a problem.
Then the card was inserted into the target camera (EOS 700D) where it was also recognized without any problems.
I made some test shots (size S2) which were also shown in the app browser very fast. When you tap on a picture,
it is downloaded and shown in full size. The transfer takes about 2-3 seconds.
And here the disadvantage mentioned above (missing push feature) does not exist (anymore):
If a picture is shown full size and you take another photograph, this new picture is automatically shown after
it was transmitted. Perfect!
A short test in an older Samsung S760 was also successful.
To save battery power, there is an auto-start mode, which means that within (e.g.) 2 minutes after the
camera was switched on a device must connect to the WLAN of the card. If no one connects within that time,
the WLAN module is disabled automatically.
More energy can be saved with the manual mode. On the card is an image whose write protection status
reflects the WLAN module status (in an inverse logic). Is the image write protected, the WLAN module is off.
If the write protection is disabled, the WLAN module is enabled. Therefore the module can only be activated
if it is really needed.
There is also no need to look for the image a long time. It is named in a way that it is always the first
image in the file list of the camera.
The Internet-Pass-Through mode also works like a charm. After a short moment the card is connected to the predefined network and you can - although you are connected with the card - use the internet connection. But i noticed that it takes longer to connect to the card if you are out if range of the predefined network. So it would be wise to disable IPT if you use the card away from the predefined network.
And for all those who want to use the Magic Lantern software for Canon DSLRs: It works with FlashAir! According to some other reviews it is not possible to use Magic Lantern with Eye-Fi cards. But with FlashAir you can e.g. do some time lapse shots while checking the pictures with FlashAir. This reduces the dangers of screwing up shots by vibrations or changing lights.
Recently i bought a second FlashAir card. The first one with 16GB is moved to the Samsung S760, the new 32GB one is then used in the Canon EOS 700D.
The first attempt to setup the new card with the same software i used for the first one failed. The reason is simple: The software simply does not recognize the new "W-03" card models.
With the new W-03 models and an up-to-date FlashAir app the PC software is not necessary anymore. Simply unpack the card, put it in the camera, switch the camera on and connect to the card via the app. The default password is "12345678". All parameters (SSID, password, WLAN behaviour, IPT etc.) can be configured with the app.
New in the W-03 devices is also a WebDAV server. With that server you can access the files on the card via a computer in the same way you would access any network share. Also new is a master code that prevents unauthorized changes of the SSID name and/or password. So other users may connect to the card via the app but without the possibilty to make (un-)intended changes.
As the W-02 card with 16GB, the W-03 is also a class 10.
For some absoultely mysterious reasons, the FlashAir app needs access to the device's location (= you MUST switch on GPS).
WHY?! Shame on you! A downgrade to an older version worked, but nevertheless i'll quit using FlashAir for this.
It was a nice time, but this is a completely NO-GO!
Camera in one hand, mobile phone in the other. My location is none of the FlashAir's goddamn business!
If you still have a FlashAir app without the need of GPS: Do NOT update!
If you already did an update, go back to version
Version 4.0.1 .