Tag Archives: camera

Vacation Toolbox: Eyefi Card

Eyefi is a really cool idea, add a wifi chip into a standard SD card, so that when you walk into your house, turn on your camera, all your photos are synced to the cloud. During this trip I finally also got the mobile link mode working, where your phone acts as a relay, which meant from Halifax on I was posting pictures up to friends on facebook during the trip.

It does this by starting up a wifi hotspot after the camera has been on for 30 seconds (and hasn’t found a wifi network it knows). You set up that hotspot on your phone, and because the devices are so close, it’s the dominant signal, and your phone auto jumps to it. It pulls down all the photos yet synced, then the AP goes silent, and your phone goes back to normal. Next time you wander onto a wifi network, your phone then relays those up to your chosen cloud sync point (many are supported, including google, facebook, smugmug, flickr, or your own gallery 3 installation).

If you have a camera, you should get an eyefi card. I really can’t imagine going back to having to sync photos through a PC any more.

User modifiable Canon firmware

Through dave hansen’s blog I found the CHDK project, which creates custom Canon camera firmware that adds a lot of features to existing cameras. While I’ve only had this loaded for a day, I’m really psyched with the results so far.

It immediately meant that I got RAW support, an OSD battery sensor showing % left, exposure settings, and this zebra mode thing that let’s you know when you’ve maxed out the CCD, and where specifically is the issue. The procedure to add it is pretty simple, and it’s breathed new life into my SD500, which has seen a lot of good days with me.

I get really excited when devices evolve and improve after you have them. My Logitech Harmony Remote, XBMC on my old xbox, and now my Canon camera all fall under that heading. This also guaruntees that I’ll only buy Canon cameras that support this in the future. This kind of freedom is hard to give up. 🙂