Eye-Fi Mobi Wi-Fi SD card review: Digital Photography Review

Article

Eye-Fi Mobi SD card
From $44.99 / £33 (8GB) | www.eye.fi.com

Wi-Fi SD cards have become an essential tool for many professional photographers, and now Eye-Fi is reaching out to hobbyists and novices with the Eye-Fi Mobi SD card. The Mobi shares many traits with the Eye-Fi Pro X2, which we reviewed alongside the Transcend Wi-Fi SD card a while back. The only differences come down to the Mobi's simplified setup and a few watered-down features. The Eye-Fi Mobi is available in 8GB (our unit), 16GB, and 32GB iterations. The 16GB Mobi is $20 cheaper than the Eye-Fi Pro X2, which is now only offered in a 16GB capacity. The 32GB Mobi card is the same price as the 16GB Pro X2, so the Mobi will save you a bit of cash and offer increased storage if it suits the type of shooting you do.

I ran the Eye-Fi Mobi through the same tests I did with the Pro X2 card throughout this review, so read on if the Mobi is on your radar.

Eye-Fi Mobi general specifications

Class 10 SDHC performance
Built-in Wi-Fi for photo & video transfer from camera to mobile device
Range: Outdoors, 90 feet (27.4m), Indoors: 45 feet (13.7m)
8GB SDHC Memory (up to 4000 photos or 3 hours of video depending on camera model, file resolution and other factors)
Wi-Fi transfer image support: JPEG
Wi-Fi transfer video support (under 2GB per file): .mpg, .mov, .flv, .wmv, .avi, .mp4, .mts, .m4v, .3gp
Read/Write support: All file types, Including RAW
Latest security standards (Improved WPA2-PSK plus static WEP 64/128 and WPA-PSK)
Power: Advanced power management optimizes use of camera battery

Glancing at this list, it's easy to see that the Eye-Fi Mobi and Pro X2 share a lot of similarities. They both offer Class 10 SDHC performance and feature ranges of 90 feet (27.4m) outdoors and 45 feet (13.7m) indoors. So, speed and performance on these cards should be about the same. Where the cards differ is in the handling of Raw files. The Pro X2 card can upload Raw files from the card, while the Mobi is limited strictly to JPEG files. Both cards support a variety of video files, and the Mobi can read and write many files, including Raw. They just can't be uploaded.

In my experience, I never really uploaded Raw images from the Pro X2 because it took such a long time, and I only needed large screen previews for my clients. Low resolution JPEGs were nice and quick with the Pro X2, so this was not a major loss. For photographers who need the versatility of wireless Raw and JPEG upload capability, the Mobi will not be suitable.

The other feature the Mobi lacks is the ability to connect to a home or office (third party), or Ad Hoc Wi-Fi connection to upload images to a computer like the Pro X2. In fact, the Pro X2 is the only card that can fully utilize 802.11n. The Mobi can connect to backwards compatible 802.11n networks. This means the Pro X2 card could connect to my home wireless cable connection and use that as a route to my computer for uploading images. This was even less of a loss, since I only used the Eye-Fi Pro X2's own wireless network to connect the camera directly to my iPhone, iPad or MacBook Pro.

Connection

The Eye-Fi Mobi connects to a mobile device or computer strictly via its own wireless network. In fact, the connection setup is easier with the Mobi card than it is with the Pro X2. I had no trouble connecting to an iPad or iPhone with the Mobi after following the necessary steps.

First I had to download the Eye-Fi application for my phone from Apple's App Store (also available for Android on Google Play). Then I placed the Mobi card in my Mark III, and enabled Wi-Fi transmission in the Mark III's menu. I disabled the Auto Power Off feature on the Mark III because the Eye-Fi Mobi gets its power from the camera's battery, and auto sleep disrupts the Wi-Fi connection. Then I joined the Mobi's wireless network on the mobile device and opened up the Eye-Fi application. As I began shooting, the JPEGs I captured began uploading to the gallery in the Eye-Fi application, which were subsequently saved to the camera roll on my device.


A look at a JPEG uploading to the gallery in the Eye-Fi iPad application.	A look at the option menu in the Eye-Fi iPad application.

The Mobi can upload JPEGs and videos to a computer, but there is no real interface aside from a small task bar menu. Once a computer is connected, images will automatically start uploading to a designated folder. While it's easier to setup a Mobi card than the Pro X2, it lacks the ability to work with the Eye-Fi Center program on a computer, which is the third main difference between the two cards. The Eye-Fi Center program, which is compatible with the Pro X2, has several advanced options and a full menu interface, including geotagging and transfer mode options. The downside is that the Eye-Fi Center program is a bit daunting to use, especially for novices. So the Mobi trades limited setup options for ease of use, which is ideal for beginners.


A look at the interface of the Eye-Fi application on an iPhone 5.	Connection setup is as easy as 1-2-3.

The only time I ran into a connection disruption was when I failed to disable the Auto Power Off option on my Mark III. When the camera would power off, the Eye-Fi Mobi would stop transmitting its Wi-Fi signal. As long as the sleep was disabled, I had no problems, but it was quite taxing on the battery, since the camera's screen and the Wi-Fi card were both sucking up juice at the same time. I highly recommend using a battery grip or having spare batteries at hand. After a 5 1/2 hour shoot using the Mobi to upload small JPEGs to my computer for clients to see, my camera's battery life was clinging onto one bar. This was with a two-battery grip.


A look at an image in the gallery of the Eye-Fi iPad application.	Sharing options include email, Facebook and Twitter.

Like my experience with the Pro X2 card, I was highly impressed with the performance of the Mobi card in conjunction with the mobile device application. Everything is simplified and easy to use, including a nice gallery with sharing options for Facebook, Twitter and email. As with the camera, it was important to disable Sleep on the mobile device to retain a solid connection. This ran down the battery life of the mobile devices I tested significantly. I found the best setup was to keep the iPad, iPhone, or MacBook plugged in during long shoots.

Performance

Fortunately, the Eye-Fi Mobi gave me a nearly identical performance to the Pro X2 card. The Mobi was solid and reliable, and I never had any issues with the card not being recognized by a computer when hard-connected via an SD card reader. Aside from running down the battery life of my camera and mobile device or computer, the Mobi was rather flawless.

In terms of speed, the Mobi could upload a 5.5MP (2MB) JPEG in approximately 5 seconds. This test was carried out on my iPhone 5, iPad 2 and MacBook Pro, and I came up with approximately the same results on all three. Now, keep in mind that while shooting with the Mobi, I was able to see the image I just took pop up on my mobile device or laptop in around 5 seconds. That's fully uploaded, and not just a preview. And, if 5 seconds was too long, I could always capture a smaller JPEG. When I shot in 'S2' and VGA sizes on my 5D Mark III, the transfer was almost instantaneous. This is the time it took from shutter button to full upload, as there is a slight delay while the Wi-Fi signal transmits. The actual transfer time was much quicker, but I wanted a real-world sample of what can be expected while out in the field.

Since the Mobi is only geared for JPEG shooting, most users will want to shoot and upload larger files. When I shot at 9.8MP (3MB), the transfer time was closer to 6 seconds, and 22MP (6MB) ran me about 10 seconds per image. So, the larger the image size, the longer the wait, but not by much. Obviously, there are a few factors at play here regarding distance and device speed. I found at times that image transfers wouldn't start right after I pressed the shutter button on my camera, then all of a sudden they would begin uploading to my device in batches. If you are shooting away and don't need to see the images on your device right away, the Mobi is a very useful tool. However, if you need instant full-resolution gratification, you might find yourself waiting.

I preferred shooting at smaller resolutions during commercial gigs because I really only needed to fill the screen of my laptop. Clients loved the Wi-Fi setup, especially since I was able to enter a command on my laptop that showed a fullscreen preview of the image as soon as it entered the designated folder on my desktop. The iPad was also an ideal device to use, given that it provided the full screen preview as soon as the image uploaded, without the need to type a command.

Now for range. Eye-Fi claims the Mobi can handle a distance of 90 feet (27.4m) outdoors and 45 feet (13.7m) indoors. Just like the Eye-Fi Pro X2, I was able to stretch the indoor range to roughly 50 ft. and the outdoor range to approximately 100 ft. After that, I lost connection, but the card slightly exceeded its specifications, which was excellent.

Conclusion

At the end of my experience with the Eye-Fi Mobi, I was beyond pleased. Despite its simplistic nature, I found the card to do all of the things I did with the Pro X2, while exhibiting identical performance characteristics. For someone just looking to showcase small JPEGs for a client on a shoot, or someone who frequently uploads images to social networking sites, the Eye-Fi Mobi is a fantastic choice.

If I was in the market, I would opt for a 32GB Mobi, which is twice the capacity of the Pro X2 at the same price. Photographers who need an Ad Hoc connection, advanced Eye-Fi Center desktop program on a laptop or PC, and the ability to upload Raw files will certainly want to go with the more advanced Pro X2 card, as the Mobi does not have those features. However, if you're looking for a Wi-Fi card that's simple to setup and blasts images off into cyberspace in a matter of seconds while you take advantage of your camera's far superior image quality (compared to a phone), you can't go wrong with the Eye-Fi Mobi.

What we like:

Simple setup
Reliable performance
Great Wi-Fi range
Quick upload speeds
Cheaper than Pro X2

What we don't like:

Rapidly drains camera and device or computer battery life
Cannot upload Raw files
No Ad Hoc connection
Can't take advantage of Eye-Fi Center desktop program

Comments

Total comments: 104

Just bought a Mobi Eye-Fi 8gig and threw that crap away. It;s slow, crashes, errors out, etc. I thought my new camera was broken but it turns out it's the crappy card. It's by far the worst product I have ever used.

Btw, all photos saved on it is lost. I came home, stuck it in my PC, crashed windows. Everytime I put it in it crashes Windows. Can't grab files off of it and the eye-fi installer software was stuck in a loop of transferring files.

Comment edited 22 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

The Mobi is with limited control. I've moved on to the RAVPower filehub, a portable device with more features. It functions as a wireless card reader, USB hard drive/flash drive reader. I use it to backup photos and stream medias. There wasn't any delay when I tried to stream a movie to several devices at the same time. What makes me happier is the device comes with built-in 3000mAh battery. Though not much, but big enough to give one and a half charge to my phone.

1 upvote

Bought this to use with my Moultrie game camera' it connecter from 30 ft twice and now it wont' even carried my laptop with in 4 ft of camera, still could not connect maybe I have a faulth card ????????

0 upvotes

Bought the 8GB Eye-Fi Mobi SD card. Filled up my iPhone's memory! So deleted some pics from the phone. I could not re-download the pics to the iPhone, but they were still on the Eye-Fi card, and viewable in the camera. Tried putting the Eye-Fi card into three different SD card readers. No luck. Emailed Eye-Fi Tech Support. They said some card readers do not give enough power to the card to read it. SO, they offered to mail me a card reader that will work! Great customer service. They also suggested hooking the camera up to the computer and reading the card through the camera's USB cable. Took me a couple hours to find the cable that came with the camera 3 years ago. But that worked too in the end.

0 upvotes

I have a pro version a while back but found it unreliable.

I got the mobi and it has been rock solid..... And just the features that are key: transferring the jpeg half of raw+jpeg to my phone. I don't want the raw files on my phone. Take up too much space and no need. But having the jpgs all there is great. If I want to save space I can delete some but honestly I can fit thousands at a time.

And the raw files can wait until I am back under a roof and have a computer with an sd slot.

The other way the mobi is so much better than the pro: not doing dumb stuff like needing another wifi network, or computer or web interface. Nice. I hated those aspects of the pro card.

So glad I tried mobi. Much much better!

0 upvotes

My MOBI works great, I like to shoot raw and if I get a shot I want to share online I just convert it in camera to JPG and turn on MOBI and connect and away it goes from my iPhone. That keeps the phone from getting clogged with unnecessary shots and then I can clear the card when I get back to the MacBook quickly with the built in SD card reader. As good as iPhone cameras are they are no substitute for a real camera. A added bene is it will transfer video from my D90 also.

2 upvotes

Spend more and get the Eye-Fi card (same company) that can transfer to your computers, as well as your i-devices. I like that with my Canon 6D I don't ever have to take the card out of the camera (normal SD card) because the Canon can feed the pictures to my computer over the wi-fi in my home. AND it can send pics to my phone without any external wifi. It's pretty cool.

0 upvotes

Still thinkin why the background is that fruit and not robot or no phone promotion at all but just the card itself.

2 upvotes

Very happy with EZ share cards. And the app has just been much improved. You can either tether (either RAW + JPG or just JPG) or selected individual downloads. It's quick and I use it all the time. with my pocket camera which I always carry.

Never use the phone camera.

0 upvotes

I use a RAVPower filehub that comes with several features. It works as a wireless SD card reader, USB flash drive/hard drive reader. I use it to backup and upload photos to Instagram. And aslo, it works as a protable external battery charger. 3000mAh is not much, but can at least give a full charge to my phone.

1 upvote

I need a wifi card that I can Select certian pics off of, I take pics of racecars at the local race tracks, I need something where I can take 1 or 2 pics and send them directly to the racing paper as soon as the race ends, I take anywhere from 300-700 pics in 1 night I can not have all 300-700 upload to my phone..

What card can I use that will do this? They don't make any kind of cable to go from my I phone to the camera, I already checked into that.

0 upvotes

It may be a bit late for this but with the eyefi card you can configure it so it only transmit the photos that you protect in camera. So if you want to send one to your phone or tablet you protect the image in the camera and it only sends that one.

3 upvotes

So there is no way to select what images you want to send to your phone? This seems pretty stupid, or am I missing something?

0 upvotes

To select which photos to upload with Mobi:
- use a camera like eos 60d that can develop raw to jpeg for single pictures that you select
- shoot all raw, only develop to jpeg when you want the picture uploaded

You can do the same for pro x2 if you turn off transfer of raw

1 upvote

Strongly agree, the only way to select images is that choose selective transfer when setup the card, but you need to lock the image in camera and then transfer to the phone. Why don't they make app to select the images? is it hard to? Very stupid!!

0 upvotes

I agree with the previous poster. It can be a very hit and miss affair. Sometimes it takes a bit to get the cards network to show up on my iPhone 4s. But the worst problem is the iPhone can occasionally connect and find that no images are transferred. For some reason the Eye-Fi thinks it's sent them and has tagged them accordingly. So other than removing the card and using a card reader, you have no way to get the images off. Kind of defeats the object really. When it does work its great.

I also have a Toshiba Flashair which has a different approach. Rather than push the images it presents a web interface and by using an app gives you access to pull off what images you want.

No system is ideal, but although I miss the instant push of images from the Eye-Fi, I prefer the more predictable Flashair system.

2 upvotes

I bought an Eye-Fi Mobi for use with a Sony RX-100 and it's been a mixed experience at best. It's like magic when it works, but then it doesn't work consistently.

Sometimes it doesn't broadcast its presence and I can't connect. Sometimes it's very fast but other times painfully slow.

Even overlooking the occasional hiccup the design leaves a lot to be desired. They've stripped the ability to selectively transfer files. Unless you shoot selectively you'll run out of time or batter before you've transferred all your shots.

Save your money and wait for a better solution.

All of this is with a relatively new iPhone 5, for reference.

0 upvotes

So the Mobi cannot connect to existing wfi networks? Even if that had no practical downside for the reviewer, that seems like an odd feature to give up. I imagine Eye-fi just took an existing wifi chip and software, maybe even from the Pro 2, and disabled that capability so they could justifiably create a new price point. Same for transferring JPGs only. The wifi protocol doesn't care what size or type of file you are sending. Making the Mobi JPG-only required some additional programming or engineering.

Or do I misunderstand somehow?

2 upvotes

That's one possible explanation, though there are many other possibilities. One is that the old wifi solution (whatever mix of hardware+software it was) wasn't working for them and they needed something new, but the new one happened to be missing whatever is necessary to allow connections to existing networks. Considering that almost all cameras with wifi aren't able to connect to existing networks either it seems like this is a strong possibility. Maybe it had to do with the price of the chips used in the Pro 2, or maybe it was energy usage or something.

I agree though that it's a clear downside of this new device. Maybe they did surveys and found that like the reviewer few people were using the feature, it seems like the custom-network system works best for most people.

0 upvotes

Thanks, Jeremy. It did not occur to me that there is a context of wifi-enabled cameras, all of which (you say) cannot connect to existing wifi networks. But that also makes me consider the even larger context of wifi-enabled phones, tablets, e-readers, etc., all of which can connect to existing networks. I have four such devices in my house. So it still seems like being able to attach to existing networks is the norm, and creating a new wifi network for other devices to attach to is not. The only devices I can think of that do that other than cameras, are wifi routers.

0 upvotes

I have bought a Eye-Fi pro 2 and it work great with de canon T5I transferíng pictures fast and easy to my IPhone or IPad. This Card drains power from the camera so yo have to take this in consideration, and bring along aditional batteries.

0 upvotes

the toshiba Flash Air will transfer raw files, or any file on the card, picture, txt, or otherwise, has good power management/ability to turn on and off from the camera, and runs the same or less then the watered down EyeFi, this should have been in the review

4 upvotes

My Eye Fi card has persistent flash memory error and has been rejected by a long list of cameras

It also refuses to handle raw files. They are milking you indiscriminately. The capability is there, there just refuses to handle this file type because they have deemed that you have not paid enough. They are abusing their market position.

Also they will require your login to work and so works like a big brother.

All I want is point to point file transfer to my device. They have made a mess out of it and try to ask for more money in the way.

I am thoroughly frustratedby Eye Fi. I long for the days when the competition like EzShare, Toshiba, PQI and the like catches up.

3 upvotes

I still long for the day where some camera manufacture such as Sony, will offer true Wi-Fi that transmits images directly to the web. Yes, this would require a subscription just like your smart phone or tablet. However, I think this would be worth paying a monthly service fee similar to that of the iPad.

Yes, I know that it would probably require an external battery pack tethered to your camera, but I would definitely be willing to do all that in order to have instant posting to photo servers. Then again, maybe it already exist and I'm just not aware of it.

Comment edited 5 times, last edit 10 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

I don't know what you mean by monthly service fee. Wifi is just a connection method. If you go somewhere that offers a free wifi connection to the internet, like a coffee shop, then true wifi devices can use it.

I imagine somebody will or has built a wifi dongle that attaches to your camera's USB port. Then the problem is getting the camera to use it. If cameras actually had an operating system (I know a few do), I'd guess that would not be an issue.

0 upvotes

I use the Eye-Fi pro card and can transfer Raw + Jpeg quickly.
I can process raw on my tablet with PhotoMate2.
If I want I can have the Eye-Fi card transfer only those images that I select by placing 'Protect' on any image.
You do have to set up the card on your PC but once you do
you are ready to shoot and transfer very quickly.

0 upvotes

Hi! How did you do that? I was trying to figure out how to transfer only certain photos to my phone. Is this feature available on the X2 Pro?

0 upvotes

I tried to use this card in a Nikon D7100 but it was very unreliably. The data transfer only works when the camera lies directly besides the tablet. I tried two different cards with two different tablets. I can't recommend this card.

1 upvote

My Transcend card is doing the same for less money. I even use a 16 GB card I bought for 40 dollar one year ago. It to is class 10 and does RAW. The apps on phonE and tablet are free and very easy to use.

1 upvote

buy a camera with wifi

2 upvotes

If buying new, yes. I'm not replacing my perfectly good D7000 just to get Wifi, when a sub $100 SD card will give me this feature.

1 upvote

I got an Eye-Fo Mobi a few months for a cycling/camping trip so that I could update my blog using my iPhone everynight. I shot all images on my Pentax DSLR in RAW (Eye-Fi Mobi doesn't see these) and at the end of the day then edit/convert in camera to 5mp JPEG those I wanted to publish same day. The Eye-Fi Mobi just sees the JPEGs (and mov files if you shoot movies),ignores the RAW so doesn't waste time on the upload. It'll also ignore JPEGs uploaded previously. Since you're doing a one off upload of maybe 10-12 images once a day the battery drain on both camera and phone was minimal.

In my circumstance I was able to travel relatively light (no room for laptop or tablet) but was easily able to publish daily or through the day if I wished.

I've got a FluCard Pro for my new Pentax K-3 but while it has more functionality available, it isn't as simple to use like the Eye-Fi Mobi was for what I wanted to do on that trip

Comment edited 3 times, last edit 8 minutes after posting

1 upvote

It really drains your phone power quickly, remember to completely switch off the Eye-Fi app after use

0 upvotes

Article

Eye-Fi Mobi Wi-Fi SD card review

Eye-Fi Mobi SD cardFrom $44.99 / £33 (8GB) | www.eye.fi.com

Eye-Fi Mobi general specifications

Connection

Performance

Conclusion

What we like:

What we don't like:

Comments

Eye-Fi Mobi SD card
From $44.99 / £33 (8GB) | www.eye.fi.com