Eye-Fi Memory Cards Get RAW

Eye-Fi today added to its popular line of wireless and geo tagging-capable memory cards. Called the Eye-Fi Pro, the newest SDHC wireless memory card has 4GB of storage and is geared toward professional photographers and serious photo hobbyists. The Eye-Fi Pro has the widest functionality in Eye-Fi's lineup, with automatic uploads to a wide variety of Web sites; support for jpeg, RAW, and video formats; and the capability to create an ad hoc connection between your camera and computer for wireless photo transfer. The Eye-Fi pro retails for $149.

For an additional $9.99 per year, you can automatically upload your photos or videos from the Eye-Fi Pro over a Wi-Fi connection to 25 photo and video sharing sites including Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, Snapfish, and YouTube. The direct upload service, called WebShare, also works with Eye-Fi Share and Eye-Fi Explore memory cards. As with other Eye-Fi products, the Pro provides geotagging via Skyhook Wireless' positioning system for an extra $14.99 per year.

In addition to the Pro SDHC card, Eye-Fi has announced that all Eye-Fi users will now have access to a new free service called Selective Transfer. As the name implies, Selective Transfer lets you pick and choose which photos you'd like to upload from you camera by using the "protect" or "lock" feature found on most cameras. Any photos you mark under "protect" or "lock" will be automatically uploaded, and all photos will remain on the camera until you manually delete them.

With the popularlity of Eye-Fi memory cards, some camera manufacturers are now producing Eye-Fi optimized cameras. These cameras can notify you when uploads are finished, optimize the camera's power consumption, and automatically recognize Eye-Fi cards. Recent optimized cameras include the Nikon D5000, and all Casio cameras slated for spring 2009 release including the Casio EX-S12, Casio EX-S5, Casio EX-FS10, Casio EX-FC100 and Casio EX-Z29. Eye-Fi wireless memory cards are compatible with many, but not all cameras. Visit Eye-Fi to see if your camera is Eye-Fi compatible.