wifi memory cards

[loribear]

 hubby bought me an olympus stylus bridge camera, & it says you can get wifi memory cards so that you can transfer your pics over to your phone or laptop & tablets, ive had a look on ebay but they seem quite expensive, has anyone ever bought one & do they really work ?  lori 

[loribear]

  hahaha   trust you dave lol . lori

[grendel]

most modern laptops have a slot for a standard SD card, so even if you dont have a cable you just take the card out of the camera and plug it into the laptop, easy peasy.

Grendel

[LondonRascal]

I have to say I think they are one of the most pointless things because:

 

The transfer speed - it is slow and varies or just stops altogether and can be frustrating waiting for things to come off the card and on to your other device.

 

I did not think it was too expensive (I paid just under £15 for a 32GB card) [ link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DR58YGM ] but found it so much easier to simply put the card in my computer (using a £1 USB to SD card reader) and drag all the photos over to the computer and took half the time.

 

To get them to other devices? I just upload the ones I want to keep to my Google Drive and then can share with who I want the link to them, or view them using the Google Drive App on my tablet/phone.

 

Sometimes technology is trying to solve problems that are not there and I think memory cards with WiFi are a good example.

 

 I doubt it will be too many years before cameras will have to get smart as phones and come with Apps and a connection to the internet to instantly share to Facebook/Instagram etc the photos you take oh, wait Samsung have that covered already...

 

[Siddy]

I have the eye-fi card which works ok, If your out and about you need a mifi or phone for it to work. Best use i found is party nights at home take pics and there on the laptop in mins ready to send to tv after a few more drinks.

 

Update - this card I use stores pics on the web for a week but also sends to your laptop or mobile to view right away after each shot or on next connection.

[Jonathan]

I agree with what has been said by several others.  If you are not in a hurry, or do not wish to view your pictures on a bigger screen within a few seconds of taking them, then there is not much need for one of these.  They do eliminate the need to fiddle with the cards, but that is not too much of a chore with most cameras.

There is a review here http://www.dpreview.com/articles/4616822206/battle-of-the-wi-fi-cards-eye-fi-vs-transcend which has a few interesting comments, but then the reviewer is a professional photographer and his use is probably different from yours.

One final thought.  No-one has considered the battery drain.  These devices need to run a processor and a radio transmitter (and receiver) which both use quite a bit of power.  This will reduce the battery life, or time between charging, quite noticeably.  As an analogy, consider how turning WiFi (or bluetooth) on on a mobile phone can flatten the battery.