SanDisk Eye-Fi working good! and needs a little help ( FEAT. REQUEST )

[scrax]

As I tod Alex, 2 day ago I bought a 4GB Sandisk card with Eye-Fi support after reading other people having success with the Eye-Fi on ML.

The card works with ML without any issue, but to make the card bootable firmware can't be loaded from the eye-fi, so it's needed an older method, I used the script make_bootable.sh.

It seems that this card is not an eye-fi pro x2 because it won't transfer .cr2 file. This for me is really an issue because I shot raw. 

But I've found a nice trick that could help solve tis limitation if implemented in ML:

If the .cr2 extension is changed to .avi or better .mov (so to not confuse them with the real .avi file the camera make) the raw file will be transfered too without problems for the eye-fi manager (the software that is used to manage the card and the pictures or videos transferred). 

WARNING! Using  .jpg will do bad things and will hang the software so don't try.

So I'm asking for an option to change the extension of the .cr2 file to .mov, maybe a first implementation could be just a "don't press this" that when pressed will change the extension of all the cr2 found on the card.

The best that i can think right now is an option that automatically enable raw2mov after each raw shoot only whit an Eye-Fi card (it has a EYEFI folder on the root of the card that maybe can be used to detect it), that way it could also be kept hidden to avoid confusion and a dsable option can be made visible only with a eye-fi card.

With this option on the computer where we have set to download the video we can add a rule (at least on mac) to rename back mov2raw and then import them in other programs.

Without this option i'll return my eye-fi this saturday, and since the Eye-Fi Pro x2 (that support RAW transfer) is reported not working for ML I'll not try it soon. 

If there is more interest in this feat, i'll consider buying another one 8GB to check if it works too.

[scrax]

Today I made a lot of test and it's working really good so far, using direct mode is fast (and for raw or video almost the only usable mode) and there is no need to restart the camera after renaming  .cr2 to .avi 

On my mac a folder action rename the files back as soon as they get transfered and send them to a folder watched by lightroom. 

I think that will be better if the function can be activated each time a raw pic is taken (maybe with an option to enable it or not in tweak?)

Another feat to test could be an avi2cr2 undo options, (one time for  all like it is now) just to make see again raw pix in play mode.

So far I think that with this trick added the Eye-Fi i'm using is a great addition for a 600D. Lightroom still don't support thetering with usb cable and with ML and this card i can transfer in less than a minute a raw from the camera to the mac during taking other shoots, really nice.

I'll try to take more test and to report back what will came out.

[scrax]

All still working good with the anniversary release.

After reading all the post I can find about Eye-fi and ML I think that the problem most users are encountering is that the firmware update can't load from Eye-fi card. 

Since now most of them use/know only that method to make the card bootable they can't boot ML even if it's working with other SD card.

The problem is that even if boot flag is enabled in camera, the card is not bootable so ML don't load at startup time.

To solve this problem, as already reported, one can use the command line but there are also programs for mac or Win (maybe also Linux) that can do that without using the console.

For windows there is EOSCard that can make your card bootable, for Mac there is MacBoot, and for Linux or Mac there is a script here.

So far what I have found from other users reports is that on 600D are working:

Geo (2GB) confirmed on 550D

Geo X2 (4GB?) can't load firmware update (make bootable from computer not tested)

Connect X2 (4GB) can't load firmware update (make bootable from computer not tested)

Mobile X2 (8GB)  can't load firmware update (make bootable from computer not tested)

Pro X2 (8GB)   confirmed for 600D

Sandisk Eye-fi 8GB not tested.

Sandisk Eye-fi 4GB (Class 4, for europe only I think) working on my 600D but can't load firmware update. Card format without deleting ML is working and also draw transfer with the cr2toavi trick in ML.

I believe that all the X2 card can work, it's just a matter of boot flag that avoid ML to load. 

So please if you have a eye-fi card try to make it bootable with one of the above programs and report back your results.

[scrax]

Here attached the automator action that I use to convert back .avi to cr2 after uploaded on my mac from the eye-fi in direct mode (using my  home wi-fi network the upload is really slow).

Little how to transfer cr2 to you mac with ML and a eye-fi that don't support raw:

1. From Eye-Fi Center setup your Eye-Fi to save your video (real video .mov and raw file .avi) to a folder on you mac (for example: ~/video/Eye-Fi/)
   
2. Add the attached action as a folder action (to customize it to your needs open it with automator and then chose File>Duplicate to... from the menu and chose folder action)
   
3. Setup lightroom (or what you use) to check for new file in ~/Pictures/Eye-Fi/Last Raw (that folder is set in the action so you can change this from automator in the step before)
4. In lightroom I chose to move the imported raw to a folder called Imported Raw that i will use as starting point when ordering my pics.
5. Now you can use the CR2toAVI option in the latest ML release to rename the raw you did and start transfer them to Lightroom in nearly 30 sec during shooting over photo or video...

More on the folder action.

It's a simple action that check each time some file are added if there are .avi (600D saves .mov for the video so .avi can be only our renamed .cr2)

All the .avi file found added to the folder 

are renamed back to cr2 

and moved to the watched folder used for importing your raw in your raw editor/database.

mov file will stay in the folder you selected in Eye-Fi Center

Downside of this trick is that your eye-fi center will fill up with unusable preview of each raw you transfer but for me that's not a problem, I open it almost only to change some card settings, not to manage the files.

Tested on Lion but at first started it on Snow Leopard so probably it still works.

[Colin Peart]

I have an Eye-Fi Pro X2 card and a 60D.

When I first got the card, I did try to get it to work, and I used my computer to make it bootable.  No luck - camera froze on boot and the battery had to be removed.

I will give it a try tonight when I get home with the latest firmware, just in case.

In general, my understanding of the problem is that the firmware on the Eye-Fi card does something with the partition table, and that is what prevents the card from booting.  It is also not possible to update the camera with Canon firmware using the eye-fi card.

I checked back through the links you posted where you said that the Pro X2 was confirmed on the 600d.  If you re-read the post, you can see that the poster states that the 2gb geo card boots, but the X2 did not.

Colin Peart
cgap...@gmail.com

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[scrax]

Thank's for the reply.

I've checked again the post on flickr and the report about the Pro X2 working on 600D is from Visionado: 

yes, it is really working !!
My card is a Eye-Fi Pro X2 8GB
Thanks again 

JGana is the user that have problem with the 550D and the Pro 8Gb (not X2 seems)

I had too the problem in loading the firmware update from the Eye-Fi but if ML is already installed on camera with a normal SD card, we just need to make the card bootable with the computer.

I hope it will work on your 60D too.

[Colin Peart]

I am sorry to report that the Pro X2 8gb card did not work on my 60D.  My eye fi card has the latest firmware, and I was using the december 12th unified release.  The camera won't boot, and the battery has to be pulled to get it to work again.  ;)

The camera is already configured to boot -- I use magic lantern on another card.

Colin Peart
cgap...@gmail.com

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[scrax]

Update to the reports:

Geo (2GB) working on 550D

Geo X2 (4GB?) can't load firmware update (make bootable from computer not tested)

Connect X2 (4GB) can't load firmware update (make bootable from computer not tested)

Mobile X2 (8GB)  can't load firmware update (make bootable from computer not tested)

Pro X2 (8GB)   confirmed for 600D, not working on 60D 

Sandisk Eye-fi 8GB not tested.

Sandisk Eye-fi 4GB (Class 4, for europe only I think) working on my 600D (can't load firmware update).