Geekido

The Eye-Fi works pretty well with iPhoto.The photos can import directly into iPhoto, so you don’t have to maintain two image repositories, or keep them in sync. There are some difference in workflow compared to the simplicity of plugging a camera into iPhoto, though. Because of this, I’m not sure using the Eye-Fi at home is much of an improvement.

Setup

In the Eye-Fi Center, you set up iPhoto as the destination for the photos, instead of its custom filesystem. (I’ll pass on a screen cap when I get a chance.)

Use

Once you’ve done this, Eye-Fi still grabs your photos from the camera and  stashes them in its own filesystem. The next time you start iPhoto, it automatically imports the photos from the Eye-Fi Center. Note that thumbnails still appear in the Eye-Fi center for the downloaded files, but these now reference the photo in iPhoto. The files are not duplicated on the disk.

Workflow Changes

Of course, this makes using the Eye-Fi more complicated than iPhoto by itself. There are now two steps to the import instead of one. And there is one MAJOR difference — Eye-Fi does not delete images from the card after importing. This is deliberate. Some cameras support an “Endless Memory” mode, where the card itself deletes images that have been transferred in order to save space as a particular threshold is reached. The user stops worrying about clearing off the card. He just takes his pictures, then turns the camera on at home, and they transfer away.

Unfortunately, my camera does not support “Endless memory”. So my workflow with the Eye-Fi is inferior to iPhoto by itself.

[Update: 7/26/2010] Apparently my camera does support Endless Memory. (see comment) I’ll have to try this out and see how it works. If I change my workflow based on this, I’ll make a new post on workflows, and point to it from here.

Workflow: iPhoto alone

Plug in the camera.

Select “Import All”.

Select “Delete from camera.”

Eject camera.

Workflow: Eye-Fi

Turn on the camera.

Keep an eye out on the screen as Eye-Fi imports. Note when it seems to be done.

Open iPhoto and let the images import.

After the import, check the images against those on the camera to make sure everything on the camera made it into iPhoto.

Format the card in the camera. (Quickest way of deleting everything.)