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Eye-Fi on my Nikon D3s with Jobo SD/SDHC/SDxC to CF card Type II Adapter (Surgery Needed)

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Searched up and down…in and out…some said can use, some said cannot.

I gave up…reading.

Went and took out a  Jobo SD/SDHC/SDxC to CF card Type II Adapter to try for myself on the D3s. No, cannot fit. The Type II adapter is just half a mm too thick. There is no way you are going to be able to insert a Type II card into a Type I slot.

http://shashinki.com/shop/images/JOBO-SDCF.jpg

Piled open the  Jobo SD/SDHC/SDxC to CF card Type II Adapter, figured out if I can throw away the casing, there might be chance that I will still be able to insert the adapter into the D3s Type I slot.

After some careful surgery on the Jobo, it is now naked. I slot in a Sandisk SDHC memory card into the Jobo adapter, then carefully insert it into my D3s. It is a try an error process, as without the CF rails at the side, you can’t really tell if you have inserted the card correctly into the PINSsssss of the CF slot in the camera. Warning! If you accidentally bent or broken the CF pins inside the camera, it is going to cost you $$$ to get it repaired! I figured out that since D3s has TWO CF slots, so I can just risk one slot for my experiment. 😛

After some effort, I was able to insert the Jobo adapter into the D3s. Yes, it works! D3s can immediately detect and read the SDHC card in the Jobo adapter. Shooting is fine as well, all photos are recorded perfectly onto the card.

Now it comes to the main purpose of the experiment. Getting Eye-Fi to work on my D3s!

This is actually the easier part, as there is no modification required on the Eye-Fi. Just slot in the Eye-Fi to the Jobo naked adapter, then carefully insert it to the D3s, and done.

But…before that, you need to actually setup the Eye-Fi on your computer. It is an easy process as well. Just plug in the Eye-Fi card to your computer with a supplied USB adapter, and the software inside the Eye-Fi will prompt you for installation. Just follow the screen instructions and you are done.

Now…does Eye-Fi works? Yes, it does! In fact is works like wonders!

This is how the Eye-Fi Center software looks like. No, you don’t need it as a photo sorter or whatever, just use it to configure the setting of your Eye-Fi.

The Eye-Fi card that I used is the best version from Eye-Fi:  Eye-Fi 8GB Pro X2 SDHC Memory Card

http://shashinki.com/shop/images/EF-PROX2-8GB.jpg

With the capability of transferring RAW file, and some other advanced features. (read comparison at Eye-Fi website: http://www.eye.fi/products/compare-cards)

In short, as a summary, Eye-Fi + Naked Jobu SD/CF Adapter, works like wonders! Transfer speed is amazingly fast via home wireless network! A 3-4MB Jpeg file is transferred within 5 seconds. RAW file is less than 10 seconds. I am impressed! I saved lots of my time for product shots, without having to pull out the memory card, plug into my card reader, then computer, then copy to my computer, then only I can edit. See how many steps and time it saves!

For those who do studio works, I can imagine Eye-Fi being a real helper in your studio work!

A note on D3 / D3s user. Make sure you set your D3s “Auto Meter Off Delay” to 1 minute or longer. Default is 6s. The reason is because after shooting, Eye-Fi needs the camera to provide it powers to transmit the files via home wireless network to your computer.

For Android or iPhone user, you can download Eye-Fi app from the market. Installed to your phone, configure it and you can then have Eye-Fi sending images to your phone while shooting! (You need to enable WiFi on your phone to connect to Eye-Fi wireless network).

It works! It works like wonders! Amazing product, amazing technology. I am impressed. 🙂