Occasionally, we hear of customers who have problems using Eye-Fi with the CF adapter and their Canon 20D, 30D, or 40D, and in talking with several of them, we’ve determined that the problem often occurs when the camera is running an older firmware that doesn’t deal as well with SDHC cards, like the Eye-Fi.

When you see a CF error in a Canon, the first thing we recommend is people try formatting the Eye-Fi in their camera.

This only erases photos, and doesn’t touch the part of the Eye-Fi that’s responsible for its Wi-Fi smarts.

If that doesn’t work, it’s worth trying a firmware update. Reader Matt Beller was kind enough to send us a list of the steps he used recently to get an Eye-Fi plus adapter working with his camera:

1. First I checked my firmware on my Canon 30D.. I was one behind.. My camera was running 1.0.5 and I downloaded 1.0.6 from canon.
2. After the camera was updated I put the Eye-Fi in the card adapter and put it in my 30D camera.. I still got the CF error. So I tried formatting in the camera and that corrected the CF error. I could take pictures with it.
3. I put the Eye-Fi card in the USB reader and plugged it into my computer and the Eye Fi manager was able to initialize the card again and restore the wireless settings.
4. The card now works both in my SD550 and my 30D.

Hope that’s helpful to some of ya! Also worth noting: If you ever need the Eye-Fi desktop software that came with your Eye-Fi, you can download the most recent Eye-Fi software here.

Our pal Doug just pointed us to the DIY Coffee Can Ring Flash, over at the Strobist blog. It miraculously combines our two favorite things, and makes it ridiculously easy to start putting our SLR camera’s pop-up flash to better use!

No more “deer in the headlights” look with our flash photography – no sir. We have our coffee can to thank for that!

(p.s. If you come up with a way to adapt this to use with a point-and-shoot camera, get in touch, would you?)

Oh right, how about iPhoto integration! If you’re a Mac lover and Eye-Fi fan – fear no more – we’ve bridged the gap between your favorite new wireless buddy and Apple’s poster child photo program.

We’ve put together a light little application which keeps watch on your Eye-Fi folder. When it sees new photos have been added it automatically loads them into iPhoto. Cool!

We’re still perfecting our little Eye-Fi to iPhoto sidekick – so we can’t guarantee it’ll work on all systems and without kinks. Infact, we’d really appreciate your feedback. After you try it out – you can stop by this forum thread and let us know how its working or if you have any problems. We can’t wait to hear from you.

Without further ado – download Eye-Fi to iPhoto.zip and then get rolling with these three, one time only, simple steps.

Step 1 – Unzip the file.

Step 2 – From the unzipped file you should see a folder called “Eye-Fi to iPhoto.” Drag that whole folder to Applications.

Step 3 – Open that folder from Applications and look for the “Eye-Fi to iPhoto” app inside. Go ahead and load it – you’ll be prompted to locate your Eye-Fi pictures folder.

Here’s a screencast of us installing and running the app for the first time.

Our little app will be added to your Startup items (just like the Eye-Fi program is) so you don’t need to worry about loading it again everytime you reboot. It’s also set to work in the background so it won’t be sitting there taking up space in your dock. And if you ever want to change what folder the application is monitoring (say you move your Eye-Fi folder), no worries – just double click the application again and it’ll ask you if you want to make any changes.

Note: If your Eye-Fi wasn’t set to upload images to your computer, you can change this by going to the Eye-Fi manager and looking under Settings for “Upload to Computer.” You also need to make sure you have checked the option to “add date to path.” Have a look at our settings to see what we mean.

Itching to use your new Eye-Fi Wireless SD card to shoot an event, but want to make sure photos can get downloaded no matter where you are as you’re wandering around?

We’ve got the solution.

First, make sure you’ve read these instructions for setting up Eye-Fi to work without Internet.

To maximize the range in this setup, you’ll want to pick up the D-Link DWL-G730AP Wireless Pocket Router. For about $50, you get a full-featured portable wireless router that can be powered over USB.

Add this pocket-size rechargeable battery pack with included USB cable, and you’ve got a battery-powered wifi router that you can easily carry on your person as you shoot. (The battery will power the router for about 4 hours.)

Now, just set up your new portable router just as described in these instructions and head to the shoot. Only, instead of putting your router in a central location, keep your little D-Link on you as you shoot. Because the Eye-Fi’s antennas is smaller than your laptop’s, this will ensure that it’ll stay in range of your router (just a few feet away) and so will your laptop.

Photo downloading bliss!

(Thanks to Ziv Gillat, Eye-Fi Founder, for the tip!)

Ever since we started selling the Eye-Fi wireless SD Card last week, we’ve been getting questions from pros about how they can use this at weddings and events. Places where they’re not guaranteed an Internet connection.

Turns out there is a way to use Eye-Fi without Internet.

The basic setup depends on the fact that when setup to download photos only to your computer, and not to send them to an online photo service, Eye-Fi doesn’t need an Internet connection at all. It just needs to be on the same access point/router as your computer.

So you’ll need to pack a wireless router that you’ve pre-configured with the rest of your gear. Here’s how it works:

Step 1

You’ll need to set up your Eye-Fi and router before your event, when you have an internet connection. Connect the router you’ll be taking with you to an Internet connection, and connect to it with your laptop. Put your Eye-Fi into the reader, the reader into your laptop, and load up the management interface at http://manager.eye.fi

Now configure your Eye-Fi NOT to upload to any photo sharing services, and only to download to your computer.

Step 2

Put the Eye-Fi back in your camera, and remove the Internet connection from your router. Make sure it still has power and your laptop is still connected to it wirelessly and that the Eye-Fi manager software is running.

Do some test shooting. As long as you’re within range of your router, photos taken should download directly to your computer, even though it doesn’t have an Internet connection.

Step 3
Don’t forget to pack your router and laptop for the shoot! When you arrive, plug in the wireless router (without Internet) somewhere central so you’ll have a strong signal wherever you go.

Fire up your laptop and connect to the router you just set up. (Careful not to connect to any other wireless hotspots that might be available.)

Finally, start shooting!

Cool, right? Wireless photo capture for $99 instead of the $1,000+ Canon and Nikon will charge you!

Update: Here’s some tips on maximizing your Eye-Fi’s wireless range when shooting at events, including a portable router recommendation.

Sony recently showcased some environmentally-friendly camera gear that included the Spin N’ Snap digital camera. All you have to is spin the camera around your fingers a few times and voilà! No batteries, just a little human energy.

P.S. If you can read Japanese, let me know if the translation of the original page overlooked anything.

Check it out! The gorillapod is now available for SLRs, too. (via popgadget)

Italian photographer Fabrizio came up with a cool way to give his digital cam a super telephoto lens: attach a long distance scope using a simple mounting bracket that screws into his tripod socket. In fact, he’s got a whole site dedicated to ways he’s hacked his Casio EX-Z120. Lots of interesting and adaptable stuff.

[via Make]

“The Gary Fong Lightsphere is a flash diffuser that is gaining popularity with wedding and portrait photograhers world wide. His product is selling at a pace that the manufacturer can’t keep up with. This Flickr photoset demonstrates the use of a to-go container to make your own.” [via MAKE]

$9 and an hour of work. Not bad!

From the creators of the retro camera straps we covered last month comes the Tripod Butler!

At under $20, the tripod accessory fastens to your tripod using velcro, holds all kinds of gear (or weights, to provide extra tripod stability) and should be an excellent tool for studio photographers that use their tripods heavily.