Last Updated on 04/21/2012 by Chris Gampat
Instagram is an extremely fun app to use that promote social photo sharing and has a major emphasis on simplicity. While this is all true, the photos from your phone won’t always be as great as your camera’s. To get around that, get your hands on an Eye-Fi X2 Pro card and enable Eye-Fi’s mobile sharing powers through the menus.
Plug the card into your computer using the special card reader. After the software is installed, click on the settings and route the photos to come to your phone. Try to set it so that only JPEGs come through and not RAWs. When you shoot a photo with your camera, the photos will be sent into Eye-Fi’s cloud where they will then be downloaded onto your computer or phone depending on how you set it up.
After downloading the Eye-Fi app for your Android or iOS device, ensure that your device will be able to receive the photos from your camera. Here’s how to do it with an Android device or an iOS device. The settings and menus could use a major UI overhaul, but after some experimentation and patience, you’ll be able to get it working.
For the best results, shoot in the smallest JPEG possible.
When shooting, your Eye-Fi card will try to find a WiFi connection; but if it can’t, it will create its own to send the images. The app’s ability to download images from the cloud will vary on your mobile phone carrier’s connection speed. Once they come in though, simply select the photo and click on the share button. Select Instagram, choose a filter, then type in a message followed by selecting where to send the photo to, and let it fly. This works best with Eye-Fi enabled cameras, I’m using my Olympus EPM1, but my Nikon D5100 would also work well.
Give it shot, and let us know if you have any questions. If you’re on Instagram, be sure to find me online @chrisgampat
You can check out more Useful Photography Tips right here.