For many years now, EyeFi has been trying to find a solution to make their cards function better with CF cards and the cameras that use them. The technological problem has to do with the metal in these cameras and the SD/CF card being placed sideways. But recently, the company started to recommend the C. Ming adapters for their SD cards.
If you’re a person with one of these DSLRs and shoots both RAW and JPEG, your workflow and marketing may benefit from a card like this.
Pros and Cons
Pros
– Fastest WiFi transferring that we’ve seen from a CF adapter yet considering all of the technical limitations
– Allows the SD card to work exceptionally well with the Mobi App.
Cons
– It’s pretty thick
– Only were able to put it into the 5D Mk II. You probably have to get the one that’s right for your camera.
Gear Used
We tested the C. Ming WiFi SD to CF card adapter with the Canon 5D Mk II, Nexus 5 and the EyeFi Mobi card.
Tech Specs
Specs taken from the eBay listing.
- Supports SDXC/SDHC/SD all capacities.
- SD 3.0 compatible: accepts Class 10 or UHS-1 cards
- Accepts most WiFi SD on the market
- High-Speed CF interface with extreme performance
- Supports CF true IDE mode/memory mode/ IO mode
- Equipped with push-push SD socket
- Supports Windows/Mac OS/Link
Ergonomics
The C. Ming SD to CF card adapter for WiFi SD cards is shaped mostly like a standard CF card. Except in this case, you need to insert the SD card into it. With other offerings that we’ve used, we get a bit of a confirmation that it is in place via a resistant spring locking into place. But in this case, you just put it in and slide it out. It’s a bit odd, but it works!
The card slips right into a CF card slot just like many other CF cards. Except that in this case, the card is a bit tougher. We were only able to get it into the 5D Mk II. It couldn’t get into the 7D Mk II at all.
The other side of the card has the memory communication contacts–which are probably where the only metal in this card is located. Otherwise, the card seems to be very plasticky.
Build Quality
The C. Ming SD to CF card adapter feels like a lot of plastic–as we stated. In fact, it really should in order to work. The more metal there is, the tougher it is for the radio waves to go through. What is a bit weird though is the fact that it is much thicker than other CF cards. This can make inserting the CF card into other cameras quite tough.
Ease of Use
Using the C. Ming adapter with the EyeFi Mobi card made us transfer JPEG images over to my Nexus 5. The transfer is very fast, and we couldn’t be happier. By using an older camera we can shoot RAW+JPEG and transfer some of those images over to the phone. It will move everything over to the app though, so keep that in mind if you’re feeling selective.
Just make sure that your phone and the app can connect to the card. It may take shooting a couple of images to get this going. In fact, it works better than I originally thought it would.
Conclusions
Likes
– Fast and reliable use with the EyeFi card
– Lightweight
Dislikes
– Weird shape and won’t go into other cameras.
The C. Ming EyeFi card adapter is very worth it as it gives new life to your old DSLR. When used with EyeFi Mobi, you’ll be incredibly happy with not only the speed of the transfers, but also with the fact that you can quickly share the images to your social media pages right afterward.
We strongly recommend the C. Ming CF card adapter, and award it four out of five stars.