The ability to upload to social media sites quickly is an important capability for any event photographer. Two of the cameras that I use, Fuji and Nikon, have Wi-Fi built-in, however, my favourite camera, the Leica M series does not. While the Eye-Fi card works with the M Typ 240, it doesn’t work with the older digital M’s like the M9. I’ve also found that with Wi-Fi enabled cameras connecting can sometimes take longer than expected. The solution for the Leica and for the sometimes unreliable connections in other cameras is Apple’s Lightning to SD Card Reader.
The Reader works very simply. Plug it into your iPhone or iPad, insert the SD card, and Photos will launch and read your card. Depending on your device, you will sooner (iPhone 6 and I’m sure newer) or later (with the iPad Mini – 1st generation, much later) see a gallery of thumbnails. You can download all of the images or only ones you select. I didn’t formally time it, but on my iPhone 6, the download speed was about 3-5 seconds per image, while with the iPad Mini 1st Gen, it took a little over 20 seconds per photo. I must point out that I shoot RAW + JPEG Fine in a 24MP camera and Photos downloads both! If you shoot JPEG only, your times may be faster, but I haven’t tested that. After copying the images, you will be asked if you want to delete or keep the downloaded pictures on the card. I of course keep them for later downloading to my Mac and external hard drives.
It would be nice if I could select which type of file format to download. I wouldn’t download the RAWs to my phone for instance. Or if the Photos application would remember that I want to keep the downloaded photos on the card instead of prompting me each time I run the download.
Otherwise it works great. Highly recommended.
Pros:
- Faster than old reader with Lightning adapter.
- The cable fits iPhones/iPads in cases.
- Lightweight and reasonable size.
Cons:
- Can’t select file format to download so you end up downloading RAW + JPEG assuming you shoot both.