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I know that Eyefi cards can use Wi-Fi networks to transfers photos. I also know that there's some sort of smartphone/tablet app that you can download to do various things with your Eyefi card and photos, but in the case that a Wi-Fi connection is not available, can the Eyefi card somehow link to a smartphone/tablet and use that smartphone/tablet's 3G/4G network to transfer the photos to a predesignated computer? Thank you.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I never thought of this angle. I do believe its possible (I provided an answer). This makes EyeFi an even more attractive option that I need to try. \$\endgroup\$
    – Octopus
    Oct 15, 2015 at 6:42

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You could turn your device into a Wifi hotspot and then EyeFi can connect to the internet via your phone (or tablet).

I don't have any experience with Eye Fi specifically, but presumably its programmed to scan for a list of known wifi hotspots. I would imagine you could program it to find your phone consistently and then once your device is enabled as a hotspot and as long as your phone has internet access to the target machine (ie. that target machine needs to be exposed to the www as a server of some sort) you'd be off to the races.

Of course enabling your device as a wifi hotspot will eat up data usage from your cell plan, so make sure you've covered that angle. If your plan doesn't already include data it can be a pretty sizable hit to the wallet.

A quick Google search turned up these pages:

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  • \$\begingroup\$ This is exactly the answer I was looking for. Thank you very much. \$\endgroup\$
    – HartleySan
    Oct 15, 2015 at 12:20
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From the specs I could not see any kind of 3G/4G compatibility, therefore I don't think EyeFi can be used with these kinds of networks. Should they decide to offer such a product, it would have to include a nanoSIM, a wi-fi transmitter and the memory itself, which is quite an effort in that tiny space. Anyway, no network in the whole world would support unlimited full-speed download/upload of huge amount of data (provided you shoot in jpeg maximum quality a photo is more or less 10 Mb), so I guess nowadays it would be useless to include a 3G/4G module in EyeFi cards...

EDIT: Sorry I misunderstood your question. If you can manage to make EyeFi selectively connect to a Wi-Fi network (I am sure that it doesn't only connect to open Wi-Fi, but you can set which one to connect to), you can of course use your tablet or mobile as a tethering hotspot. Basically the EyeFi would connect to your phone/tablet with Wi-Fi as if the last one it was a router. 3G/4G connection would then be used to link your EyeFi to the internet

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I think HartleySan's idea is to use a WiFi connection between a tablet or a phone to transfer the photos from the Eyefi to the phone and then use the phone 3G capacity... \$\endgroup\$
    – Olivier
    Oct 15, 2015 at 6:00
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    \$\begingroup\$ I highly doubt that you know about every mobile data plan in the world so you cant say that "network in the whole world would support unlimited full-speed download/upload of huge amount of data". Also JPEG is a bad example since it's the raw files that are the huge files. Also the conclusion that 3G/4G modules would be useless is unsubstantiated. This could have a huge application for journalists for example. \$\endgroup\$
    – Hugo
    Oct 15, 2015 at 6:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ First of all, I work in the telecommunication field and I know how the networks operators think. Tell me ONE example of carrier which does not limit bandwidth or volume. So yes, I think I can generalize for the time being. Second: you don't know if he is shooting RAW and of course JPEG would be a "best case scenario" \$\endgroup\$
    – Noldor130884
    Oct 15, 2015 at 6:12
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Noldor130884 No problem! I worked in a Swedish company and we used "Telenor 4G premium 80 Mbit" dataplan. It's unlimited (can be slowed down if a lot of users are using it in the same area but as soon as it clears it's full speed again) and we regularly exceeded 900 GB data a month and no hint of being capped. Sure you can argue that the limitation in crowded areas is a bandwidth cap, but that is a consequence of the 4G networks design and not the plan. If I were to go to a lesser dense area I could use it at full speed all month. \$\endgroup\$
    – Hugo
    Oct 15, 2015 at 6:39
  • \$\begingroup\$ Noldor, thank you for your edit. I have a basic understanding of the limitations at play here, but I was more just curious if it was even hypothetically possible with a smartphone/tablet. Luckily, it is. Thank you very much. Further investigation is now required. \$\endgroup\$
    – HartleySan
    Oct 15, 2015 at 12:19

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