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DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> Portable Disk Storage
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 04/18/2005 04:17:39 PM · #1
Howdy all, great discussion as usual.

Question for you if I might. I am headed to Yellowstone, Devil's Tower, Rushmore, etc. etc. in less than two months and have a small issue. I will not be taking a laptop with me and am trying to decide what to do about pic storage. Currently I have a Sandisk 1 GB CF card and a Sandisk 512 mb CF card. I have two options as I see it:

1) Pick up a 2 GB CF card and just shoot until all CF cards are full
2) Pick up some sort of portable disk system like that new little 20 GB PnP (????) device for about $300.

What would you in my position and does anyone use this little 20 GB storage device? Currently I am shooting a 20D and I can get about 310 or so shots on my 1.0 CF card, so combined with my 512, I would be looking at about 460 or so total shots. To me, that just doesn't seem to be enough for 2+ weeks as freely as I like to shoot.

Thoughts? Especially from those of you with some sort of portable storage.

Thanks

Jeff
 04/18/2005 04:30:56 PM · #2
I have a Apacer Share Steno with a 40Gb Hdd.
It's small, light, has USB-OTG so plug your camera in press a button and it sucks the images of your card onto the hdd.
I am very very happy with it. Will work for over 1 hour on (build in rechargeable) battery if you need it that long, so plenty of time per day to download your images on to it.

It comes complete with cables adapter and a nice case.

40Gb is a lot, you can shoot everything all day every day.

I payed about 135 Euro for it.
I guess they will be around the same price in the US.

Message edited by author 2005-04-18 16:33:08.
 04/18/2005 06:05:37 PM · #3
I have an iPod and the belkin media reader.

I take it with me on vacation. I carry about a gig of chips with me and then suck everything onto the iPod in my downtime to clean them off.

The belkin is a little slow, so don't do it when you're in a hurry, but a good addition to an item I'm already carrying with me.

I have a 20GB iPod and about 9GBs are photos right now, and about 5GB of music. Plenty of room for more.
04/18/2005 07:38:50 PM · #4
If you shoot in RAW most of the portable harddrive viewers will not allow for viewing the RAW image on the lcd. They will copy but not viewable.

If you shoot in jpeg a viewer system seems like a better choice because you can view if the harddrive copied it or not before erasing the images off your cards.
 04/18/2005 07:53:17 PM · #5
First - I don't travel without my laptop. I would reconsider that decision. And when travelling I can easily shoot 2 g in just one day!

Second - I have the IPOD and belkin device it works with RAW images. But . . . . be sure you got ALL of them downloaded before you erase your camera card.

The new IPOD's have better batteries - and the Photo IPOD would allow you to view your images.

With IPOD you wouldn't need a computer to download your images. But you would need to have a way of keeping the IPOD charged both in your hotel and in your car.

There is also the Lacie Porsche hard drives up to 80 gigs with a price under $200.00. MacZone carries them and I'm sure other places do also. You would still need a computer to get your photos to the hard drive.

04/18/2005 08:04:39 PM · #6
PS. The IPOD gives you up to 20G for $299, 30G (IPOD Photo) for 349 and 60G (IPOD Photo) for $449.

04/18/2005 08:05:31 PM · #7
We've got a couple of XDrives (www.xsdrive.com) which are little more than a battery, a hard drive and a card reader. They're slow but cheap and they work fine.

Of course the last couple of trips we've ended up with one XDrive and a laptop - the XDrive so that if we're out during the day and fill up cards we can clear them down and at the end of every day make sure all the pictures are backed up onto both devices.

The trip we just came back from I was also burning DVDs for yet another backup - but that might be just a bit excessive unless you're paranoid :-)
 04/18/2005 08:34:11 PM · #8
Originally posted by beckettboots:
I have an iPod and the belkin media reader.

I take it with me on vacation. I carry about a gig of chips with me and then suck everything onto the iPod in my downtime to clean them off.

The belkin is a little slow, so don't do it when you're in a hurry, but a good addition to an item I'm already carrying with me.

I have a 20GB iPod and about 9GBs are photos right now, and about 5GB of music. Plenty of room for more.


i used the iPod (20GB) and the belikin reader and had great results. I took over a thousands photos, or a little over 5GB. The reader is a great option with two memory cards, it allows you do download one card while you continue shooting with the other, than swap them.

granted, its a bit expensive, but if you buy online you can get a student discount (about $40 I believe) on the iPod, oh, and you get to listen to music
 04/18/2005 08:46:17 PM · #9
I have the Archos AV420 as a backup for my 20D. As long as you have a type 1 CF card, it is a fantastic device. I use it for holidays - not enough to justify 20GB device alone. So the Archos has a video recorder function - totally useful year round. Well built. Great screen (thoug only 320 pixels across and so slow when you are used to the 20d) - use it for watching videos, and 4 pics view mode is fast, Just the 1-pic mode is slow. Great device, nice all in one Cf reader + largescreen colour device + video recorder for the rest of the time...!
 04/18/2005 08:59:09 PM · #10
I have a Flashtrax for this type of thing and wouldn't look back. It's fantastic - and you just pop in the CF card, push copy, it finishes, you can preview with thumbs and bring some music along for the hike. WOW.

:D

BH photo sells them - I'll link if you can't find it.
 04/19/2005 07:02:04 AM · #11
CNet has a round up here.

They plump for the Epson P-2000 - it is nice, but for me, impractically large and very focussed for the single task of storing photos.

I would still recommend the Archos AV420 if, like me, you won't be using the HD drive day in day out, and the hard drive video recorder (and portable tv viewer) could be useful. I use mine for videos all of the time. I rarely need 20GB of photo space - just holidays, really.

Or if you have an ipod - the new connectors seem like a good value-option (though slow).
 04/19/2005 07:30:08 AM · #12
I gave up on portable storage as it is most often totally unreliable, and bought a Laptop, the price differential is no longer that much.
 04/19/2005 07:39:04 AM · #13
Originally posted by Gil P:
I gave up on portable storage as it is most often totally unreliable, and bought a Laptop, the price differential is no longer that much.

Poppycock.
I used a Gmini 220 at every one of these race meetings and didn't lose a single file from the 1000 or so I transferred on each day.
The Gmini cost less than 1/3rd of the *cheapest* laptop. Not that I would ever have been able to carry a laptop around all day anyway!
 04/19/2005 07:43:16 AM · #14
Unfortunately every type of storage has some degree of unreliability. I've had both X-Drive and CF temporarily break on me. I now store all my pics on flash, and then back them up to X-Drive so I take home two copies.

For $300, if possible I would buy another GB of flash and a disk storage unit for $200.

I would also avoid an iPod unless you specifically want to play music, otherwise you're just paying for functionality you don't need.
 04/19/2005 07:46:55 AM · #15
Originally posted by bod:
Originally posted by Gil P:
I gave up on portable storage as it is most often totally unreliable, and bought a Laptop, the price differential is no longer that much.

Poppycock.

Indeed - I've never had ANY issues with the XDrives being unreliable, they coped fine with bumping around Africa for 2 months and have brought home literally thousands of shots from each trip.

As for the price differential; well the bottom of the range 40Gb units are listed at £160. Please tell me where I can get a laptop for that kind of money!
 04/19/2005 08:40:50 AM · #16
A laptop would be great, but travelling around with one and the acoutrements requires a bit more space than ideal. I don't have to leave my AV420 in a hotel room, and can transfer files in moments at any time while out shooting (I get in enough trouble as it is with just the camera equipment, let alone taking a laptop as well!). The music/video palyback/videorecorder functions are all good! However, I cannot view the pics at a high resolution, play with them or e-mail them to friends.

Horses for courses!
 04/19/2005 11:42:39 AM · #17
Thank you all for the replies ... was hoping that someone was using that EZPnP device. I won't go the iPod route due to the fact that I just don't do music that way .... which is strange since I am really into music.

I also really don't want to pick up a Laptop, even with the prices coming down. Don't want to travel with it, don't want to spend the money as normally my CF cards will do the trick .... and quite honestly, would rather spend the money on gear.

Anyone willing to say how much they spent on those devices, especially the AV420 and FlashTrax ... I will see if I can find them.

Thanks again, your time is appreciated.

Jeff
 04/19/2005 11:44:05 AM · #18
You can get a new 20 gig flashtrax for about $330. At least that's what I think - I got mine used 30 gig for $350.
 04/19/2005 12:07:57 PM · #19
Mavrik, the review talks about the washed out and "homely" screen. what are your thoughts. My main priority is just the disk space and ease of transfer but if the screen is there .... I might as well like that too.

Your thoughts on the screen?

04/19/2005 12:25:31 PM · #20
The screen view could be improved but I definitely wanted one that i could see the previews rather than just text. I agree it's washed out - could definitely use a contrasty screen adjustment. :) But it does thumb previews, so...
 04/19/2005 12:29:18 PM · #21
I'm very interested in the flashtrax...There is currently a $50 rebate available at this link (until Apr 30):

Rebate

US only...

Message edited by author 2005-04-19 12:29:33.
 04/19/2005 12:30:56 PM · #22
Without a doubt, the iPod photo is the way to go. My 20gb iPod holds my entire record collection (about a week's worth of non-stop music at 92kb/s) and with 60gb on tap you'd still have 40gb more for photo storage. I have a 40gb flashtrax which holds more than enough for any trip.
 04/19/2005 12:33:36 PM · #23
Originally posted by jimmythefish:
Without a doubt, the iPod photo is the way to go. My 20gb iPod holds my entire record collection (about a week's worth of non-stop music at 92kb/s) and with 60gb on tap you'd still have 40gb more for photo storage. I have a 40gb flashtrax which holds more than enough for any trip.


I'm confused...which one works better for photos? The Flashtrax or iPod? ...and why?
 04/19/2005 01:17:54 PM · #24
I have the Archos Gmini 400.
It is awesome for many reasons.
However, if you are working in Nikon .NEF RAW format... you are out of luck.
It currently only supports JPG.
It is also a great MP3 player!
 04/19/2005 01:17:59 PM · #25
Both are good. The flashtrax is easier for me - I have to download on the run. You pop the card in and push copy. Done. It does play tunes if you need a little inspiration along the way too. :) But for photos, I'd take the flashtrax. it's just easy..
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