Hyper Drive

Ric Grupe

Found a nice review here:

http://www.halfpress.com/archives/2006/01/hyperdrive_hd80.html

For Sale here:

http://www.hyperdrive.com/shop/index.php?osCsid=140c924f84efdefef17e5e84ba7b47e3

Popularity of this portable card reader/hard drive means you'll have to stand in line for one. :cry

Mike Lane

Ric Grupe wrote:

Found a nice review here:

http://www.halfpress.com/archives/2006/01/hyperdrive_hd80.html

For Sale here:

http://www.hyperdrive.com/shop/index.php?osCsid=140c924f84efdefef17e5e84ba7b47e3

Popularity of this portable card reader/hard drive means you'll have to stand in line for one. :cry

I ordered mine on the 6th of April and I received it on the 11th. (or was it 12th?) I did a review that is in here and on dgrin.smugmug.com too

Ric Grupe

Mike Lane wrote:

I ordered mine on the 6th of April and I received it on the 11th. (or was it 12th?) I did a review that is in here and on dgrin.smugmug.com too

D'oh!

Sorry, Mike! You were out Googled by the link I posted.

Right now there is a wait till May 9th. Looks like you hit it right.

Mike Lane

Ric Grupe wrote:

D'oh!

Sorry, Mike! You were out Googled by the link I posted.

Right now there is a wait till May 9th. Looks like you hit it right.

When I ordered they said there was a wait until April 18th. Try them out, you may be in luck:D

Ric Grupe

Mike Lane wrote:

When I ordered they said there was a wait until April 18th. Try them out, you may be in luck:D

I've got the Epson P2000.

This was a public service post.

This is a much better/simpler approach. If the HD had only been around.....oh, well.

Mike Lane

Ric Grupe wrote:

I've got the Epson P2000.

This was a public service post.

This is a much better/simpler approach. If the HD had only been around.....oh, well.

whatever works for you

I'm no HD80 salesman. It would be nice to have a screen, I can tell you that. The pricetag was a bit too steep for me though.

juliejules

I ordered an HD80 on April 13th and it came today. It's charging right now. So far so good.

colourbox

I like the philosophy of this device. I have stayed away from devices of this type because of the "what if the hard disk fails" question, but the HyperDrive is small enough and affordable enough that you can quickly dump a card into two of them as was mentioned in one of the reviews. For that reason of easy redundancy, and the speed, and the long battery life, and the easy to service batteries, it's the first device of this type I've ever seriously considered.

I also like that it's easy to install or upgrade the drive, because like one of the reviewers, I have a few 2.5 inch drives lying around (used for backup and mobile support for my laptop). This sounds great, thanks for the reports and links.

Bob Bell

colourbox wrote:

I like the philosophy of this device. I have stayed away from devices of this type because of the "what if the hard disk fails" question, but the HyperDrive is small enough and affordable enough that you can quickly dump a card into two of them as was mentioned in one of the reviews. For that reason of easy redundancy, and the speed, and the long battery life, and the easy to service batteries, it's the first device of this type I've ever seriously considered.

I also like that it's easy to install or upgrade the drive, because like one of the reviewers, I have a few 2.5 inch drives lying around (used for backup and mobile support for my laptop). This sounds great, thanks for the reports and links.

Colourbox, you could get an addonics CF to DVD burner and make DVD's as backup to the hyperdrive.

David_S85

Bob Bell wrote:

Colourbox, you could get an addonics CF to DVD burner and make DVD's as backup to the hyperdrive.

That's what I'm doing. One gets mailed home and the other I keep with me.

model aemfr888d. Should be between US$265 and $269. Don't get the old one. Make sure it's the 888. They're still slow, and burn at 4x (not the 8x as advertised). But 1x on DVD's are faster than 1x on CD's.

Bob Bell

David_S85 wrote:

That's what I'm doing. One gets mailed home and the other I keep with me.

model aemfr888d. Should be between US$265 and $269. Don't get the old one. Make sure it's the 888. They're still slow, and burn at 4x (not the 8x as advertised). But 1x on DVD's are faster than 1x on CD's.

Yea I saw they had a couple different options. If I get this I will bring taiyo Yuden disks. I think gary or someone else said they are bring a laptop with a DVD reader so we should be able to verify the DVD's since I don't think we can do that on a TV like with JPG's but im still reading.

Bob Bell

Bob Bell wrote:

Yea I saw they had a couple different options. If I get this I will bring taiyo Yuden disks. I think gary or someone else said they are bring a laptop with a DVD reader so we should be able to verify the DVD's since I don't think we can do that on a TV like with JPG's but im still reading.

BTW I have found them cheaper, 245 is the lowest so far.

David_S85

Bob Bell wrote:

BTW I have found them cheaper, 245 is the lowest so far.

From a reliable source?

I'm about to order mine. I've got one of their older CD burner / DVD player units. Never had a problem with it except for using Lexar cards. That's probably been fixed now.

The bonus is that it also doubles as a DVD movie player.

Bob Bell

David_S85 wrote:

From a reliable source?

I'm about to order mine. I've got one of their older CD burner / DVD player units. Never had a problem with it except for using Lexar cards. That's probably been fixed now.

The bonus is that it also doubles as a DVD movie player.

I've never heard of this place but their reseller ratings seem okay. What do you think:

http://www.provantage.com/addonics-aemfr888d~7ADDO17P.htm

http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1969.html

I haven't found anyone cheaper. Most seem to be around 260.

David_S85

Bob, reorder the reviews by low first - then count them. The theme seems to be: 1) delay the order 2) tell the customer the price went up 3) bill customer the higher price 4) ship it very slowly 5) don't take care of returned merchandise.

Stay away from there.

Bob Bell

David_S85 wrote:

Bob, reorder the reviews by low first - then count them. The theme seems to be: 1) delay the order 2) tell the customer the price went up 3) bill customer the higher price 4) ship it very slowly 5) don't take care of returned merchandise.

Stay away from there.

So are you buying from addonics directly or did you find someplace else?

David_S85

Bob Bell wrote:

So are you buying from addonics directly or did you find someplace else?

If I tell you, then you might buy their only one leaving me nothing!

Let's hope Amazon has at least two in stock then.

Bob Bell

David_S85 wrote:

If I tell you, then you might buy their only one leaving me nothing!

Let's hope Amazon has at least two in stock then.

I walked around a riparian area with another bird shooter for a couple hours this morning. He shoots Olympus with really nice results btw. Anyway, he carries a PD70X and swears by it. It copies his 2 gig CF cards very quickly and has had his 40 gig model full a few times with no problems traveling. The only thing bad about it is I can only find a singapore dealer. I have noticed in the field and at games how many people are still use image tanks and other non LCD devices.

I don't buy from Amazon so you will be safe No reason btw, just never have.

Rohirrim

FWIW, I purchased the Hyperdrive a little before Christmas and have been very happy with it. Copies my CF cards quickly and then they are easily transferred to my PC. It would be nice to have a preview screen, but the price makes up for any disadvantages.

Bob Bell

David_S85 wrote:

If I tell you, then you might buy their only one leaving me nothing!

Let's hope Amazon has at least two in stock then.

David let me know when you get that and if you have any issues burning 4 gig cards. I haven't gotten anything yet but I am curious if that thing works with 4 gig ultra II's.

David_S85

Ordered the DVD MFR thing today. Supposedly, it already shipped.

Bob, I use 2GB cards, so I can't do a live test on a 4 gigger. My other 2GB card is also on a UPS truck. And when the rest of the month-long odyssey of waiting for my pano package from RRS is over, I will do an in-depth RAW bracketing test for 360º panoramas at all focal lengths, which should fill up those cards nicely! Then I'll time a 2GB burn (which is really 1.85 GIG).

Frankly, I don't expect speed miracles. I already use their CD MFR, and its painfully pokey. The 8x record speed (for the DVD 888 model) is only when USB'd to a computer. So it will either be 2x or 4x in the field. I burn these things when I've got something else to do concurrently, like make coffee, feed the cats, or tear up junk mail.

I originally went with the off-computer burning method to force myself to perform a backup before I even looked at the pictures. That worked, and its now part of my workflow.

I plan on mailing one DVD back home, and also making a second DVD backup to keep with me. I'll copy from the DVD to the HD when I get back.

Next I need to order those Taiyu Yuden DVD+R's. Then, all my ducks should be in a row for the trip.

Bob Bell wrote:

David let me know when you get that and if you have any issues burning 4 gig cards. I haven't gotten anything yet but I am curious if that thing works with 4 gig ultra II's.

Bob Bell

David_S85 wrote:

Ordered the DVD MFR thing today. Supposedly, it already shipped.

Bob, I use 2GB cards, so I can't do a live test on a 4 gigger. My other 2GB card is also on a UPS truck. And when the rest of the month-long odyssey of waiting for my pano package from RRS is over, I will do an in-depth RAW bracketing test for 360º panoramas at all focal lengths, which should fill up those cards nicely! Then I'll time a 2GB burn (which is really 1.85 GIG).

Frankly, I don't expect speed miracles. I already use their CD MFR, and its painfully pokey. The 8x record speed (for the DVD 888 model) is only when USB'd to a computer. So it will either be 2x or 4x in the field. I burn these things when I've got something else to do concurrently, like make coffee, feed the cats, or tear up junk mail.

I originally went with the off-computer burning method to force myself to perform a backup before I even looked at the pictures. That worked, and its now part of my workflow.

I plan on mailing one DVD back home, and also making a second DVD backup to keep with me. I'll copy from the DVD to the HD when I get back.

Next I need to order those Taiyu Yuden DVD+R's. Then, all my ducks should be in a row for the trip.

I just got a 100 pack of inkjet printable Taiyo Yuden's. Let me know if you need a decent source.

I have been looking at the Apacer version of the DVD burner. its made by Jobo and I can buy it from a known retailer.

David_S85

Bob Bell wrote:

I just got a 100 pack of inkjet printable Taiyo Yuden's. Let me know if you need a decent source.

I have been looking at the Apacer version of the DVD burner. its made by Jobo and I can buy it from a known retailer.

Yes, but it's more money by like $80, isn't it?

Rima.com for DVD's. Supermediastore.com has some real flakey reviews, mostly about return, shipping and damage issues. Rima OTOH is squeeky clean.

docwalker

Dang you guys.... You finally twisted my arm enough. I placed an order for the HD this morning. :-)

I have been thinking hard on the storage problem for a while now. The iPod is just not going to cut it. The fiance and I are heading to Vegas for the honeymoon in August and I really need a bulk storage solution.

Thanks for the excellent comments and recommendations. I would have gone with the p2000 but money is tight.

David_S85

MFR DVD came today. That's a 24-hr place order -- to -- at my door. How does that company do this?

I used the free shipping option, a 3-5 day addition to the normal UPS 3-5 day ground. Should have been 6-7 days.

There are a couple disks included, so until my Taiyu Yudens arrive, I'll use those for testing on a couple 2GIG cards. Guess I gotta go out shooting, like, 350 shots now, eh? That's going to take a week.

Bob Bell

David_S85 wrote:

MFR DVD came today. That's a 24-hr place order -- to -- at my door. How does that company do this?

I used the free shipping option, a 3-5 day addition to the normal UPS 3-5 day ground. Should have been 6-7 days.

There are a couple disks included, so until my Taiyu Yudens arrive, I'll use those for testing on a couple 2GIG cards. Guess I gotta go out shooting, like, 350 shots now, eh? That's going to take a week.

350 is an hour or hour and a half of shooting using 1 shot

David_S85

Bob Bell wrote:

350 is an hour or hour and a half of shooting using 1 shot

Sure, I COULD machine gun them off, but I also have some testing to do with the new pano head at 10, 14, 17, 22, 28, 35, 50 and 75 mm focals. Once that is behind me, I'll do some burning.

See, the two jobs kinda get in the way of lots of this stuff.

Bob Bell

David_S85 wrote:

Sure, I COULD machine gun them off, but I also have some testing to do with the new pano head at 10, 14, 17, 22, 28, 35, 50 and 75 mm focals. Once that is behind me, I'll do some burning.

See, the two jobs kinda get in the way of lots of this stuff.

I can shoot that many in one shot not using continous if there are a lot of birds around and I can shoot behaviors.

is that the panning head from RRS? and are you bringing it to utah?

I am going to bring a 3way head with a proper panning base to utah. So I will be curious how much of a step up the RRS is.

David_S85

Bob, I'm using a RRS BH-40 ball head, with their 360º rotational PCL-1 clamp mounted atop it. The camera has one of their "L" brackets attached so I can immediately go portrait at a moment's notice to shoot pano's. Originally, I also had their basic slide bar, providing the pivot point adjustments to avoid parallax, but it proved too short for 50+mm lenses. I and the RRS people guessed wrong. No biggie. It happens. So I swapped them for their longer and graduated MPR-CLII rail instead, That's in a UPS truck headed here too. I don't need to shoot full bubbles, as single row suffices for me. Setup is quicker, and I only need carry the rail to do panoramics. And that's real small and only an extra 7 ounces.

...and pano's are a cheaper method than to go mega-megapixels shooting with a 1DsMkII or a medium format back.

I have to figure how many shots (for overlap) and at what focals. The bar will be marked via white post-it tape down the middle as a quick reference guide for setups. The last thing I want to do is look up on some chart all the setup info as the others begin to continue on the hike.

But I do suspect that even in small groups of, say 12?, that the hiking will be lots slower than anyone predicts. Everybody will be stopping, seting up, shooting, and folding up their tripods often enough.

Bob Bell wrote:

...
is that the panning head from RRS? and are you bringing it to utah?
...
I am going to bring a 3way head with a proper panning base to utah. So I will be curious how much of a step up the RRS is.

Bob Bell

David_S85 wrote:

Bob, I'm using a RRS BH-40 ball head, with their 360º rotational PCL-1 clamp mounted atop it. The camera has one of their "L" brackets attached so I can immediately go portrait at a moment's notice to shoot pano's. Originally, I also had their basic slide bar, providing the pivot point adjustments to avoid parallax, but it proved too short for 50+mm lenses. I and the RRS people guessed wrong. No biggie. It happens. So I swapped them for their longer and graduated MPR-CLII rail instead, That's in a UPS truck headed here too. I don't need to shoot full bubbles, as single row suffices for me. Setup is quicker, and I only need carry the rail to do panoramics. And that's real small and only an extra 7 ounces.

...and pano's are a cheaper method than to go mega-megapixels shooting with a 1DsMkII or a medium format back.

I have to figure how many shots (for overlap) and at what focals. The bar will be marked via white post-it tape down the middle as a quick reference guide for setups. The last thing I want to do is look up on some chart all the setup info as the others begin to continue on the hike.

But I do suspect that even in small groups of, say 12?, that the hiking will be lots slower than anyone predicts. Everybody will be stopping, seting up, shooting, and folding up their tripods often enough.

Thats sweet. I have looked at Bh-40's and Bh-55's but haven't pulled the trigger. I really favor 3-way heads but think I need a 40 or 55 for nature since it would be easier. My old ball heads aren't great.

David_S85

The 40 is big and heavy (and expensive) as it is. The 55 is for medium format or for some hu-normous lenses, IMO.... way overkill for most things dSLR.

Instead of several intermediate steps, I bought the good stuff right away, and its mounted upon a new Gitzo CF pod no less. I hope to still be using this in 30 years. And the complete rig is so lightweight that I have no qualms carrying it anywhere. That just might allow me to get out and shoot more places and more often.

Ric, if you're following all this... sorry... looks as if we've hijacked your hyperdrive thread completely.