Portable Digital Photo Storage Devices -- BOB'S QUESTIONS... 8-5-08

FotoByFriend · August 6, 2008

Below is some correspondence between my buddy David and me. Anyone else like to chime in on this? THANKS.

--Bob Friend, aka FotoByFriend

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Original Message

From: Bob Friend
To: David Turner
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 4:16 PM
Subject: portable digital photo storage devices -- BOB'S QUESTIONS... 8-5-08

David--

Got a problem. My wonderful son, as a gift to me, partially funded an iPod
Classic -- 80 GB ($250.) Cool little unit. I would never have been
interested in such a sophisticated device -- EXCEPT that the Apple
salesperson on the phone told me that, with the purchase of a camera
connector and a wall charger, I could take the iPod with me when traveling
and download photos DIRECTLY from my digital camera.

Well... turns out not to be true.

While it IS true that these adaptors worked with the prior generation of
iPods, they do NOT work with the NEW ones. (DUH!) So the salesperson gave me REALLY bad information.
I have decided (I think) to return the Classic, along with the accessories.

So, OK -- I found this link:
http://cameras.about.com/od/printing/tp/photostorage.htm -- article about
some portable pix storage devices.

Is one of these the one YOU have? (I know you have something like these.)

If not, what do YOU have -- and how do you like it? Is, in your opinion, one of these gizmos in the article (or another one somewhere) better for me than what YOU have?

--Bob, aka FotoByFriend

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Original Message

From: David Turner
To: Bob Friend
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 11:04 PM
Subject: Re: portable digital photo storage devices -- BOB'S QUESTIONS...
8-5-08

I have an RCA Lyra Video/Jukebox and I purchased it thinking I could
download to it (it has a CF slot on the device). What I didn't know is that
it has to be hooked to a computer to download ANYTHING to it. DOH!!! I
kept it tho.

I also have a Nivue (???) Digital Album. It downloads directly from the
card and deletes the photos from the card after it is completed. It worked
great for our trip to Vietnam in 2005. it was a 20gig. It still works BUT
not with my 2gig CF cards.

They download but to get them to work in the camera I have to reformat them.

OH and mine didn't have a screen to preview the photos. I had to connect it to a TV to do so.

In one of the photography books I have (Scott Kelby) I think he has the
Epson. Wolverine makes one as well (bhphoto.com)

Maybe bring it up at Dgrin, because I honestly have no idea what is out
there for this.

-david

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DJT · August 6, 2008

That David guy has no idea what he's talking about. Nixvue is what he has.

If I recall... he purchased the RCA thinking it would do the trick then 1 week from leaving for Vietnam he found out it didn't do it and had to order something quickly - the Nixvue, because all he had was 2 256mb sony sticks for his F717. It was a refurbished Nixvue.

yeah.... David is DJT

dangin · August 7, 2008

i once looked into the ipod media reader and everyone said that the xfer speeds were slower than trying to pour frozen molasses. go apple...

i personally don't use one of these personal image storage devices but have been thinking about picking one up for the longest time. my personal prerequisites would be:

1) fast downloads to the device w/ UDMA support
2) some sort of error checking
3) good battery life
4) a firewire (preferrably fw 800) output for connecting back to the computer
5) SSD (solid state hard drive)

unfortunately i don't believe such a device currently exists. :cry

the gal that 2nd shoots weddings with me has one of those Epson things and seems to really like it. she does complain about the battery not being very robust though.

epson p-2000 @ calumet photo

i've been eyeing the sanho hyperdrive devices for sometime now hoping one day they'd release one with a firewire port on the side of it.

hyperdrive 80 @ calumet photo

chuckice · August 8, 2008

dangin wrote:

i once looked into the ipod media reader and everyone said that the xfer speeds were slower than trying to pour frozen molasses. go apple...

i personally don't use one of these personal image storage devices but have been thinking about picking one up for the longest time. my personal prerequisites would be:

1) fast downloads to the device w/ UDMA support
2) some sort of error checking
3) good battery life
4) a firewire (preferrably fw 800) output for connecting back to the computer
5) SSD (solid state hard drive)

unfortunately i don't believe such a device currently exists. :cry

the gal that 2nd shoots weddings with me has one of those Epson things and seems to really like it. she does complain about the battery not being very robust though.

epson p-2000 @ calumet photo

i've been eyeing the sanho hyperdrive devices for sometime now hoping one day they'd release one with a firewire port on the side of it.

hyperdrive 80 @ calumet photo

The Wolverine MVP sounds close to what you're looking for...I've had mine about 3 years now, no issues. Great for travel backup and media playing. I might upgrade to the ESP at some point.
http://www.wolverinedata.com/index.php/site/quicklinks/C11/

jww · August 8, 2008

Although no FW support, I really like my Epson P-3000. It uses a different battery than the P-2000 (I believe lithium ion) and I haven't had any issues having it last quite awhile on one recharge. I sorta wish now I had purchased the P-6000 for the larger drive, but I've only ran into space issues during a week long event that was out of town. I had my laptop with me so it wasn't that big of a deal to move stuff over to it in the evenings.

I really like the display as well !

FotoByFriend · August 11, 2008

Thanks for advice re Wolverine, Mr. Snort!

chuckice wrote:

The Wolverine MVP sounds close to what you're looking for...I've had mine about 3 years now, no issues. Great for travel backup and media playing. I might upgrade to the ESP at some point.
http://www.wolverinedata.com/index.php/site/quicklinks/C11/

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I took a quick look at one of your galleries -- CYCLING. You obviously know what you are doing, so this adds weight to your recommendation. FYI, I have a photo background -- M.A. in photojournalism, '73. This is also around the time I shot my first wedding (don't do weddings any more, except when my cousin begged me earlier this year). Got into other graphics -- have not made a living at photography full-time since '79. Anyway, I also have an amateur cycling background -- was in France for Paris-Brest Paris twice ('87 and '91 -- untramarathon event); so I need to poke around your galleries some more -- cool stuff, dude! Thanks again for the tips.

--Bob Friend, Wauconda Township IL
aka FotoByFriend
SMUG MUG IS AWESOME!

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Vanquiz · August 12, 2008

Are you talking about a backup storage devices? You might want to take a look at this, Im thinking about getting one of this myself. It lets you backup your photos from memory devices directly into HDD without the needs of PC.

EBAY

I dont think the screen is for photo viewing, but still, for the price, it's pretty HUGE space for backup, I think they also have them it smaller HDD space.

mmmatt · August 12, 2008

I've used the "compacdrive" products and they are real nice. They do file verification which is a nice feature, and they (at least they used to) run on AA batts. I currently have an "imax" that I bought barebones and installed my own drive. That works well but no formal file verification feature and internal batt. Never had an issue though with the files being corrupt.

If you want the do it all entertainment and backup device then I recomend a Creative "zen vision" or zen vision w". These are portable media players that have a CF slot. The vision is a 30gb unit and the vision w is either 30 or 60. The vision w 30gb unit is upgradeable if you are handy like that, but I haven't been able to locate a larger than 30gb drive that will fit the vision. If you can find a vision it is a nice unit and allows you to view and delete movies/photos on a decent sized screen. I bought mine for $120 refurbished from creative, and bought 4 extra batteries for $5 each. That all being said, 30gb is a little small if you have a real highend camera and don't have access to a laptop to dump to each day. So for the nature trecker with the 1ds mkiii, you need another solution!

The biggest problem with most of these units is they use internal bateries and are useless after about 8gb or so unless you have access to power. The compacdrive unit I used to have was bulky, but it ran on AA batts and that was a huge advantage when I was out and about.

my $.02
Matt

dwayne_bradley · August 12, 2008

You might want to look here...
http://www.hyperdrive.com/

I have one of their older models, the HD80, and it works great as just a backup device when I go on vacation.

Dwayne

cutaway · August 19, 2008

Hyperdrive

dwayne_bradley wrote:

http://www.hyperdrive.com/

I have one of their older models, the HD80, and it works great as just a backup device when I go on vacation.

Dwayne

I have the older HD80 as well and it still works great. I got the Colorspace 0 about 5-6 months ago and it's very impressive. Here's a review I posted a while back - http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1023&message=27440310

The newer model now supports SATA.

Portable Digital Photo Storage Devices -- BOB'S QUESTIONS... 8-5-08

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