Those portable harddrive card reader things...

[PlatinumWeaver]

You know what I mean...

I saw at least two people using them on sunday and they seemed to work quite quickly. I just wondering if anyone could answer for me...

a) Rough cost?
b) Capacity?
c) Battery life?
d) Screen?
e) Chance of un-noticed error while copying?
f) Anything else I may have forgotten...

I filled up my memory cards in about 2.5 hrs on sunday, I will be going in a 3 day safari in 2 weeks.. I really do not want to be cracking open the laptop to clean a card while there is wildlife nearby, but one of these things that just sits in your camera bag... could work well..

Thanks any and all..

Dean

[birddog114]

Platinumweaver,
Those gadgets are in the Equipments review section, go there and you'll lot of informations about them.

[boxerboy]

Dean, for me I don't really see the point. I'd prefer to have more (bigger) cards. The Nikon Coolwalker ain't cheap (about $700 from memory - pardon the pun) but is 30 GB capacity, so I suppose on that scale it's relatively good value.

Cheers
Peter

[kipper]

Because you'll never afford 30-80gb of CF at this stage of the game?

Like I've mentioned before, I've got an Archos AV-400 series player, works great as a portable hdd/photo album (if you shoot JPG or RAW+JPG)/movies/mp3 player. Shame they're so expensive in Oz though. Glad I got mine in the UK for $450 cheaper then here.

[birddog114]

I'm with boxerboy and as many threads in the past, buy more card is better solution.
One of that device with 40Gb Hdd costs at least $250.00, buy two more 1 Gb CF cards

[Wombat124]

Hi Dean


I have an XPRO Driver II 30gb. I have used in extensively (ie. a 5 week trip to USA last year for work and I saved 5000 images on it). As to specific question in regards to this device

a) Rough cost? Cost me A$299
b) Capacity? 30gb (can buy 40, 60 and 80 gb)
c) Battery life? only lasts about 5 hours but it is compatible to 220v or 110v so I use direct power when I am downloading at nite - the battery is sufficient for quick downloads during the day which I needed in New York one Saturday.
d) Screen? This one doesn't have a screen to see images - monochorn screen to look at file histroy, read history etc.
e) Chance of un-noticed error while copying? haven't experienced error
f) Anything else I may have forgotten... Light, not too bulky, can fit into my Camera Case, can fit all types of cards (ie. CF1, CF11, etc); USb1 port.

Hope this helps, regards Steve

[Oneputt]

For what they are these things are ridiculously expensive. I know it is not the same but I recently bought a 256GB external hard drive with firewire connection for $320. I am using it to backup all my images in case the hard drive on my PC ever lets me down.

[Wombat124]

Hi Dean


I have an XPRO Driver II 30gb. I have used in extensively (ie. a 5 week trip to USA last year for work and I saved 5000 images on it). As to specific question in regards to this device

a) Rough cost? Cost me A$299
b) Capacity? 30gb (can buy 40, 60 and 80 gb)
c) Battery life? only lasts about 5 hours but it is compatible to 220v or 110v so I use direct power when I am downloading at nite - the battery is sufficient for quick downloads during the day which I needed in New York one Saturday.
d) Screen? This one doesn't have a screen to see images - monochorn screen to look at file histroy, read history etc.
e) Chance of un-noticed error while copying? haven't experienced error
f) Anything else I may have forgotten... Light, not too bulky, can fit into my Camera Case, can fit all types of cards (ie. CF1, CF11, etc); USb1 port.

Hope this helps, regards Steve

[birddog114]

For what they are these things are ridiculously expensive. I know it is not the same but I recently bought a 256GB external hard drive with firewire connection for $320. I am using it to backup all my images in case the hard drive on my PC ever lets me down.

Oneputt,
They're talking about PSD, difference solution with what you have.
If your device doesn't have a PC or notebook than it's useless.

[Onyx]

Portable Storage Devices, aka PSD. Pro's and Con's of various brands discussed as mentioned, in the Equip Reviews section. Some you buy the shell and insert however much hard drive capacity as you want (restricted by power consumption limit of the larger drives).

[kipper]

Btw, I've got the PD7X Compact Drive aswell as the Archos AV-400. I'm going to give the PD7X some tests on performance soon but something I noticed while I was overseas was that it seems to drain the battery quite quickly on a full charge. I don't think I got anywhere near 5 copies of my CF card (512mb).

The other annoyance that I had with this device was that to work properly the batteries had to be at full charge, even if it plugged into a power supply source (mains or car charger). If the batteries are near to discharge and plugged in, it fails to copy. Really bad design if you ask me.

[Glen]

Platinum, read this link and be more confused than you ever were. http://fhoude34.free.fr/PortableHD.htm

[PlatinumWeaver]

Thanks everyone..

looks like it's quite an expensive and often quite a flawed solution to a problem there. I should be able to cope without one I think.

Ta

[birddog114]

Btw, I've got the PD7X Compact Drive aswell as the Archos AV-400. I'm going to give the PD7X some tests on performance soon but something I noticed while I was overseas was that it seems to drain the battery quite quickly on a full charge. I don't think I got anywhere near 5 copies of my CF card (512mb).

The other annoyance that I had with this device was that to work properly the batteries had to be at full charge, even if it plugged into a power supply source (mains or car charger). If the batteries are near to discharge and plugged in, it fails to copy. Really bad design if you ask me.

kipper,
Throw it into the bin and buy bunch of 4Gb card

[the foto fanatic]

If you already have an iPod ar other MP3 player, it may be able to do that job for you.

Recently, while travelling in New Zealand, I downloaded my images nightly onto my iPod. When I got home, it was a simple matter to transfer the images onto my computer.

I was already using my iPod in the car for music, so it was an ideal solution for me.

[kipper]

I had one of those cricketfan, but after talking to a few people on here about poor performance transfer wise using the belkin accessories to read/write CF I decided to sell mine and go the Archos AV-420.

Btw, copy speed on the Archos seems quite good. I'll have to get around to writing a review on it one day.

[boxerboy]

Because you'll never afford 30-80gb of CF at this stage of the game?

Like I've mentioned before, I've got an Archos AV-400 series player, works great as a portable hdd/photo album (if you shoot JPG or RAW+JPG)/movies/mp3 player. Shame they're so expensive in Oz though. Glad I got mine in the UK for $450 cheaper then here.

Kipper, obviously this is a personal choice, but I would never need 30 Gb of CF storage. For most people two to three 1 Gb cards would be more than is ever needed before you could download these to a computer. The extra CF's would likely be bought over a period of time to spread the pain. IMHO the CoolWalker or it's competitors are a gimmick.

Cheers
Peter

[kipper]

Depends really boxerboy on individual situations. Say for instance you did like my cousin did and spent 12months away touring the world?
Would 3 x 1GB cf cards be enough. I don't think so.

In two months I took roughly 2000-3000 photos. Probably didn't need to take that many. Yes about a third of them are shite, but you just don't know this until you check on a good size screen so I just snap away without pausing and zooming in on the small lcd. So at 2000 photos at 6mb per shot, there is no way that CF are an affordable means of taking photos while away for a long period of time.

[PlatinumWeaver]

The main problem I was considering is that there will be three days where I'm going to -hopefully- be exposed to a great deal of photographic opportunities.. for most of each day...

At night I'm sure I'll be able to download everything from the cards to my laptop, that's not a problem. it's the in the field, i've been shooting for 3 hrs already, already almost filled both cards of mine and ... holy crap... lions!! type situation I wanted to avoid.

Laptop isn't that heavy.. bag can handle it.. I think I lost at least my laptop's weight this week so I should be okay..

Glad to see I started a two-page thread though

[Glen]

Peter, depends if you are travelling or not. It is quite easy to be in the Himalayas and not see a pc for two weeks or more. In that time you will see lots of photo opportunites, easily 5 or 6 GB, especially NEF, as I would shoot for those situations.

[the foto fanatic]

Kipper, obviously this is a personal choice, but I would never need 30 Gb of CF storage. For most people two to three 1 Gb cards would be more than is ever needed before you could download these to a computer. The extra CF's would likely be bought over a period of time to spread the pain. IMHO the CoolWalker or it's competitors are a gimmick.

Cheers
Peter

Yes Peter, I agree - for normal shooting, not far from home.
However, if away from my home computer for any length of time (I was in NZ for 3 weeks), then I like the idea of downloading to something I kept separate from my camera gear. Gives a bit more security over images, I think.
Trevor

[birddog114]

Depends really boxerboy on individual situations. Say for instance you did like my cousin did and spent 12months away touring the world?
Would 3 x 1GB cf cards be enough. I don't think so.

In two months I took roughly 2000-3000 photos. Probably didn't need to take that many. Yes about a third of them are shite, but you just don't know this until you check on a good size screen so I just snap away without pausing and zooming in on the small lcd. So at 2000 photos at 6mb per shot, there is no way that CF are an affordable means of taking photos while away for a long period of time.

Yes, I agreed, but are you going into the remote area? with no power and PC? you can download, transfer them at the end of the day, save the keeper and dump other into the bin.

[Greg B]

I am a bit surprised by some of these comments.

I have the Xpro (I think) with 40 G. Cost $250 or so.

You can put a bucket load of images on board, it is a hell of a lot cheaper than the equivalent in CF cards, simple to use, fully effective. Can also be used as a portable drive to take stuff from one computer to another. Simple USB2 connection.

So, on the road, you could store something like 7000-8000 NEF files.

How is that expensive or a gimmick?

Dean, this is exactly what you need.

[boxerboy]

OK, I can be convinced.

How much birddog?

Cheers
Peter

[PlatinumWeaver]

Where'd ya get the Xpro Greg?

Sounds like a good price.. and also.. a 40gb portable HDD!

{edit} I've been looking around and cant seem to find an Xpro.. are we talking about an "Xdrive Pro" or something else? I think you showed be the device in question at Mudder's but I cant recall it.. {/edit}

[dooda]

I think that the ideal solution is to have memory cards as it is much quicker to load another memory card than it is to dump them onto any storage device if there are excellent photo ops around. However if you shoot raw this could become expensive. I shoot Jpegs so about 2 gigs is all I really need and it's not that expensive. (1g and 2 512's). I probably wouldn't bother with Raw though. 4 gig cards are like a zillion dollars. That's a half a zillion too many.

I'm waiting for the Epson p2000 to release wider, or for Ipod photo to come out with something a little bit more field worthy. Epson is ideal as 40 gigs is perfect and it's got a nice big screen to view (not to mention MP3 etc) Still a mystery to all why no one has any to sell.

[birddog114]

The problem of transferring pics to the PSD had been discussed in this forum many times, say Platinumwaever shot 2.5hrs and get no more space on his CF card, how long (fast) does he think the PSD can completely transferring 1Gb card into the PSD, and he stay with empty hand, can't shoot, if he has a spare card, will he has enough time to do the transfer while he's busy shooting with action, wildlife.
My case I say: NO, i just insert the new card and keep shooting until it full and reload another one.
I'll transfer or do other bit when I'm free or at my base/ hotel, etc.....with a cold beer or a glass of RED in my hand and enjoy.
Shooting action and wildlife won't give you time to head to the loo either.

[the foto fanatic]

I'll transfer or do other bit when I'm free or at my base/ hotel, etc.....with a cold beer or a glass of RED in my hand and enjoy.

Exactly. So you need a couple of cards to last through the day, and a PSD to download to at night. The transfer speed is not so important. You can be recharging batteries, cleaning cameras and lenses, not to mention enjoying a RED, while the transfer takes place.

[birddog114]

I'll transfer or do other bit when I'm free or at my base/ hotel, etc.....with a cold beer or a glass of RED in my hand and enjoy.

Exactly. So you need a couple of cards to last through the day, and a PSD to download to at night. The transfer speed is not so important. You can be recharging batteries, cleaning cameras and lenses, not to mention enjoying a RED, while the transfer takes place.

And no mistake of deleting prior to transfer!

[kipper]

Dooda stay well clear of the iPod Photo. It's a complete waste of money.
Lots of better products on the market. As you mentioned the Epson P-2000, the Nikon Coolwalker, Archos AV series, plus heaps more. The price of the iPod Photo when I searched was stupid for what it did. It's just an iPod that allows you to view photos. Doesn't even have a memory card reader. What a lot of toss for $350US.

[Marvin]

x-drives are at:
http://www.powerinnumbers.com.au
I have one and I use it constantly, both as an external hard drive and, when I went overseas, to transfer my pictures to. I took about 4000 pictures in 11 weeks and didn't want to lug around my laptop.

[boxerboy]

I'll transfer or do other bit when I'm free or at my base/ hotel, etc.....with a cold beer or a glass of RED in my hand and enjoy.

Birdy, surely you meant to say "with a cold beer AND a glass of RED...."??

[dooda]

Dooda stay well clear of the iPod Photo. It's a complete waste of money.
Lots of better products on the market. As you mentioned the Epson P-2000, the Nikon Coolwalker, Archos AV series, plus heaps more. The price of the iPod Photo when I searched was stupid for what it did. It's just an iPod that allows you to view photos. Doesn't even have a memory card reader. What a lot of toss for $350US.

Thus my waiting for them to release something more fieldworthy. They sling another 20g on top of 40 which is already plenty and let you view pics on a screen the same size as a 2" LCD, and I'm pretty sure it's more than 350US but I could be wrong. (Its 650 can, usually works out to 450-500 US). But yes it would be worth looking at if it was catered more to photogs.

[kipper]

Yep, my Archos is cheaper and more functional then the iPod Photo.
Things it does that Photo doesn't:

1. 3.8" screen compared to 2"
2. changeable battery
3. plays movies
4. compact flash reader

[birddog114]

I don't know about the Archos stuff but Epson P-2000 let me view RAW files and it comes with the big screen than other.
I can play movies, MP3 or other things on this baby.

[kipper]

Screen sizes are the same Birddog I think. Have to double check on that.
I like the idea of viewing RAW on the Epson. Would be nice if somebody hacks the Archos AV and makes a few more image formats supported.

[kipper]

Marvin 4000 in 11 weeks.....woot, somebody with my trigger finger!

[PlatinumWeaver]

Exactly. So you need a couple of cards to last through the day, and a PSD to download to at night. The transfer speed is not so important. You can be recharging batteries, cleaning cameras and lenses, not to mention enjoying a RED, while the transfer takes place.

A couple of cards to last through the day?
Well I said that i'd basically go through my cards in about 2.5 hrs.. so assuming i'm out all day in similar conditions ( not the norm, mind you, but what I said would be happening this time ) then say at least 7.5 hours... I'd need another 4 cards.. at the current price, what $120? that's $480..

or $250 and just swap over the cards in the field...

[birddog114]

or $250 and just swap over the cards in the field...

You won't have time to transfer those cards into the PSD while you're shooting like that way! and you don't want to make a mistake.
How often you're going to shoot like you did?

[dooda]

I don't know about the Archos stuff but Epson P-2000 let me view RAW files and it comes with the big screen than other.
I can play movies, MP3 or other things on this baby.

where in the name of all that's holy is it then Birdie. I ask about it all over the place. NO one can even figure out where to look! I spoke with an Epson rep and he never heard of it (loved the concept though)

[birddog114]

I don't know about the Archos stuff but Epson P-2000 let me view RAW files and it comes with the big screen than other.
I can play movies, MP3 or other things on this baby.

where in the name of all that's holy is it then Birdie. I ask about it all over the place. NO one can even figure out where to look! I spoke with an Epson rep and he never heard of it (loved the concept though)

You may thinking of moving South to LA, or heading to NYC or to Down Under, I have one that means someone also has too.

[Greg B]

C'mon people, it is simple.

You have two cards. You shoot on one until it is full. You remove the card and stick it in the PSD for transferring, insert the other card into the camera and take more photos. Well before you have taken anywhere near enough photos to fill up your second card, all files on the first card are safely on your PSD, and when you fill up #2, put #1 in the camera, format it, and away you go.

Repeat until you have had enough.

[birddog114]

C'mon people, it is simple.

You have two cards. You shoot on one until it is full. You remove the card and stick it in the PSD for transferring, insert the other card into the camera and take more photos. Well before you have taken anywhere near enough photos to fill up your second card, all files on the first card are safely on your PSD, and when you fill up #2, put #1 in the camera, format it, and away you go.

Repeat until you have had enough.

Yes, but the way Platinumweaver shooting was 2.5Hrs and he filled all his cards, if relaxing shooting method then it is difference. He didn't have time to go to the loo how can he has time to transfer?

[BBJ]

I must too look into 1 of these in the future as i am trigger happy and shoot over like 300 pics a dayin 1 race meeting, as i do pics at different sections of the track hence different race conditions and different pics so yes a must for the future, i fill 2, 1 gig cards and a 512.

[mudder]

a) Rough cost?
b) Capacity?
c) Battery life?
d) Screen?
e) Chance of un-noticed error while copying?
f) Anything else I may have forgotten...
I filled up my memory cards in about 2.5 hrs on sunday, I will be going in a 3 day safari in 2 weeks.. I really do not want to be cracking open the laptop to clean a card while there is wildlife nearby, but one of these things that just sits in your camera bag... could work well..

G'day Dean,

I bought a cheapo, 40Gb 5400RPM dard-drive, dumps a 1Gb sandisk Ultra II in a little over 3 minutes, never had any worries with any corrupt files, one time it ran out of batteries during the transfer and the verification mechanism within it display the unhappy face ( ) and I simply plugged in and re-coppied... I think I could copy *at least* 4-5 Gb of cards in one battery charge (and that's cheapo 2000mAh batteries), easily a day's shooting... Certainly dumps fast enough so that if you have two cards, you'd never be without memory... Dump one while using the other etc... This cheapie doesn't have a screen tho, so I can't reiew my shots... Comes with a car charger too and doubles as a fast portable plug-'n-play drive... You could simply put your card in the drive and dump while you're using your other card, 3 mins later it's ready to roll... Dumping by the cam took me 20 mins, from this 3 mins.

I reckon they're great, if you're going away for a reasonable period, you'd need to take a mortgage on enough memory, this (for about $270 delivered) will suck up 40 Gb... At 5.5M per NEF, that's about 7200 NEFs

Check http://www.jaldigital.com.au/catalog/pr ... cts_id=247

Cheers,
Mudder

[kipper]

Hey Mudder, I've got one of those and I used the cheapo batteries that came with it. I found that I got about 2-4 copies of 512mb cards before the batteries went. I've got Varta batteries in the thing now and dumped the ones that came with it.

This is the product that I found had a few design flaws and annoyances.

One was the fact that the batteries needed to be fully charged, even with the powerpack or carcharger in them to be able to copy the CF cards.
They obviously have designed the unit to be powered from the batteries only and not have it bypass them while they're charging.

The second was the location of switches. The switch for the unit is located directly under the USB connection and made it difficult at times to adjust when plugged into a PC.

The third the switch was easy to knock or leave in the ON position draining the batteries.


I could go on but I won't

[mudder]

...One was the fact that the batteries needed to be fully charged, even with the powerpack or carcharger in them to be able to copy the CF cards...

The second was the location of switches. The switch for the unit is located directly under the USB connection and made it difficult at times to adjust when plugged into a PC.

The third the switch was easy to knock or leave in the ON position draining the batteries....

G'day,
Gee, I thought I'd actually used mine without the batteries in it, I'll try that tonight to confirm...

Yep, the position of the switch is a bit dicky...

The position of the swtich, which determines the mode of operation I think leaves an LED on... I'll have a play wonight to confirm...

The main thing that catches my thoughts are the flimsy flaps that cover the battery compartment and the card compartment, I must admit I'm always careful when opening them. It'd be a matter fo time before I break 'em...

Cheers,
Mudder

[Glen]

Kipper and Mudder, I have the same unit and finds it works measurably better if the batteries are recharged in a proper charger.

[kipper]

Oh yeah the flimsy doors, don't get me started on them. Plus the car charger fell apart while overseas. I'll have to stick it back together soon.

[birddog114]

Oh yeah the flimsy doors, don't get me started on them. Plus the car charger fell apart while overseas. I'll have to stick it back together soon.

Put a super glue on it