[byrt_001]

Hi everyone

does anyone uses image banks or portable hard drives to store photos when on the move?

http://www.transcendusa.com/Products/Mod...p?ModNo=11

or this one

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10584

anyone???

regards

Christian

[EnglishBob]

I think after Slej's experience I would avoid anything LaCie like the plague.

See THIS thread for the reasons why.

[Toad]

I use a 10GB Image Tank and a 30 GB Photo iPod. The iPod is the way to go - smaller, bigger capacity, and you can use it for music as well, they tell me...

On a long trip, they save the need to carry a laptop or several large and pricy flash cards

[byrt_001]

hi everyone

thanks...gooosh I can not beleive about lacie. I thought it was such a reputable brand.

Image tank I have read about this from a photographer from the uk, they say it is good.

Thanks

Regards

Christian

[Mark]

Anyone heard of Compact Drive PD70X or even the Vosonic VP6230? Portable Hard Drives with in-built card readers. I think they are geared toward photographers. The Vosonic VP6230 even has a colour screen!

[noisynoodle]

I have an earlier Vosonic model...without the colour screen. It seems very reliable, but the battery life doesn't seem too great. Once I've downloaded 3-4 GB from cards it's beginning to run low and I don't like to rely on it after that. Otherwise, though, it's very good. I also use it when friends and acquaintances have a total PC disaster and they haven't backed up their files. So many still have PCs with no CD or DVD writer, so it's great for that too, and transporting files around generally.

[Kombisaurus]

Hey guys,

I'm interested in this topic too and am in the market for some cheap and reliable portable storage to free up my CF cards.
I happen to have a 60Gb 2.5" notebook Hard Disk lying around being used as a "normal" external drive (ie I use it like a very large USB flash drive) that I'm happy to donate to this... so really all I need is a new enclosure for it that has a battery and CF slot and the ability to transfer pics without a PC.

While a colour screen and the ability to view my pics would be cool, it isn't essential. The fact that 99% of my shots are taken in Canon 350D RAW format means that chances are I won't be able to view them on such a device anyway, and I don't want to clog things up even more by shooting RAW+JPG. And what happens when I upgrade my camera down the track? Not to mention the fact that colour screens suck battery life. It all sounds too hard and I don't expect to find anything affordable that can display my current RAWs and assure me of firmware support for a few years.

The Vosonic VP2160 X-Drive II+ looks like a cheap and simple no-frills solution, but I wonder if it is the same model that NN has (with poor battery life). This is the kind of thing I'll want to take camping for a few days at a time instead of a laptop, so battery life is somewhat important. I'd be somewhat disappointed if it didn't let me transfer 10+ Gb from a full charge.
But at AU$115 for the enclosure (BYO hard drive) the price is certainly good and it does everything I need. Any comments on how reliable these ones are?

http://www.mittoni.com.au/black-vosonic-...c118169a96

Now I also already have a 3rd Gen 40Gb iPod (not an iPod photo) and Belkin make two adaptors for the iPod that can transfer photos to it.
The first is AU$114 and reads about 1/2 dozen memory card formats, and the second is cheaper at AU$80 but it only reads via USB (so you connect your camera to the device).

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatSectionVi..._Id=201645

The Belkin solutions are good in the sense that I "trust" the iPod hard drive and know what to expect from its battery, and I usually take my iPod with me when I go out shooting alone anyway... but my iPod is chock full already and I don't want to have to take stuff off to make space for photos Also the adaptors are about the same size as the iPod itself, so it doesn't really save space over a standalone solution and means I HAVE to bring my iPod along.

Any thoughts? Or more options? I seem to remember seeing a couple of other such devices, but can't remember them or find them again.

Edit: I just stumbled across this review of the Vosonic:
http://dpnow.com/1884.html
They mention a battery life of 3-6 hours of continuous use, which should be considerably more than 10Gb of transfers... But manufacturer battery claims are always rubbish, so I'd expect it to be more like 2-3 hours.
They also state it takes about 10 minutes to transfer all the images off a 1Gig CF card, which is pretty ordinary But I guess as long as you have a 2nd card handy then you can keep shooting while transferring.

Cheers
Adrian

[adam]

I've got a CompactDrive PD7X, now there's the CompactDrive PD70X.
I think the main 'feature' of this would be the fast transfer speeds and that it runs from AA batteries.
The PD70X is the new version of the PD7X, and has a power regulator or something like that.
There's some here:
http://www.eastgear.com/shop/index.php?cPath=17_66

[Kombisaurus]

hmmm.. that looks great for what I need Adam! and the fact it runs on AA's is excellent as I always have spare rechargable AA's floating around in my camera bag. It does look a little bulkier than others (mainly due to the bulkier batteries I guess), but its still waaaay better than any laptop.

hmmm.. but at US$150 (AU$203) for just the PD70X enclosure it is a fair whack more expensive than the Vosonic.
But the PD7X that you have is listed at US$120 (AU$162) which is more affordable I guess and still over 3 times faster than the Vosonic and still uses AAA's.

Thanks for the link. Definately food for thought.

[Kombisaurus]

hmmm.. I've just been having a bit more of a hunt around..

Firstly it seems the PD70X can be had for around AU$175 (without HDD) from a few places here in Aus (http://www.techrific.com.au/compact-driv...5eae2e352e for example) which is good news.

And after basically giving up on the idea of getting something with a colour screen because of the fact I shoot RAW and I thought nothing would support it properly, I looked a bit closer at the Vosonic X-Drive VP6230.
It seems that it supports the full range of Canon RAW formats (including the 350D, 1DsMk2 and even the 5D) which is fantastic news, and they seem OK with regard to offering firmware updates.. So maybe something with a screen could be viable? The device isn't as fast as the PD70X (a user review quoted about 6 mins to copy 1 gig), but it has plenty of bells and whistles that the PD70X doesn't have. And it costs around AU$300 (without HDD) here which seems quite reasonable (although more than I was originally planning for). Battery life of around 2 hours when transferring data or 2.5 hours of watching video or 10 hours of mp3.

http://www.techrific.com.au/xdrive-vp623...5eae2e352e

... and a full list of specs and so on ...

http://www.vosonic.com/index.php?php_mod..._itemid=36

UPDATE: I just ordered a Vosonic X-Drive VP6230 enclosure from techrific (link above). I'll post my thoughts when it arrives. Thanks for this thread

[Kombisaurus]

ok.. as you can see from the date-stamp I ordered that VP6230 in the early hours of yesterday (tues) morning (from www.techrific.com.au in Melbourne).
They offered *free* 3-5 day shipping, or I could pay an extra $10 and get it couriered. I'm a cheapskate who's not in a hurry, so I chose the free shipping.
I got an email yesterday (about 8 hours after I placed my order) saying it had been sent, and 24 hours later I get a knock on my door from a guy with a package!! :o

Wow... its always good when a company offers free shipping (especially when they work out the cheapest)... but when that free shipping turns out to be overnight across the country as well! That's above and beyond what I'd expect. I'm very impressed with Techrific. And I've read a couple of other people tell similar stories on forums around the place, so it sounds like its the norm for them.

But down to the drive itself...

Well.. for the basics of what I need... it seems very good. It recognised my 60Gb drive without any hassles and the procedure for dumping photos from CF to HDD is very simple, logical and painless. It takes me 4 mins to dump a 1Gb card onto its drive, so it is neither the fastest nor the slowest when it comes to speed.

It came with a spare battery (it uses a fuji digital camera battery) and a car charger as well as wall charger, which is all very handy. It also came with an excellent protective case, headphones, lots of cables, and even a cute little keyring mini-screwdriver for undoing the screws to change drives if you want.
It reads my 350D RAW files no problem as promised, and the file viewer is fast and easy to navigate. The thumbnail view is excellent and makes viewing much more convenient than viewing on-camera (but you can't get thumbnails of RAWs). The screen is also nice and bright with fairly accurate colours considering it is a low-budget screen.

So far it seems ideal... but unfortunately its not all good.

The aspect ratio of the screen is out of whack, meaning photos are distorted and faces appear long when viewed normally, or wide when rotated 90deg. grrrr.. This won't affect checking photos for focus, colour and exposure.. but it does have a bit of an unsettling affect on faces.
It hardly plays any video codecs! I just did a rough test and copied about a dozen various avi's and mpg's (and a wmv) onto the thing and tried to play them.. and it would only recognise 3 of the files! While this has no bearing on my photography, I'd be really annoyed if I bought this thing as a video player. Maybe firmware upgrades will address this? But when it does decide to play a video it does a really good job of it.
The MP3 player isn't all that nice to use or sound particularly great. This isn't a big deal-breaker for me as I have an iPod.. but it means I will be keeping my iPod. (the drive is probably a bit bulky and fragile to be knocked around with like most mp3 players anyway).

Also the case itself is plastic (that looks like brushed aluminium) and feels quite plasticy. I'm sure it is strong enough to handle its job, but it does feel a bit cheap.

And the battery compartment is stupid! It's great that it has a easily available and replacable battery and that they even provide you with a spare... but to swap them you need to UNSCREW the battery cover and then sticky-tape a little tab onto the battery so you've got something to grip to pull it out!!??!?!?! I have no idea what they were thinking here, as the design is such that they went out of their way to make it like this!

But the bottom line is it does everything most photographers would need from it simply and without fuss.. and it also provides a number of excellent non-essential and entertainment features - even if some of them aren't implemented all that well.

For the money, I'm happy with it. Its not the best featured or the cheapest or the fastest device around.. but is pretty well featured, it is relatively cheap, and it isn't slow. It simply provides a balance of these things instead of concentrating on one aspect.

[Peted]

My 3310 takes 15 minutes for a 1Gig card so I think I might be trading up.

Anyone want to buy a 3310 with no hard drive?

:/

[byrt_001]

peted

how much are you asking?


K: im not very sure what are you saying....Firstly it seems the PD70X can be had for around AU$175 (without HDD) and also And it costs around AU$300 (without HDD)

now do i have to install a hard drive in it?

[Peted]

Byrt,

I think I am going to hang onto it for a bit longer at this stage, I just re-read Kombi's post and the 6230 sounds good but has some issues, perhaps the next version will do it for me. I might try and catch up with him in Perth over Christmas and have a look.

Cheers.

Pete D

:/

[Kombisaurus]

K: im not very sure what are you saying....Firstly it seems the PD70X can be had for around AU$175 (without HDD) and also And it costs around AU$300 (without HDD)

now do i have to install a hard drive in it?

Those prices were for two different devices. The CompactDrive PD70X is AU$175 (without freight).. and it was the Vosonic X-Drive VP6230 that was "around AU$300" (it actually cost me AU$330 including freight).
Those prices don't include a HDD for either device, but both can be bought with HDD's pre-installed in various sizes or you can buy one seperately. They are quite simple to install and remove, just remove 4 little screws and plug them in.

Pete, I think that's a good move if you want to rely on the multimedia functions but don't NEED one now. I don't think these devices have really matured quite enough yet as multimedia players for that to be their primary purpose. But it makes a fantastic external drive enclosure/portable storage device/memory card reader.

And incedently, when you plug it into a PC via USB, the memory card slots also get mapped as drives on your local PC too, which is handy so you can use it as a simple memory card reader as well (this function was only enabled after installing the latest firmware that is only about a week old).

wow.. 15 minutes for a 1gig xfer! Yikes, I wouldn't have thought there was that much variation among devices. Is it only USB 1.1?

[Peted]

It is USB 2 as far as I know, the transfer via the card reader to PC part of the box seems to be pretty fast it is just the card to the internal HD that is slower.

[Peted]

Just thinking about it, that 1Gig card is not the fastest card in the world so it may be having some impact, perhaps i will test one of my 512Mb Extreme cards.