Need portable storage for long Europe trip...

[Andrew Chiciak]

I need a pretty high capacity storage device for a month long trip to Eastern Europe...I don't want to bring a laptop...but need something foolproof that I can keep on me for security. I hear the new ipod might do the job..

here is another device I found that looks really good for the money:

http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.35/.f

Care to share your experiences?

Thanks
--
Andy C

 

[centralcoastmagazine]

$200 upward will get you storage. HyperDrive is the one we have.
There are quite a few others now.

What is wrong with a small 12 inch MacBook? They can check you
email, write the dvd backup and download all your files for review.
The price is nothing for all a small 12 inch laptop would do for you
in Europe. Most hotels and bars will let you use a phone line if
they don't have wifi.

One good thing about a laptop is that you can use Skype to make
phone calls back home for cheap.

I need a pretty high capacity storage device for a month long trip
to Eastern Europe...I don't want to bring a laptop...but need
something foolproof that I can keep on me for security. I hear the
new ipod might do the job..

here is another device I found that looks really good for the money:

http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.35/.f

Care to share your experiences?

Thanks
--
Andy C

 

[Keith Aitken]

Hi

Over the years, I have had 3 PSDs fail relatively quickly but the one
which has lasted the best has been the PD70X. It is blazingly fast,
accomodates several media formats, takes AAs, and has good battery
life, simple displays, is well-built for a reasonable price.

I got the 80Gb version.

I have found that inexpensive is not necessarily the best idea, because
you are entrusting irreplaceable images to an item which is just a hard
drive and subject to failure.

Have you spent time in the media/storage forum, there are much more
knowledgeable folks there.

Here are some useful links :

http://www.eastgear.com/shop/index.php?cPath=17_66

http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/s.nl/it.A/id.692/.f?sc=2&category=590

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4616288

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=A-40GBVOSONICB-K1&cat=CAS

http://d30.info/reviews/PD70x/

http://www.phidong.com/archives/000405.php

http://www.theslipperytruffle.com/log/2006/05/pd70x.html

good luck, have a great trip !
Keith

--
Sunshine :
The photographer's friend . . . And nemesis.

 

[mactrash]

SPEED of backup is a big ISSUE for outing, because even you got > 80GB HD space, and your device take 20min to back up every time, The battery may just can copy 4 - 5 times and will be empty. it's because your HD turn on longer will draw the battery more.

We current use 2 hyperdrive since they use AA rechargeable, the fastest devices so far. and also it can act as a spare battery charger (good if you have other AA equipment).

Copy 20-30GB with one charge is sure not a problem, although many people report it can be fill up 80GB (I never try).

--
http://www.hkphoto.com

 

[Andrew Chiciak]

To tell you the truth...I'm afraid it might get stolen...I hear a lot about petty crime in eastern europe. Auto breakins are very common.
--
Andy C

 

[grh]

Uhh, Eastern Europe isn't the Wild West, dude.

 

[Andrew Chiciak]

I don't really care about speed...I would make my backups at the end of the day in my room...but I really need absolute competency.
--
Andy C

 

[realbrandon]

May I suggest this http://www.oqo.com/products/index.html?

it's very small and light.

To tell you the truth...I'm afraid it might get stolen...I hear a
lot about petty crime in eastern europe. Auto breakins are very
common.
--
Andy C

--
http://xiongate.smugmug.com/

 

[HankAK]

If your photos are worth anything, buy two. I just got back from a 3 week overseas trip, and I took two PSD's (ImageBank), and copied all files to both. When I got home, I couldn't read one, and so sent it back. The distributor said there were no files on it, even though all copies were verified by the drive (lights and beeps, no visual). Luckily, I had everything on the other drive.

I'd never rely on a single hard drive to store my photos.

 

[Andrew Chiciak]

Well...your right there...I use two separate drives for my job backups at home...I also burn dvd's . Maybe I should bring one of those portable dvd burners that doesn't require a computer.

Andy C

 

[Big Ga]

I don't really care about speed...I would make my backups at the
end of the day in my room...but I really need absolute competency.

I bought a Jobo Giga one .... then found out that it (and many of the other storage devices like this) don't do a verify. I mean ... come on ... how difficult is it to implement this? I couldn't use it because of this reason.

So I've now got a GigaVu pro. This time I can not only set it to do an auto verify, I can check the files visually before I wipe the CF cards. Makes me feel a lot happier!

G.

 

[HankAK]

I'm pretty sure I had the files on the drive. If I remember correctly, I did get at least a directory before the USB transfer failed. I probably could have changed cases (I've done that with others, and it works), but I sent it back. And then they told me there was nothing on the drive. Go figure (of course I insisted that they destroy or format the old drive--it had 20gig of photos on it). So, even if you get the photos on the drive, there might be a problem getting them off. Thus, redundancy.

 

[JulianH]

Once I also bought a portable storage device and had nothing but trouble with it. After a trip where the thing started acting up again, (battery ran down after an hour of usage, uploading my images got me error messages, CF cards got damaged in it, etc) I threw it in the trash and swore that I would never buy a portable storage with moving parts again. So now I just use a bunch of CF cards, 16 GB in total, that let me store heaps of pictures without problems. Expensive? Yes, but very secure, light and small and easy to keep on your body - and no batteries that need recharging every day.

Julian

http://www.pbase.com/julianht/
--
The purpose of my photography is not just to reproduce what is already
visible, it is to make things visible.

 

[Randy Rives93603]

Never trust your photos to one device. Buy 2 PSD and make sure you copy your cards to both. I use the Creative ZenW and a DigMate II.
--
---Randy R

 

[jp34med3]

Checkout eastgear.com - they have some great options.

 

[alcantar]

I have had the Epson P-2000 since it came out about a year ago and love it. It has a 40 gig hard drive and is great for looking at images. Has even held up after a couple of minor falls to the ground.

Only (relatively) minor issues have been the way it handles deletions of files, time it takes to go from one image to the next when viewing raw files (I shoot 5D) and battery life when viewing raw files. That said, I don't use this for viewing, chimping or as a file management system, just for secondary storage when shooting events.

The newer version(s), P-4000 I think, has an 80 gig hard drive.

Very worthwhile, imo, but this won't allow you to back up to a second source if you don't have a pc. You would not want to have all files on this one device and then have that fail, get lost or stolen, would you? I don't erase my cf's until after I have burned to a third source such as hd or dvd.

Good luck and have fun.

Alex Alcantar
Los Angeles, CA
--
Alex Alcantar