iPOD viable storage [with belkin or other media reader]? Anyone Using?

Going on trip to europe here in a month. i could bring my laptop or my ipod... just wondering what people have decided about the usability and reliability of using an iPOD for photo storage. I shoot on one 512 card and was wondering how long it would take to download if for example I used the USB belkin camera / ipod utility...

Any thoughts appreciated.

I am also curious about this, anyone know? Thanks!

jason liske said:

Going on trip to europe here in a month. i could bring my laptop or
my ipod... just wondering what people have decided about the
usability and reliability of using an iPOD for photo storage. I
shoot on one 512 card and was wondering how long it would take to
download if for example I used the USB belkin camera / ipod
utility...

Any thoughts appreciated.

Click to expand...

--
http://www.everett.smugmug.com

I have heard of a couple people using this combination. Just don't do it in the field because from what I heard it is very very slow. Just wait until the end of the day to unload the days pictures at the hotel. If you shoot more than 512mb a day, maybe you should think about grabbing another card before the trip, don't count on backing up the data while on the go because it will take forever and you might run out of batterys.

-Robin

jason liske said:

Going on trip to europe here in a month. i could bring my laptop or
my ipod... just wondering what people have decided about the
usability and reliability of using an iPOD for photo storage. I
shoot on one 512 card and was wondering how long it would take to
download if for example I used the USB belkin camera / ipod
utility...

Any thoughts appreciated.

Click to expand...

--
robingraham.com

Thanks for the thoughts, good ideas to consider. I think I will bring the laptop just for the sake of killing downtime on the plane going through some pics. At any rate I think we arent far off from having this capacity and can't wait for it to be easy reality. There is a 12-24 dx lens on its way for thr trip and I can't wait to try it out. I shoot architecture and use panotools for clients so I am interested to see how it shoots as far as distortion. Sorry geting off topic its late here in California. Anyone have a good link for europe power converters?

Di77use said:

I have heard of a couple people using this combination. Just don't
do it in the field because from what I heard it is very very slow.
Just wait until the end of the day to unload the days pictures at
the hotel. If you shoot more than 512mb a day, maybe you should
think about grabbing another card before the trip, don't count on
backing up the data while on the go because it will take forever
and you might run out of batterys.

-Robin

Click to expand...

I've been researching this option with great interest and certainly in the early days of the belkin card reader users complained of the usb 1.1 speed but if you look on the Belkin website they state "firewire transfer speeds" so maybe the current/latest models are faster than the older ones? I'm confused.

Cheers
Nas

jason liske said:

Di77use said:

I have heard of a couple people using this combination. Just don't
do it in the field because from what I heard it is very very slow.
Just wait until the end of the day to unload the days pictures at
the hotel. If you shoot more than 512mb a day, maybe you should
think about grabbing another card before the trip, don't count on
backing up the data while on the go because it will take forever
and you might run out of batterys.

-Robin

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
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I reserve the right to an opinion
http://www.nasirhamid.com

I was looking also for the iPod+Belkin combo but I didnt go for it for several resons :

+ its slow. I never tried it, but from the people I've heard, they say its slow ( CF to iPod )

+ battery consuption - if you have an iPod on the field, can you resist the temptation of NOT listening to music ? copying CF cards takes a huge chunk of batteries + listenning to music, the iPod batteries go away fast.
+ expensive : the total cost of iPod + Belink its a hefty chunk of money.

So I went to another route : XDrive II 40GB. Its lightweight, simple, VERY VERY sturdy ( gone to the floor real hard sometimes and dont have a single problem ) and pratical. It does have USB 2.0, batteries are OK ( can hold 10 to 15 512mb cards on one single charge ) and although not the ultimate speed deamon when transfering CF cards to the drive, isnt that bad : around 8 to 10 minutes per 512mb card. And the final cost is ridiculous: around 150 euro and it can be used as a 9 card reader ( that means it can read from 9 types of card ) .

I encorage you to get another 512mb card and if you get it full on the field, download it to the XDrive and pop in the other 512mb. Once you have filled that card, the other would be copied already to the XDrive.

It's a very nice , solid and cheap setup. The only fault is that you dont have a viewfinder to check if your images are REALLY there, but you have a small LCD were you can see if the files are transfering, which slot is being used, if it finished copying, battery status, HDD full , etc.

I highly recommend it. You can put it your backpack and go the day shooting with no problem of "cards beeing full". At night, when you return to the hotel, the battery should be around 50 or 60% , so charge it and the other day is shooting day again ;-)

--
Goncalo Proenca - Lisbon,Portugal, Europe
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Equipment in profile - isnt that why the profile exits ? ;-)
=========================================

One thing's for sure--the iPod is a tough little SOB. Mine has taken many,many,many drops to the floor since 2002,and it's been unharmed. The write-to speed of the iPod when connected to a Mac is phenomenally fast when MP3's are being transferred to the iPod, but I have read a review of the VERY first Belkin CF-card-to-iPod hardware, and at that time, some months ago it transfer speeds were not all that fast from CF card to iPod.

The Macintosh-to-iPod Firewire transfer speeds have never been an issue for me--amazingly rapid transfers. While the CF-card-ti-iPod cable thingy looks a bit awkward, it sure would be nice to be able to have a small,tough 20-,30- or 40-gig portable device as small and sturdy as the new iPods are.
My complaint though--no viewing capability.....
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Happy Shooting!
Derrel

I have heard rumors that the next generation iPod will have a viewer to handle digital photo tasks. Let's hope the rumors are correct. There are already products that do MP3's, have memory card slots, and have an LCD screen to view images.

Anthony

Derrel said:

My complaint though--no viewing capability.....
--
Happy Shooting!
Derrel

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