Portable HD for RAW+JPEG storage ???

could you give us a bit more info on what you have? i've been looking at getting a internal hard drive for my pc and then maybe getting an enclosure to put it in. but it seems you found one that can handle direct USB from the camera. could you provide the specifcs of what you bought, and also what else you looked at?

thanks,
andy

I couldn't find much on the digimate gizmo caclark posted and some of the links turned up by google were just weird. But the sticker on the thing in the picture says it transfers from card to HD. But if you're interested in going from camera direct ...

In doing some followup research based on some of these posts, I found that Transcend offers the "StorJet" in 1.8" and 2.5" sizes ... you can buy them w/o HD or with various sizes and they're pretty cheap ... go to http://www.transcend.com . To transfer from camera to any generic USB storage device, Delkin makes a "bridge" that can be used to copy (then verify) data between USB devices, including going from camera to a hard drive or other.

Still undecided if I want to go low-budget like that or medium-budget and get the convenience of card-to-HD in one compact unit with some kind of readout (LCD photo preview or simple text listing) to verify the copy worked. And then I have to consider how much (if anything) it's worth to be able to display images on a TV screen from such a device. I do that direct-from-camera from time to time, but this would be more convenient for me.

• Dennis

Well, after much searching, it came down to:

Transcend Digital Album - about $300 for a 20GB device that has a color LCD & TV out. Also reads multiple memory card formats.

Smartdisk Flashtrax - $250 after rebate for similar gadget as above, but CF only.

Archos GMini 400 - MP3/video/photo gadget with 20GB storage - a little more expensive.

Portable HDD with no LCD or TV out.

I'm sure I'd make use of the TV out capability for slide shows. I'm also sure that such devices are only going to get better & cheaper & more plentiful ... the best of the bunch are the Jobo & Epson units for around $500. I may also look at ones that read from a memory card, rather than relying on a HDD.

I ended up ordering the Wolverine 40GB HDD with verify function direct from Wolverine for $199 (same price as B&H who has it on backorder & Wolverine has free shipping). Battery life is rated at 6GB of transfer (presumably with slow cards) but if I can dump my 2GB worth of cards to it once on battery I'll be happy - chances are I'll only use it in a hotel room on A/C power anyway - then I don't have to worry about battery power if I run a verify before formatting the card. This gadget also reads 7 card formats, handy since we also have a Sony that uses Memory Stick and I'd like to eventually get another pocketable digicam that may use SD or something else.

So thanks everyone for your advice !

• Dennis