Mass Storage for Vacation????

anthony rayner · Jun 22, 2004

Who has one of thos CD burner units that have a CF card (and sd card?) slot that allows you to directly burn the CF to a CD? They usually only allow a 512card to be copied (maximum) because they cannot span two cd's with the extra data (ie 1GB can't be copied to two 700MB CD's).

I imagine that the advantage is that you can burn two cd's of each 512 CF card and keep one in your bag and post the other home...thus if your bag+drive gets stolen you won't lose your photos. But I am just wondering who is actually using these things, are they reliable and are they easy to use or not etc. Here are some examples (don't get put off by the prices, you can get them at ok prices):
http://www.verbatim.com.au/products/productdetail.cfm?ID=BSDR001
http://www.jobodigital.com/products/disc_steno_cp200.htm

As for mass storage I have a Archos Jukebox Multimedia 20GB. The unit has a viewing screen on it, but it only views jpegs, not raws. The unit itself has been ok, apart from the battery life which pretty much everyone has had trouble with. The main issue though is that Archos is completely awful with their customer service. I haven't had to deal with them, but if your unit breaks I get the feeling you would be better to throw it in the bin rather than try and get help from Archos. I would never buy another unit from them due to this poor backup aspect.

Tony

anthony rayner · Jun 22, 2004

In regards to me last message (see below), another relevant discussion of this topic can be found here:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=008MTp

Cheers
Tony

Who has one of those CD burner units that have a CF card (and sd card?) slot that allows you to directly burn the CF to a CD? They usually only allow a 512card to be copied (maximum) because they cannot span two cd's with the extra data (ie 1GB can't be copied to two 700MB CD's).

I imagine that the advantage is that you can burn two cd's of each 512 CF card and keep one in your bag and post the other home...thus if your bag+drive gets stolen you won't lose your photos. But I am just wondering who is actually using these things, are they reliable and are they easy to use or not etc. Here are some examples (don't get put off by the prices, you can get them at ok prices):

http://www.verbatim.com.au/products/productdetail.cfm?ID=BSDR001
http://www.jobodigital.com/products/disc_steno_cp200.htm

As for mass storage I have a Archos Jukebox Multimedia 20GB. The unit has a viewing screen on it, but it only views jpegs, not raws. The unit itself has been ok, apart from the battery life which pretty much everyone has had trouble with. The main issue though is that Archos is completely awful with their customer service. I haven't had to deal with them, but if your unit breaks I get the feeling you would be better to throw it in the bin rather than try and get help from Archos. I would never buy another unit from them due to this poor backup aspect.

Tony

tim gangloff said:
I got the image tank from bhphotovideo.com two months ago, but it
did not function very well. Not sure if it was a bad unit, or me,
but sent it back and got a flashtrax 20gb. It is a much better
unit and is much more versatile for not a big difference in price.

--
Tim G

http://www.gangloffs.org

earub · Jun 22, 2004

After doing some research, I ordered "Flash HD To Go!" by Mediagear. 20 gig,simple operation,physically small. It's presently on sale direct from Mediagear til 7/5. (If you are interested I'll do some research and get the promo. number.) With the discount it is $160.

My unit should arrive Friday...I'll "test" it for you....email me if you wish. Here's the web address:
http://www.mymediagear.com/
--
Earl

CPUWHIZ13 · Jun 22, 2004

You have to disconnect the USB cable from the drive, then hit the power button and turn it off.

Bluesky said:
CPUWHIZ13 said:

Get it from radioshack, Basically an X's Drive with a 20gb hard
drive in it. Its less than 200 bucks, works great. Simple and
staight forward. Basically a hard drive with a card reader in it.
Can't beat the price. I have one and I love it.

Click to expand...

I wonder if yours is the same as mine, which is called digital
photo library (I/O magic). If yes, maybe you could help me with a
problem:
When never I connect it to my PC, it transfers file alright, but it
will never shut down properly. I have to wait until its power went
out, and then recharge it before I could use it normally again !

If you know of any way to shut it down properly after file
transfer, it would help me a lot !

Thank you in advance
Tuan

--
-Matt

CPUWHIZ13 · Jun 22, 2004

Its a hard drive, so it will hold any kind of file you want. You can't view anything on it as it does not have an LCD, but yes, it will hold the Canon RAW files.

Fender said:
CPUWHIZ13 said:

draklava said:

I use a 40gb Flashtrax. It works pretty well and lets you preview
the pictures (and play mp3's).

It is a bit pricey - there is a 20gb model that is cheaper. There
are also other similar products which all do the same thing.

The smartDisk website is here
http://www.smartdisk.com/Products/DigitalMultimedia/FlashTrax.asp

Let me know if you have specific questions and I'd be glad to help

-jason

Click to expand...

--
-Matt

Click to expand...

--
~~mike~~

--
-Matt

Natinha · Jun 22, 2004

I'm waiting to read some reviews on that new iRiver device before I decide what to do.
--
My homepage full of photos:
http://www.aquitania.co.uk

Bluesky123510 · Jun 22, 2004

CPUWHIZ13 said:
You have to disconnect the USB cable from the drive, then hit the
power button and turn it off.

Wow, I may have missed that important detail !! I disconnect the USB cable from the PC, but not from the drive...this could lead the drive to think it is still connected to the pc...

Some minor details, but could be so important, I feel so stupid !

Thank you very much for the advice, greatly appreciated !

Tuan

MarcosV · Jun 22, 2004

Which IRiver device is this? The only ones I've seen didn't have a built-in memory card reader.

Natinha said:
I'm waiting to read some reviews on that new iRiver device before I
decide what to do.
--
My homepage full of photos:
http://www.aquitania.co.uk

TugBoat · Jun 22, 2004

I know you don't want to hear this.

You could probably get a secondhand laptop with a CD burner built in for $500. A new one for $1000.

This option is so much better. You can convert your files on the trip. You can view your pictures at 100% crop.

NormanAllen · Jun 22, 2004

I also have a Gmini 220 from Archos. It has a built-in CF slot so it's very easy to transfer files to it. It also has great battery life and it's nice to have if you want to dump some music onto it for those quiet times

.

Leonard Richmond · Jun 22, 2004

I got the Apacer Disc Steno CP-200, which DOES span disks. It will fill up the cd, then prompt you to put in another for it to finish the transfer, so there's no wasted space on your cd's and no worry about card size.

I had a 2 1/2 week vacation back in May and really wanted the verifiability (check the burned files with the files on the memory card to verify it's correct) and redundancy (burn 2 copies) it offered me. I carried one set of cd's in my backpack with me and the other stayed in my luggage in the hotel. That way, no matter what happened I'd have a copy of my pictures.

2 years ago I did a 2 1/2 week European trip using a hard disk digital wallet. While it is smaller & lighter, I was always concerned about damaging the hard disk or theft depriving me of all my pictures. I was much more confident this time since I knew each burn was good and had 2 copies in case something happened to one.

Worked great - even better than my compact flash cards. I had one card go flaky on me. I wouldn't have known it using a hard disk unit. But the verify function caught it with the Apacer, so I knew to quit using that card for the remainder of the trip. I had more than I needed so that wasn't a problem. I was just glad to know to quit using it.

MarcosV · Jun 22, 2004

I personally was tempted about this, especially a second hand laptop. In the end I figured it would cost $700 or so: $500 for a the laptop, $100 for a new battery (since the old ones are usually worn out), and another $100 for a new notebook drive (I will never trust my data on a used hard drive of questionable origin). Depending on how old, you may want to get a new CD burner or one of those combo DVD reader/CD burners. You also might want to bump up the RAM. Note that these upgrades don't have to be purchased up front, you can buy them as you go to spread the cost.

For me, it turns out that I don't do enough personal traveling to make buying a laptop a priority. A laptop is what I leave in the hotel room and not lug around in a camera bag. So if I went laptop over personal storage unit, I would need sufficient memory storage to last a day (or at least last long enough until I can get back to the laptop). In the end I concluded I still need the PSU, preferably a hard drive version.

Laptops are great if you want to do in-depth viewing or post processing during the trip. You still got the issue about laptop size and weight.

Marcos

TugBoat said:
I know you don't want to hear this.

You could probably get a secondhand laptop with a CD burner built
in for $500. A new one for $1000.

This option is so much better. You can convert your files on the
trip. You can view your pictures at 100% crop.

TugBoat · Jun 22, 2004

OK. I understand.

I still feel that the laptop is superior for hotel room use.

I agree that if you shooting exceeds your CF capacity for a day, then some sort of portable device would be superior.

Marcos Villaroman said:
For me, it turns out that I don't do enough personal traveling to
make buying a laptop a priority. A laptop is what I leave in the
hotel room and not lug around in a camera bag. So if I went laptop
over personal storage unit, I would need sufficient memory storage
to last a day (or at least last long enough until I can get back to
the laptop). In the end I concluded I still need the PSU,
preferably a hard drive version.

Laptops are great if you want to do in-depth viewing or post
processing during the trip. You still got the issue about laptop
size and weight.

Marcos

TugBoat said:

I know you don't want to hear this.

You could probably get a secondhand laptop with a CD burner built
in for $500. A new one for $1000.

This option is so much better. You can convert your files on the
trip. You can view your pictures at 100% crop.

Click to expand...

Daniella68313 · Jun 22, 2004

very reliable. I carry it everywhere with me, when ever I bring the camera along.

Lou Dina said:
I'm going on vacation soon and need a mass storage solution. I
shoot RAW and have two 512 MB compact flash cards. That only gives
me about 100-120 shots.

I don't have and don't want to buy a laptop. I'm just curious what
people have used to store their images while away on vacation.

All suggestions welcome.

Thank you,

Lou
http://www.pbase.com/lbdina

--
Minë Corma hostië të ilyë ar mordossë nutië të
Mornórëo Nóressë yassë i Fuini caitar.
Un thoron arart’a s’un hith mal’kemen ioke.
Saurulmaiel

tapir · Jun 22, 2004

...nor you can buy it without a preinstalled hard drive. That leaves you in the dust if you already have a spare HDD or whant to upgrade to the bigger one. Most others like X's Drive, ImageTank, etc. allow for this and even have sections on how to do in manuals on their sites.

earub said:
After doing some research, I ordered "Flash HD To Go!" by
Mediagear. 20 gig,simple operation,physically small. It's
presently on sale direct from Mediagear til 7/5. (If you are
interested I'll do some research and get the promo. number.) With
the discount it is $160.

My unit should arrive Friday...I'll "test" it for you....email me
if you wish. Here's the web address:
http://www.mymediagear.com/
--
Earl

--
http://www.pbase.com/klopus

Daniella68313 · Jun 22, 2004

it did not even reported error...everything went as if it was fine...even took the full 4 minutes to transfer the card..but when I returned home all directory were totaly empty.. 0 bites! I lost everything that day.

Returned the image tank and got a Tripper..never lost a single image in 9 months with it.

tim gangloff said:
I got the image tank from bhphotovideo.com two months ago, but it
did not function very well. Not sure if it was a bad unit, or me,
but sent it back and got a flashtrax 20gb. It is a much better
unit and is much more versatile for not a big difference in price.

--
Tim G

http://www.gangloffs.org

--
Minë Corma hostië të ilyë ar mordossë nutië të
Mornórëo Nóressë yassë i Fuini caitar.
Un thoron arart’a s’un hith mal’kemen ioke.
Saurulmaiel

Bugs143839 · Jun 22, 2004

gelo84 said:
Easy to use, 30 gigs, simple construction, 3 min transfer time
(512MB full with RAWs), cheap, you can use it as a harddisc and
cardreader!

But: no picture review and only delete and copy (Card-> G2,
G2-> Card) functions. With one charge it'll last about 2 hours.

The G2 is a PURE storage device. But honestly: do you need more
functions?

greetz oleg

I've got an Image Tank III. It takes about twenty minutes to transfer a full 1G MD to the internal drive. This is significantly longer than the G2 Oleg mentioned above.

I know it's not the MD being slow, as, when I transfer to the PC using a USB2 card reader, it takes about 5-6 minutes. This slow transfer to the internal drive can be a bit of a pain, as my second card is only a 256, so the number of shots is limited (I shoot only RAW at the moment).
--
... and I've got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side.

Bugs.

http://uk.f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/[email protected]/my_photos

Scotsman · Jun 22, 2004

I had a laptop and bought the I/O unit. What a timesaver and what a life saver. When I was doing nothing but jpeg it didn't matter a whole lot, a 512 and 256 card were plenty for the day. Now that last me a morning when I'm at an old fort or historic site. I've not used the unit on vacation but a day here and there makes me sure it will be worth every penny it cost me.

TugBoat said:
I still feel that the laptop is superior for hotel room use.

I agree that if you shooting exceeds your CF capacity for a day,
then some sort of portable device would be superior.

Marcos Villaroman said:

For me, it turns out that I don't do enough personal traveling to
make buying a laptop a priority. A laptop is what I leave in the
hotel room and not lug around in a camera bag. So if I went laptop
over personal storage unit, I would need sufficient memory storage
to last a day (or at least last long enough until I can get back to
the laptop). In the end I concluded I still need the PSU,
preferably a hard drive version.

Laptops are great if you want to do in-depth viewing or post
processing during the trip. You still got the issue about laptop
size and weight.

Marcos

TugBoat said:

I know you don't want to hear this.

You could probably get a secondhand laptop with a CD burner built
in for $500. A new one for $1000.

This option is so much better. You can convert your files on the
trip. You can view your pictures at 100% crop.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--

A DSLR is a black hole that you throw money in to, and enjoy every minute of it!!!!

Todd Meyers · Jun 22, 2004

Microdrive will consume the battery life much faster than CompactFlash.

-Todd

Phil Hurst said:
One word of warning...

Make sure you are never too far away from a mains socket, the
battery life on nearly all portable storage units is not that
great, without previewing I can download a 1gb microdrive three
times before I get a low battery warning, just something to bear in
mind.

HTH

Phil

draklava said:

I use a 40gb Flashtrax. It works pretty well and lets you preview
the pictures (and play mp3's).

It is a bit pricey - there is a 20gb model that is cheaper. There
are also other similar products which all do the same thing.

The smartDisk website is here
http://www.smartdisk.com/Products/DigitalMultimedia/FlashTrax.asp

Let me know if you have specific questions and I'd be glad to help

-jason

Click to expand...

--
Phil
**************************
http://www.pbase.com/philh04
**************************
Equipment list in profile

Ron Yost · Jun 22, 2004

CPUWHIZ13 said:
Get it from radioshack, Basically an X's Drive with a 20gb hard
drive in it. Its less than 200 bucks, works great. Simple and
staight forward. Basically a hard drive with a card reader in it.
Can't beat the price. I have one and I love it.

But .. it's USB 1.1. Isn't it extremely slooooow downloading to a computer?

Ry

Mass Storage for Vacation????

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