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i will be traveling quite a bit and am looking for a nice, compact device where i can transfer my photos while i'm on the road. (i'm thinking of getting a 1 gig memory card)
i heard the Epson p-2000 photo storage device is good. (www.dpreview.com/news/0410/04101203epson_p2000.asp)
but it looks a bit too fancy - all i need is somewhere to unload my pics so i can free up my memory card.
any other recommendations?
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I would rather use 3 or 4 256mb cards... it's cheaper than a storage device.. counting on just one high capacity card puts all your eggs in the same basket... not safe. at your leisure time, review what you have taken and remove only those that you really don't want to keep. You didn't mention which format you want to save them in... this is important due to the size of the file saved.
To me, using a storage device is a little cumbersome and lends itself to higher risks.
If you are taking a lot of pictures and shooting 6 or more megapixel-camera on the road, you'll soon run out of memory cards . Besides, comparing a few 1GB memory cards to a 40-80 GB portable storage regard the storage quantity, anyone sees that the portable storage is much cheaper than the memory card for the same amount of GB storage.
There's also another alternative. A notebook along with a few 1-2 GB memory card is quite reasonable. You can take more photo each day while manipulating your shootings from your memory cards.
If it's so burden to carry all, X-drive or compact drive will be the better option. While downloading to the drive, treat it like your notebook; that will save you from loosing any shooting. The cost of portable storage is around $200 +or-.
Good luck and choose what really suit you.
You mention that that storage device looks a bit too fancy... but you are taking 6 megapixel pictures. May we ask what you are taking pictures of, and if perhaps lowering the size of the images you are taking is an option? Just a thought... I also agree that multiple memory sticks (or whatever you are using) is a very viable option, and as the others have said "doesn't put all your eggs in one basket."
I hope I'm not too late getting in on this. I too am looking for some type of digital photo storage for travel. I found the Wolverine Flashpac series (not as 'fancy' as the Epson P-2000) and wonder if anyone has had any experience with it. On my African safari earlier this year I took along a stack of CF cards totaling about 8 gigs and filled most of them. I like to take a lot of pics. Now I'm thinking of changing to a camera that uses SD cards, so all my CF cards will be useless. With mass storage of some type, it doesn't matter what type card you use, but with no backup and all my eggs (jpg's) in one basket, I wonder about the reliability of the mass storage device. If anyone has used one of the Wolverive Flashpacs I'd like to hear from them--I have some questions about it that I haven't yet found answers to.
These two devices are identical in appearance. Evidently the manufacturer provides this same enclosure to at least 3 different sellers. The difference being the embossed logo and minor color changes. There may be a difference in the enclosed hard drive but I'd be surprised if the electronics were different.
I recently purchased one and used it to download photos I took while on a Baltic Cruise. The unit worked admirably.
The Pros
1. The display is large and resolution very nice.
2. It was easy to learn to use and navigation was not too complicated.
3. I could rotate, zoom, delete shots to my content
4. Can do slide show w/ or w/o sound
5. and my favorite, decent battery life. I got an extra battery just in case I was in a place where I could not plug in to recharge, but rarely used it during my cruise.
6. My friend and I took over 3,000 photos and had room to burn. Once pictures were downloaded, set them up in separate albums --
7. The short video clips that can be done my camera plays w/o any problem.
The Cons
1. Limited label length
2. Labels don't come across when downloading albums to computer.
3. Albums are in the order they are made -- not by date or alpha order. If it can be changed, haven't learned that trick yet.
4. Once downloaded to the computer, the picture labels are different than what shows up on the viewer. This makes it a bit cumbersome to work with.
Have not used it for music or videos, but then that is not why I got it. The speakers leave something to be desired, but a good set of headphones will fix that problem.
I have 512MB and 1GB cards for my camera. I have a Minolta DiMage 3.2 Mega Pix camera set on the highest rez. If I shoot 200-400 pix per day, it can pretty well fill up the 512 card. I like working with the pictures I take on the highest rez -- I can do more with them esp. cropping them w/o them getting too grainy.
Additionally, if your camera has the capability to do short video clips, you can really eat up your memory card quickly. It is nice having the unit with a large memory capacity to clear your cards.
Has anyone seen an announcement of a replacement for the Epson P2000, offering a larger hard drive?
I have an older Vosonic X drive and while it works fine it is very slow, this should be better
http://store.yahoo.com/insidecomputer/80imtaiiiwiu.htm
and this is the fastest but can not be bought in the USA but lots of people are buying them here.
http://www.eastgear.com/shop/index.php?currency=USD&cPath=17_66
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