Portable storage device

[ragss]

I'm thinking of buying something that seems exactly the same.

www.hyperdrive.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=1&products_id=6&osCsid=ca6a17a9f2ceca788c3859e5a2ea1215

I'm just not sure I want to spend that much money when I'm trying to spend as little as possible to stay in europe for as long as possible.

[commie]

hm whats the advantage with this devices? wouldnt it be cheaper to buy just a second 1gb sd card if you dont take x000 pictures?

[MuvverRussia]

Yeah, it would be. The attraction of these devices is that they can store a load of photos pretty cheaply though.

They're important if you have a dSLR or equivalent high resolution camera - with my 350d I easily fill up a 1gb CF card when shooting in RAW mode, so if I'm taking a lot of photos I'd need a lot of CF cards. It's cheaper and easier to use flash memory for day to day storage, copying the photos from the cards onto the portable hard drive at the end of each day.

[Eagle]

commie, to add to Muvver's comments, people who are now travelling with digital Cameras invariably seem to find that they are taking far more photos than they ever did with film. Consequently, even if the images are reviewed at the end of the day and the "less than perfect" photos are deleted, it's still quite possible to return home with a thousand or more images. Many people don't consider the travel aspect (and need for lots of memory) when they purchase a digital Camera.

Although one could use only Memory Cards during travel, this could become expensive for "high volume" Photographers. This is especially problematic for those using dSLR's and shooting RAW. The 350d / Rebel XT that Muvver mentioned produces RAW files of about 8 MB, which (if my math is correct?) would only allow about 125 images on a 1 GB CF Card. For a long trip, this is simply not enough capacity. Of course, one could purchase larger Cards (I believe CF Cards are up to 8 GB now?) but many people are reluctant to "put all their eggs in one basket" and store a huge amount of photos on one card, in case this malfunctions and they lose the whole lot. Although prices for memory cards have dropped quite a lot in the past few months, a 4 GB CF Card is still about CDN$ 350.00 (whereas a 80 GB PSD (Portable Storage Device) can be purchased for about $700.00).

In my own case, I'm going to "gamble" a bit and travel with 2 GB & 4 GB Cards, but will not use anything larger. I'm hoping that with a high-quality CF Card such as the Extreme III cards, there won't be any problems. However, I've learned over many years of working with electronics that any product can develop problems, regardless of how good the quality is.

I've also considered the portable storage option and still might use something like the Epson P4000 or FlashTrax XT. However, I would much rather travel on the "lighter" side without a lot of extra kit, so I'm still deciding whether I can function without a PSD, just using a few high capacity CF Cards. I usually shoot JPEG images (about 3.3 MB per image at highest quality), so can fit a fair number of images on the Cards; I don't have a lot of time for post-processing, so only use RAW in special circumstances). If I decide to take a PSD on my next trip, my personal preference is to have a product with a screen so that I can verify that the photos have transferred properly. Some of the "experts" on dpreview (and others) are quite comfortable with just a status display; I guess this is mostly a matter of personal choice.

Muvver, I'm also using the 350d / Rebel XT, and really pleased with it so far. I had thought about waiting for the 30D as I knew there would be an upgrade for the 20D at the PMA show, but for a variety of reasons I felt the 350d was the best model for my needs. I was looking at a 30D yesterday, and while it's an awesome Camera, it's considerably larger and heavier than the 350D (not to mention quite a bit MORE expensive!). I do like that wonderful large LCD though!!! I still need to buy a wide angle (probably the 10-22 as it has received some excellent ratings) and also a Zoom (probably the new 70-300IS, which is not "L" quality but has received some very favourable reviews on Fred Miranda).

Interesting discussion.......

Cheers!!!

[pkd]

Thanks for the review, I was wondering if something like this existed! I'm considering traveling around Germany and taking mass amounts of photos of castles and everything else that was built before the 16th century, and this would be exactly what I need.