Guys I am new here so please don’t throw any rocks…Yet. I see the talk about card size, and wonder if any of you are using portable media storage. You dump the card whatever size, and start over with the same card?
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My personal take on it, Bruce, is that it’s great if you are a travelling pro photographer, but it’s expensive enough that I myself would rather save a bit, spend a little more, and have a laptop and be able to access the net and do other stuff in addition to storing photos if I needed that much storage while travelling.
As mentioned in the other thread, I prefer cards. I agree with Barbara on the laptop. What could be nicer than watching the sunset at the beach of a tropical island, your feet in a basin of cold water and working on your images in PE at the same time?
I’m with the laptop group! I’ve done this on a couple of trips, and it works extremely well. I didn’t do much editing on the laptop, but it was really nice to be able to review pictures, name them, and sort them into folders so it was easy to identify later where and when they were taken. Most of the new laptops come with built in CD burners, so the truly paranoid among us could even back up to CD! And, of course, you then have the laptop to use for other stuff – like detailed notes of your trip while you still remember which day you were where and what you did. E-mail, too. And access to the Elements forum so you don’t miss your friends while you’re gone. 🙂
Well, just to differ a bit with all of you, I think this is a very interesting product. It weighs only 300 grams! That’s less than a pound, so it is a LOT smaller and lighter…and cheaper than a laptop. $365 is not cheap, but a couple of 1GB cards would cost the same, and this thing can store…I dunno, what’s the biggest 2.5 inch drive you can buy? 50GB? I have a stack of cards now, because, Like Bruce, I travel a lot and need lots of storage for pix. My current solution is 6-128MB SM cards and 1GB IBM Microdrive. I fill the cards during the day, and dump them to the MD in the evening, using a neat transfer feature my Oly E20 provides. It has slots for both SM and CF cards. I then clear/reformat them. I don’t leave the MD in the camera, inserting it just long enough to do the transfers. This gives me a total capacity of around 500 pictures, using the highest resolution and highest JPEG quality the E20 provides. This product would HUGELY expand my photo capacity, with very little space/weight penalty. I would use it the same way, powering it in the evening just long enough to do the transfers. Battery life would not be a problem that way. It would also solve another problem I have: My other camera only takes CF cards, and I have no way to dump those on the road. The price doesn’t seem that bad to me… not much more than my 1GB MD cost…but that was a few years ago. The price will probably come down pretty quickly. Lots of companies could build this product, and will, if there is enough demand. Bert EDIT: Thanks, Bruce, for bringing this product to our attention.
Bert, if you go for it, let us know how you like it.
EDIT I guess I’m just too paranoid, but I’d rather have a way to get photos backed up onto cds or dvds as well on a drive somewhere. Also, I’d rather have a way to see what I’ve shot in more detail than you can see on a camera lcd.
Barb, CDs would be safer, you’re right, but HDs are pretty reliable these days. I find I rarely use the LCD screen on my camera when I’m taking pictures. I just shoot and shoot. And I don’t think I would work on photos when I’m traveling. Too much other stuff to do. I save that for when I get home. With travel photos, you usually don’t have a chance to go back and retake anyway. Either you got it or you didn’t. Beth mentioned that she likes to use her laptop to write travel notes, and that would be useful. I’m always struggling, after a long trip, to remember where and when a picture was taken. I have been thinking about buying one of those little digital voice recorders for that purpose. Olympus even makes one that takes SM or CF cards, so I could use the same cards I use in the cameras. Carrying a laptop when I travel is something I am trying very hard to avoid. Especially in places like Africa, where you need to travel light. Bert
Barbara, One feature I did notice about the gizmo, was that you can play your pics back on any monitor, TV, etc… so you can see what you shot in detail. I really don’t have an opinion on this, I brought it up to see what you guys thought. I can see good and bad points.
Bert, have you considered you will have to look at all these images too when you are back home? Probably I misunderstood, but 500 images daily….Did you see anything in an other way than through the viewfinder? 😉 After a long trip you must have thousands of images to organise.
You can do the same directly from the camera, usually. But, as I have been on several trips, it’s beginning to be hard to find a hotel/motel room with a TV capable of accepting a RCA connector. They all cover the connectors with some kind of cable descrambler or alike.. Grr 😉
Leen, No, sorry, I probably didn’t make it clear. I have a TOTAL capacity of about 500 images, so that’s all I can take until I get home and upload. You make a good point about seeing things when you travel, and not letting the camera dominate the trip. When I was in Africa early this year, going on game drives every day, when we stopped to watch some animals, I would take a few pictures, and then just put the camera down and enjoy the scene. Others I watched had the camera in front of their face the whole time. I don’t want my travel experience to all be through a viewfinder. Bert
Bert, what you said really hits home with me; I’ve too often found myself in situations where the picture-taking dominated the experience and I haven’t really enjoyed the setting as much as I should. I need your self-discipline!
Chuck, With me it goes back a LONG ways. I was one of those totally obsessed photographers, two SLR cameras, one with B&W, one with color slide film, lenses, filters, tripods. This was back in the 70’s. I finally realized that it was dominating my travel vacations to the detriment of the experience. I gave all that camera stuff to my daughter when she graduated from high school…about 1980, and did not even own a camera for nearly twenty years. Talk about going cold turkey! So now that I’m back into it again, I am trying to make sure I don’t make the same mistakes again. Bert
On most of my vacations I use both digital and film cameras. Up to last year I carried a laptop and found it a great device. Last year I bought a Digital Wallet (Mind Works) and I took it to Arizona. Between my wife and I we took over 3,000 images and stored them on the wallet. *Note* (Chuck I didn’t say I didn’t take digital just that I don’t really like digital as much as film). In any event things ended up going bad and the wallet failed but after a great struggle I was able to save most of the images.
Now here are the prose and cons about wallets vs. laptops failure aside.
The wallet is small light and less expensive than a laptop. They are easily toted and you can carry fewer memory cards if that is a concern. While you can store massive amounts of information on the wallet you could not retrieve, view, share or edit the images to any extent. You take them, store them, and transferred them back home.
The lap top is larger and more bulk and was often left in the hotel making it necessary to have enough memory cards for a days shoot. While a bran new lap top is more expensive than a wallet, a second hand one approaches the price of a digital wallet. The lap top is a pain in the butt carrying it on a plane and also in watching that no one lifts it. On the other hand you can retrieve, view, share or edit and with a CD burner archive them after each days shoot. One of the thinks I like about the laptop is that you can view your images in much more detail and redo a shoot if necessary. We often keep a journal of our trips so the lap top also doubles for as a word processor. Of course with these advantages one could be tempted to do all sorts of editing and eat into precious vacation time.
After using both I do like the laptop digital camera set up quit a lot more. The only complaints with a laptop is you do need a secure base to store it and it is a bit more problem lugging it all over the place, but the rewards are far greater.
Now whether you use a lap top or a wallet please don’t do what I did, but have the devices for a really good trial run before relying on them as a failure out in the boonies is not fun.
I agree with Grant. I had great luck with a 20 GB Mindstore from also. From two trips to Greece I have brought back about 3500 images. Light and small to carry around, easy to download even standing, and to recharge (120 or 240 V, no transformer needed). Unfortunately, the company went out of business but owners still get support from user’s group on Yahoo and parts from a vendor. Look for similar products that were just announced from SanDisk and Archos. I wish the Apple iPod could be used for downloading digital images, but that is not the case.
<*Note* (Chuck I didn’t say I didn’t take digital just that I don’t really like digital as much as film)>
Grant, I understand. I’m actually thinking of going back to shooting some slides after some less than scintillating results with my 10D (probably operator error, but getting frustrated – Ray is helping me through it….)
after some less than scintillating results with my 10D
Oooh, Chuck! Don’t tell me that! The Canon EOS 10D is on my "dream" wish list. It recently replaced the Nikon D100 on that list. What kind of problems did you have with it? Actually, I don’t plan to replace my Oly E20 any time soon, but I have been salivating for a 10D… Bert
I am with Bert. After getting my i950 printer up and Microtek 6800 scanner, the 10D was my next hardware. If you are having trouble then it must be a nightmare for me. Please give details.
While Chuck gathers his thoughts, I’ll weigh in. The 10D is a wonderful camera but has so many different settings! The learning curve is steep and a little bumpy. I would bet that the Nikon D100 is just as demanding. I have had some frustrating results. After every shoot I seem to learn a new lesson, not always the easy way. Still, this camera does some things my other digital would not come close to. I recently shot a Christian rock concert at ISO 3200 using available light. Try that with a point-and-shoot.
PS: I carry my laptop with me on extended shoots and vacations. I shot almost 500 shots of the concert and, periodically would dump the CF cards into the laptop and empty them.
For those interested in the portable storage devices the Computer Geeks website has them on sale for cheap. Note that you have to buy and install a hard drive that they sell also.
I dont have one so dont know any specifics about how to use it. I use a laptop when I travel with my camera but if I were going where I did not want my laptop I would certainly try one of these especially for the cheap price on this site.
I have bought a lot of items from these folks, they are honest and good people to work with.
Today a sales representative of my wholesaler dropped by in my studio. He showed me a tool I bought immediately. It was made by Hama, a large German company producing all kinds of small photographic equipement. It was a cd burner with a slot for CF and some other cards. Just place your card in the slot, insert a CD, press a button and it will write with 36 speed. Probably this tool will be for sale in the rest of the world too, but with another name on it.
Leen, That’s very interesting. It would serve my needs as well as the disk drive, although I would have to carry a supply of blank CDs…can you give us a link or any information on that product? Bert
I suppose you have been married for quite some time?
Well, yes. A few years…almost 43. But, as a wise man once said, "After one year, it’s like forever." Bert PS – I am NOT giving you my wife’s Email address! 🙂
…you then have the laptop to use for other stuff – like detailed notes of your trip while you still remember which day you were where and what you did. E-mail, too. And access to the Elements forum so you don’t miss your friends while you’re gone. 🙂
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