portable digital storage device

[alcina]

I have used Archos Jukebox for more than five years...am looking to upgrade to one with more memory, but from what I have read, I will still be moving to Archos.

I have never lost data and this thing does not get treated well at all.

 

[TheNitroxinator]

I have been using a laptop. It fried on my last trip to Indonesia (the memory modules went bad). I still like the laptop to offload to - its the big screen of the laptop versus the little screen of the camera, plus I can do image editing on the spot after I offload my pictures (or at least have fun looking at them). I'm guessing you're actually looking for a low cost solution, I agree with the IT guy, harddrives fail, CDs that have been burned don't. But, if you burn CDs, you'd better have something available so you can view the result before you delete your pictures from your SD/CF/XD card. Oddly, these days you can get 256M CF cards dirt cheap (I think I've seen under $30), you could actually consider getting a bunch of CF cards and just swap 'em on a daily basis, and spend less than you would on the hard drive device. And they'd take less space than a bunch of CDs or the harddrive/archos jukebox. After my hard drive crashed in Lembeh, I had a lot of hard decisions to make on which pictures to delete. I wish I'd just brough my extra CF card. When I go to Malaysia in March, I'm taking my CD burner, an external 40G hard drive, maybe some extra CF cards in addition to my laptop, and a really healthy dose of paranoia about whether my laptop is going to crash on me (I'm backing everything up daily this time).

 

[fins]

Fins...I was just going to ask if there was such a product. thanks for the info. Now is it really worth buying...? does it work good? and how many pictures does it hold? thank for any info.

I believe that it's worth it. I'd much rather copy my pics to a CD than risk a hard drive crapping out and losing all the pics I had stored on it.

I used mine to cut about 16 CD's (made duplicates of each) over the past couple weeks while on a trip to Curacao. Depending on the type of CD, it will hold between 650 and 700Mb. I shoot a SHQ on my 5050 which uses approx 3Mb per shot so I can dump my entire 500Mb CF card to a single CD. Since the Vizor supports disk spanning, if I ever purchase say a 1Gb CF card and I go beyond the capacity of the CD, the Vizor asks for another CD to be loaded and then continues the copy.

The LCD windows isn't the greatest quality, nor is the quality shown when you attach the Vizor to a television but it was nice being able to do.

 

[AmyJ]

I stick with the laptop too... I live being able to view them larger than life and play with editing while still on the trip. Too often if I come home with 1500 uneditied photos, it's too overwhelming once back into the regular flow of work and life. Laptop travels easily and hasn't been a problem.

 

[mekut]

I use a MindStor Digital wallet. Very easy to use and verifies copies. I think company went out of business but units are pretty cheap on E-Bay

 

[alcina]

Is there anyone out there who has some experience with this kind of device. I've heard about the X drive by vosonic: 200 euros and you get a storage device up to 40GB without need for a computer to be connected or anything else. Looks good if you thing that 1GB card cost at least 150$!

You might want to look at the price of CF cards as they are dropping rather dramatically - at least in the US & Australia.

I dragged my laptop along to Cozumel, and yes it was nice to have, but for shorter trips when I don't need the features of a computer I will be using some other sort of portable device. I like the ones that also are MP3 and have a little video screen - just easier.

I do not edit beyond tossing truly horrendous shots when I use the laptop...I just don't trust their screens (do a search I am sure there are a zillion discussions of this) for fine work.

I guess, in summary, there are so many types of options available that you are bound to find one that suits you as each person's needs will be different. Maybe make a definite list of features it must have and a budget then work on narrowing it down from there.

Good luck!

 

[erik.p]

I'm getting this for Christmas...

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/photobank.html

Seems nice, look at the final picture at the very end of the review.
Nice size!

 

[alcina]

Interesting option, but for a very similar price you can get something that plays MP3s and some other features...for me, I need something that does more than store photos coz I only need that when I travel really...

 

[Chris Bangs]

I use the X drive on a boat. works great! I then transfer the data to both my laptop and another external HD. this gives me triple back-ups.

I use the basic X drive, simple display, no image viewer, etc. For myself, It is a short term storage solution only.

 

[Nomaster]

Roswin,

I know that what I'm going to propose to you isn't what you asked for but let me explain why. First off, I'm an IT Director and see hard drives fail every day, especially hard drives in portable devices. A great example is a Dell Jukebox MP3 player I bought for my wife last Christmas. It has been replaced 3 times because of hard drive failures.

With that in mind what I have done is purchased a Nixvue Vizor. It is a CD player/burner that allows to you burn a CD directly from your CF, XD or SM card, no laptop needed. Disc spanning is supported so if your 1Gb CF card was full the device would ask for a second CD when the first CD was filled. The device also includes a small LCD window that allows you to view your pictures it can also be attached to a TV to view the pictures. The Vizor can also be connected to your PC to act as a regular CD burner via USB attachment.

I bought my Vizor from digital-gear.com just under $400 including shipping

Good luck with your search,

Mark

Something like this is in my near future!
I lost all my photos from my office computer when a tech reformated without saving anything he was (not) told to by my assistant.
No amount of apologies would would bring them back, so both a laptop and a CD burner are my answer.

Tom