Portable storage - whats out there?

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I'm going to Portugal in the middle of September to watch some bike racing. I currently have 5GBs-worth of CF for my D200, so I'm going to need a lot more (shooting RAW). I reckon that even if I get an extra 5GB of CF, I will still be struggling for space, so I was wondering what options I have for portable hard / flash drives that I can empty the CFs onto...

Do devices exist specifically for this? i.e. smallish (wallet-sized?), which I can plug my CF straight into, hit a button and have everything copied over? And then have a USB connection for downloading to PC?

I'm guessing these sorts of things won't be cheap, but even if I spent £100 on 2GB extreme IIIs, I would only get 10GB - surely the GB/£ must be better with a portable storage device...?

A few pointers or links would do for now if you have any, just so I can see what's available :)

Thanks for your help
 
2GB Sandisk Extreme III £17.99 from mymemory, but yes you're still paying £90 for 10GB.

Do you really need that much if you have 5GB already? The hard-disk photo storage devices are OK but not as robust as CF cards, and the ones with a display cost a whole lot more than £100. :)
 
Thanks Guys :)

silkstone said:
Do you really need that much if you have 5GB already? The hard-disk photo storage devices are OK but not as robust as CF cards, and the ones with a display cost a whole lot more than £100. :)
Click to expand...

Well, using my D50 once, I shot 4GB in one day and had to stop as I has no more memory :lol: So based on that, plus the fact the D200 produces bigger NEF files, plus I will be shooting 3 days and also want a few pics of Portugal, I reckon even 15GB might not be enough!

Having said all that however, I'm not convinced about the cheaper storage devices. Battery life doesn't look too brilliant, slow to transfer, and it doesn't look like you can check whether the images have successfully transferred after-the-fact - I don't need a review screen, but I list of files stored would be nice...

Anyway, thanks again, the link is just what I needed :thumbs:

Badger, I'll bear that in mind, thanks
 
For the price of some of those storage devices you could buy a cheap laptop and use that!
 
I set my own up last week, I bought a USB2 OTG caddy of ebay and stuck a 60Gb laptop drive in it, cost me £22 for the caddy and £40 for the drive, could have got a 100Gb for £42 but they didnt have any in stock :bang:

The one I opted for doubles up as a data store and data transfer device, being able to shunt data in both directions, quite handy for holding movies for watching on my PSP whilst travelling :D
 
I was always told that it's better to get extra CF cards rather than a storage device. And they were right!

When you run out of room, you may not have time to upload your photos to your storage device, format the card and put it back in.
I have 2 2GB a 1GB card = 5GB total. And it was much easier.

I suppose an array of cards would be the best bet, 8GB cards for long days but I wouldn't go too much higher than a 4GB or an 8GB - for reliability. Imagine having 8GB of photos and the card becomes unreadable?

Check out 7dayshop.com - Some excellent deals on that site.
 
have heard 8gb card performance drops once you have over 4 or 6gb of data on them, i would never put large cards in my camera, is far too much data to lose in one go.

I have 5 2gb cf cards and 4 2gb SD cards and a PD70X storage device, i just need to test it with the files from a 1d Mk3 and make sure it works ok with it lol

Can easily leave a card in the pd70 and carry on shooting while it copies the images off and verifies the copy.
 
I had worried about that myself having a 4gb sd card loosing lots of photos. Also have a 1gb card

It's cheaper these days than with film anyway, £5 ish for 24exp then get them developed!

Where abouts in Portugal you off to? I may go later this year again if my passport is ready in time.
 
I've had no problems with 8G cards.

I carry 2x8G CF, 2x4G CF and 2x1G SD for 2x1D Mk II. I then have a pair of 120 Gb discs for backup to in the evening (this is for 2 week trips to Africa with no laptop and no mains power)
 
Amnesia180 said:
I was always told that it's better to get extra CF cards rather than a storage device. And they were right!
Click to expand...

I think thats true to a degree, but the portable drives are pretty reliable these days.

I plan on using my portable drive for backing up images so I have two copies of everything whislt I'm away.
 
not really tied this but in theory should work....... Portugal have internet cafe's just like here. Take 500 gig usb hd with software already on and card reader. Ask permission to connect usb & card reader. Have a coffee wiz images off. simple solution.
 
Thanks for all the help guys :) I've bitten the bullet and bought 2x 4GB and 2x 2GB Extreme IIIs :D The transfer speeds of the cheaper models of portable storage seemed very slow, and the killer was the battery life specs: only 4GB worth of transfer on one model I saw. Access to electricity is going to be limited while I'm out there (camping), so I'll need to save whatever opportunities I get for charging the D200 batteries :lol:

Jigga, I'm going to Estoril to watch the motogp :woot:
 
I probably should have mentioned my drive is powered by an external battery pack which takes 4 AA batteries, might have been handy for you if AC is scarce :)

Not sure if ebay links are allowed here (MOD please delete if not)... Linky

Have fun at the gp :)
 
sepulchre said:
I think thats true to a degree, but the portable drives are pretty reliable these days.

I plan on using my portable drive for backing up images so I have two copies of everything whislt I'm away.
Click to expand...

I think the way you mention it is better.

So you have two copies of everything. I probably wouldn't plan on taking a portable drive, transferring the images then formatting the card to use again.

If anything, I'd take the portable drive for backup reasons only.
 
I recently went to Indonesia and had to think about this before I went. Certainly, the ones from Epson are very nice but they are expensive. In the end, I ended up getting a photo adapter for my iPod (which I already had) for less than £20, which allowed me to transfer all my RAWs (.CR2 from my 350D) straight from the camera. It's probably not as fast as a dedicated portable HD and it runs the battery down relatively quickly, but for people already with an iPod, then it's a great option. Although you can't preview the RAWs on the iPod, you can view the file icons, to confirm that they've all transferred OK.
 
NEXTO

You'll have to get it from amazon but they use the same tech as the compactdrive pd70x

Quick to transfer and easy on the batteries. I may get one before the dungeness meet in september as I'm bound to need some extra storage.


A second hand pd70x may be a good choice too! (don't think you can buy them new anymore)
 
If you have an iPod then the USB camera adapter works an absolute treat. Latest version 5+ only, I believe.

..and you can view the images, as well. I haven't tried RAW files yet though.

Huraah, my 1st post.

Graham
 
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