Storage chjoce...

[morris_jay]

I'm looking at getting an x-drive for christmas XDRIVE VP6230 + 40 GIG HDD 5400.

Now I have been thinking. I can get another 3 x 1GB ultra II cards for the same price. I currently have only one 1GB card. The thing is I will be away for atleast two weeks and I'm thinking the 4 gb won't enough.

Should I go for the 4 gb and take comfort in the fact that they are "more reliable" then HDD's or should I go for the extra room?

The time to transfer isn't an issue. I won't mind spending some time at night downloading the photos to the HDD. (around 250 odd photos on a 1gb card... so more then 250 a day, i deserve to have to wait to download...)

What would others do in the same situation?

[DavidW]

Have you got a laptop, and, if so, how do you feel about taking the laptop with you? I tend to take a laptop with me, which not only gives me a way of downloading memory cards, but also means I have a DVD burner with me. I can either put backup DVDs amongst my clothes, or mail them home. With a laptop, you also have the best possible portable way of checking photos.

I've used the permission in my Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium licence to install the product on two machines at once, so long as the product isn't used simultaneously on both machines. Having CS2 Premium on both my workstation and laptop means that if I have the laptop with me, I've got Photoshop CS2. Most Adobe licences include this clause, and the activation system is set up to allow two activations if your Adobe product uses activation.


If carrying a laptop is impractical, or you don't have a laptop, consider how you shoot. 4GB for two weeks probably wouldn't do me; I have shot more than 1GB in a day even after deleting the obvious duds in the camera, though I shoot RAW (typically around 9MBytes per image with my 20D; I'd expect similar file sizes with the 350D) and recommend you consider doing the same.

If 4GB would be insufficient for you, then a downloader gadget like the X-Drive makes sense. I do wonder what the price premium of 60GB over a 40GB drive would be - as with all storage, the more you have, the better, as the amount of data you have seems to fill to use the space available!



David

[lancea]

What would others do in the same situation?
I'd definitely go for the bulk storage. I say definitely because I very recently had to make the same decision :) Shooting RAW, I've filled up a 1GB card in an hour - and that's just casual shooting. Last time I went on holiday for 1 1/2 weeks I easily filled up the card shooting JPEGs, and had to switch to my pocket camera. Even though I've since added a 2GB card, it clearly won't be sufficient for my next holiday. So I bought a CompactDrive PD-70X with 60GB disc for only slight more than the cost of a single 2GB card (they are more expensive here). Transfer is very fast, and I have heaps of space. The price of CF cards will continue to drop so I will get another one day.

I'm not sure whether CF cards are more reliable than a hard disc, but it is true that your odds will be better if you have lots of smallish CF cards. Since I couldn't afford sufficient CF cards my decision was easy!

[peterdoomen]

About a year ago, I bought an 80GB Flashtrax, because that was the only affordable 80GB file storage with a screen (so you can verify your pictures arrived well...). I was then shooting JPG with a PowerShot G3. At 1 MB per picture, it looked like I could store all pics I would ever take...

Things have changed since then. Shooting RAW+JPEG with a 20D & taking more pictures, I recently had to wipe off some old stuff from the Flashtrax disk. If it existed, I would buy a 120GB Flashtrax (or similar photo store). And I will definitely buy some CF cards as wel. Currently, I have a 1 GB ultra II and a 2GB extreme III and when shooting a wedding, for example, it's difficult to swap cards, put them in the Flastrax, backupping & verifying,...Having all CF cards is easier, but I am happy to have a photo store in my pocket since 3 GB CF cards fill in about three hours! That's not even enough to shoot a marriage.

Concerning realiability: I have had only one problem with the Flashtrax. Luckily, I could restore most images with checkdisk... I never had one single problem with a CF card and I guess it's very unlikely too.

PeteR.

[Ronald S. Jr.]

well, for some people, it doesn't matter how long it takes for the storage drive to download the shots..as long as it does it. However, I use mainly a 4gig Ultra II card, and a 2 gig as well, and 1100 shots on the 4 just isn't enough, even for a couple days. When I go to copy those shots with a storage device, though, it usually ends up taking like 25-30 minutes to do it. I guess I'm just being fanatical, but i'd much rather have an extra 4 gig in my pocket than a hard drive. I keep a laptop in my computrekker, but that's only for worst case.

[robertwgross]

There are too many mixed priorities here. Too many variables.

What do you shoot? How much per day, in terms of storage capacity? How often do you get to your computer to offload?

Basically, if I am going out into the wilderness on foot for several days, then I need the lightest weight solution. So, straight high capacity CF cards are used.

If I am going out into the wilderness on foot for one day at a time, and I am returning to my vehicle each evening, then I can have enough CF cards to get me through the day and then I dump them on the X-drive each night. The X-drive needs to be at least several times larger in capacity than what I shoot each day, if I am out for several days. If I go on a long trip, then I need much more capacity in the X-drive. Or, if I could be made of money, then I would simply buy 50-100GB in CF cards.

Three years ago, I was buying my Canon D60 at the Canon dealer, and I asked the salesman what size of CF card he recommended. I had not done much research. He said (then) that most of us used 256MB cards, so that is what I bought one of. He said that there was an archeologist leaving for the Gobi Desert with her new Canon D60, and that she bought 1GB CF cards (that was about the largest size at the time) to take with her for the entire one month trip there, since she didn't know if she would have much power, computer, or anything else to deal with the images. So, she bought twenty cards! At the time, that was a nice chunk of change.

---Bob Gross---

[Bodryn]

Until now when I've taken month-long trips, I've been just carrying an ample supply of CF cards along and hoping the photos stay intact. However, I have decided that the best bet for me from now on would be to carry a laptop along. For a reasonable price you can buy a Toshiba laptop with a 100 GB drive that burns DVDs. I just bought one this summer and it does a very nice job with photos. It would be nice to see in detail how these photos were turning out and immediately rather than wait until returning home. Rather than buy a one-trick pony just for burning CDs or DVDs, I think it best to take along a laptop with all its other conveniences such as JASC Paint Shop Pro, my detailed USGS maps of the entire country, astronomy software, Wi Fi, etc., all of which fits in something the size of a medium briefcase.

[Salleke]

I'm looking at getting an x-drive for christmas XDRIVE VP6230 + 40 GIG HDD 5400.

Now I have been thinking. I can get another 3 x 1GB ultra II cards for the same price. I currently have only one 1GB card. The thing is I will be away for atleast two weeks and I'm thinking the 4 gb won't enough.

Should I go for the 4 gb and take comfort in the fact that they are "more reliable" then HDD's or should I go for the extra room?

The time to transfer isn't an issue. I won't mind spending some time at night downloading the photos to the HDD. (around 250 odd photos on a 1gb card... so more then 250 a day, i deserve to have to wait to download...)

What would others do in the same situation?

Morris_Jay - Buy one other 1 GB CF card so when you are dowloading the first to your HDD you have the other to work with.
Buy the Vosonic X-drive and you will have plenty of storage. IMHO it's the way to go. I did the same and love the solution.
Keep only in mind that you must charge the batterie in the Vosonic regularly. Or provide a spare battrie with you.

Good luck.

[robertwgross]

Keep only in mind that you must charge the batterie in the Vosonic regularly. Or provide a spare battrie with you.


My Vosonics X-drive is the old original model. No removable battery. After some years of use, the battery is a little droopy. As a result, if I am trying to copy a bunch of CF cards, I need to power up the thing via 12VDC cord from my vehicle's cigarette lighter socket.

I'm convinced that these companies are not making any profit on selling us their portable storage drives. They make the profit on selling batteries and replacements.

---Bob Gross---

[condyk]

I've done several long and some shorter trips over the last five years and have always taken my laptop. Download/backup is easy and I can post process during the many dull evenings you encounter 'on the road' in far flung places, or play a game, watch a DVD, listen to music, write, create a travel web site, etc, etc. But generally I agree with Bob ... it all depends on the kind of trip and how heavy you want to be. I have 4GB of CF storage. I shoot quite spare and keep few so that would do me several days, but others will be different and it might do them only a few hours! I would get a backup drive if you didn't want to take a laptop and a second, maybe smaller, CF card for use when downloading the first one to the drive.

[Salleke]

My Vosonics X-drive is the old original model. No removable battery. After some years of use, the battery is a little droopy. As a result, if I am trying to copy a bunch of CF cards, I need to power up the thing via 12VDC cord from my vehicle's cigarette lighter socket.

I'm convinced that these companies are not making any profit on selling us their portable storage drives. They make the profit on selling batteries and replacements. ---Bob Gross---

Bob - You have a point here. I have a VOSONIC VP2160 and bought it for 195 € with a 40 GB HDD.
With the supplied charger I can operate and charge the batterie from the 220 V powerline.
Then I have a 12VDC solution for operating and for charging to.
And I made myself a battery pack with 4 rechargebles 4 Ah batteries for when I'm in the field.
Like you said the VOSONIC is cheap and for me this solution just works fine.
I don't like always taking my laptop with me. It's to heavy and to vulnerable.

[morris_jay]

Thanks a lot for the replies so far.

I have decided (with my needs in mind) to go for the portable HDD over the multiple CF cards or a laptop.

I don't have a laptop, nor the money for one unless I sold this PC, and its my baby... I can't sell it!

Now is it worth spending 2 times the amount of one Xdrive for the picture preview?

I won't have access to a computer for two weeks, and the LCD on the Xdrive is 2.5" verse the one on the 350d with is 1.8" or there abouts. I'll probably only use the device a few times each year, so is it worth it?

240 for a 40GB no picture preview?
480 for a 40GB picture preview?

(Budget is very, very tight) ($AU)

Cheers

[Salleke]

Thanks a lot for the replies so far.

I have decided (with my needs in mind) to go for the portable HDD over the multiple CF cards or a laptop.

I don't have a laptop, nor the money for one unless I sold this PC, and its my baby... I can't sell it!

Now is it worth spending 2 times the amount of one Xdrive for the picture preview?

I won't have access to a computer for two weeks, and the LCD on the Xdrive is 2.5" verse the one on the 350d with is 1.8" or there abouts. I'll probably only use the device a few times each year, so is it worth it?

240 for a 40GB no picture preview? 480 for a 40GB picture preview?

(Budget is very, very tight) ($AU) Cheers

Morris_Jay - IMHO you be better of with the X-drive without the LCD screen.
If I'm going on a vacation I'm going for enyojing myself and the place I'm in.
Taking pictures and watching the scenary. If I would watch the several thousands
pictures I take on a holliday I would loose to much of the precious time.
The pictures I take and watch them at home so I have pleasure for 3 times.
First at going on hollidays and enyojing the places and the time.
Second on taking pictures, alot of pictures of where I am.
Third, when I'm back home and watch and sort out the pictures.
I don't want to loose my holliday time in sorting pictures. And don't forget that
even on a 2.5 inch screen you can't judge your pictures correctly.
And if you have a tight budget the choice is an easy one.
For the 240 you save you can buy yourself a second CF card or other stuff.

Good luck and have a nice holliday. We wait to see your pictures ... :)

[lancea]

Now is it worth spending 2 times the amount of one Xdrive for the picture preview?
I'd say no. Provided the display on the storage device tells you the files have been copied (and I think they all do) that's sufficient for me. Sure, it would be nice to be able to review the pictures, but unless the device displays the full size JPEG or RAW it doesn't guarantee that the file is okay. I believe most of the devices that support JPEG do use the full JPEG image (not just the embedded thumbnail), but if you shoot RAW then I'm not aware of any devices that give a colour display of the RAW image and allow panning and zooming. So for me that technology is not quite there yet. Oh - and a device that supports RAW has to be fast too. You're not likely to review dozens of shots if it takes 30 seconds or more to load each one.