i-Pod Photo

Hi. Sorry if this has be covered before, does anyone have any comments on Apples i-Pod Photo or Vosonic X's-Drive or similar devices. There are lots of choices, what's your experience are they a good buy or are they just an expensive toy.

thanks

My girlfriend has the 60GB iPod photo.

It is quite a neat little unit. We have uploaded a lot of low resolution (640x480) images and it displays them quite nicely and the interface is easy to use. Used with the TV output it is adequate, although the image quality is nothing to write home about (probably more an indication of what a TV is capable of than the iPod itself).

I haven't used it for cf downloads. IMHO it's great to have if you're wanting an iPod anyway, but I don't know if I would buy one specifically for photo use.

I have an X'S Drive II, I find it too slow for todays larger cards (512-1024MB), completly useless if you are using Microdrives, as it only wrks on a full charge, and that doesn't last long enough to download the card It was fine in the 32/128MB days.

I emialed Vosonic about the performance of their newer drives, they said they are slightly faster than what I have. Excellent concept though. Good if you can get one that takes normal batteries, verifies the upload, and lets you view the contents (file system), my X'S Drive does none of these.

Can't speak for the i-Pod, looks cool but I don't think it has a card reader?

There are quite a few threads on portable storage, all have pro's and con's, best to pick the model that suits your needs.

..........what about the Epson?? Its gotten some very good reviews.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com …/accessories/P-2000.shtml

Ro1

If you are looking for a device to unload your memory cards onto while you're on the road, forget about the iPod Photo!

The iPod Photo was not designed for that purpose. It doesn't even have a built-in card reader. If you want to use it for this purpose, you need to buy the Belkin iPod Media Reader or the Belkin Digital Camera Link for iPod with it. I don't have an iPod myself, but I've read at several places that it is VERY slow. The idea of the iPod Photo is that you connect it to your computer and put photos on it via the computer, which you can then take with you to show your friends.

I have a 40 GB FlashTrax for storing my photos on when I'm on the road. It works very well and has an LCD screen on which you can see your photos, and it also supports viewing Canon RAW files.

The IPod just isn't made to be a on the go storage device. But I do have the 60GB version and I love it. I have made serveral sales from the unit and many more from hooking it to the TV.

The fact is that you are going to be hard pressed to find a simpler, smaller unit that will travel so easily and still turn standard sales into impulse buys that can happen anywhere.

I think that as long as you use it as a display tool and not a storage tool then you will be quite satisfied. I love mine.

- Digital Prophet -

Jesper,

About how many average type raw photos can you get on the 40GB ?

Thanks,

Gene

Well i dont see a purpose to such a device (that is displaying pics as music plays). Sure it will be nice to see once u buy it but after a while, are u going to stare at the pictures everytime ur listening to music. Are you going to go for a walk listening to music and watching ur slideshow the entire walk (and potentially run into something), or are u going ot bring ur camera, listen to music, and snap more pics :P

I just dont see the purpose of having pics displayed as the music is played as most of the time you are doing something else when listening to the music. If you sit down on ur couch and listen to music and do nothing else then knock urself our but as i see it, thats a boring life.

When i listen to music im either looking at these forums, doing something boring at work, shooting pictures on the streets, or something involving activity so i never have time to stare at a little LCD screen and watch pics flash by. My son listens to music when hes in school so hes doing his work so he cant be watching pics at the same time, and on lunch of after school im sure hes talkin to girls so im sure the little LCD is the last thing on his mind :P

So i just dont see the practicality in this or the Utility of such a product. Dont get me wrong, IPOD's are great and I have a 4gb mini, but such a feature is silly and not worth the extra bucks.

Well, I've never filled up the whole drive, but a RAW photo from my 10D is usually about 5 or 6 MB, so on 40 GB (40,000 MB) you could store between 6,500 and 8,000 RAW photos. There are also 20 GB and 80 GB versions of the FlashTrax available (see http://www.smartdisk.c​om ).

I've got a 40GB X-Drive Pro, and it's far from Pro! Whilst the performance when running on AC is very good the battery is next to useless. I Haven't yet run out battery when downloading (usually only a 512MB CF card at a time) but it only allows about 20-30 minutes of MP3 play. Whilst the pricing is very sharp, I'm sure they're are better units out there for not much not more.

Paul

Thanks for the replies, we don't have a lot of choice in N.Z. I am looking mainly for a portable storage devise and if there is space on the drive that can be used for mp3's it's a bonus (these could be deleted when one needs more starage capacity) I think the Epsom is only availavle in the US and I can't find any reference to the Flashtrax here. And I do have 512 cards so perhaps the X's drive may be to slow. I have seen an iriver device here any comments on these machines?

Nibby

Nibby, almost anything you want can be ordered from the states - I do it all the time. You just have to find a vendor willing to ship to us here - http://www.bhphotovide​o.com does with no problems at all.

tim wrote:
Nibby, almost anything you want can be ordered from the states - I do it all the time. You just have to find a vendor willing to ship to us here - http://www.bhphotovide​o.com does with no problems at all.

Also try www.mydigitaldiscount.​com, I have had shipments from both them and B&H to NZ.

The X'S Drive will be fine if you are not in a hurry, mine fulfils its secondary purpose fine, that is travelling without a laptop to download to. Its primary purpose of extending my shooting capacity whist on a job, it does not live up to due to speed. To solve this issue in the short term, I have bought more CF cards.

As for the iriver, played with a 20GB harddisk version with colour screen on the weekend, great little toy, but coulcn't see if there was a way to connect a card reader to it, you do seem to be able to connect a camera directly to it though, not sure what the support would be like for differnt models though. Nice and small though, about a third the size of my X'S Drive.