One of the issues I've been grappling with in light of my upcoming trip to Alaska is how to store photos off my camera while we're out in the boondocks. I shoot in RAW mode, so I can fill up a 1gb card pretty fast. New point-and-shoots have such high-resolution sensors that this is an issue for them, too.
Normally I'd bring my laptop and just transfer the photos every night, but I think that would be suboptimal for camping in Alaska. So I did some reading and googling and more reading and more searching and I believe I've found the best product available right now (August 2006).
There are lots and lots of "portable photo storage" devices out there, but - and I can now say this with almost utmost certainty - they all suck, except for about 4. Most of them suffer from one or more of the following problems:
1. Really, really bad battery life. Some of them can't even transfer a full 1gb card before dying. I'm serious.
2. Slooooow transfer speed. Some (actually, many) of these devices apparently never underwent a QA step to discover that no one wants to wait 45 minutes for a single card to transfer. This contributes to #1, because the hard drive has to be spinning the whole time the pictures are trickling off the card.
3. Big, colorful, expensive, and utterly useless LCD display. I can see a few cases where this could be useful, but it completely ruins the battery life because the big, colorful LCD display is usually used to display the main user interface, even when all it needs to do is show a progress bar. Furthermore, a color LCD adds about $80 to the cost of the device. In some devices that cost is passed on to the user, and in others it just means more corners were cut in the rest of the device.
4. No built-in card reader. A lot of them just have USB ports and expect you to pack your own card reader. Some of them (I'm looking at you, Sony) read a *few* formats but not all of them. Given that a 324-in-1 reader can be had for less than the cost of a stick of gum, you'd think they would be standard.
5. USB (not USB 2.0) ports. This is sort of a duplicate point, but I want to mention it again just to reinforce the fact that many of the large electronic equipment manufacturers are COMPLETELY OUT OF TOUCH with the needs of potential users of this product. Why would you make a 40gb portable hard drive (whose only purpose is to store photos) and stick a USB port on it? Anyone who needs to get the device will have at least 2gb of photos to transfer. Even if they can be bothered to bring their own card reader (or, god forbid, their camera's data transfer cable), it means that it will take them HOURS to transfer just that amount. Forget trying to sell to photo professionals, or serious enthusiasts that will actually be in the market for your device.
If I really cared, I would actually list all the devices I see (including big brand name ones from Sony, Epson, etc., etc.) and just list the numbers from above corresponding to their deficiencies. But I won't, because you don't need to worry about those devices. There is one device that doesn't have any of the above problems... the CompactDrive PD70x. It's also marketed/sold as the HyperDrive. I think - but I'm not entirely sure - the same OEM manufacturer of the device provides the hardware to both the HyperDrive folks and the CompactDrive folks, but the CompactDrive is better supported and more widely used. In any case, here are the features in a nutshell:
- You can buy it as a bare enclosure, or pre-installed with a 40g, 80g, 100g, or 120g drive. They provide you with a screwdriver to pop open the hard drive bay and install your own. This is a good sign.
- It has a built-in card reader for CF Type I/II, MD, SD, MMC, MemoryStick, MemoryStick Pro, xD.
- It transfers at 16mb/sec, which means a 1GB card transfers in under 2 minutes. Reports from lots of users confirm this is real-world, actual speed, and not bogus benchmarks.
- It takes 4 AA NiMH batteries, and they last forever. You can transfer 40-50gb on a single charge. In a pinch, you can pop in normal Alkaline AAs (but they will get eaten up pretty quick because of the high current draw of the portable hard drive). It also has a built-in NiMH charger so you can just plug it into a wall or your car's 12v outlet.
- Fast transfer speed to your computer (USB 2.0).
Lastly, it's pretty damned cheap. The bare enclosure is $150, the 40g version is $215, 80g version is $250. It ships from an overseas distributer but they ship to the US via Fedex Intl. for $23. It weighs about a pound (without the batteries, I think).
Some reviews:
PhotoMalaysia forums
photo.net forum/review
Also if you go to dpreview.com and search for "compactdrive", you can find a lot of people raving about it.
To buy one, click here: http://www.eastgear.com/shop/index.php?cPath=17_66