Digital camera image storage advice?

[Ojas]

Hi everyone. I'm going on a trip and want to take a lot of pictures with my digital camera. The problem is: Even though I already have several large memory cards, I'm sure I'll run out of space before I get back. Periodically dumping pictures to a site such as imagestation is not really an option, since I'll have very limited access to the Internet. So, I'm trying to decide on the best way of storing pictures until I can transfer to my computer. So far...

Option 1: Portable (stand-alone) hard drive-based storage album device
There are several on the market, priced from $200-$400, with with 10GB-40GB capacity, some with built-in screens, but I think Vosonic X'S-Drive VP-2030 (~$170 after you add 30GB drive) or Belkin Media Reader for iPOD ($100) are the most cost-effective. All have more than enough capacity for my needs. The Belkin device is cool, since I aleady have an iPOD, but the slow (300KBps) transfer rate is a major drawback. At 300 KBps, it will take about 15 minutes to dump 256 MB of pictures. However, my main concern is: If hard drive fails (perhaps from impact) or device is stolen, I've lost all my pictures.

Option 2: Portable (stand-alone) photo CD burner
...such as Addonics MFR ($235) or Micro Solutions RoadStor or Apacer Disc Steno CP200
More expensive than the HD-based devices, but appears to have several advantages: CD-Rs are cheap and it's easy to make multiple backups; Even if the device itself fails or gets stolen, I'll still have the pictures; Some have extra features like TV playback, DVD, MP3 player, computer-connected CD burner; CDs are generally more durable than hard drives.

Option 3: Bring laptop with me
very bulky - I really don't want to do this.

Option 4: Buy enough CF memory cards to store all pictures
very expensive - plus I'm stuck if I underestimate and run out of space.

Do any digital camera gurus have any general advice or feedback on a specific device? Much thanks!

 

[Lud]

I'm not a guru, but I've had the same question. There is no perfect solution. Roughly how many pictures and what average file size?

A lot of people who use those portable hard drive based photo albums and nothing else. I have even seen them recommended in photography magazines. If they really care about their pictures, they are either foolish or ignorant to rely exclusively on one of those devices. Hard drives fail unpredictably.

Even if you bring your computer, you are stuck if it dies while you are on your trip. You won't be able to move files to the hard drive or burn them using the computer's CD/DVD burner so you will run out of memory card space.

Then again, are you bringing more than one camera? If not, what will you do if your camera dies? How far you go with all this really just depends how critical the pictures are.

If you are going to bring your computer anyway, and you already have an iPOD, for $100 for the Belkin media reader, you can have full redundancy. Download stuff to your computer, review the pictures and delete any bad ones, then back them all up to your iPOD.

The computer is really necessary to review the pictures and delete bad ones since it's not possible to judge everything (particularly focus) using the LCD built into the cameras. This review/delete process can cut down on the amount you need to back up to begin with.

Anyway, with that setup, if your iPOD fails, you can use the computer to burn to CD/DVD.

If your computer fails, you can still download to the iPOD with the Belkin media reader. Sure it's a little slow, but so what? Just start it and let it run while you eat dinner or brush your teeth or something. And remember this is only an emergency system in case your computer fails. And you can even have songs on it!

If they are once in a lifetime photos you can go so far as to bring some CD mailers with you, then mail a copy of each CD to yourself at home as you create them, so even if your camera and all your luggage was stolen or destroyed you wouldn't lose more than a day's worth of pictures.

Usually I just bring my computer and burn some backup CDs as I go. This is particularly true if I'm traveling somewhere I know I could easily buy more memory cards in an emergency. Worst case I'd sell them for maybe a 20% loss on eBay when I got home. However I would usually bring my computer anyway.

Since you said you don't want to bring your computer, maybe a combination of the iPOD + Belkin media reader and a CD burner if you want to be really covered. If I had to pick just one, it would be the CD burner because as noted above, hard drives fail and that includes iPOD. The odds of bad CDs are much lower if you have a good drive and good media, plus you can make multiple copies for very low cost.

 

[PHOEN$X]

You might want to ask Powered by Honda about his XDrive portable hard drive storage device. We had some issues with it at NSXPO, and I don't know if they've been resolved.

 

[Jimbo]

Since you already own an iPod - I'd go with the Belkin. I plan to pick one up soon.

It's really not that slow and the iPod is a very reliable device.

In fact, I use my iPod to back up my entire home directory on my PowerBook. It's great and since I always have my iPod with me...it's a task that gets done on a regular basis.

-Jim

 

[Acura NsX Pilot]

As far as portable hard drives i read some reviews and i belive they rated the xdrive the best among the portable hard drives although a new one just came out on the market i dont know how well that one functions.....but cost wise i dont think you can beat a portable hard drive.

 

[Ag NSX]

How about you get the X-drive and 2 hard drives and you download all your pics. to both. I know you'll have to keep opening it to switch the drives but it'll offer you some redundancy.

BTW, how much space are we talking about here that you think you'll need? 20, 40, 80Gb?

 

[Jimbo]

Why get "just" a portable hard drive when you can get one that also plays music, records voice, etc.

I take my iPod from car to car to car to house to work and back. I back up several times a day 20GB of data and it takes a few minutes. And I have hundreds and hundreds of songs and spoken titles.

-Jim

PS: There might be some new iPod models announced in a week or so at Macworld Expo in SFO.

 

[Acura NsX Pilot]

You might want to ask Powered by Honda about his XDrive portable hard drive storage device. We had some issues with it at NSXPO, and I don't know if they've been resolved.

It could be the hard drive that he choose to use in the X-Drive and not the X-Drive itself .... the hard drives can be purchased seperately or you can opt to order it with there hard drive installed.

 

[nsxn8]

Hey everyone, what if your camera was your hard drive?? Kinda like This. It comes in 20GB, 40GB, or 80GB storage space.

Things you can also do with it:

-Use it as a Digital Camcorder
-Record anything straight from your TV
-Record music from any device
-Watch movies on the 3.8" LCD display screen (well, try to anyway)

If I had the dough I would definately buy one!

 

[5inchfatlip]

How many pics do you plan on taking??? more than 1GB worth? maybe a USB key too...

 

[Acura NsX Pilot]

With a 1 gig high speed compact flash card in my Canon 10D
i can store about 407 pics in large scale mode each file is about 2 megs. 1 gig CF cards typically run about $250

 

[Ojas]

Thanks for all the replies.

I'm guessing I'll take up to 2000 pictures. It looks like they average around 1.7MB each, so say 3.5GB.

A notebook computer essentially offers all the features I'm looking for... redundant storage in different physical locations (hard drive and CD-Rs). I'll be doing a lot of travelling... if I had the space and thought I could deal with lugging it around everywhere, I'd take the notebook.

There will be more than one camera. It takes different format media (of course <span></span>), so a storage device might be a better option than buying memory cards, since I may two formats to deal with.

However, Lud, you bring up a lot of excellent points. Buying cards, then selling at 20% loss is not bad. Yeah, trying to review pictures on the camera's 1.5" LCD is not going to work.

Lud & Jimbo, you're right about the "slowness" of Belkin adapter. It's slow compared to computer media readers, but that's a very minor gripe. Actually, after I looked at the reviews on the CD-burners, I found out some are no faster than the Belkin adapter.

X-Drive w/ 2 hard drives is an interesting idea.

These are close enough to once in a lifetime photos, so I'd feel a lot better if I had redundancy. I'll do some thinking and figure out what's the best way to go.

Thanks everyone.

 

[POWERED by HONDA]

I don't have too much time to reply, but to make a long story short, the problems I am currently having with my X-Drive is that it fails the copying process about 80-90% of the time. I'm starting to suspect that PHOEN$X and I lost some sweet pictures and videos of NSXPO 2003 because of this device...

I bought the X-Drive with the HD pre-installed.

Before anyone suggests that it may have been incompatible with my media, it has failed to transfer images with various brands of CompactFlash cards and Sony Memorysticks.

It's a cool product but I just received a bad sample. I haven't had time to seek a resolution for it, but I'll try to look into it once I find the time.

If I were you Ojas, I'd buy the Belkin media reader.

If I could just do it again...

Hope that helps...

 

[Ojas]

Powered by Honda, I really appreciate you taking the time to post your experience regarding the X-Drive and advice. Thanks.

FYI: I ended up purchasing the Micro-Solutions RoadStor. I decided being able to make multiple backups was important to me. If this was not such an important factor, I would have bought the Belkin iPOD Media Reader.

As I mentioned before, it also functions as stand-alone MP3/DVD player/JPEG viewer, computer-connected CD-RW/DVD drive/media reader. In the short time I've had it, it seems to do its primary job (backing up camera media to CDs) very well and do all the extra stuff adequately.

In other image storage news: I was in Fry's Electronics yesterday, and noticed they had new Delkin eFilm 20GB PicturePad red-tagged for only $150. It's a hard-drive based device with built-in color LCD screen. That price seems way low. Not sure why it was so cheap.