Portable Storage

[djh]

Just wondering what everyone is using to store photos while on trips. I'm thinking of getting the new Epson p-2000 storage device/viewer. There are just a couple of issues with it, high price and lack of inventory.

I'd would be interested in any ideas for alternatives. I've considered:

Laptop - probably the most comprehensive, but I don't want to lug my Thinkpad around all the time.

Get more CF cards - might be the best short term solution

Portable hard drive - Not really looked into this one yet

Different PSD, like the iPod Photo - From all I've read, none of these is as good as the Epson and the iPod needs an external card reader.

I'd like to use my storage device device as a viewer as well, hense the P-2000 and I also use Nikon NEF files all the time, so anything has to handle these.

Any great ideas or comments?

Thanks

[Jason Dunn]

Myself, I have a two-prong solution:

1) When I go on vacation, I take a 1 GB, and two 512 MB CF cards with me. And now that I have the 4 GB Kingston card, I'll take that as well. So that's quite a bit of storage, but I still offload them...

2) ...onto my laptop. My P5010D is quite small and easy to travel with, so most days I'm out shooting I'll offload the images to the hard drive.

I've been thinking about getting one of those portable photo offloading devices, but in order to justify it I'd need to leave my laptop behind...and because I usually do some gaming/writing on vacations, I doubt that will happen.

[wesley762]

I have found its just easer and faster to take my powerbook with me. I have a 2 gb microdrive and a 1gb flash but shooting in raw that just fills to quick. and my powerbook is a 12" inch so its not to bulky to carry around. dont think that I will ever get another notbook with a bigger screen its just to nice to take with me everywhere I go. I have even kinda replaced my pda with it. just my 2 cents though.

[Bob12]

I have an HP Notebook that travels with me specifically for that purpose. When I get home, I copy the pictures to an external 250GB HD, DVDs, or both. I have 6.5GB total in-camera storage (divided among 3 cameras) and use the lowest possible jpeg compression so I have the potential for about 2000 pictures before transfer to the notebook. But I generally prefer to do the copying at the end of each day or event so I can catalog them easier.

[Pat Logsdon]

I don't have one, but I've been considering buying an Archos Gmini 400 (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1679158,00.asp) for this sort of thing...

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

I'm the cheapskate, so anything that copies the photos in a reliable manner to the hard disk is good enough for me. Sod the viewing capabilities!

[rlobrecht]

I take my Tablet PC with me. Its only 3 pounds (10.4 inch screen), so its not too bad to take with you. In some hotels its even small enough to fit inside the in room safe.

My Toshiba E740 has USB Host capabilities. I tried using it to copy files from compact flash to an external hard drive, and just found it too slow.

[Darius Wey]

I'll take my two 1GB SD cards and two 256MB SD cards as spare. In some cases, I won't have to offload them elsewhere, but when I do, there's always my laptop if I have it with me, or I just keep it in my Pocket PC (which serves as an image viewer too with Spb Imageer ;)) and the SD slots I have in my PDA case. :)

[Neil Enns]

I bring my laptop. It lets me offload the pictures at the end of the day (I have a 1GB and 4GB storage card for taking pictures, so I don't need the laptop with me while out). Back in the hotel room I can use the large laptop screen to go through my images, weed out the obvious junk ones on the spot, and plan what I want to shoot the next day.

Neil

[Andy Manea]

I ended up buying the Belkin Media Reader (http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?dpno=299431) when I got my iPod. It works really well and I never have to worry about having enough cards on me any more. I learned it the hard way when I traveled to Rome and ended up paying a LOT of money for the picture transfer to CDs (and I was lucky they do THAT in Italian photo stores!).

Had I not already gotten the iPod as a present, I would not have bought the Belkin device either, and now I would have an excuse for one of those really cool portable devices with a color screen. :(

[Kursplat]

I too have often considered getting a portable storage device to offload pictures from the my camera so I wouldn't need to bring my notebook along if I didn't want to.

Having a color viewer is also a great addition.

But, unless they have improved things, the first devices I looked at seemed to have a big negative: short battery life.

[Pat Logsdon]

Update: I bought an Archos Gmini 220 last week in anticipation of my new eos 10d. It's REALLY nice. Downloading files from the CF card is quick and easy - only three button presses are required. And when I'm not using it as a storage unit, I can use it as an MP3/WMA player. 8)

[djh]

Update: I bought an Archos Gmini 220 last week in anticipation of my new eos 10d. It's REALLY nice. Downloading files from the CF card is quick and easy - only three button presses are required. And when I'm not using it as a storage unit, I can use it as an MP3/WMA player. 8)
Pat, what made you switch from the 400, did you decide you didn't need the colour screen?
I'm still leaning towards the Epson at the moment, but the price seems to be going up :evil: Amazon actually have it in stock, but at $529 - MSRP is $499.

[Pat Logsdon]

Pat, what made you switch from the 400, did you decide you didn't need the colour screen?
It was a combination of price and need. The 220 is cheaper (got it for ~$220 on eBay), and I decided that the color screen didn't really buy me anything. I figure that my workflow with this camera will be to fill up the CF card, dump it to the 220, start over again, then look at everything on my monitor at home. I can review the photos on the camera itself if I want to, so I couldn't really see what having another screen would buy me.

[Gary Sheynkman]

I want to bump this thread with a new discovery....the archos gmini is an awesome device. 20gb...cf slot (adapter possible) + music + movie

[rtrueman]

I'm not a huge listener of music, but podcasting is really cool. Because of this, I may get an iPod. I've got the D70, a 2GB Ultra II and a 1GB microdrive and even still, filled up most of the space on a cruise last March.

Why aren't there good HD solutions for Pocket PCs? Man, I would love to slap a 30 GB drive onto my hx4700.

Rob