Ipaq 2215 Move Files from SD to CF Microdrive

[kcrain]

Hi folks, so I want to buy a digital camera and the model I'm looking at is the Canon Powershot S2 IS, which uses an SD card for memory. My wife and I are planning to take a trip to Spain next spring and I want to have extra storage for my digital pictures without lugging around my heavy laptop.

I've been thinking about one of the Archos hard drive MP3 players, but I'm just not convinced it is what I want. Then the thought occured that I could use my Ipaq if I had a CF Microdrive. $238 for Hitachi's 6GB drive on Newegg is a lot better deal than the minimum $450 it costs for the Archos AV420 with a similar sized screen as the Ipaq.

So, the question I have is this: would moving digital pictures from an SD card to the microdrive through the ipaq be ungodly slow? Would it be any different than plugging the camera into a laptop and copying it all over? The whole point is to empty the SD card onto the drive once it is full. I'm only trying to evaluate whether this option is viable or not, so hopefully you all can help me out. Thanks!

[ironguy]

For $238, you could probably get quite a few SD cards. I've seen 1GB SD cards as low as $57. That would get you almost 5 gigs worth. That's a LOT of pics!

Or 256 MB cards are under $20, etc.

Oh, and yes, transferring would be excruciatingly slow!

[kcrain]

Sure, I could buy a ton of SD cards, but then I'd have to keep track of all of them! But that's a good point, something to consider I guess. And technically, you pay less per GB still with a microdrive. 6GB worth of SD cards would be more than 238... So I don't know yet what I'll do. Sad though it would be slow to copy.

Would a Dell X50v be any different?

[ironguy]

I don't know what the transfer speed for a Dell X50v would be. Any Dell owners out there wanna comment? Recently I transferred about 100MB from my SD to my CF on my 2215. It took forever, at least 10 minutes. Much of this may depend on the type of cards involved and their read speed.

The other minor issue with the microdrive is the power requirements.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

I don't own a Dell, but I would say that you would have much better transfer speeds on it than you would with a 2210 (which I did have). Most of the recent PDAs have much better SD/CF read/write speeds. My FSC PL720 has miles better transfer speeds than the 2210 did. Still I wouldn't expect miracles though, it's not up to USB 2.0 speeds more like 1.1.

[Frosty Vibe]

2210 is not known for being fast with reading/writing cards...

I do use my 2210 as my card reader when I am on holidays as well, only I use a CF card for pictures and SD for storage.

It is not fast by any means but why should I be in any hurry when I am holiday... :)

[ironguy]

WOW! This takes your cost per gig to the same level as a microdrive. You'd still have to watch what you did with all of them though.