Acessories: Portable Photo Storage/Viewer (1 Viewer)

kyyroju · May 7, 2006

I'm thinking of purchasing a portable photo storage (preferably with a viewer). My memory cards (total of 2.5 GB) will cover for most of my one day shoots, but if I go for a longer trip I would need to carry a laptop with me so that I could move the pics to the laptops hard disc.
Now, a portable storage would be a much lighter and smaller than any laptop.

Nikon has one: COOLWALKER MSV-01, its a couple of years old. There are several others in the market.
I would like to hear comments of usability and reliability from those that have used these gadgets, before making a commitment.

compa · May 8, 2006

First off ... this needs to be moved to a more appropriate forum - this isn't a Nikon issue.

Now to the issue ... you need to determine what you needs are before doing much shopping.

Do you need a laptop for anything else other than temporary photo storage?

If you decide against a laptop, do you need a means to review the photos or simply store them? If so, do you shoot RAW (most portable storage/viewers can't work with plain RAW files)

How much storage do you need?

How much are you willing to spend?

Now ... with all of those questions answered - go out and check the prices of additional memory cards. You may find the best solution right there! Very small - very light - no accessories (cables, charger, batteries) - cost effective!

kyyroju · May 8, 2006

As said: "I would like to hear comments of usability and reliability from those that have used these gadgets" .

hollis_f · May 9, 2006

kyyroju said:
As said: "I would like to hear comments of usability and reliability from those that have used these gadgets" .

I use a Jobo Giga Vu Pro, two friends both use Epson P2000. Both types of Photo Storage Device (PSD) have seen around 12,000 pictures go through them with no trouble. The Jobo is probably the easiest to use, but only slightly. The Epson's screen is quite a bit better.

Both are bringing out new versions. These supposedly fix the main problem with both devices - the relatively slow CF-PSD transfer rate. The Jobo GVP Evolution isn't yet available, but its screen is supposed to match the Epson's.

What this does mean is that you can pick up a P2000 for just over £200. But you have to hunt around and they tend to disappear pretty quickly.

Kiki · May 9, 2006

We have a Smartdisk Flashtrax with a 40GB storage facility. The screen isn't brilliant but is good enough to show whether you've got the picture or not. It has been with us on all our trips since we got it and performed well. It is easily portable and charges up pretty quickly. Downloading onto your PC after is easy as well, no need to load additional software it just plugs in and is recognised. The newer version (which is on sale at the moment) looks to have a better screen. Hope this help.

compa · May 10, 2006

kyyroju said:
As said: "I would like to hear comments of usability and reliability from those that have used these gadgets" .

OK ... I figured you could read between the lines but I guess not.

I have a Smartdisk Flashtrax 40gig. You can store lots of photos on it. You can't view RAW on it unless you take jpeg at the same time. A waste of space. The screen on it sucks. The FM radio on it sucks. It does a fair job of playing back mp3 music files. I never used it for playing back videos. The screen on it is poor, as Kiki said, it's good enough to see if you have an image in the photo or not. The batteries are not anything standard (such as AA or whatever), so you have to carry the charger along with it.

As for reliability ... I've used it for a couple of 1 week long trips. It worked fine. I haven't used it since because I found it a waste of time. I guess I have to give it good marks for reliabilty.

These things are gimmicks - if you like high tech toys get one. Otherwise buy extra cards (they are cheaper in the long run). If it is a long trip - take along a small laptop and transfer files and perhaps do editing at night. A basic laptop with a DVD/CD burner is a good bet. Another option is get access to someone else's computer (camera shop - internet cafe) and burn the files to CDs.

hollis_f · May 10, 2006

compa said:
These things are gimmicks - if you like high tech toys get one. Otherwise buy extra cards (they are cheaper in the long run). If it is a long trip - take along a small laptop and transfer files and perhaps do editing at night. A basic laptop with a DVD/CD burner is a good bet. Another option is get access to someone else's computer (camera shop - internet cafe) and burn the files to CDs.

Hmmm, you'll have to tell us where we can pick up 40GB of CF cards for £200!

A PSD can be invaluable in some conditions. I spent two weeks in Africa and took around 1500 photos. At around 7MB a shot that works out as around 10GB. Enough cards would have cost me over £700. Internal flights meant a strict weight limit and access to power was limited - so a laptop was a non-starter. For 10 days I didn't even see another computer, let alone a camera shop or internet cafe.

My travelling companion also had a PSD - so we had enough space to copy all of our pictures to both devices, much, much safer than having single copies on CF cards (which would have been easy to lose).

Obviously a PSD isn't for you (and I can understand that feeling if your only experience is with a Flashtrax) but don't dismiss them as gimmicks when there are people out there who may find them indispensible.

compa · May 11, 2006

hollis_f said:
Hmmm, you'll have to tell us where we can pick up 40GB of CF cards for £200!

A PSD can be invaluable in some conditions. I spent two weeks in Africa and took around 1500 photos. At around 7MB a shot that works out as around 10GB. Enough cards would have cost me over £700.

I need to sell you some cards! 3

Sandisk Ultra II 2 GB cards (high quality) run around $80 (44 pounds). That works out to 10GB for 220 pounds. And no batteries to keep charged!

The cheap Sandisk cards are only $62 for 2GB. The totally no-name 2GB cards run as low as $50 for 2GB.

hollis_f · May 11, 2006

compa said:
I need to sell you some cards! 3 Sandisk Ultra II 2 GB cards (high quality) run around $80 (44 pounds). That works out to 10GB for 220 pounds. And no batteries to keep charged!

Whoops, yeah. Got the pricing wrong, looked at 4GB instead of 2GB. But enough 2GB Sandisks would still cost over £350. And I'd be guaranteed to lose at least one of them (nasty fiddly little things).

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Acessories: Portable Photo Storage/Viewer (1 Viewer)

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