Photo iPod as storage?

I saw an old post from 2003 asking if anyone used an iPod for storage of digital photos.

There were no real responses due the newness of the technology. Well time has passed

and Apple has come out with the Photo iPod and Belkin has come out with a media reader

to tranfer images from several media types to your iPod.

http://www.apple.com/ipodphoto/accessories.html

 

So the million dollar question. Has or does anyone utilize this technology. Seems like this

would be great for an event photographer being able to have ann iPod w/ media reader in

their backpocket to backup shots w/o having to keep up with a laptop or if your on

holiday and don't bring your powerbook...

Reports of the Belkin Media Reader shortly after it came out indicated that it was both very

slow and consumed a lot of battery power, both its own and the battery in the iPod. Useful

enough for casual photographers transferring a 64-128M card's worth of JPEG files, mostly

useless for a pro needing to offload a couple of multi-Gbyte cards quickly.

 

Since then, I don't know whether the Media Reader's software/firmware has been updated

and Belkin has released the Digital Camera Link, which dispenses with the card reader in

favor of an interface to connect a camera to the iPod. I have not heard any reviews on the

Digital Camera Link. A friend of mine has one, likes it, but he is definitely an amateur

photographer and shoots nowhere near the quantity of exposures that I do. It might be a

reasonable option for some uses.

 

Regards iPod Photo ... well, I don't think that either of these devices integrate with the iPod

Photo capabilities in such a way as to allow you to download files in the field and then see

them on the iPod screen. I believe that they simply transfer the image files ... you need to

hook up the iPod to a computer as a hard drive and transfer them to one of the iPod Photo

compatible applications (iPhoto for sure) and then re-transfer them back to the iPod for

viewing. I was looking at the new iPods yesterday and this is the best I could figure out so

far, would be happy to hear otherwise.

 

No, for me at present, if I don't want to carry a laptop along it's better to buy a dedicated,

standalone image storage device like a Nixvue or Flashtrax, or the new Epson P2000.

 

Godfrey

Roy.

 

If you already have an iPod (no difference between the photo or non-photo version) then the Belkin media reader is an option. Make sure you have extra batteries because it is a battery hod and slow (thus each download uses more juice than the compitition).

 

Now if you do not own an iPod and your primary purpose of the device is for photo storage, there are many better options.

 

Re. the iPod Photo... I am rather disapointed in Apple that it does not have a dedicated memory card slot. Without one I think the photo side of it, while having some use, is more of a gimmic. The other option that would have worked for me (and still kept the iPod design intact) would be allowing a firewire/USB connection directly to the camera and grabbing the photos. Actually I am REALLY suprised Apple did not at least do that.

If I were to need to choose something to spend $499 (what a Photo iPod costs) on to store photos while on a trip, I would instead buy six 1 GB Sandisk flash cards at $75 apiece from B&H. 18 months ago massive storage units were economical when 512 MB cards cost $195 each. Today is a different story. Multiple CF cards are the most compact storage you can buy and requires no batteries to keep charged. Those six cards will hold almost 1,000 RAW files, based on what I'm currently getting on the three one GB cards I already own. In real-life use they actually last much longer than 1,000 images because I delete less than ideal photos as I go. I'm no pro and don't need 40 GB worth of storage space on the road.

Definitly, the wiser one would go the multiple CF card route... just makes more sense than

complicating the issue with expensive devices like a media reader and iPod (although I do

plan to get one for my music).

The iPod Photo product is not for storing your photos in the field. It's a really bad hack with almost zero useful features for the photographer on the go.

 

If you want an external hard-drive storage solution look at the Epson P-2000.

I just picked up a Belkin iPod Digital Camera Link, and it seems to work fine. It took roughly six minutes to transfer 200MB of raw files from my 20D. Not fast (but see below), however since I already had the iPod, this is a good solution for me. The only thing I'm not clear on, as I've only transfered pics twice, is how well the iPod battery holds up.

<p/>

More info: <a href="http://www.ipodlounge.com/reviews_more.php?id=3775_0_6_0_M">iPodLounge review</a>. They get about 2mb/sec with a 12x card, so presumably my humble 4x card is causing me grief.

The ipod is a great music player. It is absolutely RUBBISH at being a photo storage solution. I tried to copy 1GB of photos over, and the fully charged IPOD ran out of battery before it was finished. Bloody useless. As the Belkin accessory plugs into the same port as the charger you cannot charge and transfer at the same time.

 

Avoid.

 

Also, note that the Belkin media reader is not offically compatible with photos taken with the 10D (don't know about other Canon DSLRs)

I just had it out in Africa for a month and it worked great. I have 512 cards and had no problem with the power, I transferred about 150 pics a day (JPEG Large and Fine) and I could do 2 transfers at least on a battery charge. We took a power converter to plug into the cigarette lighter and plugged in the IPOD and my camera batteries to charge. I have since burned CD's at home and everything has worked out well. The only problem I had was that the click wheel didn't work properly after downloading the pics, kind of sporadic, so for a couple of downloads I couldn't get the cursor over the delete card so I had to reformat the card in the camera. I loved the combo of the ipod and the Belkin though, small and light and I could listen to music as well. My theory was that the IPOD wasn't much more expensive that buying a Flashtrax or such and it would be more useful when I didn't need it for downloading. The bonus at the moment is also that I still have all the "rolls" on the IPOD as another backup.<div></div>

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