portable digital storage recommendation?

Does anyone use portable storage devices like the NIKON COOLWALKER

MSV-01 to download at pro-weddings? Are they trust worthy or is it

worth sticking to a bag of memory cards?

Thanks :->

At first I tried a Digital Wallet. Found that it's too much finicky tech stuff to do at a hectic

wedding. And even when I did do it, I didn't clear the CF cards ... the portable hard drive

was just a back-up copy. As my IT guy said when I had a 200 Gig HD go south, "it isn't a

question of IF a hard drive will fail, but WHEN."

I have a 40 gig i-Pod now, and when traveling down-load a wedding to it afterwards,

along with a duplicate copy on my lap-top desk-top, before erasing the CF cards.

At other local weddings I just have "vaults" with five 512 & six 1-gig solid state CF cards +

four IBM Microdrives (only for emergency use). I can capture approx. 800 Canon 1Ds RAW

images without erasing any image from the cards. Lexar 40X 1-gig cards are down to

$230 or less and will most likely continue to drop in price.

Plus, I always have a film camera and a bag of film with me : -)

I shoot with Canon 1Ds and as you can imagine it eats through the 1Gb cards very fast. For the last 6 months I have been using Kanguru 20GB storage solution and I absolutely love it. Here is the link:

http://shop.pcconnection.com/web/Shopping/Product.htm?catalog%5Fname=PCCGeneral&category%5Fname=&product%5Fid=452008&variant%5Fid=&SearchLogID=%7BBC8BD5D1%2D8B1D%2D42F5%2D9B3F%2D6C19972E4F5A%7D

Kanguru Solutions

20GB Media X-Change 2.0

It is very easy to use, just pop your card in and press the transfer button.

I have just shot a wedding with only 2 cards last night with the total of 6GB woth of shots. Approximately 500 shots<div></div>

All due respect to Greg, but a hard drive is NOT solid state. Can you imagine one knocked

to the floor by some kid or a drunk guest with an entire wedding on it?

If you go that route at least get the armored kind.

Mark excellent point. I do take extra care in making sure the hard drive is located in the safe place during all my transfers. I usually leave it inside my equipment bag, because it is on rechargable batteries no external cord is needed. But again, Mark is absolutely right, extra care is required.

Greg

P.S. Marc, I am very sorry for misspelling your name.

Greg

I have ben using a Flashtrax 40gig HD. It's portable and reliable to date (having said this I will discontinue use after about 3-4 years to try and avoid the eventual failure). As Marc pointed out it is used as a backup device or insurance. It has a one tuouch transfer and I have it on the back of my belt. Simply pop in a card and press one button. I leave the card in there until the next one is full then place the previous one in a wallet (also on my belt).

This gives me peace of mind and since I am only about 2 years into digital and less than one year as main use bodies, I feel it gives a sense of security. I use 3 gigs of ridata 52x and 1 gig of lexar 40x. I have found the ridata less fussy/fickle and faster too.

It seem you should have the cards needed and a backup source such as the nikon too, IMO.

Regards.

I also use the X-drive. I like the multiple slots for flash memory and the fact that its

basically a hard-drive that I can hook up to my computer. The only feature missing on all

of these drive storage system is firewire. For some reason. the X-drive using only USB 2. I

bought the model without the hard drive, and then bought a used 20gig laptop drive on e-

bay. The drive arrived in a box that had no foam, so it apparently had flopped around the

UPS system in its transport across the nation. But, I tested it and it works great. I used it

during winter break on a Chicken bus trek in Guatemala. I keep it in my bag, and

download images everyday or whenever my 512mb SD card gets full. As with the iPod, the

lifetime of the battery is a greater concern than loss of memory.

IT people complain about drives going down, but I've gone through many generations of

computer systems (all Macs) without a single hard-drive failure. Plus, these new laptop

drives are literally capable of being kicked across the floor by a mischievous wedding party

brat. In fact, a college student brought in his dented iPod to the college bookstore

computer shop one day, reporting that he had dropped it into the spinning spokes of the

front wheel of his bicycle--the iPod still worked fine. I'm not saying that one shouldn't

keep the drive in the bag, but so far my X-drive seems at least as reliable as the rest of my

camera equipment. I plan on using it again on a trip to Africa this summer.<div></div>