CF Portable reader/storage/viewer recommendations?

[todd_masters]

Anyone using a standalone CF reader harddrive/viewer that works with RAW?

(Like the Nikon Coolwalker) Any recommendations of ones you like and are they

reliable enough that you would save your RAW files from a CF to it and then

format your CF to keep shooting or would you just buy more memory? My

searches haven't pulled up much so if there is a thread out there please re-

post for me if you don't mind.

Thanks!

Todd

[nicolewhitephotography]

Yes I would love to know the answer to this one aswell.

 

I am tired of no-one being able to processed my RAW images on my travels. And I can never buy enough cards to be able to hold the entire trip's images!

 

nic :-)

[eric friedemann]

When you can get high-end 133X memory cards for under $43 per GB I just can't see laying out $400 and up for a quality reader/storage/viewer:

 

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=420118&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

 

 

I just bought three high-end 4GB cards, which will give me a total of around 732 RAW images from a D200. That's the equivalent of 20-36 exposure rolls of film, not taking into account that, unlike with film, I can delete bad shots from the cards as I go along.

[mitchfalk]

Just but a Lap top and stop wasting money on these rather small (30gb) portable hard drives. You can also post process on the plane coming back instead of looking out the window or trying to sleep to kill the boredom.

[david_banks2]

Eric, the Coolwalker costs $282 at Amazon and stores 30gb. To store the same capacity on the CF cards shown on your link would cost $1,470.

Plus the Coolwalker has a larger, higher res viewing screen and other benefits.

[pam_r]

Let's see...<br>

$627 for 12 gigs<p>

 

Hyperdrive HD80:<br>

$229 for 60 gigs + free shipping anywhere<p>

 

I have the Hyperdrive HD80 (aka CompactDrive PD70X):<p>

<a href="http://www.hyperdrive.com/shop/index.php">Hyperdrive</a><p>

 

- Copies 1 gig CF card in less than 2 mins (16mb/sec).<br>

- Download 80 gigs of cards on one charged set of batteries.<br>

- Uses AA batteries, available everywhere, no need to buy proprietary batteries.<br>

- Simple to use, plug in your card, turn it on. Keep shooting. One handed, unattended operation.<br>

- Durably made with an aluminum case and sealed dust cover, no buttons exposed to the elements. Great for use in the field.<br>

- Weighs 9.5 oz.<br>

- Excellent verify mode for peace of mind.<br>

- Built-in smart charger for rechargeable batteries doubles as a battery charger for your extra AA's.<br>

- Reads 8 different memory cards. Great if family members use different cameras.<br>

- Can also be used as an external hard drive for your computer.<br>

- Swap out the hard drive in less than 5 mins. In theory, this also means that you can travel with virtually unlimited storage space. When one drive gets full, swap it out for a new one. It can use any 2.5" IDE notebook hard drive.<br>

- Great for landscape, wildlife shooters who are out in the field, sometimes for days at a time.<br>

- Excellent as a second back-up device for redundancy if you have a lot of cards, i.e., keep images on your cards, backup to Hyperdrive for insurance.<p>

 

A good overall view:<p>

<a href="http://www.halfpress.com/archives/2006/01/hyperdrive_hd80.html">Hyperdrive hands-on review</a><p>

 

If the ability to view your images is tops on your list, disregard the following. The Coolwalker is slow. I've seen reports of 12 min/gig transfer rates. Also, the battery is proprietary.

[pam_r]

Here's a good forum for info on PSD's:<p>

<a href="http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1023">DPR's Storage and Media forum</a>

[eric friedemann]

"Eric, the Coolwalker costs $282 at Amazon and stores 30gb. To store the same capacity on the CF cards shown on your link would cost $1,470. Plus the Coolwalker has a larger, higher res viewing screen and other benefits."

 

 

The reason the Coolwalker has dropped to $282- waaaaaaaaayyyyyy below its original retail- is that the Coolwalker has been discontinued. We had Coolwalkers in my store and I thought they were cheesy. Setting aside my subjective tastes, customers weren't buying them because:

 

 

1. In terms of RAW files, the Coolwalker only displays Nikon RAW files.

 

 

2. The Coolwalker has a 2.5" viewing screen. In this regard, the two year-old Coolwalker has been obsoleted by larger screens on cameras, like the 2.5" screen on my D200.

 

 

3. Nikon doesn't tell you how long it takes to upload and download 30 GB of images.

 

 

The Hyperdrive HD80 looks like a nice product, particularly for $140 and I like that it uses AA batteries, instead of the Coolwalker's $60 EN-EL6 battery. However, the HD80 does not have a viewing screen.

 

 

As mentioned, if I had down time away from home, rather than chimping through images on a little 2.5" screen, I'd rather be editing in Pshop on a 15" laptop screen and burning images to CD or DVD.

[todd_masters]

Pam, thanks for the hyperdrive link, I haven't seen that one yet and it looks like what I need - definitely better than the others I have looked at. I thought having a screen could help verify images were transferred but the HD80 has data verification and is not slow and powerhungry like the others I have looked at. I am shooting more outdoors/events and don't like lugging the laptop around and am at the point to either buy more memory or buy one of these drives and for the price of a good CF I can now get 100GB of data storage. Still think the best deal would be for someone to make a powered CF card reader for the iPOD with Canon RAW viewing ability on the screen ;)

[emre]

I have been using the Hyperdrive since last winter and I am quite pleased with it. It still works after I dropped it from 2m.