portable storage

[drime_kelsang]

Looking for a reasonably priced portable storage device that I can

download to when on the road. Don't need to be able to view images on

the device.

 

Anyone familiar with:http://www.vosonic.co.uk/vp2160.html?

 

Small and the price is right - $169 with a 20gig HD.

 

Input appreciated.

 

Drime

[ted_marcus1]

I'm in a similar situation. But I'm almost ready to get the <a href="http://www.xs-drive.com/xsdrivesuper/">Vosonic VP6210</a>, which can view images. My concern about the 2160 and similar devices is that there's no way to confirm that the files transferred correctly. I have concluded that a viewing capability is worthwhile because it provides this confirmation-- if you can view the image, it's very likely that the file is safely stored on the hard disk. That won't eliminate all the risk inherent in a hard disk device, but it provides at least some peace of mind. The ability to view images may also be helpful for doing some preliminary selection of pictures while on the road.

 

<p>Vosonic has also just come out with the <a href="http://www.vosonic.co.uk/vp3320.html">3320</a>, which addresses the data integrity problem another way. It can't view images, but it can verify data transfers. Since none of the very few US distributors of Vosonic have it yet, I can't compare the cost-effectiveness with the 6210.

 

<p>Either way, I'd get more than 20G. The price difference for larger disks isn't that much.

[jeff medkeff anchorage, a]

<p>After much hemming and hawing, I chose the Wolverine Flashpac 7060 a few weeks ago. I know this doesn't address the question; I wanted to talk about data security since it was brought up above.

 

<p>I did consider the visual confirmation issue mentioned. I decided it was unimportant for several reasons:

 

<ul>

<li>Many devices do not read the entire file to display it at a lower-than-native resolution. It is possible to have a corrupt file that still displays correctly undersampled, and since you don't really know which devices do this, the sense of security this gives may be false.

 

<li>The sense of security may also be false unless you look at every image, which in my circumstances is totally impractical.

 

<li>When I'm shooting I don't have time to go looking at my pictures anyway, so I wouldn't use the feature "in real life," even though it sounds good in principle.

 

<li>Graphical screens in general suck battery and/or add weight in the form of bigger batteries to compensate.

 

<li>In general, having the view-photos feature (esp. RAW photos) bumps the price point up and discourages full redundancy. The Flashpac and similiar devices are cheap enough to buy two and download cards sequentially.

 

<li>I think when the Flashpac reports "Copy OK" it probably isn't lying; it is a simple file-copy operation and this isn't very high tech stuff. When I pull the card out in mid-copy, it correctly reports an error. The reliability seems to be there.

 

<li>I ever got an error report from the device in the field, my response would be the same as if I couldn't view my files on the other kind of device - I'd just sequester the affected card and deal with the problem later, after the shoot. Since my <i>modus operandi</i> would not change, I didn't think viewability was a large advance.

</ul>

 

<p>I'm not suggesting there are right and wrong answers here, though. Everyone makes their own data security decisions. My thinking was that full redundancy (downloading each card to two separate devices) is more desirable than having a single point of failure that allows me to see the pictures. Others are never going to carry two devices or fiddle with sequential downloading, so picture viewability might be one more incremental assurance that things are working right.

[lex_jenkins]

If the Vosonic is the one I'm thinking of, better check on reliability reports around the web first. I seem to recall a local dealer admitting to me that they've had nearly every one of these returned. So far they've had no problems with Delkin storage devices or the recently introduced Nikon CoolWalker.

[marc_mccoy1]

I am also Looking for a portable storage unit I am looking at the SmartDisk FlashTrax, 20GB Stand-Alone Data Storage Unit, and Epson P-1000, 10GB, I have a Canon 20D and Dont know if the Epson P-100 will record larger files.

[marc_mccoy1]

Hey I just Ran Across the Wolverine 40GB FlashPac 7000 for 200.00 and it confirms that your files have been tranfered.

[ted_marcus1]

<i>If the Vosonic is the one I'm thinking of, better check on reliability reports around the web first. I seem to recall a local dealer admitting to me that they've had nearly every one of these returned.</i>

 

<p>I don't think it's the Vosonic. For one thing, there are very few dealers that carry it, at least in the US. But there is another brand that unfortunately I can't recall that has severe reliability problems to the point where a number of dealers have stopped carrying it. I haven't seen any complaints about Vosonic, but if you have I'd appreciate whatever URLs you've stumbled on.

[ci_p]

I have been using one of those. It is OK and fine for what you want. I'd rather have one which transferred files faster (this one does 2-2.5 MB/s), and not having to catch the transfer confirmantion in the minute before it powers off.

[ci_p]

"better check on reliability reports around the web first. I seem to recall a local dealer admitting to me that they've had nearly every one of these returned."

 

I'll bet he is talking about this one. This link seems to be from a disgruntled reseller.

 

http://www.compactdrive.co.uk/

 

This is the *real* website

 

http://www.compactdrive.com/

 

They seem to be in denial about their product's issues.

 

Whilst most of the critisism is valid, the unit *does* transfer at least twice as fast as this vosonic unit, it *does* give a copy confirmation, and it *does* take AA batteries. So, personally, I'm prepared to live with the negative aspects, and have repaired it myself when it (ineviatably) broke.

[glenn_wiltse]

I own a Vosonic VP-3310, but I've just replaced it with a realtively new Portable Storage Device, called the Nexto-CF. My Vosinc 3310 served me well for nearly a year, and I'd still be using it, except that I'm a major gadget freak, and when I had a chance to this this Nexto-CF I decided I would.

 

The Vosonic's only real problem is that it's slow...

 

I've seen just about all the internet discussion on the CompactDrive PD7X, and quite frankly, there's way to much bad news about it, that I wouldn't ever trust my images to that device, and I'm skeptical of the whole company and/or their ablity to resolve all the problems.

 

The Nexto-CF... I get 9.6M/second data transfer on it from a Sandisk Ultra II 1G card to the Harddrive on the Nexto-CF. (this is faster then the PD7X's speed). Transfer from the Nexto to my desktop's harddrives was clocked at 18.5M/second. Transfer from my PQI 512M card to the Nexto was a bit slower, due to the slower speed of the CF cards, but was still about 5M/second. I did a test using my PQI card and was able to transfer a total of 10G worth of data on a single battery charge. I figured that if I had done a simmilar test with my Ultra II card I could have easily transfered at least 18G.

 

The Nexto-CF will tell you that the previous transfer was sucsessfull after it's done, as well as the next time you turn it on. The Nexto will also tell you if you've already got a copy of a CF card on it. That is, if you attempt to copy a CF card a second time, it will tell you it's already got a copy, and ask for confirmation to copy again...

 

I've only had my Nexto-CF for about a week... but at this point I really like it.

 

Be very carefull about ignoring the warnings of the problems with the CompactDrive...

[joe_w]

Just a heads-up to Marc McCoy (& others) who wrote:

"I am also Looking for a portable storage unit I am looking at the SmartDisk FlashTrax, 20GB Stand-Alone Data Storage Unit, and Epson P-1000, 10GB, I have a Canon 20D..."

 

Just looking into portable storage for my 20D photos and see that the FlashTrax 20GB, 40GB, 80GB do NOT SUPPORT THE 20D's RAW file format .CR2. That may may be important to you too.

 

Joe

[joe_w]

This is from SmartDisk's FAQ site:

 

"Can FlashTrax display RAW format images on its LCD?

 

Yes, FlashTrax can display RAW format images from selected camera models from Canon (.CRW), FujiFilm (.RAF), Minolta (.MRW + .THM), Nikon (.NEF), Olympus (.ORF) and Pentax (.PEF). FlashTrax displays RAW files using the JPEG image embedded in most RAW files, so display time is quite fast."

 

The Canon 10D (as I've read) had JPEGs embedded in the RAW file, but the 20D has separate JPEG images, so I don't know how the FlashTrax will work with RAW images from the 20D. On the other hand, the FlashTrax XT FAQ page states:

 

"Can FlashTrax XT display RAW format images on its LCD?

Yes, FlashTrax XT can display RAW format images from selected camera models from Canon (.CRW,.CR2), FujiFilm (.RAF), Minolta (.MRW + .THM), Nikon (.NEF), Olympus (.ORF), Sony (.SRF), Sigma (.X3F) and Pentax (.PEF). FlashTrax XT displays RAW files using the JPEG image embedded in most RAW files, so display time is quite fast."

 

I'm still confused about the embedded JPEG file, but the XT specifically lists Canon's .CR2 file format. Sorry if I confused any of you!

 

Joe

[aaron l]

Here's my review on the Wolverine 80GB:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00D7cj&tag=

 

It's awesome.