Can you use ipod transfer with 5d? good idea?

[john_kramer3]

I am a travel photographer and want to get a 5d. switching to

digital adds the complications of downloading memory cards and

charging batteries. for a portable transfer device I am trying to

decide between buying a 60 gig ipod photo, or getting a portable

hard drive/card reader I think a 40 gig card reader thing is about

$169. I usually travel with an ipod anyway, though, so this option

may sound more convenient. 2 questions

1) I heard ipod transfer is not compatible with a lot of new

cameras, will it work with 5d?

 

2) Is this a practical option? I talked to one friend who does this

and says that the ipod is unbelievably slow to transfer to, and it

drains the batteries very quickly. I need to download 4 gig cards

one every couple of days. How long might it take? Will the

batteries of the ipod and camera last long enough for one transfer?

more than one transfer? Is it reliable? thanks.

[NK Guy]

I don't know if I'd trust portable hard drives in any device when travelling. Drop that device

down a staircase and your photos are gone.

 

Personally I'd invest in a pile of memory cards - they're getting pretty cheap these days - and

rely on solid state. Then you don't have to spend time at the end of each day juggling files

and recharging things and whatnot.

[bob_mcbob]

The newer Apple camera connector is much better than the old Belkin equivalent, but as far as I'm concerned, it is not really a practical solution for storing files from your 5D. It is still slow, still drains the battery, and there is no way to preview raw files. A dedicated portable storage device would be a much better choice.

[pete w]

John, I tried the ipod route and quickly learned I made a mistake so the kids use it for

music now, its way too slow and battery drain was unacceptable.

I then purchased the Epson P-2000 which is excellent and have used it for well over a year

and still feel the same way. Take Care, Pete

[dave_holland]

I've wondered about that Epson device for a few years. Of course a laptop would be ideal if it were more portable. If you drop that Epson device, can it be repaired without losing the pics? Is it like a laptop, with a hard drive that might be salvaged? Ideally I would like to burn CD's as copies, but you can't do that until you get to a computer. Would it be possible to download pics from P2000 at an internet cafe, and then burn CD's for safety? At a rate of 4 gig every couple of days, the expense of all those cards would really add up. However I do worry that all the pics are in a small, fragile device.

[digitmstr]

Get the <a href=http://www.compactdrive.com/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=31>BEST tool</a> for the job.

[erick_kyogoku]

The Epson <a href="http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/accessories/

P-2000.shtml">P-2000</a> and 4000 are the best thing on the American market. I had

one until replacing it with a new Epson P-4500 a few days ago. It is very well made, and

I've never heard of a P-2000 user losing data to it aside from user error. Of course I never

threw mine around or ever dropped it, and I don't recommend doing so. It has a loop in

the carrying case so I sewed a compression strap and clip from REI into the inner side of

my camera case/backpack to securely fasten it through the loop. If you're traveling you

can leave the Epson in your room and transfer your CF cards to it when the shooting day is

over, though it's small/light enough to carry around. It's also good for reviewing photos

and deleting the obvious throw-away shots. Anyhow the Epson isn't fragile unless you're

abusing it. This talk of not trusting it because it's on a hard drive is needless paranoia.

Once you transfer your pics from your CF card to your computer they're just moved to

another hard drive. And you're never going to keep all of your pics on the Epson, it's only

a temporary vessel to store and transport your pics.<p>

I once had an iPod that I used for photo transfer, that was with a Canon 10D and light

shooting. It was in the dark days before Epson's P-2000 and was painfully slow, but

worked. Then Epson like a <i>Deus ex machina</i> released the P-2000, solving all of

our photo storage needs. One thing about the Epsons, they're more expensive than the

rest, but you get what you pay for. It's also possible to replace the hard drive with a larger

capacity one if your needs outgrow the standard 40GB drive.

[PuppyDigs]

I'm a avid iPod user and love the little critter. I have 3 of them! It's the best thang since

Jack Daniels and really helps past the time on long flights or waiting for good light. Given

a choice between, carrying another lens and an iPod, the iPod wins every time. With that

said, it's too dad burn slow for serious uploads from a 5D! Maybe if you left it plugged into

the wall and uploaded overnite you could tolerate it on a once a year trip, but it's really

only practical for small uploads from point 'n shoots.

 

However there is a really fast way to upload to an iPod if you're near a computer (coffee

shop). Activate "disk mode" and drag 'n drop your cards onto the iPod. They'll upload

really fast, the same speed as any USB 2 hard drive. I've done this many times.

 

Basically buy the iPod if you need a music player. You'll probably use it everyday. It's a

great portable HD if you're near a computer but is too slow for solo uploads of large files

in the field. Plugged into the wall in a hotel overnite may be the way to go if you only need

it once in a moon for uploads. It would be silly to spend $500 on an Epson to use once a

year.

[peter_rowe]

I have the Wolverine model 7006 which is probably the portable drive you refer to, it's the best value I could find. It's 60 GB in size and costs $169 online at Costco. My photographer friend has a 60 GB iPod video but he finds it impractically to use; too slow, and a heavy battery drain, although it does work. The Wolverine works very well, it's pretty small and has 7 card readers internally, it essentially has just one button; "Copy". The display is very rudimentary -- just shows the number of files transferred -- every copy session gets it's own folder but you can't navigate them until you hook up to the computer. It transfers each RAW from a 20D in a little less than 4 seconds so 100 shots in RAW is about 6 minutes. The battery lasts well - I can do multiple transfers off my 2 GB CF card (about 200 shots each time). It attaches to the computer as an external hard drive into the USB 2.0 and has worked with any computer I've tried it on so far (Window XP -- no drivers needed). I find it very reliable so far and have had it on a few trips (off to Ireland and France next month). It comes with a nice case and fits easily in my camera bag. The battery charger could be a little more streamlined but it is 100-240V. --Peter

[jimstrutz]

Puppy Face said, <I>"m a avid iPod user and love the little critter. I have 3 of them! It's the best thang since Jack Daniels and really helps past the time on long flights or waiting for good light. Given a choice between, carrying another lens and an iPod, the iPod wins every time."</I>

<P>

Spoken like a real musician, Peter. I loved it. :)

<P>

The Wolverine drive gets good press from users, and is a good buy, but the only one of these devices that is really fast at uploading and has the best battery life (comparing the amount of GBs uploaded) is the CompactDrive mentioned in the link by Giampi. (Also sold as the HyperDrive.) It's more money than the Wolverine though.

<P>

CompactDrive has just announced a new device with the same speed that uses an 80GB 1.8" drive that is truely compact, and uses a standard USB port as the charger for it's 2 AA NiMH batteries. So it needs no external power charger. Uploads as much as 40GB on one charge too. Pretty neat.

[mike dixon]

I use a <a href="http://www.hyperdrive.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=6&osCsid=29e314a4f4f0d7c07de001722d96bc25">HyperDrive</a> when traveling with my 5D. Same thing as the CompactDrive, but it costs a bit less and has free, world-wide shipping. It's not hard to shoot 5 or 6 GB a day with a 5D; takes less than half an hour to back up that much data to a HyperDrive.<P>

<i>I don't know if I'd trust portable hard drives in any device when travelling. Drop that device down a staircase and your photos are gone.</i><P>

Drop your camera down a staircase (film or digital), and you're also out of business. When the disk isn't spinning, hard drives are actually pretty tough.

[charles_mason]

Erick,

 

Where did you get the Epson P4500? Not showing up on B&H yet...

 

Thanks

[christian deichert]

For the rare occasions when I fill up the 5 GB of cards I carry with me, I load my images into my Archos Gmini 400, which has a built-in CF card slot. It's nice because I don't have to run the batteries on my camera and my player at the same time, and the LCD allows for photo playback (though with the giant LCD on the 5D now, this only comes in handy if I have dumped the images from the card). The Gmini is also my music player.

 

The 20GB hard drive was really big when I got it a year and a half ago, but nowadays I'd opt for a bigger one; unfortunately, the 400's replacements, the Gmini 402 and 500, both have a USB host port but no direct CF card slot

[skipio]

I've yet to try it with my iPod (as I don't have the camera connector yet) but I understand it is possible to connect a card reader to the iPod using the camera connector inbetween and that should yield acceptable transfer speeds (half the speed when connecting the same card reader to a computer according to a test I saw).

[ken munn]

As an alternative, if you travel where Internet cafes are available (and they are, in many

surprisingly remote places) you can plug your cards into one of their computers and burn to

CD. This is what my daughter is doing - she's been travelling in South America for four

months and has never had difficulty finding somewhere to burn full res stuff to CD. She has

also uploaded web res pix to a photo site, so that friends and family can see her travels.

[lovcom_photo]

I have the HyperDrive HD80...it transfers very fast, very quiet, and sips battery juice too. I tried the iPod route...it is slow city...not practical for an image tank.

 

Someone wrote that it is better to bring a pile of cards, as they're cheap...yes, they're cheap, but a tank will allow you to back those cards up, so you have the images on two devices...unlike most, I do not format the CF cards after dumping them to a tank...I prefer to have several cards that don't get formatted until arrive home, and only after the tank dumps to the PC and a 2nd drive, and/or optical.

[mark_chappell]

FWIW, I try to always travel with a laptop that can burn DVDs (4 gigs each). That way I have

the images on the laptop, on DVDs, and if I'm really compulsive, a litte portable Firewire hard

drive. Only rarely do I exceed the capacity of my CF cards in one day.

 

The laptop is bulkier and heavier than any 'image tank' but it lets me see detailed results

right away and detect problems (dust on the sensor, etc.). I usually carry a 500 mm lens,

100-400 zoom, etc., so the additional weight of the laptop doesn't seem as much.

[aaron l]

I went to Africa and shot 20GB+ of media. It would cost well over $1000 to just have enough 4GB Extreme III cards. Plus, who knows how much you're going to shoot. And it's very easy to loose those little cards.

 

Here's my review of the Wolverine 80GB

 

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

 

Some people I know use the portable DVD drives. Just don't bend those DVDs or they'll loose their information quick.

 

Don't use your iPod, the battery drain will kill you.