BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: Tips on Organizing Photos

Photography Question 

Ky Schroeder
 

Portable Storage of Digital Photos


I would like to get something to back up my cards when I travel. I have found two so far that look good. One is the Epson-P-2000 Multimedia storage viewer, and the second is the Smartdick-FlashTrax Image Stagae Device and Viewer. I hope to travel out of the country and worry about losing one of my cards or running out of storage on the cards themselves. What is your opinion of these, or is there one out there that is better? Thanks.


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April 07, 2005

 

BetterPhoto Member
  Ky,
There are plenty of options here that you can get to do the job. I have a friend that uses a Fortress Portable Hard Drive and swears by it, but it has to be plugged in. I use the Apacer Portable CD Burner and it is rechargeable, so I can use it in the field without plugging in. I just have to carry a few CDs with me.


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April 08, 2005

 

Matthew Slyfield
  Ky,
I recently bought a Micro Solutions Roadstor. The Roadstor is a usb CD RW/DVD ROM drive with built-in card readers. It can burn a CD from digital camera media without being attached to a computer. It can also be hooked up to any television via include av and s-video cables and play photo slideshows or DVD movies. I haven't yet tried the slideshow or DVD player features, but I have burned a CD direct from a compact flash card with it.
Matt.


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April 08, 2005

 

Philip Dyer
  Hi Ky,

When I need to back up photos while shooting, I use an iPod with a Belkin media reader. It's not very fast, but if you have 2 cards, you can shoot on one while backing up the other. Plus, you'll be able to listen to music on your cool iPod! :-) If you want to see the photos in the field as well, you can get the iPod Photo, but make sure it supports the image format that you use for shooting. Happy shooting and MP3-ing!

-Philip


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April 11, 2005

 

Andy
  Just a thought. I was wondering with the money on a 'backup' system, one can get at least 2 or more memory cards, not to mention one has to actually bring that backup device, charger/batteries and/or storage media into the field. Anything that could happen to the memory card can happen to the backup device too. I will save the images after the trip and only I have PSed them. Well it's just a suggestion.


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April 12, 2005

 
LamontPhotos.com - Lamont G. Weide

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  Be careful. The P-2000 and the FlashTrax will not both work with all RAW formats. Make sure that you choose a device that will work with the system that you have.

Lamont


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April 12, 2005

 

Kate Jackson
  I went to Africa for 1 month last year and took along a SmarDisk 40Gb FlashTrax. I chose it because not only did it store the pictures but you could also actually see the pictures, which was proof that you REALLY did have them stored OK. We were camping for 10 days without any way to recharge. In those 10 days I must have stored up to 1000 pictures but did not view them all. It lasted long enough until we got to a hotel where I could recharge. It is ideal for long trips.


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April 12, 2005

 

Kay Kenny
  I also have the 40Gb Flash Trax and I really love it!!!! It is extremely versatile and it's a definite plus to be able to see the pics you've stored!


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April 12, 2005

 

Linda
  I use the SmartDisk FlashTrax as well, and I am very happy with it. Get an extra battery and store both batteries off the unit - they last longer this way.

I would not recommend the Roadstor as it does not verify the burned CD. I would hate to assume that my CD was ok and then go ahead and format my flash card!

Linda Vich


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April 13, 2005

 
photosbysharon.com - Sharon E. Lowe

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  Ky - I have the Flashtrax 40 gig model and an older Nixvue Vista 10 gig (way too small now!), both of which work very well. I have a Nixvue Vizor Portable CD burner that I don't like at all because even though it says it will copy the larger cards onto more than 1 CD, I never was able to get it to work properly. I use a 1DsMkII so I have very large files and use 4 gig memory cards in the camera. I've not had any problems transferring the images to either the Flashtrax or the Nixvue Vista. The battery life on the Vista isn't very good so I have an external battery pack and a car charger for it, which helps. I've only used the Flashtrax plugged in so I don't know about its battery life. Both units are fine with my raw images. I've heard good things about the Epson but don't know if it supports Raw. As for other options, memory cards are pretty cheap now, especially micro drives, so you could get a decent amount of storage on cards and use the flashtrax as backup. My first trip with the flashtrax, I was paranoid that something would go wrong, so I backed up each card twice, protected my absolute couldn't do without images on the cards before deleting images on the cards, and also copied those to the Vista, which I knew worked well. In the end, everything was fine but you do need to verify that the copy worked before clearing your memory cards. Oh, if you use any memory card other than compact flash, you will need an adapter for the Flashtrax; not sure about the Epson.


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April 13, 2005

 

Dan P. Brodt
  I am leaning toward the Epson P-2000. It gets rave reviews and it stores 40GB of pixs, music, whatever. While I don't have one yet a friend does and it is excellant! The 3.8" LCD is crisp, clear, and bright. It does cost $500 though. Battery life is very good!


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April 14, 2005

 

Ky Schroeder
  I want to thank everyone for their help.
I am going to try to see some of these first hand so I can make a good pick.


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April 14, 2005

 

Dennis Flaherty
  I have the 80G FlashTrax. I did have a problem with it on my last trip, BUT I think it was because I had a bad card. I was able to download from my cards to a DVD as a 2nd backup. If you are serious about your photographery, save it in 2 separate places. I'm now buying a laptop to also store images on besides my flahtrax. I've heard the Epson is good, but is only 40GB(it's easy to shoot 6GB on a good day) Rumor has it the Epson will be upgraded to hold more info (hopefully soon).


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April 14, 2005

 

Andrew Mills
  You could definitely look at the IPod photo. It comes in 30 40 and 60 GB flavours. It's got a great LCD screen for reviewing your shots. You can even get an external media card reader for it!


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April 18, 2005

 
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