travellor...

"P.S. bring on a 120GB Epson with a "2GB ~ 5 minute" transfer time and a 4.5 inch viewing screen." That sounds great!

FOr me as a traveler I like to take a few CF cards along on a tour and not have the hassle of another electronic device to worry about.

Recently, I have been able to get a few 1GB CF cards at $50 each (USD). For me, this works out ok, as I don't have to haul a laptop PC or some expensive device to download photos to each night.

Some who have an IPOD with a flash card adapter, can do their thing and save a few bucks.

I bought the Creative Labs 40GB Zen unit. Guess what? No flash card adapters are available that I know of. Rats!

quote:

Some who have an IPOD with a flash card adapter, can do their thing and save a few bucks.

Cat's,

The thing for me is that I'd take along the iPod anyway, so the only "extra" I'm taking is the USB camera adaptor, which is smaller than a CF memory card .

Call me paranoid, but has anyone had their photo storage device (ipod, epson, etc.) fail and all photos lost? I'll miss my security blanket of laptop and backup cd's on tour and have yet to make my final decision on my photo solution.

Hi Cesites,

I've not had a failure in the sense you are writing about, but something odd did happen with one of my Epsons. I always set the device so it ~does not~ delete images after transfer to computer is finished. Once, when I returned home and had the full 73 gigs to transfer (an 80 GB Epson actually offers 73 GB of usable storage), after transferring photos from the full Epson, about half of the files showed as deleted/corrupted. I have no idea why this happened and none of the images were retrievable. I don't like deleting from the Epson until I have all my images transferred to computer and DVD back up. Luckily the computer transfer was successful and I didn't need to go back to the Epson again. But...I probably would have had a heart attack if the transfer was corrupted and I was then unable to go back into the Epson and redo the transfer.

Caveat: I don't know a lot of computer-speak, so if my understanding is lacking, sorry! Just wanted to share the one time there was a problem with the Epson.

Best wishes,
Travellor

P.S. I'm buying a laptop this weekend!

Cesites,

I too worry about corrupt image files. So my plan is to use a portable storage device (hyperdrive) and an ipod as a backup. I am taking multiple memory cards as well, so I will be deleting the cards unless I run out of space. So if I do not exceed my memory cards, I will have three sets of backups. If I am truly worried, I will find an internet cafe and burn a set to a dvd/cd.

My reason for the hyperdrive is that I have a 4 GB compact flash card and I am worried that the ipod's battery would not last the full transfer. The hyperdrive will be able to transfer the entire contents of the 4 GB flash card in about 8 minutes. I understand that the ipod might take as long as an hour. I am not sure if the ipods batteries will last the long.

What do you think? Am I paranoid?

I don't think you are paranoid. I'd be devestated to lose my photos. I see that Sony has come out with a new stand alone DVD writer. It is not available here yet so I'm not sure how large/heavy it is. It is a potential solution. I happen to have a Sony 8 megapixel camera so it takes a lot of storage when I take photos using the full 8 megapixels.

quote:

Originally posted by ClanLee:
Cesites,What do you think? Am I paranoid?

NO! You are NOT paranoid! Stuff happens and you really don't want to jeopardize photos that are irreplaceable. I learned that on my trip.

I took several memory cards and ignored the Best Buy guy who said a 1 GB would be adequate. I expressed concern over what would happen if it malfunctioned. He assured me it wouldn't, although I have had that very ocurrence happen before.

So, I took 3 cards (plus the 1GB) and a small photo disk hard drive to back the cards on to. That way, if my camera was stolen or dropped in the Grand Canal, I had back-ups from every day. I figured how to best minimalize any loss.

Chris m recommends ipod back up but I have trouble with mine continually. If yours is reliable, it seems the best method.

I ended up backing up my photo cards and when my 1GB refused to format I had to buy a replacement from the Vatican! I kept my cards unformatted and my hard drive with my passport at all times. That way, I had my hard drive AND each card to download on my return.

Thank Goodness I did. You can never be too paranoid with once in a lifetime memories. When I hesitated purchasing another card for my camera, I just thought ahead and realized I would never forgive myself $85 not spent to capture this trip and be sure.

I'm home and all is well. (except I have to confront the Best Buy guy) I have my cards and my hard drive and my pix are incredible!! CYA!!! (and that DOES NOT stand for "see ya'")

quote:

My reason for the hyperdrive is that I have a 4 GB compact flash card and I am worried that the ipod's battery would not last the full transfer. The hyperdrive will be able to transfer the entire contents of the 4 GB flash card in about 8 minutes. I understand that the ipod might take as long as an hour. I am not sure if the ipods batteries will last the long.

The solution to that one is simple - don't wait until the card is full; transfer your pictures every evening. I'm sure you won't fill up a 4GB card in one day!

Now that I have returned from my tour, I wanted to let you know that I, after much deliberation, purchased the 60 GB IPod to store my digital photos while away. This was a wonderful option as I also had my music and audio books on the Ipod as well. The transfer time each night for photos was only a maximum of 15 minutes (much less if I had taken fewer photographs that day) and, because I didn't sit and wait for the transfer to happen, this was never a problem. I transferred the photos to my computer from the Ipod when I returned so have them in two places awaiting backup on CDs/DVDs.
Although I am sure there are many other options, this one worked very well for me and I am happy with my decision.

Thanks Cesites, I think my daughter has one like yours. I guess we have to get an adator or cable or whatever it is called to be able to transfer photos to the ipod.

quote:

Although I am sure there are many other options, this one worked very well for me and I am happy with my decision.

Works for me too. Excellent!

Marie - you need either a memory card reader or the "camera adaptor" accessory for the iPod. You can get both from Apple's web site, or from an Apple Store, if you have one of those near you.

Thanks Chris. I am sure there is a store nearby.

Let me tell you what happened to me during my BOI last month. So I took my portable storage device, my ipod and my memory cards.

I used my PSD and backed up every night without any problems. I was able to upload to my ipod only once. There after, my ipod started to malfunction. After that first upload, when listening to music, it would stop and then restart. I plugged it in to get charged and left it overnight. The next morning, my ipod was DEAD. I couldn't restart it, I couldn't do anything with it! When I returned, I went to the Apple store and after looking at it for a minute, they offered a replacement video ipod. They couldn't do anything with it. Very strange, I tested uploading pictures before I left and didn't have any problems.

I am glad that I took another device to backup my photos and videos. In the end, I took over 6 GB of photos and 2 GB of video.

Jake

Well ClanLee, I don't quite trust these devices nor do i know how to operate them. I think I will continue to bring several memory cards, they don't take much space.

Don't let the fact that one person's iPod "died" put you off. Very much an exceptional circumstance. Highly unlikely it's going to fail, and even if it does there are "emergency options" available, such as having pictures transferred from your memory card to a CD.