New field backup coming from Picture Porter

[pshambroom]

I, for one, am excited about this Kickstarter project from the folks behind the original Picture Porter. The advantages I see are that it can accept either a HDD or SDD, and you can do a secondary backup to a USB flash or external drive OR an internal SD card. AND, it has a user-replaceable battery. Seems like an ideal professional backup solution. No, I am not connected to the company, I just like their ideas on this.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/digitalfoci/picture-porter-essential-digital-photo-manager

(I'm not sure if this link is allowed on the forum, we'll see...)

[digitalfoci]

Hey Guys,

Charles from Digital Foci here.

If anybody has questions, I'll be glad to address them here.

Hope you can take a moment to check out and learn about Picture Porter Advanced to see how you might improve and secure your workflow.


Thanks,
Charles / Digital Foci

[luxborealis]

Not to rain on your parade - it's a great idea, but I think its time has passed. With inexpensive tablets out there that can handle input and output to HDD and/or flash storage, and do everything else in a photographers life like email, contacts, maps, browser, GPS, read books & mags, surf forums, etc., etc., etc., this just doesn't make sense. It seems like just another gadget to carry and keep charged.

I guess your job is to convince us of what it will do that tablets and other already established storage units can't do. The cheaper devices are the same price as tablets. Heck, for price of many digital storage devices, I could forego the tablet and get a proper laptop. Some are even more expensive than a MacBook Air!

It all comes down to filling a niche that is currently empty and I, for one, don't see it.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

Make it
-- accepting external usb card readers to have it future proof,
-- have constant firmware upgrades to support new RAW formats,
-- allow exchanging the HDD/SDD and/or allow attached external HDDs/SDDs,
-- have a great set of organizational functions (like star rating for later use in LR/C1) and
-- all that at an attractive price tag and you have me in.

I don't need a tablet computer, but a small and lightweight, specialized device for field work would be interesting if priced attractively enough.

Cheers
~Chris

[luxborealis]

Make it
-- accepting external usb card readers to have it future proof,
-- have constant firmware upgrades to support new RAW formats,
-- allow exchanging the HDD/SDD and/or allow attached external HDDs/SDDs,
-- have a great set of organizational functions (like star rating for later use in LR/C1) and
-- all that at an attractive price tag and you have me in.

I don't need a tablet computer, but a small and lightweight, specialized device for field work would be interesting if priced attractively enough.

Cheers
~Chris

You may not "need" a tablet (no only really does), but all the things you have asked for can be done with a simple tablet and there is no way the device being suggested can come in a price much less than a tablet or even a phone as many phones have or are moving towards 5" screens. Why carry another gadget that is restricted in what it can do at no cost savings?

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

You may not "need" a tablet (no only really does), but all the things you have asked for can be done with a simple tablet and there is no way the device being suggested can come in a price much less than a tablet or even a phone as many phones have or are moving towards 5" screens. Why carry another gadget that is restricted in what it can do at no cost savings?

- Size, weight ?
- Better specialized Functions?
- More capacity?

[pshambroom]

It looks like Picture Porter/Digital Foci's Kickstarter didn't fly, so the market has voted. After thinking about it, I have to agree, the proposed device was too much of a compromise, too big and expensive, but not capable enough to replace a tablet or computer.
I do, though, have my hopes on a new model from Hyperdrive that I just ordered:
http://www.hypershop.com/HyperDrive/iUSB-HD.html
It is a very small and light BYOD (bring your own drive) device with SD and USB host slots, also wireless interface with phones and tablets. Only a very small B&W screen, it is not a viewing device. I intend to install a 2.5" SSD in mine. I will use it for field SD card backup and should be able to view and transfer JPEGS wirelessly on a phone or computer while keeping the RAW files on the SSD. (From what I've read, these wireless devices are too slow for RAW file transfer.) I think it has a hardware button for card copying so it can act as a stand-alone backup without the  phone app. I'll keep you posted.