Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography => Topic started by: Barkeeper on June 17, 2009, 12:32:10 pm
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Hello,
I am thinking about buying an Hasselblad ImageBank to shoot with the back attached to a large format camera, but...
For me the IB is quite far away from "state of the art" and this does not fit for me.
It contains an 2,5" P-ATA harddisk - I believe that this will be a problem in the future as almost anyone produces S-ATA harddisks.
I also do not like the idea to walk around with an rotating harddisk...
So, were is the solution ?
Could you change the harddisk to an SolidStateDisk (SSD) ?
There are some with P-ATA interface.
http://www.photofast.tw/eng/SSD_G_Monster_IDE.html (http://www.photofast.tw/eng/SSD_G_Monster_IDE.html)
The prices are quite OK compared to the rest of the equipment ;-)
So, has anyone tried it ?
Ideas ?
Warnings ?
Barkeeper
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Hello,
I am thinking about buying an Hasselblad ImageBank to shoot with the back attached to a large format camera, but...
For me the IB is quite far away from "state of the art" and this does not fit for me.
It contains an 2,5" P-ATA harddisk - I believe that this will be a problem in the future as almost anyone produces S-ATA harddisks.
I also do not like the idea to walk around with an rotating harddisk...
So, were is the solution ?
Could you change the harddisk to an SolidStateDisk (SSD) ?
There are some with P-ATA interface.
http://www.photofast.tw/eng/SSD_G_Monster_IDE.html (http://www.photofast.tw/eng/SSD_G_Monster_IDE.html)
The prices are quite OK compared to the rest of the equipment ;-)
So, has anyone tried it ?
Ideas ?
Warnings ?
Barkeeper
This may be a better and less expensive option: http://www.hotwire-digital.com/index.php/h...-firewire-power (http://www.hotwire-digital.com/index.php/handsonreviews/cameras/25-hd-external-firewire-power)
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The image banks are very reliable and not all that bad for field use - in my experience at least.
But if you are into DIY...
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That's a very nice idea, but it would surely void your warranty. If you're ok with that, then it could work. Next thing I'd find out is if the ImageBank will automatically partition and reformat a new disk according to what it needs to be automatically upon powering it up after installing the new drive, or whether a special maintenance mode or equipment is required to do that or not. I think only David Grover might be able to answer that here... From their point of view, they may not be keen to help you do this otherwise they might have to face helping you to solve things if things go wrong later.
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In *theory* it should work but as nobody has ever tried it then you are moving into unknown territory.
There is no issue with walking around with the Image Bank (we have had a solution like this for years, and at one point it was the only solution!).
The link you posted looks like it is ok spec-wise concerning the read write speeds.
If you do try, then please let me know! ;-)
David
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Unknown territory is where the fun starts I used to do this with my Leaf magazines which is a similar solution as the imagebank. You could easily replace those harddrives, even with larger ones! I never had to do this with my imagebank. The imagebank is a very reliable solution but it would be really nice if it could be equipped with a SSD drive. That would certainly appeal to many people!
No spare imagebanks laying around in the dark cave David?
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In *theory* it should work but as nobody has ever tried it then you are moving into unknown territory.
There is no issue with walking around with the Image Bank (we have had a solution like this for years, and at one point it was the only solution!).
The link you posted looks like it is ok spec-wise concerning the read write speeds.
If you do try, then please let me know! ;-)
David
Hello David,
you are invited for testing, just bring a spare Image Bank - I will get an SSD ;-) and some free drinks as well.
I would try it, but could you provide me with more technical details (beyond the data sheet) of the Image Bank.
IMHO the drive (SSD or HDD) will not effect any anything because of the standard interface (P-ATA).
If your HHD fits the P-ATA specification (and I believe it does or do you produce your special HDDs ?) - the P-ATA SSD should work fine.
The Image Bank should not even notice that there is no real HDD because the SSD has the same interface.
Barkeeper
BTW: Does the Image Bank work with the H3D 50 now ?
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Hi Everybody:
I'm Brian, a food photographer and cookbook author from central New Jersey and I actually have a non-working image bank lying around. Since I still use my v96c all the time and have no plans of giving it up, I'd be very interested in helping out here.
So Barkeeper, where can I find you?
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Oooh... this is getting interesting real fast. When you do try it, remember to post pictures of your endeavor, y'all...
BTW byarvin, I believe that Barkeeper is referring to the newer ImageBank II that has the Firewire 800 interface, it is smaller and uses a 2.5" laptop hard disk drive, not the original ImageBank for the Imacon Ixpress and Hasselblad Ixpress branded ImageBanks, which are larger and use a 3.5" desktop IDE hard disk drive. However, if you get a 2.5" mounting kit for 3.5" drive bays AND get a 40-pin to 44-pin adapter, you should be able to mount a 2.5" PATA SSD in the Ixpress ImageBank too.
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Shutay:
I don't believe it would make a difference. There are plenty of adapters available for the drives. The problem is that this bank has other problems.
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Oooh... this is getting interesting real fast. When you do try it, remember to post pictures of your endeavor, y'all...
BTW byarvin, I believe that Barkeeper is referring to the newer ImageBank II that has the Firewire 800 interface, it is smaller and uses a 2.5" laptop hard disk drive, not the original ImageBank for the Imacon Ixpress and Hasselblad Ixpress branded ImageBanks, which are larger and use a 3.5" desktop IDE hard disk drive. However, if you get a 2.5" mounting kit for 3.5" drive bays AND get a 40-pin to 44-pin adapter, you should be able to mount a 2.5" PATA SSD in the Ixpress ImageBank too.
Hi Shutay
I'm almost certain that the original image bank used 2.5" drives NOT 3.5..
Nick-T
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Hi Shutay
I'm almost certain that the original image bank used 2.5" drives NOT 3.5..
Nick-T
Hi Nick-T - yes, in fact thinking about it logically, it would make more sense. They wouldn't create a portable device using a desktop hard disk! Still, how come it weighs a ton??? Thanks for the correction.
That would be really great then, would be good to see how Barkeeper gets along with the mod. Now then I wonder - my ImageBank uses a 40GB hard disk as I understand it, but SSDs are available in 32GB and 64GB sizes. If I put in a 64GB PATA SSD, would I be able to store more images or is there some hard coding in there that will limit me to still the same 1000+ images?
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I just wondered if anyone did try this harddisk exchange.
Any experiences anyone?
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See my reply on the other forum :)
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Dear Nick,
The question was asked in this forum :)
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Today,I try to replace a storage in my Image bank from 40GB hard disk to 32GB SSD.
And after below step, in my case it works fine (readable and writable from mac and v96c ).
Step
1. To open Image bank,screw off 4 screws on Image bank .
2. Disconnect an original hard disk.
3. Connect a SSD disk.
4. Connect Image bank to v96c.
5. Pushing a power button on Image bank. And after few seconds, some files copied from v96c to Image bank automatically. The message shown on LCD display.
6. Check whether it works or not.
7. Reassemble 4 rubber parts with screw from original disk to SSD.
8. Carefully closing Image bank and screw on 4 screws.