Digital Wallet and similar

[DR]

[font color=\'#000000\']Try the MindStor - its about $399 for 20 GB of storage. Works fine, but battery life is poor.[/font]

[Bobtrips]

[font color=\'#000000\']There are a number of portable hard drives on the market at this time.

The Digital Wallet is no more.  It was replaced by a newer model called the MindStore.

The least expensive PHD would be either the Image Bank (also sold in Europe/Asia as the Image Tank) and the X-Drive.

I believe both of these have the advantage that the user can switch the hard drive.  (I know that it's true for the IB - I have one.)  That means that you might install a 20 gig hard drive now and replace it with a 100 gig a few years from now when you set off on your year long RTW trip with your new 30 meg camera.

You can choose from other brands that have more features such as firewire, built in viewing screens, LCD status readouts, ability to play MP3s,....  Of course, more features means more cost.

The best source for lots of info on all these units is 'that other' site - www.dpreview.com - 'Storage and Media' forum.[/font]

[Mike Spinak]

[font color=\'#000000\']Can the Apple iPod work for image storage? Will I be able to attach one end of a firewire cable to a Canon 1Ds and another to an Apple iPod and download from the camera to the iPod? If it does work, are there any drawbacks to the iPod for such use?[/font]

[jengwen]

[font color=\'#000000\']I have a 30GB Nixvue Vista that I just used on cruise to Alaska.  It worked great and easily stored my 1500+ pictures, most in RAW format.  Transfering pics is very simple.  One downside is that when you want to transfer from the Vista to your computer via USB, it is extremely slow.  They have a firewire attachment, that just became available and is on its way to me now.  I think that should be a drastic improvement.  The only other problem I have had is that it tends to hang if you have too many RAW files in a folder and are trying to quickly browse through them.  Much patience it required.[/font]

[cstreet]

[font color=\'#000000\']I've got the Archos Jukebox Multimedia 20gb which stores jpg photos, MP3 and full length feature movies.



Download jpg via the CompactFlash/ Smartmedia photo modules.

Archos Jukebox Multimedia photo 20GB

Compare all the digital storage media here:

Portable picture storage 20gb

Chris Street
DataMind UK
www.datamind.co.uk
www.megapixels.com[/font]

[Roy]

[font color=\'#000000\']There was a brief discussion about digital wallet type devices, but I can't find it since the forum moved to the new system.

Question: What products are available and does anyone have recommendations?

Thanks.

Roy[/font]

[font color=\'#000000\']I'll have a review of the Delkin eFilm Picturepad coming within the next week. I believe that it's currently the finest of the breed. (The Nixvie Vista is the same device).

I can't recommend the Mindstore.

Michael[/font]

[Bobtrips]

[font color=\'#000000\']Oops, forgot to add.  The 20 gig Image Bank can be had for around $240.[/font]

[Mitch Cohen]

[font color=\'#000000\']That's funny, I came to the board to post about the possibility of using an iPod as a digital wallet.  I don't think there's a way to do it now, but it shouldn't be very hard.  I'd love it since I already have one, and it's very multifunctional.  In theory all that's needed is a Firewire CF reader that manages the file copies by itself.  Or potentially Apple could add the functionality to the iPod but I wouldn't hold my breath.

What I'd really like is a camera that knew about external storage devices.  Just plug the iPod into the camera's FW port.  Dreams are fun.  One problem I just realized - the iPod is self-powered (battery) but I doubt it supplies power to the FW bus for the CF reader.  Hmmm...

I use the iPod more as an external HD on the go that for music.  (I'm a tech guy, it stays in my laptop bag and is used to backup customer files when I need to do a reformat.)  Battery life is good for playing MP3's (5-6 hours no problem) but it caches/plays from RAM.  No clue how well it would do with constant writes.

I hope someone explores the possibility.  I'd hate to have to buy a second pocket-sized HD.

...Mitch, thinking out loud[/font]

[Jim]

[font color=\'#000000\']I just got my new X's drive in and it's very nice. Nicely priced from customer service orienented http://www.powerinnumbers.com.au/ in Australia. Price was right with complete 30 gig package (Free Xtra batt, carry case) and I am very pleased. Was delivered within 3 days as promised and great followup and package tracking by the folks there. They were great in letting me know via personal email (not canned) what was going on with my order. Price delivered was $250. And they have great prices on the Ridata CF cards too. I cannot recommend highly enough. Yes, the USB will be kinda slow, but it's not that bad. Just set it to copy to the HD and then do something else for a few minutes. At least it isn't serial!

-Jim[/font]

[bobtrips]

[font color=\'#000000\']Great X-Drive price.  Check the post on dpreview, Storage and Media forum for a X-Drive without hard drive for ~$80.

Good hard drive prices can generally be found at www.newegg.com.  Last time I checked you could get a 20 gig IBM for ~ $80.  

Would make for a $160+shipping 20 gig PHD.[/font]