Storing Images?

Jotun · 24 Mar 2006 at 17:50

Hey, I was just wonder if anyone has got those small battery powered devices to back up cards, as I'm thinking of getting one at work, to save taking a pc or laptop around everywhere.

If anyone has any I'd appreciate knowing what it's like, copying times, battery usage etc, or any personal recommendations anyone may have that I shold look at.

I've got 28 or 32 gig worth of compact flash cards (can't remember) so something at least that size would be ideal to backup the images. I'm mainly interested in using it as a backup tool, so it should leave the original images on the cards. If anyone knows of any that do this, suggestions are welcome. Also the simpler the better, I just want something where I can put the card in, turn it on and hit copy, I have no need to review the images on it.

Thanks.

Darryn · 24 Mar 2006 at 17:55

Im just putting together a bit of a review for the CompactDrive PD70X w/120gb, so far im shocked at how good the copy times and battery life are.

I will be posting it in the next day or so, definately the one to fit your requirements, and as its a 2.5" HD you can get one any size to suit your needs best, operation is exactly as you wanted, insert card, turn unit on, press copy, and wait a couple of minutes.... if you leave the card for 10 seconds it will autocopy without an user input at all.

As a brief guide im getting 8.0-8.2mb/s transfer speeds (2mins/gb) and the batteries are lasting 30gb+ not actually drained my first set of 4AA 2500mAh.

UPDATE, I managed over 60gb transfer from each set of batteries.

Slime101 · 24 Mar 2006 at 18:32

You actually shoot 30+ GB of images when out...jeesus :eek:

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 24 Mar 2006 at 19:23

I would have recomened the Epson P2000 / 4000 but its pricey if you dont care about the screen. Other than that, I would look at Flashtrax.

Jotun · 25 Mar 2006 at 19:36

Thanks for the responses guys, I'll check them out. Price isn't too much of an issue because it's for work so not my money, so if a higher price means it works faster/more reliable, then great

It's mainly intended as a backup, because data corruption would be extremely costly, and I've got about half a dozen 1gig cards aswell, although they are unlikely to be used (I hope!) as that would just get fiddeley with changing too often.

Slime101 said:
You actually shoot 30+ GB of images when out...jeesus

You mean you don't? :eek:

Slime101 · 25 Mar 2006 at 20:40

No really, what are you doing/shooting to use 30GB of CF cards, in fact how on earth do you own 30Gb of cards?

commited · 25 Mar 2006 at 21:16

If cost was an issue, a certain auction site have something called "Portable Storage Digital Camera Backup Card reader" for £20 including postage. Doesnt come with a hard drive though.

Jotun · 25 Mar 2006 at 21:25

It's all stuff used for what I do at work, and so paid for by them. IIRC theres a few microdrives, but the compact flash cards are used first since there's no moving parts. It's used for photographic inspections of various equipment. This is completely different to most other photography because little thought needs to be given to composition of the image, providing the equipment is in view and in focus then that's all we need, as they are just used for assessing conditions, so can be done quite quickly.

A 4 gig card can easily be filled in an hour, for the last job we did about 900 photos in 45 minutes, but some can last upto a month. For the shorter ones, this is why a small backup device would be useful, rather than taking extra computers.

commited: Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm looking for the fastest possible, and can't find speeds on those results I found

. Providing it's not rediculously expensive, price isn't a real issue.