# External portable storage for photo images?



## sojourn (Apr 28, 2010)

I am going camping in a few weeks and I am concerned about filling my three memory cards, 4, 2 & 1Gb rather quickly.

Is there some sort of (fairly inexpensive) cordless external drive or something that I can download these cards to if I need to?


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## table1349 (Apr 28, 2010)

sojourn said:


> I am going camping in a few weeks and I am concerned about filling my three memory cards, 4, 2 & 1Gb rather quickly.
> 
> Is there some sort of (fairly inexpensive) cordless external drive or something that I can download these cards to if I need to?



Define inexpensive.  This was my choice.  Epson P-6000 Multimedia Photo Viewer, Overview - Product Information - Epson America, Inc.

There are knockoffs that are cheaper, but the reliability is questionable.  Maybe someone with a different brand will jump in with their experience.


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## sojourn (Apr 28, 2010)

gryphonslair99 said:


> sojourn said:
> 
> 
> > I am going camping in a few weeks and I am concerned about filling my three memory cards, 4, 2 & 1Gb rather quickly.
> ...


 
 Well, that is a great toy, but a bit too expensive for me right now. I just need something to store files, not view them. I guess I'll either have to buy a few more cards or just have a heavy hand in deleting every evening.


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## cfusionpm (Apr 28, 2010)

I've read Scott Kelby reccomending those, but reviews from buyers on websites say its got an awkward interface and weird deleting process.  I'd like something like that too, but am wary about dropping a couple hundred on a decive with reviews like that.


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## icassell (Apr 28, 2010)

I have a 120GB Wolverine  FlashPac 7000 series. I'm not sure they still make the 120GB, but it comes in various flavors. It's dog-slow (takes about 15 minutes to d/l an 8GB CF card), but it works well and has been reliable. I recently bent one of the CF card pins on it and had to send it in for repair.  Turnaround was about 5 days door-door and it cost about $35 to fix including shipping.

I bought it before a trip to Italy a couple of years ago and put a lot of data on it.

80 GB Portable Digital Pictures and Data Storage: Wolverine Data

Photos, Videos, Music and More!


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## usayit (Apr 28, 2010)

My P2000 which has been long obsolete has proven reliable.   My wolverine is good too but it hasn't seen as much use as my epson.     Have you weighed the cost of external storage to simple buying a boat load of cards????    They all don't have to have the ultra fast write speeds.....


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## boomer (Apr 28, 2010)

How much is "fairly inexpensive?" You could also get a small netbook computer for the price of some of the alternatives i see. Netbooks start at around 250 bucks.


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## sojourn (Apr 28, 2010)

Maybe a couple more 4Gb cards would do rather than the external drives. I am cash strapped as it is, and can't make an excuse for large expenditure until _maybe_ I start selling some pictures.  I did start building a SmugMug account, who knows, the world may beat a trail to my doorstep. :lmao:

mitsymarx's Photos- powered by SmugMug


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## Derrel (Apr 28, 2010)

I'd rather have more CF cards than trust my images to a hard disk that might suffer serious damage if it were to be dropped or accidentally banged around really forcefully.
I think on a per megabyte basis, today's 4-gigabyte CF cards are a good value.

BTW sojourn, I stopped by your blog a month or two ago and read a lot of entries; you have a very wonderful writing style,and some very keen observational powers. Some wonderful stuff there....the boating on the lake and the newspaper management pieces were particularly poignant and well-written.


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## sojourn (Apr 28, 2010)

Derrel said:


> I'd rather have more CF cards than trust my images to a hard disk that might suffer serious damage if it were to be dropped or accidentally banged around really forcefully.
> I think on a per megabyte basis, today's 4-gigabyte CF cards are a good value.
> 
> BTW sojourn, I stopped by your blog a month or two ago and read a lot of entries; you have a very wonderful writing style,and some very keen observational powers. Some wonderful stuff there....the boating on the lake and the newspaper management pieces were particularly poignant and well-written.


 
:blushing: I thank you for the kind words. Perhaps they will spur me on to get back and start writing again! I've sort of dropped off the face of the earth lately.


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## usayit (Apr 28, 2010)

Seriously...  Get some "regular" 4GB compact flash cards which go for about $15-20 bucks each (4GB Kingston from BH).  If you think you might need something with a fast write speed, buy 1 or 2 cards of those and keep them just for those times.


sojourn... your avatar photo looks so familiar... from another forum... 

hmm?


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## Derrel (Apr 28, 2010)

Fry's Electronics Store Hours and Locations

This store often has very good deals on CF cards. I'd second Usayit's suggestion of buying name brand 4-gig CF cards when you can find them at attractive prices. Last year, the day after Thanksgving Fry's had some good deals on SanDisk CF cards, and B&H had a super-blowout deal on 8-gig SanDisk Extreme 30-megabyte per second CF cards--the absolute best price of the year.

If you want to see how fast CF cards of various brands and sizes are when shot in your d-slr, which is a Canon 40D, go to http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007 and pull down to the Canon 40D sub-menu.

for actual test results in the CF/SD card database Rob maintains. As you can see, not all cards are created equal.


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## sojourn (Apr 28, 2010)

usayit said:


> Seriously... Get some "regular" 4GB compact flash cards which go for about $15-20 bucks each (4GB Kingston from BH). If you think you might need something with a fast write speed, buy 1 or 2 cards of those and keep them just for those times.
> 
> 
> sojourn... your avatar photo looks so familiar... from another forum...
> ...


 
Well, I made this avatar for this forum only. It must be some other prematurly grey gal .  I have a different one that I use on Flickr of me being a bit more silly, though. Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing

I'm going to look for some good buys on the cards, since I have time before I leave, although I am not going far just far enough to be away from home and spending time in a lovely place I haven't visited for many years. I can't wait to photograph it with my much better camera.

We've had an absolutely wonderful amount of rainfall for our area and the wildflowers are in great abundance this spring, plus the creek and waterfalls, old barns, rocks and such make good photo opportunities.

I started going up there when I was 16 and went every year until my 40s...so there are a lot of memories to revisit and perhaps a trout or two to catch.


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## sojourn (May 9, 2010)

usayit said:


> Seriously... Get some "regular" 4GB compact flash cards which go for about $15-20 bucks each (4GB Kingston from BH). If you think you might need something with a fast write speed, buy 1 or 2 cards of those and keep them just for those times.
> 
> 
> sojourn... your avatar photo looks so familiar... from another forum...
> ...


 
Well, I bought two Kingston 4GB cards, and tried one out before leaving. It seems to skip or fail to capture images every so often. Something is there, memory wise, but no picture. I am going to send back the one card that I didn't take out of the plastic and keep the other one for emergencies, I guess.

I was disappointed in its performance. Before I left I tried a few different things, even just letting the shutter repeat as fast as it could. It didn't seem to make a difference, just an occasional 'oops-not-there' blank spot.

I quit using it and went back to my Sandisk 4GB card, which always works flawlessly.

I haven't uploaded my camping photos, yet. It was very cloudy, and forgot my tripod (!!) so I couldn't get all the water shots I wanted to get. The creek is a beautiful clear green in the sun, so I am sure the colors are subdued. I also wanted to experiment with different exposures and shutter speeds on the all the waterfalls and rapids, but with no tripod it was impossible. I got lots and lots of wildflower images, though. I even saw an orchid I've never heard of before.


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