I'm new here and am excited to be going to Africa in June. Instead of buying 5+ 32 GB Compact Flash cards I'm wondering if anybody knows of a device that can off load data off a compact flash card onto a harddrive without a laptop. Any help would be appreciated! I can't find anything via google...
the battery will last approx 200GB+ of downloads per charge w/o chimping depending on the drive used. a high performance drive is relatively irrelevent and can shorten the battery life.
no data on how much data it can do on a charge (which i can see will be a lot lower due to all the other nifty things it can do. this is a generalized internet access toy which can be adapted but will not function as well as a dedicated tool.
the hyperdrive does one thing and one thing very well. it ingests 200GB of CF/SD and more card data relatively quickly and safely per charge. depending on the card up to 2GB/min. it allows chimping to see your shot at a basic level. it also does crc check of each image coming in. it can do more with images then the archos
Yes, the HD Colorspace UDMA is one of the few fast (35 MB/sec.) remaining storage devices around. Be careful with some of the larger hard drives. The Samsung/Seagate 1TB advanced format drive is not recognized for example. I'm using WD 750GB drives lately, but that is usually enough for a couple weeks of travel.
being that XQD is PCIe all they need to do is place an expresscard slot in a reader (that is PCIe of course) and use adapters. but even these days expresscard isn't showing up on laptops below 17"
maybe nexto will do it. unfortunately with it fast becoming the one and only the prices will rise and their video based units are already pretty much out of enthusiast range and in need of updating
I gave up on the last round of the Nexto, which is spec'd quite faster than the HD CS UDMA, mainly because they are no longer available in the US without a HD. Even before the flooding, the units were ridiculously expensive. The difference in cost of bare drives of $40 translated into over $200 more in the finished product.
The problem is that even if cards are perfectly reliable, I don't like having all of the data in one place. Normally I keep several copies in various bags including the checked luggage.
I'd highly recommend dual back up, cards as the primary since they captured the files and a portable storage device such as the Hyperdrive solutions. I use the Hyperdrive Album(no longer offered) and a tonne of CF cards. I bought the shell version and stuck a 500 GB drive in it which easily covers any in the filed shooting. I also have 180 GB of CF storage so with my Nikon's I can get just over 600 uncompressed Raw files per 16 GB card. I'll need more or bigger cards should I decide on a new D800 though.
BTW, been to Africa twice and my WD hard drive survived the very rough roads you'll encounter when on safari so I'm not sure you need the expense of an SSD in the PSD.
were you using your drives while on said roads like transferring data or reading? i travel around generally with 2 external usb drives all over the place. i've had them for years as they are made up of older stuff i have and put them in cases myself.
Yikes, I would not recommend running the backups while in motion off paved roads. Modern hard drives can handle substantial vibration when heads are parked, but you are tempting fate while spinning. Always bring enough cards for a couple of days shooting.
oh i'm just asking to set the reality of the scenerio. as we all know HD's when off can take hundreds of G's when parked/off. so going through the backroads with a few drives that are off in a bag is no great feat.
Ah yeah, never back up a mechanical HD on a bumpy road and nor did I suggest doing so. Wait until you are back at base camp and can sit the PSD on a stable surface. This was my point by suggesting not investing in a very pricey SSD when a standard issue HD will do the job.
my bad. i travel all over and have drives with me all the time and have never given it a second thought when i was driving some of the backroads and trails (if you could call them that) i have done.
