BubbaJon wrote:
I really like the idea of the Drobo, hate the steep price for basically a drive box with software. I have heard that the actual process of hotswapping will pretty much make the unit slow as molasses for a day or so until it rebuilds. Any experience for that? I'm still on the fence about getting a Drobo and would welcome any first hand dope on it.
For anyone on Mac there would be little advantage to using Drobo for backup as Time Machine manages disks transparently. A simple external box with port multiplier is all that is needed.
dcmiller wrote:
For anyone on Mac there would be little advantage to using Drobo for backup as Time Machine manages disks transparently. A simple external box with port multiplier is all that is needed.
I'm not using the Drobo for backup - I'm using for my "live" media (video and photos), to eliminate the need for using Time Machine to back up all that data. I do have an off-site full backup of the Drobo volume that gets updated every week (at least).
I agree that using the Drobo for a Time Machine volume doesn't seem like the best use of its capabilities.
I doubt their senior management has a clue as to some of the foundational issues that will build future successful companies.
If they don't, then neither does any of their current competitors. No, not even Nikon or Sony--if you look at their behavior over the past three years.
Olympus surely has no clue, as they continue to push a system that has a customer base shrinking by the day.
esata is faster then firewire 800. I tested. Some people claim to have the same speed but I don't see how. In each test I did esata literally had double speed and I tried on windows machines, macs, each with different cables, enclosures, drives, etc (I have all that at disposal where i work) and each and every time esata was faster. Even eSata through and express card slot was faster then fw800
I read reams about the Drobo before I got one, and frankly none of it said what I wanted to know - how does it work as a live or 'near' live working disk?? I want a stable platform for my Lightroom library and my internal disk (iMac 500Gb) was getting full.
So in the end I bit the bullet and bought one.
I have it setup as so. Within Lightroom you can setup multiple hard-disks and see them as individual directories. I have my internal hard disk and then the Drobo 800FW unit, which currently has two Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB disks installed. I use the internal drive for working projects and recently worked on stuff and use the Drobo as an 'Archive'. I typically keep the last months work or so internal and then drag the folder onto the Drobo. This is all done from within Lightroom and this does a 'copy and delete' effectively. The files are moved across and then once they're safely there (and as far as I can make out, only when they're safely there) they are deleted from the internal disk. It works very well.
The only downside I can see is that you can only drag one folder at a time from the internal hard disk to the Drobo. A solution to this is to make a 'move' folder and put multiple folders into that before dragging it over to the Drobo. I have had one fault, and this was when trying to move files that turned out to be locked. Simply unlocking the files in the Mac OS Finder and going back to Lightroom and reinitiating the transfer sorted it out without any problems. It all works very well.
The one thing that I have found, is that for speed I simply can't tell the difference. All these people who are looking at read/write speeds need not bother. I'm working with 8mp 20D files and 15mp 50D files and I can't tell the difference in access/read/edit speed when working on my files within Lightroom. A transfer comparison might show a difference, but in real world editing, I do not see the significant slow down while accessing files on the Drobo that I expected to see.
I have a number of collections filled with images some of which reside on the Drobo and some of which reside on the Internal hard disk. I simply can't tell the difference and so far I love my Drobo. I've had it for about 6-8 weeks (can't recall to be honest!) and love how forgettable it is. I've just not noticed it's there, it just does it's job, very very well.
Yes, I know it's not 'backup' as such and I use DVD's as a long term store, but I like having my entire library of 50'000+ images available at all times - I'm something of a horder - and it's simply a brilliant device.
Highly recommended.
Sorry for the off-topicness, but let's be honest, this is page 150!!!
My local dealer called, and said that I can come by and pick up my 5D Mk 2 today, so I should have it in my hands in a few hours. I know that this dealer pays for fast shipping from Canon to their store on new camera releases, so that may be why they are a little ahead of other dealers. They would not say exactly how many they got in the first shipment, but did say they did not get as many as they wanted, and not as many as their pre orders. From what I know about things, I am guessing that they got perhaps 20 bodies and 10 kits, but that is only a guess. I am getting a body only, and when I inquired about possibly changing to a kit, they said that they did not have enough in this shipment to give me a kit right now.
So USA delivery is real for the month of November, and Canon made the original date they mentioned for the camera release. I will not be able to try too much out right away, but will try to report any findings as I can. I do know that my Christmas did come early this year.
Roland W wrote:
My local dealer called, and said that I can come by and pick up my 5D Mk 2 today, so I should have it in my hands in a few hours. I know that this dealer pays for fast shipping from Canon to their store on new camera releases, so that may be why they are a little ahead of other dealers. They would not say exactly how many they got in the first shipment, but did say they did not get as many as they wanted, and not as many as their pre orders. From what I know about things, I am guessing that they got perhaps 20 bodies and 10 kits, but that is only a guess. I am getting a body only, and when I inquired about possibly changing to a kit, they said that they did not have enough in this shipment to give me a kit right now.
So USA delivery is real for the month of November, and Canon made the original date they mentioned for the camera release. I will not be able to try too much out right away, but will try to report any findings as I can. I do know that my Christmas did come early this year. ...Show more →
You lucky devil, you!
Keep us informed. Many of us would like to know how the AF is in comparison to the original 5D.
Roland W wrote:
My local dealer called, and said that I can come by and pick up my 5D Mk 2 today, so I should have it in my hands in a few hours. I know that this dealer pays for fast shipping from Canon to their store on new camera releases, so that may be why they are a little ahead of other dealers. They would not say exactly how many they got in the first shipment, but did say they did not get as many as they wanted, and not as many as their pre orders. From what I know about things, I am guessing that they got perhaps 20 bodies and 10 kits, but that is only a guess. I am getting a body only, and when I inquired about possibly changing to a kit, they said that they did not have enough in this shipment to give me a kit right now.
So USA delivery is real for the month of November, and Canon made the original date they mentioned for the camera release. I will not be able to try too much out right away, but will try to report any findings as I can. I do know that my Christmas did come early this year. ...Show more →
Roland W wrote:
My local dealer called, and said that I can come by and pick up my 5D Mk 2 today, so I should have it in my hands in a few hours. I know that this dealer pays for fast shipping from Canon to their store on new camera releases, so that may be why they are a little ahead of other dealers.
I called my local dealer where I have a deposit. He said they get notice before any shipment from Canon, and they've received no notice as of yet. So fast or slow shipping, it looks like my dealer is behind the curve (Camera Co-Op, Houston, Texas).
tonyhart wrote:
I read reams about the Drobo before I got one, and frankly none of it said what I wanted to know - how does it work as a live or 'near' live working disk?? I want a stable platform for my Lightroom library and my internal disk (iMac 500Gb) was getting full.
So in the end I bit the bullet and bought one.
I have it setup as so. Within Lightroom you can setup multiple hard-disks and see them as individual directories. I have my internal hard disk and then the Drobo 800FW unit, which currently has two Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB disks installed. I use the internal drive for working projects and recently worked on stuff and use the Drobo as an 'Archive'. I typically keep the last months work or so internal and then drag the folder onto the Drobo. This is all done from within Lightroom and this does a 'copy and delete' effectively. The files are moved across and then once they're safely there (and as far as I can make out, only when they're safely there) they are deleted from the internal disk. It works very well.
The only downside I can see is that you can only drag one folder at a time from the internal hard disk to the Drobo. A solution to this is to make a 'move' folder and put multiple folders into that before dragging it over to the Drobo. I have had one fault, and this was when trying to move files that turned out to be locked. Simply unlocking the files in the Mac OS Finder and going back to Lightroom and reinitiating the transfer sorted it out without any problems. It all works very well.
The one thing that I have found, is that for speed I simply can't tell the difference. All these people who are looking at read/write speeds need not bother. I'm working with 8mp 20D files and 15mp 50D files and I can't tell the difference in access/read/edit speed when working on my files within Lightroom. A transfer comparison might show a difference, but in real world editing, I do not see the significant slow down while accessing files on the Drobo that I expected to see.
I have a number of collections filled with images some of which reside on the Drobo and some of which reside on the Internal hard disk. I simply can't tell the difference and so far I love my Drobo. I've had it for about 6-8 weeks (can't recall to be honest!) and love how forgettable it is. I've just not noticed it's there, it just does it's job, very very well.
Yes, I know it's not 'backup' as such and I use DVD's as a long term store, but I like having my entire library of 50'000+ images available at all times - I'm something of a horder - and it's simply a brilliant device.
Highly recommended.
Sorry for the off-topicness, but let's be honest, this is page 150!!!...Show more →
Since we're on the Drobo - and lets face it, with 34MB RAW files coming out of the new 5D i think this is a very important topic.
I found that FW and USB2 both suck in comparion to an internal drive, and infortunately most laptops come with small drives @ 7200RPM or larger ones but at a slower speed. I made do with editing on the internat drive and then moving out to an array thats connected via USB2.
Pros:
- you can just slot in cheap 3.5" hdds like diskettes.
- eSata interface means its as fast as the notebook's internal drive (or faster since better 3.5" drives exist)
- its cheap
- no RAID controller which can fail
I then have a brain dead 2 drive enclosure connected by USB 2 (no raid) and i have a simple program which copies over new files to both drives in the array. I opted against raid since its harder to accidentally delete something from both drives, and you still have automated redundancy.
Now all i need is a 5D2 to see how this system copes with its big-assed files
On a seperate note - possibly for 1Ds3 users, how does lightroom cope with files that big? Is it slow even with good PC specs?
burychka wrote:
I called my local dealer where I have a deposit. He said they get notice before any shipment from Canon, and they've received no notice as of yet. So fast or slow shipping, it looks like my dealer is behind the curve (Camera Co-Op, Houston, Texas).
Ditto-Except I don't think your or my dealer is behind the curve...I think it is what it is with Canon. The initial supply shipment is small numbers, with a lot of demand for this wonderful camera. My store is not expecting more than 4 first shipment, and they have 2 stores...not that small of a business.
Still wondering when the first one will show up on the B&S. Any guesses? How much profit will the seller try to get get and how badly will they flamed by the community for their profiteering?
Kurt Paris wrote:
Since we're on the Drobo - and lets face it, with 34MB RAW files coming out of the new 5D i think this is a very important topic.
It is, but just a quick word on raw's... I've not yet had a RAW jump over 25mb's, because the data is compressed using lossless compression, which is carried through on Lightroom and the like. Average tends to be 20mb's. (EDIT: Note these are 1DsIII files)
Personally when I used the Epson P2000 I found it appauling for anything the moment you had more then 10gig on the HDD itself. Very slow, and terrible interface with the PC (USB). A short time ago, I used their latest unit, which still didn't impress me enough. Personally I though that if I'm spending that much on one, it's about the same, more convenient and just has combersome to get a smaller laptop and fit a large HDD with it.
