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Hello
I've had for the last five years a Vosonic X's Drive II+
with a 40GB Samsung IDE hard drive. Unfortunately,
trying to change the hard drive I think I damaged it.
Now, what do you normally use when you are on the
road to empty your memory cards? I was thinking of
upgrading to a XDrive Vosonic VP8870 with a 320 or
500GB instead of buying a smaller laptop and using
an external hdd. What do you thinK?

http://www.technobox.com.au/catalog/portable-storage-xdrive-vosonic-vp8870-c-34_104.html

I don't have one of these. I think they are a good idea if the price is right, but one thing to consider is that hard drives are inherently less robust than memory cards, so you will be transferring to a LESS reliable medium. Consider two of them, or perhaps one and a mini laptop, or just use lots of cards.

Thanks for your thoughts. It's just a laptop however small (I was thinking the one they sell for about $350 - $400) and a
hard drive (now I got the new WD 250GB ID I bought for the gadget) + photographic equipment adds to the hand luggage.
When I went to China 5 years ago I took the camera two memory cards of 128 & 250MB and the VP2160. I ended with 1500 pics (4.3GB used only out of 32GB available in the hard drive) all in stored in the device, but they were all JPgs less tha 1MB each. Now I am talking 8MB RAW files from the 30D or 21MB from the 5DMII, if I manage to save enough before I go overseas.

When travelling having a small laptop can be useful as well - especially now that more places overseas provide free wireless internet etc.

You can buy one of the tine netbooks for $400 or so, which has an intenal drive of 160gb, and then just add an external drive and you're set.

Cheers
Tom

In August 2008 I wrote this article.

I still have both the VP5700 and the ND2700, although I've upgraded drives a few times. In Nov 2008 I took them both to Laos for a fortnight's cycling (handling photos from my 40D and G9). Each card got backed up to both devices before formatting, and then each device was carried in a separate person's carry-on luggage.
Even if I had SSD drives in each, I would still want two separate copies.

I did find when reviewing my photos back home that I'd made a few mistakes in some scenarios (e.g. when shooting kids in a dark schoolroom @ f/1.8, focus/exposure/shutter are critical ). If I had reviewed the images during the trip I would have not repeated some of those mistakes, and if I had a laptop with Lightroom running on it this would have been straightforward and routine. However I didn't feel comfortable lugging my laptop around on a bike...
The VP5700 does have a screen to let you review photos (and watch movies, etc) but like all these devices it just displays the embedded preview JPEG, not showing you the actual RAW data. Especially on the 40D this made it hard to judge fine focus issues, and I ended up not spending a lot of time on this during the trip.

Mostly since then I've been using them as USB drives for external storage when on the road, but with the knowledge that if my laptop and/or card reader blew up I'd still be able to back up new photos. Also I tend to put a few movie files on the VP5700 at the start of the trip, as sometimes that's better than the offerings on long international flights. I do have a second battery for the VP5700.
I am considering selling the VP5700 now though (FWIW, I bought it through TechnoBox), so if you don't want the extra features like slightly larger screen, AV and voice recorder, or AV out cables, that might be of interest to you. As far as I can tell, the speed of operation is similar to the VP8870.

Note that with the current prices of hard drives and the prices shown @ TechnoBox, the most cost-effective way of buying these would be to get an empty device and then whack your own drive into it.

I brought a Nexto Extreme ND2700 for my trip to Europe this coming weekend.
I brought it from Eastgear.com in Singapore. Much MUCH cheaper than anywhere else in Oz.

tommyg wrote:When travelling having a small laptop can be useful as well - especially now that more places overseas provide free wireless internet etc.

You can buy one of the tine netbooks for $400 or so, which has an intenal drive of 160gb, and then just add an external drive and you're set.

Cheers
Tom

This sounds like a good idea, nice and convenient when out and about shooting too.

Now that the iPad's out I'm wondering if there's a way to use that for mobile storage.. I don't know much about it yet, but how lovely if it had a SD card slot!

FrankieP wrote:Now that the iPad's out I'm wondering if there's a way to use that for mobile storage.

Apple wrote:You can import photos directly from your camera or its SD card using the optional iPad Camera Connection Kit.

So it's an optional extra & us CF users are out in the cold

However, also consider that it is expensive and presumably fragile. A smaller unit will be much less liable to damage in your typical transport scenario. Extra care needed. That's all, but be aware.

Be brilliant as a portable display device though.
EDIT:

Apple wrote:Input and output
* 30-pin dock connector
* 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
* Built-in speaker
* Microphone
* Micro SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model only)

So you have to use their proprietary connector. It seems to be an Apple to USB converter, so it should handle most external devices. Couldn't get a price as the US site took me to the AU site, presumably based on my IP address & of course, it's not available here yet.

Mr Darcy wrote:

FrankieP wrote:Now that the iPad's out I'm wondering if there's a way to use that for mobile storage.

Apple wrote:You can import photos directly from your camera or its SD card using the optional iPad Camera Connection Kit.

So it's an optional extra & us CF users are out in the cold

Remember too that it's a closed OS - it's a variant of the iPhone OS.

With a jailbroken iPhone you can ssh into the device, but ssh is not a protocol that cameras include by default.

Mr Darcy wrote:CF users are out in the cold

I have been following up on this.
Apparently some CF readers will work in the "USB" port and some will not.
The defining factor seems to be how much power they use.
Some will work on their own. Some will work if plugged in via a powered hub. Some will simply not work.
Also, they will only work as image readers (i.e. only read the DCIM directory), so you can't use the USB port to expand the storage of the iPad

I ended buying a NEXTO extreme 2700 with 500GB HD.
It seems to take my cards and is very portable. However,
I bought it from Amazon.Com reduced from 600+US to
$399 US, but I did not realised I had the fast delivery so
that was an extra $154 US. One learns...eventually!
Now the reason why I bought this gadget is because is
one less thing to carry and for its ability to store also
video files from the video camera. Also, it is small, very
portable and easy to use.

I just go with CF cards. I got almost 100Gb (16GbX4, 8,4...) enough for what I do.

After many upgrades over the years, I am currently using a 13" MBP + Firewire 800 CF reader + Lacie 320Gb Firewire 800 portable H/D x 2, seems to work well, and as said before can review days pics on the road. Have 8 x 8Gb extreme CF cards, but when time and luggage space permits also use as a back up external DVD drive and back up with that as well.

Can also recommend the Hypermac Battery, so far have not been caught short for either memory or power!

Hehe. While I do still have the ND2700 (with 320GB drive) as a backup, my travelling system today is a little beefier.

MacBook Pro, with two internal drives. About 800GB of image storage, plus a copy of my primary Lightroom catalogue. Lexar UDMA dual-slot card reader (~30 MB/s). Two external FW800 drives, one of which has a Time Machine partition on it and the rest is for backups (via file synchronisation) of the image/catalog storage on the internal drives. External slim-line DVD USB drive which sometimes comes along if I think I might need it.
While I usually have enough flash storage to last me a day, this rig covers me for extended (>1 month) photo trips! Over the next year I've got various photo trips lined up all over the world, with the longest being 4 weeks long.

You could modify your 13" MBP in a similar way with an OptiBay from MCE. I must say their email support is very slow, but the product Just Worked. There are similar systems available from other people, including PowerbookMedic. The biggest 2nd drive you can put in a 13" MBP currently is the WD 750GB (the 1TB drives are too thick).