External Hard Drive for Digital Cameras

[SoCal]

Ok, in my search for cool toys and fear of running out of room on my memory cards (5 gigs of space is just not enough for a 8 mp camera right?) I went on the search for an external hard drive for digital cameras that I could wipe my memory card and use to store my pictures (for some reason my wife will not let me take the laptop on vacation!?!).

I found a few options -

The basic http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1118845062993 - Argosy 20GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive for Digital Cameras. While it will do the job I want the major con for it that I see is there is no way to be positive your pictures are on there in good shape (a major fear for me).

What is looking like the winner for me is the Zen Vision W ( http://www.creative.com/products/pmp/demo/zenvision.asp ). It looks great and has a few other bells and whistles to play with also. The only downside is I would have to buy an accessory to be able to put my type of memory card (Pro Duo) to use with the player. But I would be able to view the pictures on the screen (a great plus for the plane ride home or at the end of the day). The cost of the 30gig is $300 and the memory card adapter is about $40 on Amazon.

My question to you - do you use a device like this? What one do you use? What do you like or dislike about it?

[Captain Video]

I use a Wolverine Data MVP, http://wolverinedata.com. It does everything that the Creative does, and so much more! (Also lightyears ahead of iPod in ability!)

Has a built in LCD screen to view video/pictures/text files

It plays most video formats without having to convert them, (XviD/DivX/WMV/AVI/MPEG1-2

Plays MP3/WAV/WMV audio,

Reads text files,

stores and shows JPEG/TIFF/BMP/TXT/RAW pictures with full pan/zoom/slideshow capabilities

Has a full card reader for CF2/CF3/SD/SM/MS/MS Pro/MMC/XD and others built in - no adaptors to buy!

connects to your computer with USB as a standard hard drive

Is "computer based", meaning that new features can be added through firmware updates, most other units are hardware based, and are therefore limited on possible updates

Includes ALL cables/wireless remote, and even a carry case with a built in amplifier and speaker!

They are available in sizes up to 120 GB, and unlike the other units, you can change batteries! extra batteries are very inexpensive, meaning more run time. also, it has video/audio outputs for your tv, with DVD quality video. Price is very competitive (I paid $249 for mine). And best of all, their tech support listens, and have implemented upgrades (through firmware) at customer's request.

Not trying to knock Creative, as I own and use several of their products, but Creative has a habit of releasing a product, and then "forgetting" about it and leaving the consumer holding the bag. (Example - Creative's Zen PMC was released with problems, instead of fixing this $600 unit, they ignored it and replaced it with the Zen Vision, with no upgrade or replacement to their customers - I know this first hand, as I was one of the first to own one.)

[WRDup]

you could store photos youve taken on a digital camera on an iPod. theres an adapter that will transfer pics from you camera to your iPod (effectively making it an external hard drive) until you can upload them to the computer.

[Hector]

Originally Posted by Captain Video

I use a Wolverine Data MVP, http://wolverinedata.com. It does everything that the Creative does, and so much more! (Also lightyears ahead of iPod in ability!)

You know, I was just starting to look for these the other day and I think I'll probably end up with one of these. Thanks for the info!

[SoCal]

CV - I was checking that out - it looks great... maybe a tad more than what I need, but that has never stopped me in the past lol.

WRD - I have never seen those, I will have to do some looking into that. Do you have any links handy? One down side I can think of is the small screen would make it hard to enjoy the pics.

[Captain Video]

Too much is NEVER enough!!!!