Need a recomendaiton on Portable drives

[dnorris]

Hi,
I need a recomendation on a easy and quick portable drive for downloading compact flash cards while shooting.
Anyone know one they LOVE?

Thanks,
Donald Norris
www.norrisphoto.com

[Ronald S. Jr.]

The Wolverine 80gig is nice. If you want one with a screen, the obvious gems that come to mind are the Flashtrax XT and the Epson P-2000/3000/5000.

[TX_Gulf_Coast]

Epson P-3000; Love that thing. I have an older 20Gig. I/O Magic, that is going up for sale, but it has no LCD Screen. It is just a portable hard drive set up for storage. Has never failed me thou.

[mswebb]

I went to a local computer parts discounter and bought an 80GB drive and a USB enclsoure with card reading and copying capabilities. Enclosure includes a lithium battery and charges with USB or included power adapter. Works great and cost me about $180 Canadian in Toronto area.

[Adaptive]

You have to be careful with purchasing cheapie portable hard drives for obvious reasons... Just my .02 cents :)

[TX_Gulf_Coast]

You have to be careful with purchasing cheapie portable hard drives for obvious reasons... Just my .02 cents :)

Yes sir, I agree completely. Also, using just a portable drive with no LCD, what if something happened and the memory didn't transfer?? You erase that memory and you are screwed. That is why I use the Epson P-3000 that has an LCD. I can Visually confirm that I have copied that card to my hard drive and then IF I need to delete, I can without worrying that I don't have those images.

[Hikariphoto]

Yes sir, I agree completely. Also, using just a portable drive with no LCD, what if something happened and the memory didn't transfer?? You erase that memory and you are screwed. That is why I use the Epson P-3000 that has an LCD. I can Visually confirm that I have copied that card to my hard drive and then IF I need to delete, I can without worrying that I don't have those images.

Frankly, memory cards are so cheap nowadays that it's irresponsible not to have enough cards to be able to shoot the event and have some left over, without ever having to delete anything. This is why you should have enough memory cards that you can shoot the whole event without erasing anything. I had a caterer trash my portable at a wedding last year -- pulled it off of where it was sitting, and if I had downloaded images into it and then erased my cards I would have been doubly screwed.

Always keep ALL images on your body at all times, download them into the portable, and then NEVER erase anything at the event. It's wise to have a portable, but it's even more important to have more memory cards than you need. Erasing at an event is asking for trouble.

My cards never get erased until I have returned from the event, downloaded them into the PC, burned two DVDs of all images and verified both, and then backed up all images to an external hard drive for processing. Then and only then do they get erased, and I never, ever take cards to an event with images still on them.

[TX_Gulf_Coast]

Epson is nothing more than a backup for me. I have plenty of CF Cards, thou I don't buy the cheap ones. San Disk or Lexar Professional cards only. I have had to many issues with off-brand $19.99 cards corrupting files.

The Epson is a cool way to allow the B & G to see photos as we progress through the evening and KNOW they are getting terrific photos of their special day. (More of a sales tool than anything else.)


Frankly, memory cards are so cheap nowadays that it's irresponsible not to have enough cards to be able to shoot the event and have some left over, without ever having to delete anything. This is why you should have enough memory cards that you can shoot the whole event without erasing anything. I had a caterer trash my portable at a wedding last year -- pulled it off of where it was sitting, and if I had downloaded images into it and then erased my cards I would have been doubly screwed.

Always keep ALL images on your body at all times, download them into the portable, and then NEVER erase anything at the event. It's wise to have a portable, but it's even more important to have more memory cards than you need. Erasing at an event is asking for trouble.

My cards never get erased until I have returned from the event, downloaded them into the PC, burned two DVDs of all images and verified both, and then backed up all images to an external hard drive for processing. Then and only then do they get erased, and I never, ever take cards to an event with images still on them.

[patrific]

I love my Epson P2000. I travel 8 months a year and go hiking. I like to show pictures on the TV so this is very cool so I take a cable with me and its very convenient, small and light weight. I would buy another battery and a seperate charger for it though. Takes time to charge and I am hard on the batteries. I know they have a model with a larger HD -- the P4000? or maybe something like that. I like that I can download while I am shooting another card and carry it in a cargo pocket. It has a very nice screen on it but hard to see when in the desert under the sun. Are there 3rd party hoods for these? Good question -- I may look into it.

There are a bunch of portables but if you want a nice looking screen I suggest the Epson. I like to see my pictures without the computer or laptop hassles.

[LuisV]

I had a Nixvue Drive before. It was slow and batteries did not last.

I then went to the Compact Drive PX70 which was lighting fast and used 4 AA NiMH batteries. This was great until I began to have wirte problems recently after about a year. I got tired of it and decided to move on. I can't risk the loss of data on the road.

I am now going to the Epson P-3000. I feel I am getting raped with that price for a small drive but it's enough and I've seen the thing at a few Epson events. I have one in transit to me now. I'll let you know how it goes. I shoot 100% RAW on the D2X so I hope to not have an issue.

[TX_Gulf_Coast]

P-3000 supports Nikon Raw. I have a shooter that uses the D2x and D200 and his images work fine, right along side my Canon images.

[LuisV]

OK.....the P3000 is nice. It's not quite as fast as the Compact Drive but it's respectfully fast. I did not have a battery issue but frankly I did not need to yet. I'll play with that soon enough.

The display is stunning and the review of images is a nice to have feature. The price is a bit steep but other than that, nice device. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at first but, I was pleasantly surprised.