Card reader help, please!!!

[hemispheredancer]

Over the weekend I won a SanDisk Photo Album. It can hook up to the tv to view, share and store photos. Says it stores 2000 pics. 8-in-1 reader/writer when connected to PC. So here's my issue: I have my S2. We are going to WDW in March/April for 10 days. I have a hi-speed 1 gb card and a 512 card. I really do not want to lug my laptop down there to upload on. Nor do I want to go to the photo centers in the parks to burn CDs. Is this product an option for me? It says you have to store pics on a CF card?? I do have a few of those from my old Kodak. Does anybody else have any solutions or options for me?? Steve? Kelly? Dan?? I can take it back to Best Buy and apply the cost of this towards something else if there is something that will suit my needs better/

Here's the link to see what I have: http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Item(1153)-SDV2-A-SanDiskPhoto_Album.aspx

[Kelly Grannell]

There is no storage in the unit. It's only a card reader and a thingie that shows the pictures from your card to your TV.

[hemispheredancer]

Kelly, do you have any recommendations for me? Is this what I would need: www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7331844&type=product&productCategoryId=cat04010&id=1118845062993

[ndelaware]

Hi Michelle, this only stores pictures at "TV" viewable resolution. It really has to knock the resolution down quite a bit to store 2000 images on a 128mb card. It claims to store them at 60kb, your pictures should probably 2 to 2.5mb from your camera. So it will basically wastes the 5.0 meg resolution of you paid for and you won't be able to print them any bigger than postage stamp size. It will work as a card reader when connected to a computer, but you still have to store the pictures on the computer's hard drive. I know you don't want to haul your notebook with you but you are probably looking at a couple of hundred dollars for a portable media storage unit. Wish I had better news for you.

Steve

[Kelly Grannell]

Yup, but at that price, you might as well buy several more 512 Mb cards. To this day I still don't have a storage system like that. I just carry the total of 3 Gb memory (about 750 pics) for my trips (up to 20 days, so far). It's more than enough for me.

[Dan Murphy]

Yes, Michelle, as Steve said above, and I mentioned in my PM reply the other day, this is primarily a device to view the photos on a TV, not a storage unit. My suggestion would be to puchase several 512 or 1 gig cards to hold the photos, in lieu of transferring to a laptop. I use this one......

http://www.buy.com/prod/Kingston_1GB_Elite_Pro_Secure_Digital_Card_SD_1GB_ S/q/loc/1856/10403745.html

[hemispheredancer]

Thanks for the responses. Looks like the photos will have to sit on the cards until I get back home. 10 days worth of pics, though!

[hemispheredancer]

Dan, that is the same one I bought when I got the camera. In fact, I am still waiting on my rebate! Well, I should (emphasize SHOULD) have enough memory for our trip. Maybe I can pick up another 512 card in exchange for this Photo Album thingamajiggie.

[ndelaware]

Hey Michelle, I looked up the price of your Sandisk item at Best Buy and it was $49.99. They do have a Sandisk 1GB SD card for on sale for $55.99!! I'd jump on that if I were you. It's the regular card so I don't know if you can use it for video but it will hold approx. 380 pics at the highest quality setting. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6730264&type=product&productCategoryId=cat04007&id=1083716072950

[mhutchinson]

I would agree with more cards unless you plan on dropping some serious money for a good photo wallet/vault (at least $400 for something like the Epson p-2000). Cards have dropped quite a bit over the last month and you can get some very good prices on some sizable memory cards from reputable brands.

When you get additional memory cards remember that the speed ratings that they quote may typically only help when downloading directly to your PC. Most cameras have a maximum write speed that is much lower than many memory cards out there.

Mike

[We4mickey]

you may want to check these out.follow link

http://www.xs-drive.com/

http://www.flash-memory-store.com/usb-xsdrive2-vp2060-100gb.html

[Alacrity]

Here's a site with some portable storage information.

http://fhoude34.free.fr/PortableHD.htm

I use, an X-Drive II but have recenlty bought a lap top to use too. On the down side, many of these devices don't have video outputs or a screen to look at the pics after they are transfered. Great for backup though.

As mentioned, the ones with the screens seem to get expensive fast. After shopping around I figured that the price was a good chunk of a full blown laptop that I could used to look at and do some editing. Much more bulky though. Actually the laptop has more horsepower and storage than my old home PC! It's become my main system!

[WillCAD]

A slightly cheaper alternative to the portable storage units is a portable CD burner.

One like this http://www.dpreview.com/news/0311/03111002aleraphotocruiser.asp retails in the $200 range - not much more than a few extra memory cards and far less than one of those expensive Epson devices.