Digital cameras and 64 mb usb harddrives??

[tink2dw]

Can you download photos from your digital camera with one of these Key chain 64 mb hard drives[$69.00]?? I saw 1 at our local one stop shopping store. I hunted the web to find the one at the store,this it,but other a passing referance to photos it doesn't explain??

Heres a link to the website
http://www.universalsmartdrive.net/product_feature.asp?tm=product&sm=01

Any help will be appreciated!

 

[Humpbacks1962]

I don't know about those but I know about the digital wallets. I bought one a few months ago myself. The smallest unit holds 3 Gb and sells in ebay for around $160. It will hold over 2,000 pictures, run on rechargeable batteries and weighs only 6 oz, so you can bring it along to the parks. You just fill your camera's memory card and download into the digital wallet which is a portable hard drive. Empty your card and keep using it again. When you come home just transfer all your pictures through USB connection. You can download anything you have in the memory card at any time, no need to wait until it is filled. They not only store pictures, they store music and other files as well.

The point is, anyone turning down the possibility of using a digital camera at the parks because of how expensive the memory cards can be or needing a laptop to download the images and reuse the card has no excuses anymore. For far less you can buy a digital wallet and bring home thousands of digital pictures. You'd have to buy hundreds of extra memory cards to save that many.

The manufacturer of this one is Minds@Work, but iOmega also makes digital wallets. Amazon.com sells them for over $300. Minds@Work's website sells them for over $275, but the cheapest I have seen them is from private resellers on ebay.

Wanda

 

[Shadeaux]

I looked at the website you posted. I don't think that will work with a digital camera. I can't see how you'd be able to upload your pictures. Not sure if I can explain this; where would you 'tell' your camera to transfer the pictures? When you hook your camera up to a computer, you get a screen somewhere (in my case, I use Windows Explorer) and tell the computer which files to transfer to where. Does that make sense?

I bought an Iomega Fotoshow for storing pictures while traveling. I needed a new zip drive anyway, so this served a dual purpose. You put either a compact flash or smartmedia card and a zip disk in the Fotoshow & press a button or two & the pictures copy to the zip disk. You can also do a file transfer with the Fotoshow hooked up to a tv and view the pictures as a slide show. You can also do a little photo editing & cropping while viewing.

 

[Humpbacks1962]

LOL...

I can't see how you'd be able to upload your pictures.

where would you 'tell' your camera to transfer the pictures?

The digital wallet comes with a card where you put your memory card in. Turn on the HD and select the download command. That is it! If you have a smaller, "Sandisk" card then you have to get the adapter card for it, but it works the same way.
Then you connect your digital wallet through a USB cable you go to My Computer, open the digital wallet and transfer your pictures into your computer. It also comes with a photo editing program, which I hardly use, but it is there.

I don't think that will work with a digital camera.

Hehehe.. That is what they were made for! Trust me, it is as simple as it sounds and you can indeed do it. No need to bring along laptops or hundreds of memory cards when you travel anymore. A digital wallet stores all your images and data files safely until you come home and transfer them to the computer.

I hope I answered your questions but you can also e-mail them to ask more details about procedures, adapters, connectors, etc. My only regret is that I bought an extra card before I heard anything about the digital wallet. All you really need is one memory card, and maybe even the one that comes with some digital cameras is enough, as you will empty all the information into the digital wallet and reuse over and over. And the wallet is small and light enough to fit into my mini dv camcorder's bag. With rechargeable batteries, I can bring it along and empty my memory card in minutes anywhere I go!


Wanda

 

[Shadeaux]

Originally posted by Humpbacks1962
LOL... Hehehe.. That is what they were made for! Trust me, it is as simple as it sounds and you can indeed do it. No need to bring along laptops or hundreds of memory cards when you travel anymore. A digital wallet stores all your images and data files safely until you come home and transfer them to the computer.

I was talking about the Universal Smart Drive, not the digital wallet. Sorry for any confusion.

 

[ghost1000]

Strange you should bring this up - I got a digital camera last week in fact and a gadget to go along with it - the Iomega Fotoshow.

Essentially it is a 250MB Zip drive that you can hook to a TV and it has compact flash/smart media card slots. You just pop in your card and hit a button and it copies it to the zip disk. You can then slightly edit the pictures (rotate, remove red eye, crop, etc) and view them as a slideshow on TV. It has USB so you can hook it to your computer to use as a normal zip drive too.

They aren't making them anymore (a few stores still have them) and new ones pop up on ebay from time to time for about $120 (that is where I got mine).

I've just played around with it a bit but so far I am VERY impressed.

 

[Shadeaux]

ghost1000 - I took my Fotoshow to WDW last year. Every night we'd hook it up & look at the photos we took during the day. My daughter really enjoyed it. I could have hooked up my camera to the tv also, but being able to do a little editing with the Fotoshow was fun. Since I already had a bunch of 100 mb disks, I used them to upload my pictures, but it was VERY slow. This year I think I'll invest in a couple 250 mb zip disks.

 

[ghost1000]

I noticed with the manual it says that using the 100 disks is slower. Glad to hear another favorable report!

 

[Humpbacks1962]

Shade, why not buy a burner and save all those pictures on a CD?

Anyhow, I am absolutely in love with my digital wallet and can't wait to fill it up. I have been using it here and there and it only takes a minute to download the pictures from the memory card into the wallet , then three minutes to set it up and transfer them to the computer.

I am sooo thrilled about bringing it along on our next vacation!

Wanda

 

[BoyLovesBuzz]

All of those portable devices sound really cool, however I would rather carry less hardware, and buy extra compact flash cards. You don't have to look very hard to find 128 mb for less then $50. Unless you are just a huge shutter bug 256 or 384 mb should be more than enough storage for a trip.

I would rather poke out an eye then buy another Iomega device, but Wanda's digital wallet sounds pretty cool.

 

[MCazer]

I have a question... when I take a picture on my digital camera, the camera gives it a number something like 99000001.jpg, and then 99000002.jpg and so on. Ok, so now I upload the pictures to the digital wallet, erase my smart media card, and start taking more pictures. The camera starts from scratch with the numbers again (99000001.jpg and so on). What happens when I want to upload these pics the wallet, will they overide the first ones because the name is the same?
Right now I have a 128 mb, 64 mb and 32 mb smart media cards and have never needed more, but it never hurts to have more options.

Thanks,

 

[Humpbacks1962]

The wallet sends each download to a different folder. So all you do it open up the folders to find what you want.

Buzz, to each his own but I'd find it overwhelming to carry a load of cards, Even if a card sells for $50, you'd have to buy quite a few to store over 2,000 pictures, like the digital wallet can. You'd have to label them, secure them... And I looked recently, now HDs larger than 3 Gb are selling for about $160 in auction sites.

I recently got another little gadget that was a free offer with the purchase of my Sandisk card when I bought my mini dv: A ZiO! The neatest little thing, though you'd really need a laptop to use it when you travel. You just stick your card in the unit which connects directly to your USB port. I tried it and the downloads are immediate! But it will not store images, merely transfer them directly from teh card to the computer... Without any cables at all!

The only hassle with my things is that I am on XP, and not everything is compatible with this OS as of yet. I have to keep jumping from place to place to locate updated drivers.

Wanda

 

[BoyLovesBuzz]

I love the sounds of it. 2000 pictures:-0, you must be somehow related to my DW;-). I'm sure I haven't taken 2000 pictures in my life. Anyway I purused ebay, and couldn't find a Mind@works for less then $245. If you happen to come across one, and it's convienant, pm me.

I won't buy an iomega device. I am confident there is something in the firmware that searchs the computer for my name, and then goes it "work sparaedically " mode.

I've seen that zio. Unfortunately, I don't have a laptop, and I short sightedly bougt a computer last year that does not have USB ports in the front, so to me cables are good.

I'm still transfering pictures with the camera, so I'm looking for a solution for that as well.

I know XP is a hassle, but it would be worth it to me to be done with with ME. yikes.

 

[Humpbacks1962]

I can only guess how your wife would reply to that...

I don't commonly search that area of ebay anymore, but keep going at it. I know the prices are coming down and I have seen 6Gb HDs going for about what I paid for a 3 Gb HD. Try Yahoo auctions too. Although the Minds@Work website lists local distributors, I have seen the best prices in the auction sites, so don't buy through any other sources. I think PCConnections.com has them too, but can't recall the prices.

Our next vacation is ten days long, in three resorts completely new to us (including 6 days at AKL) and with PAP for the first time too.. You bet we'll come across over 2000 situations to preserve for digital immortality!

Now I just have to hit Consumer Reports to scan the best photo printers for the buck (think HP high series inkjets are ahead)...


Wanda

 

[BoyLovesBuzz]

I have an HP 9??, and it does a very nice job. All the HP inkjets have the same color\photo technology, the difference really comes in speed. There are several that you can plug in your digital media and print the picture without a computer. I found the the HP cartiges were cheaper (barely) then Cannon or Epson, and a lot cheaper then Lexmark. However I only did half the homework in that I never really researched and compared the number of photos per cartridge. I would think HP would win as this technology they have (the name escapes me, something like RET???) is suppose to be economical on ink.

It is also very cool that the price of matte and gloss paper is really coming down. Kodak has done a good job of "seeing the light" and has re-invented themselves to meet this new trend.

Anyway, my 2 cents.

 

[Shadeaux]

Wanda - When I bought my camera, I was using an old computer with no burner & no usb. I have since bought a new computer & do burn all my pictures to CD. For vacations where I'm going to be taking hundreds of pictures, the Fotoshow has worked great. We drive, so bringing something a little larger than some storage devices isn't really a problem.

BoyLovesBuzz - The zip drive I bought about 6 or 7 years ago is still working fine. I've had no problems with the Fotoshow either. I know some people have had problems, but fortunately, I'm not one of them.

MCazer - my camera (Fuji finepix 4700) has a setting somewhere that gives you the option of continuing with the numbering where the last card left off. This way there are no duplicate numbers or confusion when you start transfering images to the computer. Check your manual & see if you can change the setting on yours.

I have an HP p1000 photo printer. I've been very happy with the prints, but haven't really compared them to anything else available. Printed on glossy photo paper, to me they look as good as or better than what I was getting from my film camera. I've printed a few 8 x 10s of pictures I took at Disney last year & I think they look great. I tried printing directly from the card reader once & wasn't happy with the results. I prefer tweaking my images a bit with software first, then printing.

I absolutely love having a digital camera. Even though we've been to WDW over 20 times, I still managed to take almost 400 pictures when we were there last summer. Believe it or not, I printed almost 200 of those when we got home.

 

[RaySharpton]

I really enjoy reading all this neat information. Thank you.

Ray

 

[BethR]

And I am very happy to "see" you on the Budget Board, Ray!