Storing photos without a laptop while on a 23 day trip of France...Suggestions?

[PhotobearSam]

Dh had bought a Video ipod to transfer pics to while on vacation but then sold it to get the new 160 Gig Ipod video but SURPRISE...It does not have an adaptor to load pics onto it with. The one we had with the 80 gig does not work on the 160...

Now what do we do....We need a very portable device that will let me dump my photos while on vacation so that I don't have to lug my laptop all over France...

I know, buy more memory...but there is no way I can buy enough memory to feel comfortable. What do you recommend?


Thanks


I really wish Ipod just came out with a way to load images to the 160 gig without a computer but it does not look promising.

 

[sherry7]

Well, you can take me with you, and I'll be happy to lug the laptop all over France for you.

But seriously....what about one of those tiny hard drives? I think they're called a pocket hard drive, or something similar? I'm honestly not sure of how they work, and if you can download directly from the camera. Here's a link to what I'm talking about: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Passport-Essential-WDME1600TN/dp/B0012GR02W/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1227148553&sr=8-2

 

[YesDear]

My suggestion is to look at a wolverine photo hard drive. I use one and like it. They are reasonably cost effective. I copy my cards to the hard drive before I copy them to DVD with a laptop. I know some people that who do not use a laptop but will use two of them and copy to both.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Are you shooting in RAW, Sam?

I'm also wondering about this.

One thing I'm considering (since my laptop died) is one of those small 8.9" Acer laptops. The only issue is that they don't have a CD drive, but you can get an external CD drive (for home use, if you want), or you can transfer them to your home computer via USB cable when you get home, or you can edit and upload to web storage right from there.

Not to hijack (and hopefully this will help answer your question, too) - but does anyone know if you take your memory card to Walmart, a camera shop, or somewhere like that, can you put RAW files onto disc that way, or will you lose data?

As for the suggestions above, you can use those without a laptop?

 

[boBQuincy]

The "netbooks" as the 2 pound PCs are called, are an attractive storage option. Asus, Dell, HP, and just about everyone else make them now. Some have solid state drives and will not store many photos unless you also get an external hard drive.

We have an Asus Eee 900 and it is just great for storing and viewing images.

 

[fitzperry]

My dh, who is sitting next to me as I read this on my laptop which I will happily lug all over France for you, says you need an Archos (http://www.archos.com/?country=global&lang=en). He has a 605 wifi with a DVR dock that can also act as a USB host. I think the new 5 series will also work.

The problem with the portable hard drive option is that most will not act as a USB host. So unless your camera can see external storage, you will not get it to work.

The Archos is a hard drive/portable media player/web browser/mp3 player and even a GPS.

Seems like overkill but it would work well. You could get a 405 on ebay for $100 or so and that should work too. Just remember, you will need the DVR dock.

 

[MICKEY88]

Not to hijack (and hopefully this will help answer your question, too) - but does anyone know if you take your memory card to WalMart or somewhere, can you put RAW files onto disc that way, or will you lose data?

As for the suggestions above, you can use those without a laptop?

I'm not 100% certain but I think labs like walmarts only recognize jpeg. probably not raw

 

[MICKEY88]

I recommend the wolverine, or this...

http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/Ca...=Browse+By+Brand:NextTo:NexTo+eXtreme+ND-2700

they seem to have the largest drives for storage, from what I've seen the archos is only a 30 gig drive, that would last me 1 or 2 days..

when my stepdaughter id a semester in italy I opened a zenfolio account for her and she uploaded her pics on a daily basis, but she had a laptop to do it...

if you could find internet cafes with pcs you could use to upload that would be an option

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I'm not 100% certain but I think labs like walmarts only recognize jpeg. probably not raw

I probably should have said "Walmart, a camera shop, or somewhere like that" (I'll edit). Do you think that would matter?

 

[MICKEY88]

I probably should have said "Walmart, a camera shop, or somewhere like that" (I'll edit). Do you think that would matter?

I'm not aware of any machine or software that will print raw files, so I don't think a lab could burn raw to a disk for you..I could be wrong, but I've never heard of it..

 

[fitzperry]

they seem to have the largest drives for storage, from what I've seen the archos is only a 30 gig drive, that would last me 1 or 2 days..

The one my husband has is at least 160 gig.

 

[spinetnglr]

Here is the link to an article at CNET reviews that pretty much gives all the options you have for portable photo storage. Maybe from there you can find which would work for you.
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6501_7-5145238-1.html

 

[MICKEY88]

The one my husband has is at least 160 gig.

I stand corrected, the article I found last night listed it as a 30 gig drive..

 

[MICKEY88]

Here is the link to an article at CNET reviews that pretty much gives all the options you have for portable photo storage. Maybe from there you can find which would work for you.
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6501_7-5145238-1.html

that article is from 2004..????

I'm fairly certain that 2 of the 3 devices they list , are no longer in production..

 

[fitzperry]

I stand corrected, the article I found last night listed it as a 30 gig drive..

I think there are several different models available. I double checked w/ dh and his is a 160 gig.

 

[MICKEY88]

I think there are several different models available. I double checked w/ dh and his is a 160 gig.

yep. I found this today on the archos website


ARCHOS 605 WiFi
30GB / 80GB / 160GB*

 

[spinetnglr]

that article is from 2004..????

I'm fairly certain that 2 of the 3 devices they list , are no longer in production..

OOOPS!!! my bad ... thank you for catching that. I linked the wrong page. The article I wanted to link to is from Feb '08 and gives different options of storing photos while travelling if you dont want to lug along a laptop. My apologies

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13580_3-9873563-39.html?tag=mncol

 

[PhotobearSam]

My head is spinning....I will be looking into everything you guys mention on here.

Thanks

 

[alan]

My suggestion would be to buy one of the neat little "Netbook" laptops. One with 1GB RAM and 160GB Hard Disk, running Windows XP.

It's barely any more expensive than the dedicated storage device, and does everything that the dedicated storage device does. However, it also allows you to do things like play music and watch movies (assuming you copy them from DVD to the hard drive), edit your photographs, and web surf and email from anywhere that has a network connection.

regards,
/alan

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Thank you to Allie5 for mentioning the Giga Vu storage device, which seems to be one product that can do what we're looking for. It does supports some RAW files (though it is a bit pricey).

Also, here are some others, not all of them support RAW, and some are also quite expensive. (Thanks, Code.)

I'm still leaning toward the laptop/netbook (for less - there are some good Black Friday deals on them out there) but this would be another option.