sundowner

Hi, Tom. I did read that the screen isn't great and has a pretty narrow viewing angle but I won't do serious photo editing. I already said I don't normally carry a laptop to Africa but for the first time, people will be the main object on this trip and I want to be able to see the results on a screen larger than the camera has.

I bought it primarily for portable bookkeeping and being able to use it on safari is a bonus. I'm sure when I'm using it at home it will be hooked up to my big monitor. I traded a good screen for 3.2 lbs.

Did I mention it weighs 3.2 lbs?

Cheweyhead

I am thinking it's probably better not to see the images until we get home. We spent so much time uploading and looking at the epson rather than participating in the "social stuff" at camp (and not napping when needed). Maybe a peek here and there!

Sundowner did you take two Nextos so you had duplicate backups?

DonTopaz

I used to take only a Wolverine (no screen) before I switched from still camera to camcorder. Now I take a netbook, and it makes a huge difference for me. I have enormous capacity for backups, and I can also view the raw videos I've taken. When I've been lucky enough to shoot something special (like a hyena stealing a fresh kill from a cheetah and her two cubs, last year at Little Kwara), it was great to share the video with campmates over drinks before the afternoon drive. And when I was in a shared vehicle at Nxai Pan, my Jeepmates got a kick out of the video of the amazing leaping performance by some springboks that we'd all seen the day before.

Don

sundowner

Yes, Cheweyhead, I always take 2 harddrives. Our drought would be over if I lost all of the pictures from a trip because of a harddrive failure.

cary999

How heavy, 3.2 lbs??? For me, that's 3.1 lbs too heavy !!! )
I'm with CH, although I will sneak peak at a (very) few shots I think were maybe exceptional, there are other things I'd rather do.
"..Jeepmates got a kick out of the video..", ok, as long as its less than 20 secs. Please spare me raw unedited video. And you know no one will ever tell you - please, enough of your shakey, boooooring, video, please!!! But I'm sure yours are the exception DT . (Mine are ).

regards - tom

DonTopaz

Obviously tom does not appreciate the cinematic art of an 18-minute video of a giraffe chewing acacia leaves. With wind whistling through the mic.

cary999

Oh, so you've seen my giraffe video, good huh?

regards - tom

Hanuman

Sundowner,

Looking through your Kenya gallery, very nice, and noticed on the exif that most were shot at 600mm. Were those pictures shot at 600mm cropped as well? Did you use a 28-300L with a 2x converter?

Re the RAW files on the IPad - yes confirmed you can view them.

Hanuman

OK looking through more of your photo and you were using 2 bodies, a 20D with a 70-200 + x1.4? and the 1d mk 2 with a prime?

sundowner

Thanks,Hanuman. If it shows 600mm then it's the 300 f/2.8 + the 2x. And yes, I also used the 70-200 + 1.4x. Those were taken in 2007 and after that I've used the 40D and the 1d mk2n and now I have 2 mark 1V's. I also use the 500 f/4.0 now (plus the 300 and the 70-100 and the 100-400).

I think I'll have to get the card reader for the ipad so thanks for that!

Cheweyhead

I found this: Hyperdrive Color Space for iPad ..what do you think?

Hanuman

Looks very interesting Cheweyhead!

Hanuman

Wow I think it would work very well for the IPad according to the manual: http://www.hypershop.com/v/vspfiles/...AL_ENGLISH.PDF

Hanuman

OK I'm ordering one and will have it FedEx international priority to my address hopefully in time for my safari. Basically it's a CF, SD etc card reader/hard drive that can upload to the IPad. Will use the IPad to review the photos only as you cannot upload from the IPad back to the unit. Will upload some movies as well and see how it playback on the IPad.

Will let you know and thanks for the link!

Hanuman

Oops just found this written in the Shopping Cart Review "Usually Ships in 4-5 Weeks"! Better email and clarify this first.

Cheweyhead

Let us know what you find out. Im trying to decide on which capacity to buy.

sperraglia

I have used a Nexto for several years and really like it. If it ever dropped or stops just let the battery drain and then it is ready to go again. Also the Nexto 2700 is the only portable storage device that I am aware of that does incremental back-up (insert a card and it only copies uncopied files). I have also used the Adorama Flashpoint which is rebadged wolverine with success but it seems more plastic than the Nexto. I haven't had a lot of luck with the Hyperdrives personally.

I will use my Nexto as my second external on my trip next month with a 1 TB drive in it and my other external is also 1 TB with firewire to go with my 13" Macbook Pro. Yep, I take alot of pictures. The 1dIV is 10 fps and can go through a lot of gb quickly. Also, traveling with 2 other cameras - a 5d2 and 7d.

Hanuman

Chewey,

The waiting time is 4 - 5 weeks before shipment and my safari will be over by then! If I'm not restricted by luggage weight I would not buy the unit as I find a laptop more useful.

cary999

Welcome sperraglia to Fodors.
You do many safaris? Any favorite countries, areas, camps?
Besides safaris, where do you travel most?

1TB is lot of snaps. Even if you use only about half of it, we're talking what, 25,000 photos??
Do you have a web site where we can see some??
Just curious, are you in Italy?
And have a good time here on Fodors with us

regards - tom

lifelist

Just got back from 14 days on safari in Zambia. My backup strategy was 1) Nexto Portable Storage Device, 2) Enough CF cards so that I didn't have to re-use any of them, 3) iPad (first generation).

The Nexto worked fine, and I had just enough cards to cover me for my trip. So, I had my shots in at least two places. The iPad didn't work out as well as I had hoped. I knew I didn't have enough storage space in the iPad, but I ran out quicker than I had anticipated. At 64 Gb, the storage space is really limited.

The other problem with the iPad was with power. Since I upgraded to the latest iOS, my CF card reader stopped working on my iPad when connected through the camera connection kit. So, I had to do a direct connection from my camera to the iPad via the camera connection kit. This causes two problems. 1) It uses up a lot of battery power from the camera. I was copying from a 1D Mark II, and it was pretty easy to drain a camera battery copying over a 16 Gb card. 2) The 1D Mark II was copying over via USB 1.0, so it was tremendously slow. I think this also contributed to the battery drain. My 5D copied over much faster, so I suspect it was using USB 2.0.

So, in the future, I'm probably going to not bother with the iPad for safaris or trips where power for recharging can be a bit problematic or limited. I found myself recharging the iPad and a 1D battery every day when I was doing transfers. Of course, this depends on how much you shoot in a given day. I was shooting raw at about 2-4 Gbs a day worth of cards (depending on how game sightings went). And, even then, I managed to fill the iPad fairly quickly.

My plans for future trips will likely either be 2 Nextos, or perhaps 1 Nexto, 1 external hard drive, and an 11" Macbook Air.