isabel

I'm considering getting the new iPod to download and store my photos while traveling. I currently use a "digital wallet" that will download from a compact flash card, but you can't see the photos, and it doesn't do anything else (like play music) and it's big and heavy (compared to the ipod). All the info I can find on the iPod mostly talk about it's MP3 player features (I know that's it's main purpose in life), but if it can work for photo storage I'd consider it.

If you use something else to store images while away from your computer, what do you use? Most trips I need between 5 and 10Gig of storage.

Olegis

Hi Isabel,

I use the old X-Drive I with 20GB HDD inside. It's slow (almost 15min to transfer a full 1GB CF card), but it's simple, fairly cheap and very reliable. Current models have an LCD screen for status and even photo viewing, MP3 and movies player, transfer verification function to let you know that the photos were transfered OK from the flash card etc. I just might consider to upgrade to one of these ...

isabel

Thanks Olegis. Could you tell me more about it - or perhaps a link to where I could read about it.

Anyone else use an iPod or similar?

Gretchen

Our son used an Ipod last year to download to. He has a gig memory card so didn't want to risk losing pictures for some reason, so downloaded every day. I'm sorry I don't know exactly what model it was but it should work. Try it first, of course.

Olegis

Hi Isabel.

You can see the devices I talked about here - http://www.vosonic.co.uk/. There are specs and descriptions, hope it helps

clevelandbrown

I have an Archos multimedia jukebox with 20gb memory, a display screen, and a dock that lets me load digital pictures from my card. I have about 10gb of mp3 files that keeps me entertained on long flights, and I keep the other 10gb for pictures, which I load every night, then recharge the Archos.

When I got it the very early apple product was out, but had far less capacity and cost a lot more, but had a longer battery life. I don't know how the current models compare, as mine is still working well and does all I ask of it (I got a device to recharge the batteries from the ports on the plane, for the really long flights).

Both my sons got iPods and are happy with them, citing ease of use as the best feature. Neither of them has used mine, nor have I used theirs, so we don't know which is easiest to use.

If you get either, and want to listen to music on planes, you will also want to look into a noise cancelling headset or earbuds.

susanna

We use an IPOD for downloading the pictures. We had just bought a new one with 60g and the color screen.
It worked great, easy to download, nice to be able to see the pictures even though the screen is small. Before the trip we also downloaded them from the IPOD to the computer, then on to Ofoto and it all worked like a charm.
ONE BIG PROBLEM:
My husband dropped the IPOD midway through the trip, it stopped working for good. When we got home and took it to the Apple store there was no way they could retrieve the pictures. They said that we could take it somewhere where they would get the hardrive out and mabye get the pictures, costing maybe $250. I'd rather go back on vacation and take the pictures again. So, lesson learned, it all worked great until we broke it. Now I have to say that this was the second IPOD that my husband broke, they don't like being dropped. He also broke the camera on the trip so then we were down to one disposable camera...we have hardly any pictures of Switzerland and Alsace. On a final note, he also broke the binoculars on this trip.
I would say if you are not clumsy, it's probably a good thing to go with the Ipod since you have the photo's, music, even books on tape, all in one little package.

sockboy

I used an ipod for photo storage on my trip just last month.

It all went very well. You do need to buy a photo adapter to plug into the ipod ($29? from apple).

I downloaded our pics every night, it is a bit slow, but we just made it a part of our evening routine. Each time you download to it, it saves the pics as a separate "roll". You can then scroll through all of the rolls and view your pics from each day.

When we got home, I plugged it into the computer, and it downloaded all the photos at once (no trace of the "rolls" was left.

It was indeed nice to take only one thing that holds photos, hotel addresses and contact info, music and audio books.

SuzieC

Oh Robespierre, where for art thou Robes?
He was a proponent of the Ipods...
and knew about the benefits.

isabel

Thanks for all the replys. I was hoping the iPod would work but it gets very negative reviews as a photo storage system on the photo forums. I think though that those guys shoot huge amounts and so are needing to store several gigs a day. But just a few more questions.

susanna - did you download directly from your camera (via the camera connector) to the iPod or did you also have a card reader. If you used your camera did you find it took a long time to download? Also , you say "before your trip" you downloaded them from the iPod to your computer. Do you mean After your trip? I'm confused. In any event, how was the downloading from the Ipod to the computer - is that pretty easy to do? And thanks for the warning about dropping it.

stockyboy - your review is very promising. Can you define "a bit slow"?

olegis - thanks for the link, I'll check it out

cleveland - the Archos is the other brand that I'm seriously considering. I know you said you have an older model, can you tell me which one it is?

Thanks everyone

sockboy

I had two 256MB chips with me, and usually filled one in a day (5MB camera). It probably took about 7 mins to download from the camera to the ipod. (I used the apple camera connector to connect directly).

It was VERY easy to copy the photos from the ipod onto my computer, when I plugged it in, it began downloading, (that took a LONG time - hours, for all the photos I'd taken!), but I have an iMac, a PC may be less straight forward.

It really isn't practical for a professional photographer, as it is quite slow. I can't see them wanting to wait in the field while a gig chip downloads. But for my uses (and I would think the average traveller) it was perfect.

BostonGal

Yes, we have one! We got it just before we went to France a few months ago. We get crazy when we go away, we take an average of 1300pictures in a week. We used to take the laptop so we could load the pictures from the camera onto the laptop to free up the memory sticks.
Then we decided we didn't want to lug the laptop around just for storing pics until we got home. So we got the iPod.
We have 2 cameras, a few memory sticks, and still we need to clear them out a few times during our trips.
The iPod has worked wonders for us, we've used it on two trips now, and when we get home, it's a cinch to tranfer the files from the iPod to our photo server on our PC.
I'm a big fan!

susanna

Hi Isabel...to answer your questions:
WE downloaded directly from the camera to the ipod, no card reader, it was very fast. We downloaded to the computer directly and it was even faster. We did a trial run before our trip to see how it would work and it was a piece of cake...unfortunately we weren't able to repeat this process after the trip

clevelandbrown

My model is the Archos jukebox multimedia, 20 gig. The computer hookup is USB 1. Immediately after I got it they came out with a 40 gig model, with, I'm pretty sure, USB 2. Such is life. I haven't dropped mine a lot. but it seems pretty sturdy. In fact, it reminds me of military equipment, designed for rough use.

When I went to their site recently, they had all newer models, and I had to dig into the archives to find mine.

My wife and I like to go through the pictures each night as we move them from the flash card to the mp3 player, and check that our notes of what we saw that day are complete.

isabel

Thanks for the informatin everyone. It does sound like it really could work for me. I want to transfer about 300-400mb a day to a storage device to free up my flash cards for more shooting, but I don't need to do it really fast in the middle of the day. I can do it at night, so 15-20 minutes or so is no problem. Since it will be hooked up to my camera, I guess it means it will require more camera battery charging, but I think I can deal with that. I really like the idea of having only one device to store photos and listen to music, and I also like the ability to view the photos once they are downloaded - to confirm I have what I think I have, etc. So I think you guys have convinced me that for these purposes, an ipod will work. I'll just have to be careful not to drop it!

susanna

YES, be very careful, they don't bounce well!!! We loved it until it broke and we have replaced it (3rd time) when we got home, can't live without it!

sockboy

With reguards to the dropping thing . . .

I got a case (ipak), that is not close fitting, but instead is quite a bit bigger than the ipod, it has foam inside to snuggly fit the ipod. This is the type of foam that you see made into inserts for expensive electronic gear. They call it a travel case, and it provides far more protection than anything else I have seen. You can indeed drop it.

Robespierre

If all you want is photo storage, there are more economical choices than the iPOS.

For example, Fry's ad today shows a Wolverine (a name you know and trust?) 40gb storage unit with LCD display and 7-way flash memory reader for $109.

My only affiliation with Fry's is as a customer.

susanna

THANKS STOCKBOY, you might have just saved me another $400...I'm going to buy it tomorrow!