[Leica] digital in Africa...

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 5:00 PM -0700 7/12/06, Steve Barbour wrote:
>A friend, departing for a trip to Africa of several weeks,  asked me 
>re digital storage/transport of his photographs while there and back 
>to the States...
>
>He will be shooting to compact flash cards...and wanted to transfer 
>to another form of storage for safe ? keeping...
>
>(maybe 4-5 GB of info...??)
>
>We talked about keeping the data on the cards vs hard drives, ipods, 
>burning CD's,  power supplies and I said, I really don't know what 
>is best,  but I sure know where to get some good advice and 
>information...
>
>your input is much appreciated...
>
>thanks, Steve

I've used a couple of different storage devices, including the Epson 
2000. A great screen, but not so good battery life and not all that 
fast, and not that cheap. The main reason to get it, or the 4000 is 
really the screen. And then, going from picture to picture is often 
quite slow. I gave up on it.

I got 2 'Nexto DI' units; you buy the shell and put whatever 2.5" 
drive in it you want. Firmware does the formatting and transfer, and 
a small screen keeps you informed as to the status and capacities 
available. When you get home you download to your computer via USB2 
or Firewire; it can also act like an external hard drive. I put in 
Fujitsu MVH2100AT drives (relatively low power 100Gb units). They are 
about 3-4 times as fast as the Epson, and, with the extra battery 
pack they hold enough charge to download 100Gb of images. You really 
don't have to recharge them until they're full. No screen to view 
images, but 2 units complete with 100Gb drives cost less than one 
Epson 4000. Even with the extra battery packs, they're still smaller 
than the Epson 4000.

I downloaded images to both units on our recent 3 1/2 week trip, and 
then my wife kept one in her suitcase and I kept one in my suitcase. 
We shot over 80Gb of images, and it all worked wonderfully, and so 
fast that there was always time to download to both units.

I've travelled with different units, and also with laptop and 
external hard drives as duplicates, but unless you need the laptop 
for other things, these Nexto units have been by far the least hassle.

The one possible downside is that it only accepts CF cards. If you 
use SD or other cards, you need to carry an adapter. I think they now 
have other models that are more versatile.

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
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