iPod Photo or Epson P2000

[-7-]

Guys n gals out there....

Anybody owns one of these portable storage device cum multimedia player?

Or anyone has a portable storage HD that goes along with your 7D?

[Flare]

If you get the iPod photo, you'll need to get one of those belkin acessorise to transfer images from cf/camera via the dock connector. Don't think the new ipod photo can support direct transfer without the accessory yet.

And the accessory's RRP is over S$150.

Hee... But I'm also tempted to get one. But my rational half: "lug your ibook around instead! it can do more than the ipod photo!" It screams. "Your Phone already has an MP3 player! The ipod's too big! the most you just get the shuffle! You can't listen to all the songs in an ipod in a day anyway!"

And finally, the wallet with its sexy slim (i.e. empty) profile wins...

I didn't get any of these, but instead got the new iLife '05... Damn, Steve Jobs wins again.

[Magnus Wedberg]

Originally Posted by -7- Guys n gals out there.... Anybody owns one of these portable storage device cum multimedia player? Or anyone has a portable storage HD that goes along with your 7D?

I am planning a purchase of the Archos Gmini 400. It seems like a really sweet machine. The P2000 is to big and too proprietary for me... the ipods are just not meant to be used as such storage, you need adapters and/or cables, I just want to empty one card in the storage wallet while I am shooting the other...

[J.J]

Originally Posted by Magnus Wedberg I am planning a purchase of the Archos Gmini 400. It seems like a really sweet machine. The P2000 is to big and too proprietary for me... the ipods are just not meant to be used as such storage, you need adapters and/or cables, I just want to empty one card in the storage wallet while I am shooting the other...

but I don't think the Archos Gmini 400 reads Raw and display exif data for you as compare to P2000.

[Magnus Wedberg]

Originally Posted by J.J but I don't think the Archos Gmini 400 reads Raw and display exif data for you as compare to P2000.

Exif -- dunno. Not particularly interesting to me anyway. RAW -- the P-2000 can't do that either, it just displays the JPEG thumbnail stored in the header, and probably doesn't support Minolta anyway. And Epson being Epson, it's a niche product for them -- firmware updates won't be released often if at all. Archos on the other hand only makes media players of this kind and chances are that they may support specific features on request. Of course everyone may buy whatever they want, but I think the Gmini fits the bill -- photo wallet, good mp3 player, small size (almost exactly like the ipod), quite affordable and with video support for dull travels...

The Gmini's biggest drawback is its lack of support for CF type II (microdrive), but hard drive to hard drive transfer... I dunno. I have decided not to buy any hard disk based CF cards in the future, concentrating on flash memory for ruggedness and speed.

[nightwolf75]

oh goody! finally someone thot abt it and made something to enable direct cam -> ipod photo transfer!

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/porta...ferer=dpreview

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

nw75, does it work with the D7D? saw a canon ixus there...

[Magnus Wedberg]

Originally Posted by nightwolf75 oh goody! finally someone thot abt it and made something to enable direct cam -> ipod photo transfer!

it's not tethered shooting, it's just copying with a cable. Much inferior (and much more expensive) than a device with built in CF reader.

[Magnus Wedberg]

Originally Posted by Del_CtrlnoAlt nw75, does it work with the D7D? saw a canon ixus there...

Works with all cameras functioning as USB mass storage devices -- meaning almost all modern cameras.

[nightwolf75]

Originally Posted by Magnus Wedberg it's not tethered shooting, it's just copying with a cable. Much inferior (and much more expensive) than a device with built in CF reader.

from the short write-up, dun think the makers of this product intended for tethered shooting. my guess is dat they are trying to satisfy many ipod photo users' desire to do direct transfer on the field rather than to do it thru iPhoto.

of course, even dpreview commented that apple shld have at least made a built-in CF or SD card reader into iPod photo, which will make it a 'killer app' (direct quote from dpreview - which i sincerely agree!!! pls, mr jobs? )

[spurssy]

Try the iRiver mp3 player/storage device. My colleague has it and it looks like a good buy at lower rates compared to the ipod photo. It can also serve as a USB host, hence no additional accesories needed.

[forbytes]

i thought when i read the opening page of DPReview regarding the new IPod photo, they did mention that Apple will come out with a cable for direct transfer from camera to IPod photo. Available somewhere in march. Anyway, I would prefer a CF slot onboard of those hand held device. Because you cannot shoot and transfer at the same time right. Throwing in a new card will let you start shoot again in a shorter time.

edited: I blur, this cable may be the one from Apple.

[J.J]

Originally Posted by Magnus Wedberg Exif -- dunno. Not particularly interesting to me anyway. RAW -- the P-2000 can't do that either, it just displays the JPEG thumbnail stored in the header, and probably doesn't support Minolta anyway. And Epson being Epson, it's a niche product for them -- firmware updates won't be released often if at all. Archos on the other hand only makes media players of this kind and chances are that they may support specific features on request. Of course everyone may buy whatever they want, but I think the Gmini fits the bill -- photo wallet, good mp3 player, small size (almost exactly like the ipod), quite affordable and with video support for dull travels... The Gmini's biggest drawback is its lack of support for CF type II (microdrive), but hard drive to hard drive transfer... I dunno. I have decided not to buy any hard disk based CF cards in the future, concentrating on flash memory for ruggedness and speed.

I'm not sure bout Minolta but it sure read my 1DsMKII Raw file.

[dark_avenger]

Originally Posted by nightwolf75 from the short write-up, dun think the makers of this product intended for tethered shooting. my guess is dat they are trying to satisfy many ipod photo users' desire to do direct transfer on the field rather than to do it thru iPhoto. of course, even dpreview commented that apple shld have at least made a built-in CF or SD card reader into iPod photo, which will make it a 'killer app' (direct quote from dpreview - which i sincerely agree!!! pls, mr jobs? )

Some time ago, when I read about the announcement of Creative's Personal Media Center (must have been after CES 2004), I wrote an e-mail to Sim Wong Hoo asking that the PMC be equipped with memory card slots in view of the burgeoning interests in Digital Photo Wallet. Obviously the e-mail got lost (no reply from anyone in Creative). I'm pretty sure PMC would have been a total winner had it included memory card slots.



DA

[nightwolf75]

Originally Posted by dark_avenger Some time ago, when I read about the announcement of Creative's Personal Media Center (must have been after CES 2004), I wrote an e-mail to Sim Wong Hoo asking that the PMC be equipped with memory card slots in view of the burgeoning interests in Digital Photo Wallet. Obviously the e-mail got lost (no reply from anyone in Creative). I'm pretty sure PMC would have been a total winner had it included memory card slots. DA

haha.. DA, i guess u're not the first nor last to experience ur email disappearing in the maws of creative! a lot of people have complained abt it.

u know, after all this talk, one begins to wonder wat possessed apple, creative, iRiver etc... NOT to put a card reader function in their mass storage devices/MP3 player ?? IMO, its a no-brainer...

[Magnus Wedberg]

Originally Posted by J.J I'm not sure bout Minolta but it sure read my 1DsMKII Raw file.

Could you really zoom into the fine detail? Because 1) Epson specifies that it only reads the header JPEG 2) it seems unlikely that the device have such processing power that it can decode RAW files. But I may be wrong

[-7-]

Guys,

Thanks for all the valuable inputs...but I'm more keen to know the experience with any of the products mentioned above... and ofcos, experience it with 7D...

---> JJ
Do you own the P2000? How is it? Works perfectly with 1DsMKII? How is its battery lifetime?

---> Magnus
How much does a Archos Gmini 400 cost you? How abt its battery lifetime?

Some Info: iPod Photo 30G = S$618
iPod Photo 60G = S$788


I think, a direct tarnsfer from DSLR to Storage medium is always the most prefered way for us. iPod Photo latest released info. is showing the intention of making this possible...

Besides above 3 options, anyone has any other devices and experiences with 7D???

[Magnus Wedberg]

Originally Posted by -7- ---> Magnus How much does a Archos Gmini 400 cost you? How abt its battery lifetime?

It costs about the same as an Ipod 20GB (normal non-photo model). It is also almost exactly the same size. Battery life isn't impressive however -- about five hours of mp3 playback.

Originally Posted by -7- I think, a direct tarnsfer from DSLR to Storage medium is always the most prefered way for us. iPod Photo latest released info. is showing the intention of making this possible...

The only attractive way of using a cable based device is tethered shooting -- when you press the shutter release, the image is transfered to your device. The Ipod Photo does not allow this (neither does any other product). The cable connection between Ipod Photo and the camera locks the camera in "storage mode", and the Ipod accesses it as your computer would, copying the images between devices. Unfortunately, that locks up the camera for several minutes while images are transferred, as well as increasing wear on the USB contact and being extremely clumsy (you have to babysit the items all the time in the field). With a CF reader equipped box, just remove the full card, pop in another in the camera, press "copy" on the image tank, put it in your pocket and keep shooting while your card is copied.

Originally Posted by -7- Besides above 3 options, anyone has any other devices and experiences with 7D???

There are lots of them. Lots and lots. The simplest devices have a B/W screen, or no screen at all, and some are even sold without hard drive -- you can buy any capacity you want up to 80GB (the largest available 2.5" disk today AFAIK).

[Flare]

If you want tethered shooting with a portable external storage, you'll have to get one of these handheld PC running windows XP. Install and boot up Dimage transfer on them, and you can do tethered shooting, but battery life may be a problem, and the price prohibitive...

2 Handheld computers that comes to my mind is:
OQO

Sony VAIO U50

[Magnus Wedberg]

Originally Posted by Flare OQO

I've thought about that machine. Really cool A shame it hasn't got a Swedish keyboard