Digital photo storage on trips... no more laptops!

[Scubaroo]

Well that's the promise of the SmartDisk FlashTrax - a 30GB storage device with 3.5" LCD for saving and viewing photos from flash memory cards to hard disk.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0303/03030217smartdiskflashtrax.asp

 

[notabob]

Wow, pretty cool! Certainly less of a hassle than a laptop, but $500 (say $450 retail) is still a pretty large chunk of change. Now where did I put that lottery ticket?

-Roman.

 

[TedJ]

Don't forget the other alternatives, i.e. MindStor (10-30GB), Archos Multimedia Jukebox (10-20GB which I have), Image Tank (10-60GB), Nixvue Vista (10-?GB) and the newly announced Nixvue ? that records to CD-R. I just bought the Archos for about $350 with the adapter to read CF cards and the optional camera (which I'll never use). It has the added advantage of recording mpgs and mp3 audio files, so I don't have to take CDs and a player on vacation.

 

[Scubaroo]

TedJ,

Do any of these products have the integrated LCD screen for viewing the images? I'm not familiar with them.

 

[Jonathan]

it is only Compact Flash - how about Sony Memory Stick? Or do any of those other devices so far mentioned take them?

Cheers
Jonathan

 

[Scubaroo]

any flash memory card

That's all they say - not really specific is it. Guess we will have to wait until closer to release time to find out.

 

[TedJ]

Scubaroo once bubbled...
TedJ,

Do any of these products have the integrated LCD screen for viewing the images? I'm not familiar with them.

If I remember correctly the Image tanks and MindStors do not allow for image viewing. The Nixvue Vista and Archos do and so does one of the others (name escapes me).

Do a google search or eBay search on:
Nixvue
Digital wallet
Image tank

You should come up with some hits.

I chose the Archos partly because there is a larger installed base of product out there and the company is more likely to be in business in the future. Unlike the one that just bit the dust.

 

[TedJ]

Jonathan once bubbled...
it is only Compact Flash - how about Sony Memory Stick? Or do any of those other devices so far mentioned take them?

Cheers
Jonathan

I believe that one of the Image Tanks will take Sony cards. But you can also get a 4 to 1 adapter that will allow for all the types of memory cards to be read by a CF reader. I got one from insidecomputer on eBay for about $25. Do an eBay search on "Compact Flash adapter" and you should get hits for them.

Most of these other units will not read Sony's proprietary cards. Here we go with Betamax again!

 

[Jonathan]

my Sony and will gladly take anyones memory sticks off them if they convert

I really must get up to toy town and have a look at whats available these days....

thanks
Jonathan