IPod or IPod photo?

[capybara]

iPod photo will not display downloaded photos from your camera, regardless of format. Either unit will store photos-- and in fact files-- of any format. iPod Photo only views photos put into it using iPhoto on your computer. Therefore, it's handy for carrying around pictures of your kids (or your previous dive trip), but not for viewing the photos you just took. There are other media readers that are designed to do this, so if that's a priority select one of them. However, they're dedicated photo storage devices, and I figure I'll get more use out of the device as an MP3 player first and a photo storage device second. You should view the iPod, photo or regular, purely as a portable hard disk with a limited but functional interface.
Charlie

Apparently the new iPod Photos that came out yesterday will have the capability of downloading and displaying pics directly from a camera unlike the previous iPod Photo, but the $29 cable to do this won't be available for another month or so. I was holding off on getting one due to that very issue, but I may reconsider if it looks like it's been fixed. Also it sounds like you still won't be able to display them on a TV until you process them on a computer. Anyone that buys one of the new ones, let us know how you like it.

Here's some articles:
Cnet
SFGate

 

[crestgel]

This is the Belkin media reader for the ipod. we plan on getting it and using it on an upcoming trip.

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=201526&pcount=&Product_Id=158350

Thanks FloppyFoot for the info from someone who uses the same. We have a 20G ipod.

do not buy it!!!

I have several friends that bought it. They do not work well.

1) they have problems seeing cards bigger then 512 meg
2) they are USB 1.1 SLOW. I mean REALLLLLLLLLL SLOWWWW

Spend the money and get the Epson p2000 My friend has one I'll check it out soon. You can watch movies on this big LCD and Music

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/epsonp2000/

 

[crestgel]

They just came out with new iPods today.

You can still get the 4g 20gb iPod for $299 but they have gotten rid of the 40gb version.

They have also introduced a new 30gb iPod photo for $349. For $50 more than the 20gb that's a good deal. They also dropped the price on the 60gb iPod photo to $449.

Also, Apple is going to come out with their own transfer dongle to take photos from a digital camera and put them on the iPod photo. I am going to make the leap and assume that you probably will be able to view those files directly without going through iTunes first.

More info...

hold the leap...

things to consider before the leap.

Is my camera USB 1.1 or 2.0
Is the iPod cable used for the camera connection going to be USB1.1 or 2.0
How much battery will mu camera suck up per card downloaded.
Can I see RAW format files on the iPod

If it is USB 1.1 then the file transfer will be SLOW

Everytime you transfer images you will be using both the battery of the iPod and Camera

If you shoot only RAW files and the iPod can not display them.... You can not see them on your TV

 

[liberato]

1) they have problems seeing cards bigger then 512 meg
2) they are USB 1.1 SLOW. I mean REALLLLLLLLLL SLOWWWW

According to the Belkin iPod Media Reader specs: "Transfers digital photos via FireWire at 300KBps" so I don't believe your friends' comments are accurate on issue #2. Regarding other problems, it looks like the reviews are all across the board.

 

[crestgel]

According to the Belkin iPod Media Reader specs: "Transfers digital photos via FireWire at 300KBps" so I don't believe your friends' comments are accurate on issue #2. Regarding other problems, it looks like the reviews are all across the board.

Firewire 300Bps? I only wish. I can say that I have used 2 different Belkin Media readers with different iPods and they are SLOW. I'm comparing it to USB2 card readers and Firewire card readers.

When was the last time you read specs that lived up to their claim? specs for USB2.0 = 480 Bps and specs for Firewire is 400 Bps but USB2 is not always faster then firewire.

Would you buy something where 50% of the ppl liked it and the other 50% did not when there are alternatives where there are higher % of satisfied customers?

I can asked my friend if he wants to sale you a used Belkin Card Reader. I'll let him know that you are aware of the problems, that way he won't feel bad selling it to you.

 

[RonFrank]

The IPOD's IMO are VERY overpriced for what they do. IMO if you want a dedicated device to store images, avoid the IPOD's, they are more hype than function, and here is why.

IPOD does NOT support RAW?? What the heck? if it's a photo device at LEAST get on board with Canon and Nikon RAW. Here I mean that while you CAN download RAW, you can not display it, but others can.

$460 for a 60 gig drive?

EVERYTHING is an add on. While MOST stand alone photo download devices have a few slots for CF and SmartMedia, this thing requires a $20 CF card reader purchase. Not much of a photo device IMO if you need to add on something to support photo capture. More to go wrong, more to carry.

Tiny LCD. Other devices in the same price range play MP3's, AND have MUCH larger LCD's, AND support RAW.

Requires a $100 battery replacement that is NOT easily done by the user. WTHeck. Another example of hype over functionality.

Apple has proven that once again the consumer goes for cool over function, and is some what brainless. The IPOD has vaulted stock prices. Kudos to Apple for finding that niche product that sells huge dispite it lack of features in MANY areas. Not that I have anything against the IPOD, I just find it VERY overpriced, and rather pointless. If you NEED even 20 gig for music storage, you are either a DJ, or you don't understand the concept of deleting stuff you are not currently listening to.

I carry a standalone CD burner. It backs up 750mb, spans disks, acts as a DVD player, can display images on a TV, and ran about $200. I burn every card twice, and that is my backup.

 

[ScubaJoel]

[...]
If you NEED even 20 gig for music storage, you are either a DJ, or you don't understand the concept of deleting stuff you are not currently listening to.

Or you listen to books (what is this called in english, when the autors reading its books) and / or learning a new language with it, like I do (japanese). Those mp3 files, together with my favorite music, will take a lot of space. Not 20 Gb, but six or more (three different language courses)

And Ron, iPOD is 1st a MP3-player, 2nd a strorage device and 3rd photo viewer. In this order.
F.e. x-Drive has been 1st an external storage device with card-reader functions, than the MP3-player function came with the next one. And lately the ability to watch MPEGs. Still can only handle JPEGs.

I got the iPod Photo as a b-day-present. Sure its overpriced, but ...
And there is the disadvantage which the unability not to look to your photos right after downloading it - but I don't care.
I'm pretty sure someone will code a patch for this problem sooner or later.

I can check / show my actual taken pics on my Oly or Canon much better, 'cause I can zoom in - no need to use the LCD of the iPOD for it. For presenting a slideshow of the older (post-processed) ones, its pretty nice.

To be honest: I don't want an application touches my original RAWs or JPEGs for optimize and scalling reason. No way. Not before I got a backup. Even PS destroyed two of my best pics last time.
I miss the ability to watch movies on my iPOD much more.

But iPOD and reader took less space and are not that heavy like my old x-drive and the CD-Player (both with own power adapter) I use to travell with. This adapters I have to carry with, drives me mad sometimes. One charger for Oly, one for Canon, one adapter for the torch and one for the mobile phone, one charger for the D-180 - and I'm sure I forgot some. One or two adapters to use the power supplies in malaysia.

@crestgel
You are right: the Belkin Card Read is slow - compared with what you can get on the market by standalone readers (direct attached to computer), but those will not fit to an iPOD.
My Belkin reader in combination with iPOD is ~ 10% faster than the x-Drive II I used before.

Anyway: Don't compare peaches with oranges. Don't confuse the transfer speed between different specs (USB or Firewire and direct connected devices like computer <-> external harddisk) with the readspeed of a memory card and the (read and) transfer speed of a card reader attached to external storage.

The average readspeed of a memory card is around 40Mbit/s - same for the transfer speed of cardreaders. Average. There are faster, as you can see later.
16 seconds for copying a 1Gb San Disk Ultra II CF-Card? Wow, that would be nice.

For USB 2.0 the spec says "... up to 480 MBit/s" that means (of course) NOT every device will transfer with highest speed. If a device is labeled as USB 2.0 this means only it sticks to the specs.
Only for Hubs and Computer (hostcontroller) it means they will transfer with highspeed. Nevertheless even most hostcontrollers bring that so called "highspeed" down to an effectiv transferrate something above 80-100Mbit/s.
It's pretty naive to think you will have a transferrate which is 480 Mbit/s (or 60 MB/s) when buying a USB 2.0 device...

"All manufacturers rate their USB 2.0 readers at 480Mbit/s, but actual transfer rates are about 2~10MB/s. The values given represent sequential read or write across the whole media. Downloading multiple files using Windows Explorer might be about 5~20% slower."
source: http://www.hjreggel.net/cardspeed/index.html
Don't confuse MBit and MB (MByte)

If somebody is interested in probe his connections / readers, there is a simple tool for it http://www.heise.de/ct/ftp/ctsi.shtml go for h2benchw.zip. It works with every reader / camera which apears as a harddrive when connected to your computer.
Sorry for Canon Users.
Its the same tool the guy in the link above used for his checks and was coded by a known german computer-magazine.
UNzip, open a command-prompt, change to its directory and start with switching the language to english "h2benchw -english" or dutch, if this is your prefered language.

==========

You are almost right when you think about the camera as the slowest part of the system - related to the reading speed. You provided a link to dpreview, so you might know this as well - or you should know: http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/key=connectivity

I checked my Oly 5060wz with a San Disk Ultra II a couple of hours ago - reading / transferspeed: 0,6 MB/s. Same with xD Card.
I had expect it somehow slower for the xD card - but after thinking indeep, it's the camera interface which slows it down - the interface (or reader) is the bottleneck.

Knowing camera interfaces are reading memory with max ~ 500Kb/s its will be a good advice to use always standalone card reader instead of connecting the camera direct to the iPOd (or any other external device / computer). Even a cheap 30$ should do better than your camera.

In case someone have an iPOD and is looking for a solution for storing pics from memory cards to iPOD I would suggest the Belkin reader instead of the "Digital Camera Link" (same price), because it should be faster (theoretically)

 

[crestgel]

ScubaJoel glad to see that you agree with me that it does not live up to its specs. Not everyone is well inform as you are about sequentail reads and writes, host controllers, and camera memory speeds. Most ppl believe what the manufactures tell them in the specs or box covers. Ignorant.

Have you had any problems with your card reader not copying your cards correctly? What size cards are you using?

 

[liberato]

When was the last time you read specs that lived up to their claim?

OK, point well taken. What you meant to say then is: 2) they are [as slow as] USB 1.1. I can't dispute that in light of your personal experience and the info from ScubaJoel. Your original post did not imply any personal knowledge (rather a comment from your friends) and also seemed to get the interface wrong (further implying unfamiliarity). That was due to my misreading of your "they are USB 1.1 SLOW" statement. In any case, their FireWire interface speced at 300KBps is miserably slow as speced and not far from your experiential speed claim (as per the dpreview chart).

 

[stallion]

Have you had a look at any of the Archos Products? Got a friend who has the Archos Gmini 400. Awesome little device.
Its got a colour screen, plays mp3's, plays Divx, built in CF slot for reading and writing to CF, ability to view photo's after you've downloaded them from your CF card (No RAW though), can act as a USB harddrive (thus no need for any special software to transfer mp3's or jpegs to or from the device - great if you're not on your pc). Roughly the same size as an Ipod.
May be a little more expensive but for the features its way worth it.