Rachel wrote:

Hello. It´s me, Rachel. I finally got this device. It was smaller and lighter than I imagined. Just one click and you have your data inside the disc. I love it. Here is my question. I want to use this thing to save my pcs in trips. But, there is an airport in between. Will the x rays will erase my images as the same way it does erase data from laptops? What I should do? The x rays also damages data from memory sticks?

I used the device several times and I’ve taken it always in my hand luggage. I never had problems with photo’s been erased or data been lost.

Will wrote:

I only have one draw back, there is no form of file verification so you have no way of knowing whether your photos have transferred safely before you erase your memory sticks? I’d hate to erase 1500 pictures to find out that they been stored on this device with half the image missing….So does anyone have any thoughts on this

Will,

As you said, there is no verification. In fact, if you do not watch the device until it stops blinking (indication that the transfer is complete) and it powers off — you won’t really know if it finished the transfer of if the batteries just went dead. Having said that, if you do watch and the transfer completes and the lights stop blinking, you should feel relatively safe that your files have been transferred. I never lost a file in over a year and a half of very heavy use. There are new devices out there now. Maybe one has some sort of indicator by now?

Rachel wrote:

Will the x rays will erase my images as the same way it does erase data from laptops? What I should do? The x rays also damages data from memory sticks?

Rachel, I have never heard of any problem with x-rays and magnetic (hard drive & flash cards) or optical (CDROM) storage. X-rays can be harmeful to film, but I don’t think you will have any problem with the HDPS-M1.

As for Lenses, I mostly use the 70-200IS 2.8, 28-135IS, and i have a Leica to EOS adapter for my 19, 50, 35-70, 75-200 w/2x tc

For a flash, I went with Metz since I liked the ability to bounce and have a secondary fill flash at the same time.

williamray wrote:

I recently purchased a Canon 20d and the 580EX Speedlight. You will not regret the upgrade to a digital SLR — I highly recommend Canon’s offerings.

I followed your recommandations and bought the EOS 20D + 580EX Speedlight and a 17-85 mm f/4-5.6 IS USM (instead of the “native” 18-55 mm EF-S). I hope I did it right.

I completed with an extra BP-511A and a SANDISK CF Ultra II 1 GB;

Still looking for the 60Gb PD70x.

What kind of lenses do you use most often ?

EDIT :
Ever heard of the NextoCF (another portable device) ?

To get from singapore to Los Angeles took 2 days and there were absolutely no delays or problems at all. They also had the best price on the unit from what i could tell.

# 8-in-1 card reader (accepts CF Type I/II, MD, SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro, xD without need for additional adaptors)
# Supports miniSD, RS-MMC, MS Duo, MS Pro Duo, TransFlash via additional adaptors

Sounds like if the card exists, it’ll read it

Mountain wrote:

it just doesn’t make any sense to get the Sony device in my opinion.

Thanks for your advice. The only one reason could be that the Sony device can read both MS and CF. I don’t think the CF device does…

Mountain wrote:

Last saturday I purchased a PD70x and have been very impressed with it. It run’s off of AA batteries and has an internal charger that works with a car plug or regular ac socket. It can accept any 2.5 laptop drive, and can accept most memory card formats. The biggest thing is that it will download 1gig in under 2 mins and as for battery life, it says 50 gigs, but I haven’t used up my batteries yet to confirm that.

There were no errors, one handed operation was a breeze, and it held up to being jostled and everything while I ran around to get the best shots.

When you consider speed, cost, and battery life, plus the abilty to read CF Type I/II, MD, SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro, and xD cards, for less money, it just doesn’t make any sense to get the Sony device in my opinion.

I can’t argue with any of this. I will certainly be taking a look at the PD70x. If the battery life is really that much better, I may need to have one of these in my camera bag!

Last saturday I purchased a PD70x and have been very impressed with it. It run’s off of AA batteries and has an internal charger that works with a car plug or regular ac socket. It can accept any 2.5 laptop drive, and can accept most memory card formats. The biggest thing is that it will download 1gig in under 2 mins and as for battery life, it says 50 gigs, but I haven’t used up my batteries yet to confirm that.

I went out sunday to an Airshow and shot 1200 pics/10gigs using my EOS-1D MkII and the PD70x worked like a Champ. I took 3 1gig cards an i’d fill it up, replace it with an empty one, and dump the full one into the PD70x. This way I always had a spare 1gig card free, 1 in the camera, and 1 unloading the pics.

There were no errors, one handed operation was a breeze, and it held up to being jostled and everything while I ran around to get the best shots.

When you consider speed, cost, and battery life, plus the abilty to read CF Type I/II, MD, SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro, and xD cards, for less money, it just doesn’t make any sense to get the Sony device in my opinion.

ledoc wrote:

Hi All, I’m a newbie here and as my motherlanguage is french, please forgive the mistakes I’ll do writing in english.

Your English is a great deal better than my French.

ledoc wrote:

I will change to reflex digital cameras soon (and advices are always welcome) to gain more resolution but also faster speeds and more powerful flash system.

I recently purchased a Canon 20d and the 580EX Speedlight. You will not regret the upgrade to a digital SLR — I highly recommend Canon’s offerings.

ledoc wrote:

Your discussion about the HDPS-M1 interrested me. Sure 1 hour battery is not much but could be enough (mostly if it can be refilled quite fast. can the users tell more about it ?). Too bad there’s no screen to review the pictures stored..

The one hour battery life is an issue. Also, the battery needs to be recharged after sitting idle for more than two or three days. I do not need or even want a screen to review the pics. For this I use the camera’s LCD or my laptop. The battery does recharge pretty quickly.

ledoc wrote:

But both speed of tranfert and MS/CF compatibility makes it a interesting product.

My new 20d uses Compact Flash, so I am still using this device for both my new camera and my Sony DSC-F828. This device is particularly good for Sony products.

ledoc wrote:

I just saw this product 2 hours ago in a belgian shop newsletter. For info, it costs 185 € + taxes with a 2 yrs warranty.

If this amount is in Euros, then that is roughly $223 American dollars. Sounds like an outstanding price to me.

Thanks for your interest.

Rachel wrote:

You are GOD.

Well … you know. :unsure:

Rachel wrote:

This thing only copy files, right?

Correct, the HDPS-M1 is intended as a simple file copy device. It also serves as a portable hard drive, but I don’t want to confuse you here.

Rachel wrote:

So, when I get 9999 pictures inside the hard disk, will my picture 0001 will replace the one that was already inside? I can´t rename them, right? how is this thing going to tell me if I want to replace it, or just simply replaces it? Will it copy my files directly to that folder? Or will replace the existing folder overwriting it?

Let me explain how the drive works.
When you put a memory card in a slot on the drive, the COPY button on the face of the device lights up. If you press it, the COPY button will flash until the entire contents of the card has been copied over to the drive — at which point the COPY button will stay on, but stop flashing.

Each time you put a card in and press the COPY button, a new folder is created automatically on the unit’s internal hard drive. The folder will be named using the following format: yyyymmdd.###. For example, the first card you copy over to the drive today would go into a folder named 20050610.001. If you copied over another card today, it would go into folder 20050610.002.

The HDPS-M1 does not care what is on the card, but it will never overwrite a file because it never copies into the same folder twice. In fact, if you hit the copy button again with the same card inserted, the HDPS-M1 will make another exact duplicate of the same picture files in another folder.

Sorting out the files and avoiding overwriting an older file with the same name is left entirely up to you, the user. Can you handle the responsibility? :blink:

I personally use a freeware program called Flash Renamer to move away from the DSC##### file naming format. This, of course, has nothing to do with the HDPS-M1, but it could solve your fear of overwriting files. I typically use a date time prefix with an index number (e.g., DSC0001 becomes 050610_001) The utility is free. You can learn more at Flash Renamer

Also, I am still using my HDPS-M1. It is a permanent fixture in my camera bag.

Phila wrote:

So far this looks like just what I was after.

Glad you liked it. I am still using mine and don’t feel the need for anything else. It works. Its simple to use. Nuff said.

The unit appears to be very well constructed and solid; and in my initial testing works as advertised. It is quite obvious when in action that files are being transferred and when the transfer is finished. The main instructions are on the HD so you will need to connect the unit to a computer first before you are able to decipher what all the different combinations of LEDs mean (on/off/flashing, green/orange/red). In normal operation the LEDs are quite understandable however.

It took 7:30 minutes to transfer a full 1GB SanDisk Ultra II card (containing a total of 124 Canon CR.2RAW/Small JPEG images) to the unit. Connected to a 12″ 1.33 GHz PowerBook (10.3.5) via the supplied USB2.0 cable, each folder took 1:20 minutes to download.

Battery charge and HD capacity are both displayed by different LED combinations, as are any errors in file transfer. Also if there is not enough space on the HD for the files on the CF Card.

So far this looks like just what I was after.

cheers
Noel aka DuckMcF
Melbourne

I am also interested in picking one up

thanks!