[The Pie Man]

I am looking for a little advice.

I have finally decided it is time to take the leap and get a digital camera.

I have started doing research into a good camera (I went to school for photography so am a bit of a snob in that regard), but the real issue looks like storage.

The first trip this camera is going on is a research trip in the hills of SE Asia - so lots of storage in a small size is a must (cost is also an issue of course). This is a 2+ week trip so a lot of images are going to be taken.

I don't want to take a laptop (I shudder to think of taking my wife's titanium powerbook into the jungle), and don't want to buy a ton of flash cards for storage because of price (talking hundreds of images here at highest res.)

I have heard of a 1 GB USB microdrive you can use as straight storage with digital cameras, but I really need more space than that. Also, if at all possible I would like to get a USB/Firewire drive so I could use it as day to day storage as a normal firewire HD (contract web design so it is nice to keep my work mobile).

Does anyone have any experience using HDs with digital cameras? It has to be a special HD to work directly to camera yes? (I don't want to go through a comp - just download directly to the HD and keep shooting). Do they even make such a beast (at least 20 GB and if at all possible a USB/Firewire hybrid)?

Thanks for any answers!

[SunSeeker]

Take a look at the <a href="http://www.mindsatwork.net/products.htm" target="_blank">digital wallet, mindstor </a> or <a href="http://www.nixvue.com/products/album/index.html" target="_blank">Nixvue digital album</a>.
The Mindstor has firewire and usb, digital wallet is usb only and I am not sure about the nixvue.

You may find some user opinions at <a href="http://www.robgalbraith.com" target="_blank">www.robgalbraith.com</a> or <a href="http://www.nikond1.net" target="_blank">www.nikond1.net</a>

[nana2]

Well it depends on what camera you are going to buy. A 6 megapixel camera will give you around ~2-3MB per picture in high quality jepg, and upto 20MB if stored as a RAW or TIFF file. I would recommend one or two 1GB Microdrives (they are CompactFlash II form factor) and a digital wallet perhaps.

[The Pie Man]

Thanks for the advise.

I decided to go with a couple small CF cards and a 10GB Minds@Work MindStor for a few reasons:

1) Price - 10GB for $300 (close to the prices I was seeing on the 1GB microdrive).
2) Functionality - I can use it as a normal firewire/USB drive (although I am not sure how 18MB/sec compares to the newer solo ones). So I will definitely get more milage out of it than a microdrive.

I was going to go with the new Nixvue Vista, but it is twice as expensive, and so new it is out of stock everywhere (and I am in a bit of a rush...). And really I can look at the pictures on the camera - why should I look at them on the storage device too?

If time wasn't an issue I would just as soon wait until the iPod has this functionality - but unfortunately that isn't an option...

Anyway, thanks again!

<small>[ 07-10-2002, 12:02 AM: Message edited by: The Pie Man ]</small>

[nana2]

So what camera sre you going to get?