Mobile cd writer instead of a laptop

Neo · January 11, 2004

While traveling you always need more space, one way is to take your laptop.
I just saw this device. Smaller than a laptop , and I think it is a good way to burn them directly and not to loose your precious images. Might be something?

http://www.jobodigital.com/products/disc_steno_cp200.htm

patch29 · January 11, 2004

That looks very interesting for $300.00. It makes me nervous not being able to view my files on a computer, but if an inexpensive portable solution is what you need this should be a great option. I wonder if it shows how many files are being transfered. The fact that it can use video out to a TV is a nice way to check to see what is on your disk though.

24x write speed is pretty fast. Reading many types of memory cards is a plus too, you never know when you might need to help a friend.

I like that it is made by JOBO, known for their darkroom gear, glad to see they are making a transition to digital.

This is one of the first devices that I have seen using and OLED. I guess that technology is starting to catch on.

Anyone have experience with it or read a review? Thanks for pointing it out.

wxwax · January 11, 2004

Very interesting, neo, thanks for posting that and welcome to the site.

Two things occur to me: CDs don't hold a lot, so you'll need multiple CDs to hold the offerings of a 1mb card. And that also means you'll be packing a few CDs with you... blanks and recorded ones.

patch29 · January 11, 2004

wxwax wrote:

Very interesting, neo, thanks for posting that and welcome to the site.

Two things occur to me: CDs don't hold a lot, so you'll need multiple CDs to hold the offerings of a 1mb card. And that also means you'll be packing a few CDs with you... blanks and recorded ones.

Most CD's hold 700mb today, so you need about 1.5 cd's/1gb of data. If you carry the sleeve's instead of jewel cases they do not take up too much space. CD's are also super cheap about $0.25/disk so $0.50 to backup 1gb is pretty cheap, given that the CF card costs almost as much as the drive. If it was 100% reliable it would be an easy way to backup if you did not want to deal with a laptop.

wxwax · January 12, 2004

Or you could spend about $250 for a 20GB portable hard drive. The Tripper

patch29 · January 12, 2004

wxwax wrote:

Or you could spend about $250 for a 20GB portable hard drive. The Tripper

True, but a CD is much more archival than a hardrive, plus if you drop the finished CD most of the time it will be fine, not the same with the tripper. Sure you can drop the CD burner too, but it does not store all your images. I think CD's are a safer format, especially when traveling. You can always ship home burned CD's.

wxwax · January 14, 2004

FWIW, Patch, these guys agree with you WRT making multiple CD copies for backup.

Neo, the machine they cite is this one: the Micro Solutions Roadstor (I hate these names!)

What it has over the competition is a TV out (s-video as well) and it's also a DVD player. Kinda cool.

Here are the other two CD burners they write about.

The Alera Digital Photo Copy Cruiser
alera_1773_124744

Nixvue Vizor

Tom Vervaeke · January 20, 2004

Tripper
I like the Tripper. Based on a recommendation by a friend I got a 40GB triper from the Discount Shop (http://the-discount-shop.com/) just prior to Xmas. I just stick my CF card in there, press a few buttons, and my 512MB CF card is sucked dry in a matter of a few minutes. In the meantime I'm off shooting more shots with the other 512MB card. It will process 3-4 of these transfers prior to needing it's battery charged.

On a recent trip to CA over the holidays I stuffed GB after GB in there. Later, I moved the materials with a USB cord to my laptop. Normally on trips of < 1 week I won't even take a laptop as I defy almost anyone to shoot > 40GB in a week.

These things come is 20, 40, 60, and 80 GB units.

I lent mine to a friend on AdvRider who is now in Baja for 5 weeks dirt riding with friends. He's got a 3.2MP Sony A70 and my Tripper along. I expect he will come back with 5-10GB of pics. In that environment a laptop could not go safely for sure. And, he'd have to shell out a s**tfull of money for enough CF cards to last.

CD's are fine, but they only hold 650-700MB and are slow to write. If I'm out shooting the Nikon in RAW mode I can fill a 512MB CF card in 1-2 hours or less. I need something quick and painless like the Tripper to move my images to safety.

The whole unit is about the size of (dating myself here, I'm 47) an 8-track cassette. Kinda cheaply made but for < $300 bucks I've essentially got a 40GB CF card.

My .02.

Tom

wxwax · January 20, 2004

Makes sense to me, but I'm just standing on the sidelines. I think the difference is between my needs (I can handle losing an image if necessary) and the needs of a pro (who absolutely, positively must preserve the images they shoot - it's their livelihood.)

So I reckon I'd chance it with a hard drive. But a pro wants the mental comfort of having their shots safely filed, and also backed-up somewhere. That's why it's worth it to them to carry around CDs, which are solid state and pretty rugged. I think carrying CDs around with a burner is a little clumsy, but it sure is a lot safer than a more fragile hard drive device.

patch29 · February 2, 2004

Here is an article by a photographer who used a portable cd burner setup on a climbing expedition to the Himalayas.

It is well worth reading. He burned many CD's over three weeks and never charged his cd burner (single battery) or 10D (5 batteries for it). Technology seems to be working in the wilderness.

wxwax · February 3, 2004

Very interesting read. So too was the link about exposing to the right of the histogram - in essence, deliberately over-exposing the shot, but careful not to blow-out the highlights.

patch29 · February 20, 2004

I checked this unit out at PMA and it looks really good. A nice portable option of you want to travel fairly lightweight. I also like the OLED display. Hopefully the price of these units will drop in the future.

DJ-S1 · March 23, 2005

The Aleratec burner won PC Magazine Editor's Choice this month. Article here.

wxwax · March 23, 2005

And on the portable hard drive side, the EPSON P-2000 is all the rage right now. $500 bucks, tho. :bluduh

davemj98 · March 23, 2005

Vaio Pocket Player

wxwax wrote:

And on the portable hard drive side, the EPSON P-2000 is all the rage right now. $500 bucks, tho. :bluduh

I got this gadget and took it on a trip to the Grand Canyon; listened to MP3's on the airplane both ways, dumped 1200 photos into it (and got to view them also on its screen) and left the laptop at home! It really works for me.http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start?ProductSKU=VGFAP1L&Dept=computers&CategoryName=acc_PCAccessories_VaioPocket

pathfinder · March 23, 2005

wxwax wrote:

Makes sense to me, but I'm just standing on the sidelines. I think the difference is between my needs (I can handle losing an image if necessary) and the needs of a pro (who absolutely, positively must preserve the images they shoot - it's their livelihood.)

So I reckon I'd chance it with a hard drive. But a pro wants the mental comfort of having their shots safely filed, and also backed-up somewhere. That's why it's worth it to them to carry around CDs, which are solid state and pretty rugged. I think carrying CDs around with a burner is a little clumsy, but it sure is a lot safer than a more fragile hard drive device.

As I have said previously, I don't want to spend my evening time waiting around while I burn 3 or 4 CDs. I use my laptop - buy a cheap used one if need be - and a USB 2 powered 40Gb hard drive - That gives me two independent copies of my files quickly, and if I'm real paranoid I would also burn a DVD as well while I slept. A 40Gb USB 2 powered HD can be found in the PC Connection for about $130 dollars. And no CDRs to buy or carry around or scratch. Cdrs work OK for 3 Mpxl images, but when you start shooting 8Mpxl images you just need a bigger storage medium. Shooting birds can fill up a 4 Gb card in a day easily.

And the laptop lets me review the RAW files to see if I wish to archive them or just delete them on the spot. A TV out connection is not going to let me see my RAW files at all. If you just shoot jpgs, and don't wan to review your work, then one of these CDR burning gadgets might work, but not for me. I want to be able to see my images before I get home a week later.

ian408 · March 23, 2005

In today's connected world, I would venture to guess that many pros are
carrying laptops. One to edit and two to upload and then there's e-mail
and other stuff. Adding a cd burner to a laptop is cheap enough these
days.

While there's a compelling reason to look at things like the epson and cd
burners if you will be away from a power source, there's not enough
of a reason to opt for one of them over a laptop you may already have.

Ian

P.S. It's just one more power supply to add to the pile...

mercphoto · March 23, 2005

ian408 wrote:

In today's connected world, I would venture to guess that many pros are
carrying laptops. One to edit and two to upload and then there's e-mail
and other stuff. Adding a cd burner to a laptop is cheap enough these
days.

Some brands even have them standard on all their machines because they are so cheap. Personally, in my opinion, at 700MB a CD-R just isn't a lot of storage. I know people who only shoot with 512M cards specifically to make life easier when burning CD backups. One problem with some of the portable burners is they don't split cards onto multiple discs. This particular one might, I don't know, but you want to find out.

Another benefit to carrying a laptop on travel is the ability to watch a DVD in your hotel room or the airplane for entertainment. Some brands even include Combo drives standard on all their laptops as well...

I'm personally torn between an Epson P2000 or bringing a notebook. Ok, what I really want is an iPod photo that will read directly from a card reader (can it?) But I would not consider a portable CD burner.

ian408 · March 23, 2005

mercphoto wrote:

Some brands even have them standard on all their machines because they are so cheap. Personally, in my opinion, at 700MB a CD-R just isn't a lot of storage. I know people who only shoot with 512M cards specifically to make life easier when burning CD backups. One problem with some of the portable burners is they don't split cards onto multiple discs. This particular one might, I don't know, but you want to find out.

Another benefit to carrying a laptop on travel is the ability to watch a DVD in your hotel room or the airplane for entertainment. Some brands even include Combo drives standard on all their laptops as well...

I'm personally torn between an Epson P2000 or bringing a notebook. Ok, what I really want is an iPod photo that will read directly from a card reader (can it?) But I would not consider a portable CD burner.

Exactly. I am sitting in a hotel right now (thought I'm not watching a
movie--I could).

The way I process my shots is to dump them to the laptop. Take a quick
look-see and then burn them to disk. That way, I have a couple of copies
until I get back home. That might change if I were taking a trip to the
mountains much like the linky posted earlier.

ian

gubbs · March 24, 2005

I used to have an apacer cp100 which I was really pleased with, well built, simple to use, write verification, but it wasn't cabable of spanning across cd's so I sold it. Fortunately the model your looking does span .

I've just recd a Delkin DVD burnaway. First impressions are good, I've just tried it for the first time and it seems to work well. Power on, DVD in, Card in, press button twice. That's it!
It reads/ writes about as fast as my usb 2.0 card reader uploads. I reckon It could burn a dvd before you've got a laptop out of its bag and booted up.

I'm away to West Wales for the weekend so I'll try it out more extensivley, If you can hold on a few days I'll do a more thorough review and post some pics. (assuming that my pc is up an running

)

gubbs · March 24, 2005

gubbs wrote:

I used to have an apacer cp100 which I was really pleased with, well built, simple to use, write verification, but it wasn't cabable of spanning across cd's so I sold it. Fortunately the model your looking does span .

I've just recd a Delkin DVD burnaway. First impressions are good, I've just tried it for the first time and it seems to work well. Power on, DVD in, Card in, press button twice. That's it!
It reads/ writes about as fast as my usb 2.0 card reader uploads. I reckon It could burn a dvd before you've got a laptop out of its bag and booted up.

I'm away to West Wales for the weekend so I'll try it out more extensivley, If you can hold on a few days I'll do a more thorough review and post some pics. (assuming that my pc is up an running )

Oh Yeah, this thing is supplied with cables and a remote so it can be used as DVD player (pal and the other one) /Mp3 Player/ photo review. Just discovered that the drive can be taken out of the housing so that it can fit straight into your laptop drive bay.

gubbs · April 6, 2005

gubbs wrote:

I've just recd a Delkin DVD burnaway. First impressions are good, I've just tried it for the first time and it seems to work well. Power on, DVD in, Card in, press button twice. That's it!
It reads/ writes about as fast as my usb 2.0 card reader uploads. I reckon It could burn a dvd before you've got a laptop out of its bag and booted up.

I'm away to West Wales for the weekend so I'll try it out more extensivley, If you can hold on a few days I'll do a more thorough review and post some pics. (assuming that my pc is up an running )

Delayed update!!

Well, I said I'd do a review, unfortunatley I went to use it in Wales, switched it on and just got black blocks on the screen instead of text and was unable to burn anything.

Sent it back to the supplier who promptly sent me a replacement. Unfortunately, this one didn't work either. The Screen was ok, but it wouldn't recognize any discs despite trying 2 brands of cd's including the ones supplied and 2 different Sony DVD's

What a great backup device

So that one's gone back too!

Maybe I'm just unlucky

gus · April 6, 2005

And my old favorite that i use almost daily....this thing is for sale here for about $170 USD equiv & holds 30 GIG. Thats around 3750 RAW 20D shots if im not wrong.

Charge it from power/car/bike

need more room...easy to open & drop a larger laptop HD in.

[size=-1]XDRIVE PRO VP300 + 30 HDD 4200RPM + Car Charger [XDPRO30][/size]

[size=-1]Compactflash Card type I / type II (CF), IBM Microdrive, Smartmedia Card (SM), Memory Stick (MS), Memory Stick Pro (MS Pro), Secure Digital (SD), MultiMediaCard (MMC), XD Picture Card (XD)
Black and White LCD displays working status.
Internal: Li-ion rechargeable battery 3.6V (1.6 Hours time)
Windows 98/98SE, Win 2000 (with driver) Win ME/XP, Linux Kernel version 2.4 or above without driver, Mac OS 8.6 - 9.0 with driver, Mac OS 10.0.1 and above without driver.
Dimension: 13x7.5x2.5 cm Weight: 288g (including HDD) Accesories: Power adapter/USB cable/user's guide/CD Driver/

[size=-1]US based charger free - auto switch 100-240V - adapters will be also sent to suit your country UK or EU. Separately autoswitch 100-240V Charger for AU
Package Contains: X-Drive, Case, Charger, FREE CAR CHARGER, USB Cable, Earphones, Manual and CD Drivers.
Shipping costs for DHL Delivery (adding CF Cards to this item will not change shipping costs):
USA, Canada, Asia AU$ 41.00, UK AU$ 39.00, Europe AU$ 45, Australia AU$ 10.45
IN STOCK AND READY TO SHIP [/size][/size]

Mobile cd writer instead of a laptop

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