Dirk Van der Herten Posted October 21, 2006 Share #1 Posted October 21, 2006 Advertisement (gone after registration) I'm looking for a portable hard disk suitable for both Epson RD-1 RAW-files, as well as M8 DNG-files. Does anybody have an idea which portable hard disk I should look for? Thank you very much for your advice. Best, Dirk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted October 21, 2006 Posted October 21, 2006 Hi Dirk Van der Herten, Take a look here Which portable hard disk for RD-1 and M8. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
robsteve Posted October 21, 2006 Share #2 Posted October 21, 2006 The latest Jobo Gigavue was the only such device that supported the Leica DMR DNG files and I don't know if any DMR users actually bought one and tried it to confirm. I suspect with the M8, the Jobo will be the only one to support it and it might take a while to get that support. JOBO AG Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnastovall Posted October 21, 2006 Share #3 Posted October 21, 2006 I'm looking for a portable hard disk suitable for both Epson RD-1 RAW-files, as well as M8 DNG-files. Does anybody have an idea which portable hard disk I should look for? Thank you very much for your advice. Best, Dirk Any thing that can read an SD card. I like the PD70X units. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wattsy Posted October 21, 2006 Share #4 Posted October 21, 2006 The JOBO has always struck me as the more 'professional' device but the Epson is probably fine. Unless you are going to be away from base for some time I'm not sure that these devices make that much sense today. The price of flash media has never been cheaper (you can get around 20 1GB cards for the price of one of these devices) and I much prefer to have work spread over multiple flash cards than sitting on a single hard drive. If I need to back-up flash cards I prefer the versatility of a laptop like the MacBook to the more restricted functionality of the portable hard-drives. However, I appreciate that if you are travelling light a laptop can be annoying to lug around. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nemeng Posted October 21, 2006 Share #5 Posted October 21, 2006 FWIW I have an small overview of PSDs (Portable Storage Devices) in the FAQ at: Leica FAQ - Digital Accessories & Issues For the last few months I've used a 40GB PD70X. Works fine and runs off easily available AA batteries. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wparsonsgisnet Posted October 21, 2006 Share #6 Posted October 21, 2006 People keep saying this or that portable hard disk does not display the raw or dnr file. Since all raw files either are or can be accompanied by a jpeg, it does not matter that the port hd can't display a raw-type file. These hd's will certainly capture the raw image -- it's just a file. I use an Image Tank III (an older disk) that only shows remaining storage capacity. In this mode, I can only verify that a copy to hd did take place. I would be happy with more functionality, but in essence, a hard disk is a hard disk. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Maio Posted October 21, 2006 Share #7 Posted October 21, 2006 Advertisement (gone after registration) Something to be wary about: I have (had) an Epson P-2000 which I used for location storage. One of the design parameters of the Epson device, is that the operating system is on a small partition of the hard-drive. On the surface, this isn't unusual as most computers are configured this way. The problem comes about when there is HD failure. You can't simply replace the HD, because Epson, unlike every computer maker I know of, does not provide a "system restoration disk" or make any provisions to reinstall the system on a new drive. The only alternative (unless you've made a clone of the original HD) is to return the device to Epson, where they will charge a flate rate of about $330.00 to replace a $70.00 HD. JOBO, on the other hand, keeps its operating system in non-volatile flash memory. This means you can not only replace a faulty HD, but you can replace the original with a higher capacity drive should the need arise. In any event, a JOBO Evolution Pro will be my next portable storage device before I waste any more money on Epson. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsteve Posted October 21, 2006 Share #8 Posted October 21, 2006 People keep saying this or that portable hard disk does not display the raw or dnr file.Since all raw files either are or can be accompanied by a jpeg, it does not matter that the port hd can't display a raw-type file. These hd's will certainly capture the raw image -- it's just a file. I use an Image Tank III (an older disk) that only shows remaining storage capacity. In this mode, I can only verify that a copy to hd did take place. I would be happy with more functionality, but in essence, a hard disk is a hard disk. Bill: The Leica DMR files are not accompanied by a jpeg and there is not an option to do that. I am not sure if any of the Leica digitals, other than the M8, will shoot a RAW + jpeg either. Some RAW files will embedd a jpeg in the RAW for use in previews, but in the case of the DMR, it is just a tiny jpeg, used to display the image on the DMR lcd. When you use the DMR to zoom around a preview image, it is actually decoding the RAW to do this. On some of the other cameras that allow you to zoom around in the image, they have a larger jpeg imbedded in the RAW and use this rather than decode the RAW. In the case of the Jobo GigaVue Evolution, it is supposed to be doing what the DMR does, decode the RAW for zooms and previews on the large screen. It may all be symantics, as I have not heard of a DMR user using one of these Gigavue Evolution devices. SD cards are cheap enough that I just use cards and on long vacations, I take a laptop to see what I shot. I would typically only shoot ten rolls of film or less on a vacation, so the five 2gb cards I have never get filled. I end up bringing my images home on the cards, copied to the laptop and on a small external hardrive. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirk Van der Herten Posted October 21, 2006 Author Share #9 Posted October 21, 2006 I asked about portable hard disks, because recently my old one, a Vosonic X'S Drive Pro VP300, recently broke down with approx. 30 GB of RAW-files on board that I had shot during a long trip. Unfortunately it turned out to be impossible to recover the images. It seemed obvious getting a new hard drive. But after reading what you all wrote and looking at the actual prices of SD-cards, this does not seem so obvious any more. I noticed one can buy quite a number of SD-cards for the price of a pocket hard drive. Also, using memory cards instead of a portable hard drive might limit the risk of losing images. Thank you all very much for your thoughts and advice. Best, Dirk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsteve Posted October 21, 2006 Share #10 Posted October 21, 2006 The ideal would be to have a portable drive or laptop and copy the vacation shots to it and also keep them on the SD cards until you get home and have them safely on you home computer and backed up. On the return home I put the portable drive in my checked luggage in case I loose either my camera bag or laptop or both. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
erl Posted October 21, 2006 Share #11 Posted October 21, 2006 I recently bought a superceded JOBO GigaView. Previous model to the current release. I chose 40GB HD. I have just spent a month travelling, mainly in Morocco wherein I shot roughly 80% film and 20% digital. Unfortunately, ALL my film was stolen in Paris, but that is another story. I used two 2GB card that I dowloaded each night onto the portable HD. I wqas shooting RAW only, without the jpeg option because I did not know long the HD would take to fill, so I was saving space, I thought. After a month shooting the RD1 I filled about 30GB. I reckon the jpegs would have fitted anyway. Because of computer HD problems at home, I connected the Gigaview to the computer and used it as an extra drive while work was done on the fixed HD.I converted all the RAW files to DNG (still on the GigaView) and deleted the original RAW's. Apart from using substantially less space, the DNG also displayed a thumbnail image alongside the file name on the Gigaview. I am therefore confident that my M8 will display readily. I will probably shoot it as RAW+jpeg anyway now. Unless you have a burning desire edit and view full screen images while travelling, the portable HD option is much more convenient than a laptop and I am not sure that multiple cards is a cheaper option than say the GigaView. In my case, the Gigaview cost AU$650 and a 2GB SD card each costs AU$118. So 30-40GB capacity is much cheaper via the portable HD. Cheers, Erl Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stnami Posted October 21, 2006 Share #12 Posted October 21, 2006 Unfortunatly 100 gig of images is a lot of cards and I could buy 10 portable HDs for that price I have 3 120 gig vosonics no problems backing up even a month away, gave up travelling with a laptop . Processing is done at home so I can max out on photography and having a productive fun time Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradreiman Posted October 22, 2006 Share #13 Posted October 22, 2006 ive had a 200gig western digital external hard drive for a couple years. it travels the world with me and is suprisingly durable and fast...b Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybarton Posted October 22, 2006 Share #14 Posted October 22, 2006 Bill: The Leica DMR files are not accompanied by a jpeg and there is not an option to do that. I am not sure if any of the Leica digitals, other than the M8, will shoot a RAW + jpeg either. There is certainly some small image file thumbnail that goes with the DMR RAW. Aperture can see the thumbnail, so I would imagine other equipment can too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
telyt Posted October 22, 2006 Share #15 Posted October 22, 2006 The PD70X is also known as the Hyperdrive HD-80. I'm using the HD-80 with an 80 GB hard drive. It's been very reliable for me. It can be purchsed (as I did) as an empty shell to which you add your own notebook hard drive. Run on AA batteries, A/C or 12 volt power, includes rechargable AA battereies, can be charged with either 12-volt or A/C power, uses standard notebook hard drives (easily installed) and accepts numerous memory cards. No playback feature. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchell Posted October 22, 2006 Share #16 Posted October 22, 2006 Hi Andy, I was under the impression the DMR was not "supported" by Aperture. Are you using them together? Are there limitations? Maybe you could start a thread about DMR and Aperture? Thanks, Mitchell Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert_parker Posted October 22, 2006 Share #17 Posted October 22, 2006 There's a lot of interest in the Jobo Gigavue Pro Evolution, which is the one after Erl's - unfortunately there is a long waiting list here in the UK. Erl - I've just heard about the film - that was bad news - hope you at least got some useable images back on digital. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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