Digital Photo Storage Devices

February 9, 2004

Several new devices make it easy to store digital photos. These devices also offer a few other perks, such as viewing the photos on the unit, connecting to a TV or even viewing DVD movies. Now there’s no need to carry a stack of memory cards when taking large numbers of pictures--just burn them onto a CD or store them on a removable hard drive and reuse the camera’s memory cards. Here are some units we’ve tried recently:

FlashTrax (Smart Disk, 20GB $399.99, 40GB $499.99, 80GB $699.99, www.smartdisk.com) houses a hard drive and a 3.5 inch color LCD screen in its stylish blue and grey compact flip-top case. The unit has a card socket for CompactFlash I/II or IBM microdrives, and an optional adapter ($49.99) accepts SmartMedia, Memory Stick and SD/MMC cards. The automatic copy function is amazing. Pop the memory card into the slot, push the Copy button, and FlashTrax turns on and copies the contents of the card on to its internal hard drive. The copied files are put into a folder automatically labeled with the day’s date, appended with an "a." If you copy additional memory cards the same day, new folders are created, automatically appended with "b," "c" and so on.

The bright LCD screen can display the file explorer, listing the contents of the internal drive or memory card. Some file functions, such as duplicate, move or delete, are available. The screen also displays photos with jpeg, gif, bmp and some avi formats. To view a photo from the hard drive or the card, use the file explorer to find the file. A thumbnail of the photo is displayed along side the file list, so you’re sure that photo file named P1000967.jpg is the one of your aunt or whatever. Select the file to see it full screen. You can zoom and pan to see detail (are her eyes really closed?). The unit can play a slide show of all the photos on the internal disk or memory card, making it easy to review your photos or share them with others. You can also use the included video cable to connect to a TV to show the photos, including the slide show, on television.

The FlashTrax can also play MP3 or wav music or sound files. These files can be copied from memory cards to the hard drive and played from the hard drive or from the card. Use earphones or connect to your sound system to play music files manually, sequentially or randomly.

The unit is fully portable and powered by a custom integral rechargeable lithium ion battery. The included full-function infra-red remote control is another plus, allowing remote control of all file, picture, music and setup functions. The included AC adapter can be used to power the unit as well as charge the battery. The included USB 2.0 cable lets you connect the FlashTrax to your computer. When connected, it becomes an extra hard drive. You can perform all the usual file functions, such as move, copy, delete and the like. An extremely well-written User Guide takes you step by step through all FlashTrax’s functions.

RoadStor (Micro Solutions, $269, www.microsolutions.com) uses one-touch simplicity to burn a CD-R or CD-RW directly from your memory card. The RoadStor can then play back the photos on the CD through a TV. Memory card slots are provided for Compact Flash I/II, Smart Media, SD/MMC and Memory Sticks. Multiple sessions can be burned on one CD-R, with each card contents automatically put in a separate folder. The unit is compact and portable, powered by a custom integral rechargeable battery and/or the AC adapter.

A cool extra feature is RoadStor’s ability to play DVD movies through your TV by using the included video or S-Video cables. Not only that, but it’ll play MP3 files through your sound system. An infra-red remote control handles playback of photos, MP3 music or DVD movies. A slide show feature can cycle through your photos. When connected to your computer via the included USB 2.0 cable, the RoadStor acts as an external DVD movie player or, using the included SpeedyCD software, an external CD-R burner and CD-ROM drive. Lots of extra features in this unit.

SnapDisk (PNI Corporation, $299, www.pnicorp.com) is a memory card-to-CD burner, all in one compact unit about the size of a portable CD player. SnapDisk automatically verifies the burned CD, so you know you have a good copy. The unit has slots for seven types of memory cards but will only burn to a clean CD-R, so you can’t burn additional memory cards to a disk that has already been written to. The SnapDisk runs from the included AC adapter or an optional external battery pack. There is no option for computer connections. With the SnapDisk, simplicity is the key. The unit works well, and with one-button ease.

The AC adapters for all the three units described are 100-240 VAC, 50-60Hz, so they can be used abroad. In addition, TV output can be switched from NTSC to PAL format, so it is suitable for use in many foreign countries.

January 12, 2004

Every now and then a product comes along that makes life easier, and SnapDisk is such a product. It offers an easy way to keep those burgeoning numbers of digital photos from overwhelming your hard drive and safeguards your picture files too. With the right software, it can also help you get those photos organized.

SnapDisk (PNI Corporation, $299, available from their Web site www.pnicorp.com) is a memory card-to-CD burner, all in one compact unit about the size of a portable CD player. SnapDisk copies picture files directly from your digital camera’s memory cards to CD, and, best of all, it’s 1-2-3 easy. No setup or confusing configurations, no cables to connect and no computer needed. And, it can save you from buying extra memory cards.

First the ease of use. There are only five buttons on the unit: Power, up and down cursors, Menu (doubling as a left cursor) and Select (doubling as a right cursor). Plug in the included AC adapter (SnapDisk requires 12 volts DC, which can also be supplied by the included car adapter or an optional portable rechargeable 12 volt battery pack), power the unit on, and a welcoming menu on the LCD screen asks if you want to Copy to CD or Eject the CD tray. Select the Copy to CD option, and an Insert Memory Card message appears. Insert your memory card, and the next message asks you to Insert a CD. Select Ready, and after a few moments you’ll get a message indicating the number of files to copy and a verification of the estimated time to copy them. Select continue, and go have coffee while the SnapDisk copies (burns) away. To copy our 154 picture files from a SmartMedia card, SnapDisk estimated nine minutes but actually only took 6.5 minutes. When done, there’s a CD is Ready! message. You can eject the CD and power the unit off or eject the CD and copy another card. The only options you can set are turning alerting sounds on or off and changing the LCD screen contrast.

Since SnapDisk copies and verifies, you know you’ll have a good, reliable copy of those picture files. The CD is finalized in the process, so you will not be able to write any more files into the folder that has been created on the CD by SnapDisk. SnapDisk can use blank CD-R or CD-RW disks but cannot use a CD that has any files already written on it.

The unit can read, copy and verify files from seven types of memory cards: CompactFlash, Microdrive, Memory Stick, Secure Digital, Multi Media Card, SmartMedia and xD cards (xD cards require an adapter). SnapDisk must be used horizontally and not shaken while in operation or used in a moving vehicle. Despite these caveats, it’s compact enough to take on trips and the like. And since the AC adapter can operate at 100-240V (50-60Hz), you can also use it abroad for safe keeping of your pictures, allowing you to reuse your digital camera’s expensive memory cards over and over.

The SnapDisk is quite stylish in its two-tone grey case, weighing just under one pound, and 5.5 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches in size. It comes with a blank CD-R, a padded carrying case with room for a few extra CDs and is covered by a one-year warranty

Once you’ve copied your picture files to CDs for safe keeping, you’ll want a way to keep track of what’s on each CD. Sure, you can label the CD "Christmas 2003" or "Grandma’s Visit" or such, but to check what pictures are actually on that disk you’ll want a photo organizing and viewing program for your computer. We strongly recommend Adobe Photoshop Album (Adobe, $49.99). (If you missed our review of Album, send us a SASE at the address below and we’ll send a review) Adobe Photoshop Album saves, on your computer, a set of thumbnail pictures representing the original pictures on the CD. You can view or print the thumbnails any time, without having the original CD in the computer’s drive. You can access your entire collection of pictures no matter where they’re stored: hard drive, floppy disks, or CDs, and search for any picture by date, keywords that you’ve tagged each photo or set with or by words in any notes attached to the photos. Your original picture files are untouched, and if you select a picture that’s on one of the CDs to print or e-mail, the program will ask you to put that CD in your computer’s drive. The program helps you make some very slick slide shows, photo albums, cards, calendars or books.

SnapDisk Memory Card-to-CD Burner is a convenient and easy way to copy and archive picture files to CDs, maximizing usefulness of your memory cards. Add Adobe Photoshop Album, and you have a terrific combination for safeguarding, storing and sharing your digital photos.

February 16, 2004

In the days of film and prints, your negative served as the backup for photos. But with digital photos, the camera’s memory card becomes the initial backup. Can you afford to keep buying memory cards just for backup storage? And did we mention viewing the pictures? How do you easily show photos to larger groups of family, friends and the like? The answer to these questions comes in the form of various devices that can backup your camera’s memory card and provide a way to view the pictures easily and quickly. Several varieties of these devices are now available. Here’s a new one we’ve just looked at:

The eFilm PicturePAD (Delkin, 20GB/$429, 30GB/$479, 40GB/$529, 60GB/$649) serves as a storage depot and viewer for your digital photos. Even the smallest capacity model holds thousands of images, and all models have a built-in 1.8 inch backlit LCD screen for viewing the pictures and displaying a variety of file functions. The 3 x 5 x 1 inch, 10-ounce unit looks great in its stylish, compact glossy black case. A power switch and seven other buttons are used to select the on-screen menus that operate the unit’s functions.

The eFilm PicturePAD only has a slot for inserting a Compact Flash type I/II memory card, but an optional adapter ($69) is available for SmartMedia, MMC/SD and Memory Stick cards. We inserted our 48MB Compact Flash card into the slot and, using the on-screen menus, instructed the eFilm PicturePAD to copy the contents of the card to the internal hard drive. Our 48 pictures (45MB) took just over one minute to transfer. The files were put into a folder that was automatically labeled with the day’s date plus an identifier number that is incremented for any additional sets copied that day. An additional feature lets you verify the copied images to insure you have a good copy. You can create new folders on the unit’s hard drive using the on-screen menus, which include a virtual keyboard for entering the folder name (or renaming a file) and then, using the on-screen menus, you can copy or move your images into those new folders.

The pictures from either the hard drive or the memory card can be viewed on the device’s LCD screen either by picking a specific file from the file list, using the thumbnail display or just scrolling manually through the photos. The initial viewing is slow (up to 6-8 seconds to load each image while the eFilm PicturePAD indexes and caches the images), but after the first pass the images appear promptly. An automatic slide show is available and features selectable time intervals from 2 to 99 seconds. Other viewing features include zoom, pan, rotate, EXIF data (camera and exposure settings) and an image histogram.

An included video cable connects the eFilm PicturePAD to your TV set for photo display and menu functions, and the included infrared remote control makes viewing photos and handling file functions easier. The unit can be connected to your computer’s USB 1.1 port, where the eFilm PicturePAD acts like an external hard drive. The drive has all the usual file functions available, and you can copy the photos to the computer’s hard drive or burn a CD of your picture files for further back up security. Additional optional accessories for the eFilm PicturePAD include a printer adapter ($59) to print pictures directly from the unit without using a computer and a firewire ($89) or a USB 2.0 adapter ($49) for faster file transfer.

Included with the eFilm PicturePAD is Adobe Photoshop Album (if you’d like our complete review of Album, send us a SASE at the address below). Adobe Photoshop Album saves, in your computer, a set of thumbnail pictures representing the original pictures on the eFilm PicturePAD–as well as any pictures on the computer’s hard drive or other removable media such as floppy disks or CD-ROMs. You can view or print the thumbnails any time, without having the eFilm PicturePAD connected. You can access your entire collection of pictures no matter where they’re stored: hard drive, floppy disks, CDs or the eFilm PicturePAD.

Searching for any picture is quick and easy-- by date, keywords that you’ve used to tag each photo with or by any words in any notes attached to the photos. Your original picture files are untouched, and if you select a picture from the eFilm PicturePAD to print or e-mail, the program will ask you to connect the device. In addition, Adobe Photoshop Album helps you make some very slick slide shows, photo albums, cards, calendars or books and includes a simple photo editor for correcting common picture errors. You can organize video and music files as well as picture files using the program. Adobe Photoshop Album is a well thought out, extremely useful addition to your digital photography life and using it with a storage/viewing device such as the eFilm PicturePAD makes a great combination for the digital photographer.

We’ve previously reviewed several other devices that back up your digital pictures and provide means for viewing them away from the camera and computer. For a copy of our other reviews, send us a SASE at the address below.

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