Has anybody here had experience with the "Media Buddy"

[Blue_In_AK]

http://www.a-digital-eye.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=718&sid=5faff6ae1c42dd590901711dd7dc55a2

for storing photos when you're on the road? This looks like a pretty cool little gadget for $229+ (depending on GB storage). I would assume it would store RAW pictures, too? Seems like it would be worth the $$ instead of buying more memory cards.

[NV Whino]

1. That looks great

CA Peggy was looking for something like that a while back. I just e-mailed her the link.

[Ms. Toad]

2. A lot of places

Particularly in countries where commercial computer sharing is more common (outside the US, primarily) a will do a memory dump to CDs for considerably less than $229. (My recollection is that it cost about $5-$10 in Australia). My card holds ~220 pictures. I carry two of them, which I'll fill in a little less than a week when I'm traveling, and pay to have them dumped along the way if I need to.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. That would no doubt work for populated areas...

but what I'm thinking about is when we go out in the wilds of Alaska nowhere near another computer...or even a town, for that matter. This just looked like a good idea to me since I don't have a laptop.

[Ms. Toad]

9. There are quite a few places in the US where it would't work,

But most places outside of the US I've been in tend to be much more amenable to sharing computing power in accessible public places (at a price - but it's generally lower than toting a laptop around).

[Guy Fawkes]

4. sort-of....

the local Camera store- a GREAT place with very knowledgable peoples- recommends one. They keep the 20gb in stock and say it's always running out.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Thanks, Guy

I was really kind of fretting about this issue because even though I have two 1 GB memory cards, we're going to be out for a week or 10 days in the spring, and at the rate I'm taking photos these days, I'm afraid I would fill them right up, especially since everybody here tells me to shoot in RAW. I think this is a great idea, and I'm glad to hear that people seem to be buying them.

[Guy Fawkes]

6. BTW...

don't shoot RAW.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. Why not?

Everybody here has been pushing it on me ever since I got my new camera in November. I've got all the processing software I need for it. And I promise I won't be shooting IN the raw, if that's what you meant. Too many mosquitoes here.

[Guy Fawkes]

14. there's really no point.

The only reason to shoot RAW would be if you take few pictures and are willing (and eager) to tweak them all one by one. Otherwise, go for jpeg.

[Blue_In_AK]

15. I was thinking probably what I'll do

when we go out on into the wilds is I'll take JPEGs mostly, but for those shots that I think might be really special and that might be blown up sometime I'll do RAW. It IS kind of fun to play with them, but as you say, I'm not sure I would want to do that with five or six hundred pictures. :)

[Boo_Radley]

8. That looks really nice.

I tried a Belkin card reader for the iPod, and it totally sucked. Back then, it was a hundred bucks, too.

I then got a DVD Burn Away, and I'm pretty happy with that. I paid under wholesale for it, though.

At the time, there was nothing like this Media Buddy, at least not for a reasonable price. I'd have gotten that if they were around.

While I'm in the process of learning to control my shots better, my method is to shoot a billion pictures of everything, and pick the best. Crappy method, but I'm working on it. Plus, I shoot everything in RAW, in case I need to change white balance or something. So I go through memory fast. Less and less as I learn from past mistakes, but it still makes me feel much better to know that it's impossible for me to run out of memory and have to delete potentially good pictures to make room.

I wish they'd had something like that at a reasonable price when I got the Burn Away.

[F.Gordon]

10. I had heard rumors about this on the internets

Thanks for posting this. Makes more sense than using a laptop and/or buying more cards. I saved the check book suckin' link for future reference. Pickin' a color will be the hard part. :P

And I also agree. Don't recommend shooting in the RAW. Some photogs will tell you that this is how you become "one with nature, blah, blah, blah..." Don't listen to them. I tried it once and was immediately arrested. :)

[Blue_In_AK]

11. I could probably get away with it in bush Alaska.

Not too many people out there, but, as I said, I'd probably get eaten alive. I wonder if that was what Guy Fawkes was talking about, or if he was "series."

[FM Arouet666]

12. Great Idea

Always a problem with travel. Carry a bunch of cards or carry a lap top. I take my lap top everywhere, but it can be a pain in the butt. My old IBM laptop weighed a ton, so I got a new Sony Vaio, the smallest available. Great for travel, but a big expense to temporarily store pics. I wish I had seen the little Media Buddy, great idea.

[Blue_In_AK]

13. They just came out in November

so not your fault if you didn't know about it. I didn't have to think about this sort of thing before I got my new camera, because with my old Sony Mavica, all I had to worry about was having enough little disks. The Media Buddy came on the market right about the same time I got the 20D -- perfect timing.

[RagingInMiami]

16. I plan on getting something like that one day

But I also like to have extra memory cards just in case I wnat to switch cards quickly without having to wait for whatever time it takes for them to download on that thing. Or just in case the batteries on that device are low.

[Blue_In_AK]

17. I carry my handy-dandy electricity converter thingie

in the car at all times so I can recharge stuff. And I'm never in as much of a hurry as you are, Raging. :)

[RagingInMiami]

18. I think my next memory card is going to be 2 GB

Because shooting in RAW takes up a lot more space. And I hate it when I lose a good photo opporunty because my card is full.

[Blue_In_AK]

19. HullBoss almost got me a 4 GB for Christmas

but the photo guy said they don't work well in the cold, so he passed. Obviously, not a consideration where you are. I can see why you'd want to have plenty of card space on hand with what you do.

[RagingInMiami]

20. Wow. A 4 GB. That might be something worth investing in.

Two of those and I might never have to buy another memory card again.

[Boo_Radley]

21. I said the same thing

when I bought a 4 gig hard drive. Now 4 gigs is nothing. I bet the same thing happens with cameras as megapixes keep growing and cameras get better audio/video quality.

[RagingInMiami]

22. That's true

I remember when I went from 256 kb to 512 kb, I thought I was the man. Then that quickly lost its luster when I went to a 1 GB. The more space I have, the more I tend to shoot.