Gethin Hill .net - Random Ramblings

In preparation for my upcoming trip to Nepal and Thailand in about a week’s time, i needed to get LOTS of storage space for photos. There’s a lot of different options out there, and i think i looked at them all. Options including Compact Flash Cards, Portable Storage Devices, External Hard Drives and USB bridges. Also, to make things more difficult, i wanted to be able to have not just 1 backup, but 2 for peace of mind.. And, no, i didn’t want to lug a laptop with me.

I ended up getting the Vosonic 8860 and the Nexto 2700 Portable Storage Devices.

If you want to know why i got these particular models, and how i came to that decision, then keep on reading!!

In terms of budget, i was looking at spending as little as possible to get the job done right and reliably, and that will hopefully last a while.

In making the decision for what to get to suit my needs, i needed to keep a few things in mind. First and foremost was the reason i needed some kind of device, and as already stated, that was for extra storage space for photo’s while travelling..

Compact Flash Cards are fairly reliable and not all that expensive really, however, quite limiting in terms of storage space for the money. Example. 1 x 8gb for $100au or so, which in RAW, is about 700 photos for me. Not too bad but if i want better value for money in terms of storage space, there’s certainly better choices, especially when you consider the cost of hard drives these days. You’re looking at maybe 160-320gb for less than $100. At least 20 times the storage space of a Compact Flash card for less money. That certainly appealed to me.

Another thing i had to keep in mind was what it was for and how it was going to be used.

For me, i wanted something that was good for travel when i didn’t have access to a computer. I needed a solution that didn’t require me to be plugged into a power point to use it. That unfortunately voided the cheap option of external hard drives and a USB bridge as all the USB bridges i could find weren’t powered, which requires the HDD to be plugged in at the wall. This did seem a viable and reasonably cheap option though if a power source is not a concern.

This basically left the option of Portable Storage Devices. These are basically a portable hard drive with a case that accepts various memory card formats to slot in and transfer files from. Now the question was, which one…

There’s so many to choose from, with various features and options so i needed to do some research. And that’s exactly what i did. I read web page after web page looking at all the in’s and out’s that the various Storage Devices had to offer. Good reviews, bad reviews and everything in between.
There’s ones with screens, ones without screens, ones that play video and or music, ones that have set storage space or ones that you can upgrade with any commonly available laptop hard drive, ones that verify your file transfers and all sorts of other features.

With all these options, i really needed to narrow it down somehow so i thought about what features i really wanted the device to have, what might be a nice bonus but not a must have, and what is completely unnecessary and would be used rarely or not at all.

2 Portable Storage Devices seemed the way to go for my requirements. It would enable me to have 2 backups on seperate devices, and allow me to rotate and reuse my 4 x Flash cards as i needed to. 4 x CF cards is more that enough for me. I won’t shoot that many shots in a day and there’s less chance of me getting confused and mixing them up or losing them. Also, being the computer nerd that I am, one can never have enough HDD space, so i figured they’ll get a lot more general everyday use than 10+ memory cards would after the trip.

Also, since i was looking at 2 devices, then i decided that 1 with a screen to view the pics might be nice, and another without a screen as 2 screened devices was pointless. This didn’t really narrow it down, but did make it more specific to what i was searching for.

Devices with a viewing screen that i checked out included various Epson models, Vosonic (wolverine in US) models, Sanho Hyperdrive models, and a few other Multimedia players. One prerequisite i wanted in my PSD with a screen was that it was capable of viewing RAW files from my Canon dSLR, as i generally shoot all my shots in RAW so if i can’t view them after transferring from the camera, the screen wasn’t much good to me. This narrowed it down quite a bit as most Multimedia players do not support RAW. It’s mostly the devices aimed at photographers that do support RAW. From this, I’d narrowed it down to the Epsons, Vosonics or Hyperdrives.

The Epsons:
These are generally very highly regarded and recommended by pro photographers. The 680 x 480 screen is supposed to be stunning.. good enough to show clients images straight away at the shoot, although, i haven’t seen one personally. The Epson p3000 and p5000 could go up to 120gb, and i’m not sure how large the newer p6000 and p7000, however, these Epson devices cost almost an arm and a leg. I couldn’t find one, even an older version, and get it here to Australia for less than $500AU, and that would have still needed a HDD upgrade bringing the cost up even more. It’s bonus’s however also included photo editing, playing video, music and output to a TV. Still, a very pricey option, a bit too luxurious for me.

The Vosonics:
The Vosonics, also known under the brand Wolverine in the US i believe, and are much less known and regarded, with a lot less information and reviews available. Most of the reviews i found were on the Vosonic forum, and, well, lets just say, it wasn’t sounding good. However, i always keep in mind that people generally post when things go wrong, not when things go right, so it’s not a reliable measure of quality.

There’s various Vosonic models available. The main models i looked at was the 8860, 8390 and 5700.
The 8860 is the newest of the bunch, released earlier this year. It’s screen rivals the Epsons for photo viewing with an awesome 800 x 480 LCD screen. It unfortunately doesn’t have TV output, however it does play video, music, radio, record TV (yes, TV input, no output.. i know, strange!) and have a built in voice recorder and upgradable hard drive using any SATA laptop HDD. All for the low price of about $300AU without HDD.. although i found a store that included a spare battery, 160gb HDD and free shipping for $360AU (about $310US for you Americans reading, and yes, that includes free shipping overseas).
The 8390 has a nice OLED screen rather than LCD. It’s the same as the 8360 but OLED, not LCD. It however isn’t anywhere near as high in resolution and cost’s a lot more. It does have TV out, however, i want one for photos on the go, so would rather a nicer viewing screen than the option to project them out, if i had to choose.
The 5700 (updated version of 5500) didn’t get too much consideration. The screen was nothing special, the extras were nothing special, and it wasn’t much cheaper than the new 8860 which offers a lot more.
So Vosonic 8860 was looking like it had quite a few ticks to it’s name. Good price, good screen, nice extras that could be handy while travelling…. hmm

The Hyperdrives:
These get a lot of good reviews and recommendations also, any model. New versions of the Colorspace and Colorspace 0 can be upgraded with laptop HDD’s allowing up to 500gb currently. They are primarily for photo’s and do not play video, however, do have a good file verification and file recovery system. The screens are ok, but nothing special. Not all that much better than the LCD on my camera which certainly influenced my decision. The major selling point of these devices is the fast file transfer speeds, a lot faster than both Epson and Vosonic’s PSD’s. Also the battery life and how much you can transfer per charge, which is great for travel and limited electricity situations. However battery life for me wasn’t a huge factor.. there were spare battery and battery pack options available for all PSD’s. The price wasn’t too cheap though after shipping to Australia, especially for it’s basic functions and average screen. And nowhere in Aus offers them cheaper than getting them from the manufacturer overseas. Just to get the Colorspace 0 shipped with no HDD was looking at about $360AU. I just don’t think i could justify that when there’s better value for money options.

Ok, now what about devices without a viewing screen??
Again, there was a large selection and i needed to narrow it down somehow. So again, i listed my requirements that i desired. The main one was that without a screen to view images on to make sure the pics had copied over, i wanted some way to be sure the transfer was successful. So file verification was something i wanted my non-viewing screen PSD to do. Also, interchangable 2.5″ laptop HDD would be good for cheap storage space.

Straight away, this narrowed it down to the Hyperdrive Space or even the old HD80, and the Nexto series of PSD’s.  A bonus was that the same AA battery pack and power supply can be used for the Nexto’s, the Hyperdrives AND the Vosonics (please note: i haven’t confirmed this with the Hyperdrives, however have confirmed it for most models of Vosonic and Nexto compatibility, and have tried it personally with my Vosonic 8860 and Nexto 2700 and yes, same power input. But please double check voltage before blowing up your Hyperdrives on my behalf). This was great as that meant I only need to bring just the one battery pack and charger to power both PSD’s. Less to carry is always welcome when traveling.

In knowing this, i was quite happy with either device.. so i looked at what set them apart.

The Nexto’s:
The range of Nexto PSD’s take various HDD types depending on which model.. the newer 2700 takes large, cheap, readily available SATA HDD’s so that’s which model i mainly looked at. The Nexto’s are meant to be as fast as it gets in terms of file transfer from memory card speeds and also file verification. The Nexto’s have an inbuilt battery with no memory so you don’t have to worry about when you charge it. The Nexto seemed to have more features than the Hyperdrives like USB OTG (OnTheGo) allowing you to use the Nexto as a bridge to connect USB device to USB device through the Nexto. One version even has SATA out (as well as USB) for super-speedy downloads to your PC.

The Hyperdrives:
The Hyperdrive Space and HD80 only take the older IDE hard drives. Only the newer versions with screens take the more common SATA HDD’s.  The Hyperdrive’s i believe are slightly better in the battery life department but not quite as fast in the transfer and verification departments. The Hyperdrives have interchangable batteries, however, need to be opened up to get to so not very convenient.

They seemed to be the main differences.. Still, after all this, i would have been happy with either a Nexto or Hyperdrive, however, the latest Nexto 2700 did seem like it was beating the competition.  So the deciding factor for me was price.. How much would it cost me to get either device and decent sized HDD… and the clear winner here was Nexto. I was able to get a Nexto 2700 + battery pack to power my Nexto AND Vosonic sent from overseas for about $200AU which Hyperdrive couldn’t compete with, no matter where i looked at buying them from. So it was an obvious choice for what seemed to be a better and newer device for less money. I still would have been happy with either though.

So that brings me towards the end of this ridiculously long write-up. Well done, by the way, if you’ve made it this far… i certainly hope it’s helped you in your PSD decision making!

So my conclusion i came to:
For a Portable Storage Device with a viewing screen with support for RAW files:
The Vosonic 8860 was standing out for value for money with a nice mix of features.
If money is no limit, and you want the best screen and a tried and trusted device, get an Epson p7000 i guess.
If transfer speed and battery life and reliability is main factors for you, Hyperdrive Colorspace should definitely be looked into.

For a Portable Storage Device without a viewing screen, but with support for upgradeable HDD and File Verification.
The Nexto 2700 stood out for value for money with good features, with other Nexto models varying in suitability and features.
The Hyperdrive Space or HD80 are still great contenders though, even though their age is getting on now.

So for about $500au, i got a fantastic Vosonic 8860 device with a stunning 800x 480 pixel screen, 320gb space to transfer and store photos on, watch movies, listen to music, record tv and radio and voice
AND
a reliable Nexto 2700 with 160gb of storage space and file verification, and an external AA battery pack for backup power to both devices.

This may seem excessive to some, and well, others i know wouldn’t do without 2 backups.. I am part of the latter group.
The peace of mind of being able to shoot as many photos as i like and knowing they’re securely stored, twice, is more than worth the price. Holidays won’t last forever but the irreplaceable photo’s will so make sure they’re safe.

Thanks for reading!!! I hope you’ve found it useful and or interesting at least.. Feel free to leave your comments, questions, opinions, views, experiences etc in the comments below! And stay tuned for actual product reviews after i give them a real workout in Nepal.

Tags: backup, epson, hdd, hyperdrive, nexto, Photography, portable storage device, psd, vosonic

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 5:47 pm and is filed under Articles, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.