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Luminous Landscape Forum > Equipment & Techniques > Medium Format Digital Backs and Photography
jjk
Is there any portable photo storage/viewer (like the Epson P-5000) units on the market can read Leaf Aptus file and show the thumbnail image on its LCD screem? What I can find so far only support the DSLR Raw file. Thanks
free1000
No there isn't... But I don't think that these are a great advantage with the Aptus anyway because if you use the Digital Module with the Aptus you can get most of the same benefits thanks to the large LCD on the back itself.

The size of the Aptus files alone would cause problems for the performance of these devices. They are pretty slow even with DSLR files.
jjk
Thanks. The reason I am searching the product is that I am going on a photo shoot at a remote location in Chinafor weeks and I want to use the device to store files so i don't need to bring lots of CF cards. Also I will not be able to bring a laptop to check the photos, so I want to make sure the files copied from the CF card to the storage unit is readable and not corrupted ( I had a bad experience with the Epson device before and all the files copied were corrupted) before I format the card.

QUOTE (free1000 @ Mar 24 2007, 02:07 PM)
No there isn't... But I don't think that these are a great advantage with the Aptus anyway because if you use the Digital Module with the Aptus you can get most of the same benefits thanks to the large LCD on the back itself.

The size of the Aptus files alone would cause problems for the performance of these devices. They are pretty slow even with DSLR files.
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nicolaasdb
best thing to do is taking a laptop and external hard drive...
Dan Wells
What if a laptop is weight and battery life prohibitive? My MacBook Pro weighs as much (alone) as a fairly full medium format system (about 7 lbs is similar to a M645 AFDII, 2 lenses and a back). It also only runs for 3 hours on a fairly heavy battery, and is more delicate than any piece of photo equipment. All in all, not an ideal traveling companion. What to bring if a laptop isn't in the cards? Is there any trustworthy card reader gizmo? Or is a fistful of 8 gb cards (which have gotten fairly cheap) a better idea? Even 16 GB cf cards, which promise a LOT of images, even from a back, are only $300 apiece... Uncompressed P45 raw files (the worst case I can think of) are still only 80 MB, and their compressed raws are around 40 mb each, so 200 -400 or so fit on a 16 gb card...



-dan
bradleygibson
A company called CompactDrive makes a very nice portable storage unit. They sell it with or without hard drives, so you can get any capacity you think you'll need for China.

It won't let you review Aptus files in the field (in fact, the one I own--PD70x) only has a simple LCD screen and won't let you review any files...

Two reasons I mention this particular unit--it copies very quickly--16MB/s if your card can keep up. This means the transfer gets done faster and gives you more GB of transfers per battery charge. The other is that the unit has a bit-for-bit verify mode (copies entire card first pass, verifies entire card matches hard disk, second pass). It'll double the transfer time, but at least you can be certain your data has been copied correctly.

They're at www.compactdrive.com. And for the record, I have no affiliation CompactDrive. I'm just a satisfied customer. smile.gif

I bought a little over a year ago ahead of a 3-week trip to India, which included a 5-day Himalyan hike away from all power. This solution worked for me perfectly.

Hope that helps,
Brad
Beachconnection
Try www.digitalfoci.com for their Picture Porter Elite

Their device stores and dispays P45 files nicely. I don't know about Aptus but when I inquired a year age about P45 files they uploaded one of my files, put it on a CF card, loaded it into their Picture Porter Elite to verify it would work. They then downloaded the tested file back so that I could verify its integrity. It worked and I purchased the unit a year ago. It has been a winner for me.
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