I am looking for good digital file storage in the field and was wondering if anyone knows if the Epson 80 gb storage device supports Phase One files, more specifically, the P45+ files. Anyone have any experience? Many thanks, Eleanor

Hi Eleanor – I had thought about this as a storage solution for my P30+ but the last time I check w/Epson no Phase is supported. I just double checked their website and as of February 2007 that remains the same. Besides, I was a little worried with the small size of the drive.

As a side note, I really enjoy your images!

Best of luck

don

Thanks Don. I wonder if anyone has had any experience with the Picture Porter Elite. That comes in 120gb! eleanor

Eleanor - How tight are you on space? We’re planning a 60+ day trip into Alaska next year and while we are driving up there, space is still an issue for us. Since I’ll be taking my small laptop (Dell XPS M1210) I opted to buy three WD Passports, each hold 250GB. Each disk fits in the palm of my hand and weight next to nothing.

I just placed my mouse on top of one to get an idea of size and while the disk is larger it isn’t that much larger and it is smaller in height.

Just a thought …..

don

Don, but what if your laptop fails? I want to take my laptop AND another provision such as the epson or the Picture Porter so I will have two independent systems to guard against loosing access to back up entirely. wow, 60 days in alaska!!! awesome. we are going to alaska (western and central accessible by bush/float planes) next summer and antarctica jan of 09. I will be limited in space and weight on both these trips. all other trips we have planned are driving so space and weight are not so much an issue. eleanor

Eleanor – My biggest fear is disk failure that’s why I have the 3 250GB drives. The way I had originally figured this out is that the P30+ will be used as the primary landscape camera and the 2 current Cannons (1Ds II & 5d) for nature and wildlife. I’d use 2 of the drives to download the images daily and have redundancy built-in. The 3rd drive would be for overflow and any images that I just couldn’t wait to open and “tweak” (sometimes I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas!). It appears that a new drive will be added soon as Sandy has expressed the desire to upgrade her 5D to the new 1Ds III so that will be going as well. (I’ve been told that I can have the old 5D to send to Maxmax for an IR conversion.).

All in all I trust the computer system much more that an image vault – just me.

We plan on going to Katmai via bush plane from Homer and will be very limited in space there so will only take basic camera kits as well as every card we own. Since we’ll be there for no more than 2 days we can shoot a card (or two) a day and transfer once we return to Homer.

BTW, we’ll be doing the entire trip in a Ford F350 pickup and a Lance (8’) pickup camper so space is a real issue for us as well. Camera kits, including tripods, and computer gear will be taking up most of the available space. But just think of the great photo opportunities!

Many many stops along the way on the ALCAN, Fairbanks area and North, then South to Denali then further South to Homer - then ??? We should arrive in Fairbanks June 1st.


don

I would not buy another Epson or JOBO. Downloaded one 4GB card and the battery was dead after. Also slow as molasses. This is a better way to go for pure backup or storage...

http://www.hypershop.com/shop/information.php?info_id=11

The battery is rated to last for 100GB of download. I recently shot 17GB in one day and the battery showed a full charge when done.

Because the unit does not preview images, it can hold any format image. It simply moves everything off the card onto the hard drive... RAW, Jpeg, Tiff, Word files, Indesign docs, anything.

Much smaller than the Epson.

$180.00 for the 40GB version.

You just have to get over not seeing the images and the clunky on-screen interface. It is really a 'less is more' kind of device.

I would have to agree here. I have an Epson P-4000 which worked well for me. However, I never found that viewing images on the P-4000 was that useful. As I understand it, it will work for any files as well but you can't preview unsupported RAW files. For a fraction of the price, the HyperDrive SPACE has been a much better option. It is much, much smaller than the P-4000 and it is faster at downloading as well. For redundancy purposes, you could pick you two HyperDrive SPACE units and download every card to both.

http://www.hypershop.com/shop/information.php?info_id=11

Anyway, I think the HyperDrive SPACE is the best option right now, especially if you are trying to be careful with your funds. A way you can save money even with the HyperDrive SPACE is to buy the casing only for $149 and put your own ATA 2.5 inch laptop hard drive in it. That's what I did and I am very happy with the 120GB Seagate drive I put in there. You could even go up to 250GB with the Western Digital 250GB ATA 2.5 inch drive.

Bryan

Okay, so I’m in Las Vegas for NAPP Photoshop World ’07 and Tech Expo and see that Epson has a very big display. I’m walking around and happen to see a gentleman singing the virtues of their 2000 and 5000 so I stop by and give a listen. I figure I’d never get a better chance to ask than right now so I ask this person if the 5000 will support Phase One files. He looks at me and asks what they are. He had no clue whatsoever what Phase One was. As I was walking away I heard a bystander tell him and at the same time tell me that they did not. Not a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Add to that the person sitting next to the 4800 stayed on his cell phone for the better part of 20 minutes while people stood by waiting to ask questions.

Other than that having a good time

don

Hi Eleanor
I have aP30+ and an Epson P2000. By coincidence I am just going off on a shoot so I checked out how it handles Phase One files. It will copy all the files from the card and then on to a Mac where they open fine in Capture One without any problem - but it does not allow Preview as it doesn't recognise the format. Hope this helps.
Olaf

Eleanor, the Digital Foci Picture Porter Elite works fine with the Phase backs. I have been using one for over a year with my P45 and now P45+. I have posted my experiences about it here in the past.

Some viewers here have purchased it as has one of my Phase One dealer's customers. So far I have heard only good things about it.

Another thumbs up for the hyperdrive space. Works great. Add a laptop and you have two backups.

I did find it confusing how it would leave the last status message up when you put a new card in so if you weren't paying attention you might think you just copied the new card. I changed it so I had to initiate the copy (rather than just put the card in and have it copy) and that bit of confusion went away.

As an aside I like the cig lighter charger. The usb cable plugs into it. So if you are willing to use a laptop to charge it at the motel and the car to charge it elsewhere it takes up very little space.