Digimate III Photo Bank Storage (SATA) - $75

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circuitcentral.com.au

• 

  djones145 on 14/05/2010 - 11:52

  -1

  Simply install an IDE or SATA Notebook 2.5" hard drive to begin storing your photos.
  hmmm

  means u have to spend around $50-60 more on getting a hardrive, carry that around too to transfer

  • 

    Kkuba on 14/05/2010 - 11:59

    i think this would be good if you were going away overseas for a trip for a long time, in which case you would not carry it around with you, but keep it in your luggage, so every few day or weeks when you filled your memory card, you could empty it.

    i dont think it's for everyday use, to carry around with you.

    hrmm…also saw that it mentioned only a maximum of 32GB can be used for this purpose, any more than that on the HDD can be used only as mass storage.

    so if you have an 8gb card, you could empty it only 4 times. i guess that's enough for the average tourist, but for a semi-pro photographer with an SLR and well into the double digit megapixel photos, i don't know that that would be enough….but i'm not sure, as i dont have any experience in this field.

    overall, $75 does seem a lot to pay considering there is no HDD or storage included…..

    • 

      Associatedccentral @ circuitcentral.com.au on 14/05/2010 - 12:21

      -1

      Its 32GB because it has to match the FAT32 format of memory cards (which has a max storage of 32GB). So if you have a 320GB HDD installed in there, you will have 2 partitions: One 32GB of memory card storage (FAT32) and the rest of the 288GB for mass storage. When you are able to have access to the PC, just dump everything from the 32GB partition into the "mass storage" partition and its empty again. I know you need a PC to do this, but 32GB of storage is quite alot before you need to get to a PC.

      If you got lost in the jargon, don't worry. We can bundle a HDD for you and format it to prepare it for you so its all ready to go.

      A 320GB notebook hard drive alone costs around $80-$85 so it would be hard to supply a Digimate III WITH a HDD installed for less than the cost of a hard drive. It certainly is cheaper and more portable than carrying around a Laptop.

      • 

        FootooMootoo on 14/05/2010 - 12:28

        You do know that you can format large HDDs with FAT32 partitions greater than 32GB. Im staring at my 500GB USB drive as I type this which is formatted with FAT32 cause my PS3 cant read NTFS !!!

    • 

      SomeGuyOnOzB on 14/05/2010 - 12:26

      But if you want 32GB of extra space for taking photos, and you use 8GB cards, then getting 4 x 8GB cards would be better because it would be:
      - cheaper
      - smaller
      - lighter
      - not requiring download time before you have more space on a card
      - not requiring power to download from and erase your card before you can take more photos
      - not having issues with batteries going flat part way through a download from your photos

      The main use of something like this would be if you want to have a backup for your cards without having to carry a PC. I do know someone who has something like this and uses it for that purpose.

      Probably for someone who might lose data cards.

      • 

        Pizza The Hut on 14/05/2010 - 13:05

        Not to mention those extra memory cards are more rugged than spinning disks and its much faster to swap memory cards than it is to take out, transfer to photobank thingy and then switch it back in.

  • 

    Associatedccentral @ circuitcentral.com.au on 14/05/2010 - 12:22

    Just spotted the mistake. Its SATA drives only. Does not accept IDE.
    Yes, you will need a HDD or you can use a spare lying around. But $50-60 is alot cheaper than carrying a PC. The HDD is also installed inside the unit for a complete compact device.

• 

  marcusv on 14/05/2010 - 12:30

  +1

  I dont think I would trust this device, it would not be happy if it crapped itself mid trip.

  I shoot with a full frame dSLR (Canon 5D) and travel with a bunch of 4Gb cards because they are the perfect size to burn to dvd. There are internet cafes almost everywhere you travel, they will happily burn a 4gb card to DVD. I get them to burn two discs, I mail one to myself and keep the other disc with me.

  The other option is to take a 2.5" portable hard drive with you and just fill that up, or have it as a 3rd backup with the two discs.

• 

  djones145 on 14/05/2010 - 13:10

  60 for harddrive
  plus 75 bucks
  add postage etc

  netbook these days are like 200 (old models) 300 (new ones like acer, asus)
  they can go on net, have 160 mbs and a screen to check photo quality and also pllay games, office docs etc

  i purhcased one for my europe trip
  was great

  • 

    g12345567 on 14/05/2010 - 16:31

    Exactly My parents looked into getting one of these devices a while ago but ended up getting a Netbook with internal hard drive. They have already taken to to europe twice as well was as numerous trips around australia. Preferred a netbook which has so much more functionality and ability to preview your pictures.

    Would have been more usefull before netbooks became popular and inexpensive these days.

• 

  CyberMurning on 14/05/2010 - 13:28

  2 years ago i bought this enclosure then install 80GB harddisk on it for my japan trip. at that time memory cards are still expensive, therefore this really help me. sometimes you walk around bushes and no internet cafe in sight, also with this you dont have to waste your time asking direction to the intenet shops, and sit down waiting discs being burned.
  but now memory is cheaper, also netbook is cheaply available.

• 

  CyberMurning on 14/05/2010 - 13:32

  and guys, check ebay if you really want this lol
  seller : sorry :)

• 

  takezo on 14/05/2010 - 13:49

  I've got one of these (it's an IDE model and may be a digimate 2, but looks pretty much identical). As erwinsie said, I also bought this about 3 or 4 years ago, when memory cards were expensive. It's been with me on about 4 or 5 trips since and has done the job, however I wouldn't really recommend it.

  My main issue is, that once you transfer the memory card data, there's no real way of 100% verifying that the data was succesfully transferred to the disk (you can watch it go to 100% but still doesn't verify the fact). So it's always quite scary once you get home and you check the disk for the first time to make sure your images are on there. They always have been, but I can imagine that somewhere down the line people have lost images somehow.

  Also price seems quite dear…I got mine from ebay for just over half that price.