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Awesome solution to expensive digital camera memory!

A

AndrewR

Lifer
I have a Sony DSC-F717, which is a terrific camera with loads of fantastic features, but it uses Memory Stick for media (or Memory Stick Pro) which is really just too expensive, especially the faster Pro. Since we're headed to China for over two weeks in a couple months to get our baby girl (see sig), we knew that we would need lots of memory to store the hundreds of pictures I'm bound to take. Buying more Memory Sticks was not an option simply because of the price -- since I have a 256MB one now and can shoot for a day on that, I would have had to buy several gigs worth of Memory Sticks.

I found the Apacer Disc Steno in doing some searches, and it's fantastic! Here's a link to the vendor I used. It's basically a CD-R/W with a built-in card reader that can read and write pictures without a computer, even while on its internal rechargeable battery. It also has a TV Out function so you can review your pictures on the hotel TV after you've been touring and firing happy snaps. The memory limits are only the number of CDs you have with you, and it will even span multiple CDs if you have 1 GB memory cards. It doesn't take xD memory cards and one other I can't remember.

For the price ($200), I could have bought one additional 512MB Memory Stick Pro or have this with essentially unlimited storage.

Just my PSA for the day. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: werk
I'd rather have a 40GB phototank than carry around a bunch of cds, but that's just me.
Click to expand...

I found a few of those, but the added advantage of this one is the TV out feature. We used that to review our pictures recently when we were touring Tokyo, and it really is handy.

you could also have gotten a cheap laptop
Click to expand...

Size and weight differential is tremendous. It's also much less complicated (no OS, software, etc) with far fewer parts, meaning it's less likely to break.

Too late, I already have an iPod...
Click to expand...

Sorry you pissed away your money.
 
i Think that is pretty cool, good concept. And i think you will get more use out of it than a 1GB stick that is only 50 buck cheaper, CD's are a dime a dozen now (compared to like 2.50 when they came out, i think they were more), and you can get as much storage as you want anywhere you want since it is battery powered.

Can you hook the cdrom up to a pc also, that would make it all the better
 
Looks like a great accessory.... If I didn't have a laptop, I would definetly consider this..... :thumbsup:
 
it's a cool idea, but too bulky IMO. that and for some reason, I have no faith in the reliability of cdrs. Nor portable HD units either really.
 
Originally posted by: AndrewR
I have a Sony DSC-F717, which is a terrific camera with loads of fantastic features, but it uses Memory Stick for media (or Memory Stick Pro) which is really just too expensive, especially the faster Pro. Since we're headed to China for over two weeks in a couple months to get our baby girl (see sig), we knew that we would need lots of memory to store the hundreds of pictures I'm bound to take. Buying more Memory Sticks was not an option simply because of the price -- since I have a 256MB one now and can shoot for a day on that, I would have had to buy several gigs worth of Memory Sticks.

I found the Apacer Disc Steno in doing some searches, and it's fantastic! Here's a link to the vendor I used. It's basically a CD-R/W with a built-in card reader that can read and write pictures without a computer, even while on its internal rechargeable battery. It also has a TV Out function so you can review your pictures on the hotel TV after you've been touring and firing happy snaps. The memory limits are only the number of CDs you have with you, and it will even span multiple CDs if you have 1 GB memory cards. It doesn't take xD memory cards and one other I can't remember.

For the price ($200), I could have bought one additional 512MB Memory Stick Pro or have this with essentially unlimited storage.

Just my PSA for the day. 🙂
Click to expand...

Andy,
You could get a 1GB memory stick pro at Costco. Why the hell would you want to buy a bulky $200 CD/RW?

Yiu know how many pics you can take with 1GB? And look how much more portable a Memory Stick is than that CD/RW. Btw, CDRW discs are unreliable after a few rewrites. You could substantially risk losing your pictures by transferring them unto a effy format.



 
Saw this the other day

Add a 40GB Drive from ZipZoomfly or NewEgg for <=$90 and you are still well ahead of the game and it plays MP3's too.

Tempting but I really don't need it.
Also pretty sure it doesn't have tvout if that's important.


Edit: Also, I'd still want to backup my pics to CDR off the HDD. Losing 40GB of pics would be quite a scare. As for CDR media being unreliable, I've got some very old discs from back in the 2x burner days and it's still reading fine. You can further backup off of any of these devices to another format when you get back home.... just a matter of features.

I carry around ~768MB of flash for pictures when I'm out and about. I then transfer that back to my laptop on trips and burn a cd as I fill up the cards. So it's now both on the laptop and the cd's utnil I get home. When I get home I burn the cd's to DVDR when I get 4.x GB of them. I also copy the pics to my PC and my wifes PC. Storage is cheap.

 
Originally posted by: ViperSSD
you could also have gotten a cheap laptop
Click to expand...

thats what I did. got a 40 gig laptop hd for $45 awhile back bought an old laptop($100) from a friend(p2-233) and an orinoco gold for $50. $200 and I use the laptop for wireless surfing all around the house😀
 
Originally posted by: Anubis
better solution is to not buy Sony and have to deal with their stupid memory stick BS
Click to expand...

Well, I love the camera, and if I had my choice (ie., the money), I'd get the F828 which also takes CF. However, when I bought the camera, it was $300 less than the 828 which was out of my price range.

Andy,
You could get a 1GB memory stick pro at Costco. Why the hell would you want to buy a bulky $200 CD/RW?
Click to expand...

The next time you spot a Costco in Japan, let me know. 🙂

Really, though, it's NOT bulky at all. It's not like the normal external drives which I see mostly that are standard drives with an enclosure. It's almost exactly the same size as the last external laptop CD drive I saw, with slight increase in thickness to accomodate the card reader. I have a largish size camera bag, and the camera, cords, and CD-RW fit comfortably inside (with padded compartments to keep them from scratching each other).

Ok, so maybe it's not for everyone, but it suits me perfectly. Even with 2GB of memory, I'd still be worried about running out of room on our 2.5 week trip to Hong Kong and mainland China. Since she will be our first child, I'm bound to take a million pictures!
 
Originally posted by: AndrewR
Originally posted by: Anubis
better solution is to not buy Sony and have to deal with their stupid memory stick BS
Click to expand...

Well, I love the camera, and if I had my choice (ie., the money), I'd get the F828 which also takes CF. However, when I bought the camera, it was $300 less than the 828 which was out of my price range.

Andy,
You could get a 1GB memory stick pro at Costco. Why the hell would you want to buy a bulky $200 CD/RW?
Click to expand...

The next time you spot a Costco in Japan, let me know. 🙂

Really, though, it's NOT bulky at all. It's not like the normal external drives which I see mostly that are standard drives with an enclosure. It's almost exactly the same size as the last external laptop CD drive I saw, with slight increase in thickness to accomodate the card reader. I have a largish size camera bag, and the camera, cords, and CD-RW fit comfortably inside (with padded compartments to keep them from scratching each other).

Ok, so maybe it's not for everyone, but it suits me perfectly. Even with 2GB of memory, I'd still be worried about running out of room on our 2.5 week trip to Hong Kong and mainland China. Since she will be our first child, I'm bound to take a million pictures!
Click to expand...
Congratulations. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: AndrewR

Sorry you pissed away your money.
Click to expand...

Pissing away or not is in the eyes of the beholder. Anyway, too late for sorrow now. 😛


Originally posted by: dr150
Yiu know how many pics you can take with 1GB? And look how much more portable a Memory Stick is than that CD/RW. Btw, CDRW discs are unreliable after a few rewrites. You could substantially risk losing your pictures by transferring them unto a effy format.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be so sure about that. As one who has relied on CDRW for backups over the past 4 or so years, the RW is good for way way more than just a few rewrites.

 
Hehe, nice toy. We use an Archos MMJB. It has TV-out too and plays movie and music. 😀

Anybody recommending a big-ass flash card is an idiot. Read his post: 256 MB / day x two weeks = 3.5 GB.
 
Originally posted by: ming2020
Originally posted by: AndrewR

Sorry you pissed away your money.
Click to expand...

Pissing away or not is in the eyes of the beholder. Anyway, too late for sorrow now. 😛
By the way, does the Steno work as a regular plug-n-play burner without installing special drivers/software?
Click to expand...

I'm not a big fan of Apple's pricing, which is always high. Companies like that always annoy me since I like my money.

On your question, I don't know because I haven't tried it yet. I'll check this weekend.
 
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