Part 6 of a series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5)

Memory Cards

The pair of 256mb Compact Flash cards I used with the 10D were relegated to the G1 and for use as spares as the larger file sizes from the 1D Mark II proved them far too small for everyday use and on the 5D they would be hopeless. They were replaced with 2 pair of 2Gb and 1Gb CF cards and a pair of 1Gb SD cards with an old pair of 512Mb cards as spares. An old 64Mb SD card stays in the bag with the saved cameras settings.

I had a nasty experience with a Lexar 1GB 80X Premium Compact Flash Card - it just stopped working and I could not read from or write to it. I could not retrieve the images which were on it so I had to return it to the US. It took a couple of months but not only did they replace it for me but they also send a CD with the images they had retrieved from the old card - very impressive. Thanks Lexar!

I have since added a 4Gb Sandisk card with which I am very pleased.

Portable Devices

I sold my Smartdisk FlashTrax, along with a Palm Tungsten T3 PDA and replaced them with a Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager / PDA which was much more convenient, doubled as a much needed Sat Nav solution in my car and was only one device instead of three. The internal 4Gb hard drive meant I could download images in the field when the SD card filled up and keep shooting for a much longer time. Using built-in WiFi or with a Bluetooth connection to my 3G mobile phone, I was able to email or FTP images within a few minutes of taking them if required, which has come very useful when doing news, sport and event assignments. I experienced a problem with the LifeDrive and could not get it to power on, contacted Palm and sent it back for repair. A short time later it returned in full working order. Since it was over a year old I was very impressed and I think they sent me another unit as it didn't look like my old one! Thanks Palm!

When my youngest son accidentally dropped my old and much-loved, first generation iPod onto the stone kitchen floor, I scoured eBay for a replacement and tried everything to fix it but replacing its hard drive just did not seem to be an option. Then I won the Stefan Buczacki Photographic Competition at the Southport Flower Show and with the prize money, treated myself to a brand new Apple iPod 30GB Video/White (5th Generation) and Camera Connector. Not only could the Compact Flash cards download onto the iPod whilst out shooting but I could listen to music and the latest photographic Podcasts both whilst out in the field, in the car, on the train and at home. 

The LifeDrive was replaced with a Palm Treo 680 Smartphone so I could combine a phone with PDA and just have one device instead of two. It didn't have the internal hard drive of the LifeDrive but it did use an SD card, so I could still use TomTom Navigator for Palm and for emailing pictures whilst the iPod provided the in-the-field storage (and the ability to listen to podcasts and music) so it was a pretty good solution. It just had synchronisation problems that drove me mad.

The Treo was eventually replaced with a 16Gb Apple iPhone 3G which did (almost) everything I could wish for, synchronises properly and it went everywhere with me - I just kept finding more and more uses for it. I just couldn't bear to part with my iPod, keeping it as an external portable hard disk drive for a while - the iPhone doesn't work with the Camera Connector unfortunately, which is a shame and Google Maps, as good as it is, is no Tom Tom but an anniversary present of a dedicated Tom Tom XL with traffic unit solved that issue, so more getting lost for me!

I did eventually sell the iPod as I simply no longer used it! As soon as my contract expired for the iPhone, I upgraded to a 32Gb 3GS and sold the 3G. I immediately noticed how much faster it was and how much longer the battery lasted, so the software upgrade to IOS 3 complemented it perfectly. I am happily now using IOS 4 and have subsequently upgraded to an iPhone 4. Whilst there are many things about this phone I like, the reception is not great. Apple did send me some bumpers but I don't really like using them as it means I cannot use the lovely Sena case I have.

When the iPad 2 came out it was clear that this would be an amazing accessory for a photographer and having just acquired one, I will update in due course.

External Hard Drives

The portable storage solution has been solved with the purchase of a fast 320Gb laptop hard drive and an Icy Box enclosure which connects to the computer via USB - it doesn't allow downloading pictures whilst in the field but with higher capacity memory cards that has not been a real issue.

The Lacie Firewire 250Gb drive, which I bought to use with an iMac years ago, is now relegated to backup duties. It was replaced as an everyday drive with a Maxtor One Touch 500Gb which stores copies of images more than 3 years old (I keep the last 3 years on my current hard drive). All images are backed up on DVD-R discs as well so this is more for convenience. A recent addition was a 1Tb MyXerver NAS (networked drive) which I experienced some issues with in setting up and using so this was quickly returned and exchanged for a Western Digital My Book II World Edition which so far, after 6 months use, has been great. I use it as a NAS drive for my iTunes library and it is also set it up as a Time Machine drive so Snow Leopard can backup everything without me worrying about it whenever I am connected to my home network. An Apple Airport Extreme completed the solution and also runs a dual wireless network which keeps slower, older devices on one network and the newer faster ones on the other whilst everything plays nicely.

To be continued...