Using iPod as portable backup storage

[HarryOne]

I know that back in 2004 the Photo iPod version one could use it to store photos on as a portable backup storage device, but wonder if anyone is using it this way for long vacations to store photos on until they can be downloaded to one's computer after return from vacation.

As I see it, Apple's iPod line today uses USB so there should be no problem hooking up a USB cable from one's digital camera to one's iPod to store photos on the iPod. It beats getting extra memory cards for one's camara and one still can do other things with the iPod (listening to music, watching videos, etc.)

What I would like to know is if there are any forum members that have used their iPods in this fashion and how their experience went?

Thanks for your replies.

[TNB]

My larger portable harddrive was a lot less expensive than my 80GB iPod.

[John_Reed]

I know that back in 2004 the Photo iPod version one could use it to store photos on as a portable backup storage device, but wonder if anyone is using it this way for long vacations to store photos on until they can be downloaded to one's computer after return from vacation.

As I see it, Apple's iPod line today uses USB so there should be no problem hooking up a USB cable from one's digital camera to one's iPod to store photos on the iPod. It beats getting extra memory cards for one's camara and one still can do other things with the iPod (listening to music, watching videos, etc.)

What I would like to know is if there are any forum members that have used their iPods in this fashion and how their experience went?

Thanks for your replies.My old iPod has a FireWire connector; if the new ones have a USB 2.0 High Speed connector, that's all well and good, but it doesn't mean that the iPod can communicate directly with the camera. I think you still need an extra interface gadget, ~$30, to receive photos from a digital camera.

I took my "video-less" iPod on a cruise with me in 2005, along with a special card reader adapter made by Belkin. So I was able to download SD cards into the iPod, albeit at a slow transfer rate. I'll tell you that the worst aspect of the process was that even though the photos appeared to make the transfer OK in every instance, the fact that I couldn't see the images after downloading (only a display of # of images transferred) was a bit disconcerting. That wouldn't be the case now, but then, I was afraid to make that "leap of faith" to actually erase that first card for the next batch of photos. But I did anyway, and it worked fine, my faith was well placed! But do get something with an image display, for your own peace of mind.

I'll say this: Once you start accumulating your travel photos on whatever portable disk drive you choose, that drive becomes your most valuable possession! You could've stolen my camera, my suitcase, my wife, whatever, but I'd have been mortified to lose my Galapagos photos!

[HarryOne]

Did further research and gleaned a fair amount of information from reviews on Apple's website - yes, John is right: one needs an Apple iPod Camera connector that only works with either the 30 or 80 Gb iPods which have photo/video capability available since 2004. It does not work with lesser capacity iPods.

Plug it in to the iPod, then plug in the USB cable your camera came with. There were reports that one should make sure that the camera to iPod set up is physically undisturbed, suggesting that anything that disturbs connection integrity is not a good idea.

The camera needs to be capable of using one of the following transfer protocols:

Mass Storage, PTP, and Type 4 (sometimes referred to as "Normal").

Apple has a list of compatible cameras, but this list is not comprehensive and one would be advised to contact technical support of one's camera manufacturer to see if it's file transfer supports one of the protocols.

A related issue is whether the file transfer protocol is automatically selected or one has to manually select it.

Speed of one's camera memory card is also an issue - if you use regular rather than high speed, it will be slower. Transfer rates of 200 or so 6 Mb photos were reported to take about 10 minutes under ideal circumstances (USB 2.0, high speed camera memory card).

USB - USB 2.0 is faster than USB 1.x. Another thing to keep an eye on when purchasing a new camera is to ensure it supports the USB 2.0 protocol.

Charge drainage in both the iPod and the camera may be issues, but if one plugs both into AC adapters before transferring photos from the camera to the iPod, this really is not an issue. The time when this is done should be at the end of one's day - it may be problematic if you're trying to do this in the middle of the day - use larger memory or an extra memory card. If one is not able to plug into AC power, this could make things interesting if one uses solar power chargers or has limited extra spare batteries for the camera.

I did not recall seeing any evidence that certain memory cards were incompatible with the transfer of photos.

iPod software (I believe 1.12 or 1.2 or later) is apparently capable of displaying pictures you've transferred on the iPod's own display screen. Again, this applies only to the iPods capable of photo/video display (from 2004 on). This should help with peace of mind that the photos were transferred successfully.

Operating one's camera while connected to the iPod was something I looked for but did not see any reviews that anyone had tried this. Be nice in theory though, one wouldn't need memory cards any more - just rely on the camera's own memory and transfer photos automatically to the iPod for storage/viewing. Some cameras permit control by computer - I don't think it would be a big stretch for engineers working for the camera manufacturers to develop a practical method of doing this with the iPod.

Using a plug in card reader has been done according to some reviews, but one still needs the Apple iPod camera connector - unsure how much battery drain this inflicted on the iPod. Some card readers do work and others don't - again I suspect it is the transfer protocol involved with the card reader.

Digicam videos can also be transferred successfully - there were several reviews mentioning this and justifies using high capacity iPods ( 30 GB and up) in this circumstance.

Your comments/constructive criticisms are welcome.

[Robert Besen]

I have a 30Gb video ipod with the apple camera connector and a KM 5D camera. It works, but is not completely satisfactory. I have three complaints: 1) I use a 1GB card, and there is not enough energy in a fully charged ipod to transfer the whole card, and you can not plug in an ac adapter while the camera connector is plugged into the ipod. I seem to be able to transfer about 600MB, so if you use 512MB cards you should be ok. 2) I often shoot in raw (not in the raw), and the ipod will store those but not show them on the screen. Disconcerting to not be able to see the pictures after transfer, as John pointed out. Not a problem if you don't shoot raw, or shoot raw + jpeg. 3) The transfer doesn't always work, at which point I have to recharge the ipod, and then try again. This might be an issue with my camera, but I don't know, since I haven't tried it with a "supported" camera.

All that being said, I have used it successfully on two trips to Europe, as I don't usually fill up the 1GB card I use on a single day. I have my total CD collection on the ipod and still have 23GB left for photos.