Possible iBook Solution for Digital Photographer!!!

[swahilibill]

Hi,

I have been doing some photography for a little while and i have accumulated a large amount of pictures in iPhoto and such(around 2000). My question is, I travel alot and try and figure out new places to shoot, my desktop at home is just getting crowded(i have the 800 iMac flat panel), would it make sense to just get a cheap iBook with a large hard drive and unload my pics on there when i am out and about. i have the Fuji Finepix 3800 with the XD cards and I also have the 128mb one. I find that in a days work I do go through that(kinda scary). The cards are about 170 each for the 128 mb ones. I am planning a trip to New York here in the next couple of weeks and I am wondering if it would be cheaper, and more reliable to just get another portable? Hope someone can shed some light, Thanks in advance!!!

P.S: any other suggestions for storage, not just computers, would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[benixau]

if you dont need to do processor intensive work, lots of apps at once, or a big heavy alti-vec program then an ibook is great. (and if you dont want that lovely screen, the tiny size and a dvd-burner)

also i have heard of people swapping in new hard drives into an ibook like the new 60 or 80GB HDDs.

the i book is great. a suggestion is if you need a portable big hdd solution get a 2.5" firewire hdd.

 

[Choppaface]

it seems that it would save money (and be more convenient) to just get more flash cards.... that way if you fill up a card, you can just pop in a new one. and it will cost a lot less than a new computer

 

[irmongoose]

I would suggest just getting a few more cards and getting a nice case to keep all your equipment in so you don't lose the cards. Getting an iBook just to use it as a storage just doesn't make sense...




irmongoose

 

[teabgs]

Once the pictures have been taken and put on your hd do you use photoshop at all? If you do, you don't want a G3, you'll want a G4 which would be a lot more expensive then an iBook.

If not, How big is each picture (space wise?) If you dont need to be able to see them all at any moment, you could put each flash card worth into a folder and then stuff that folder. That way the fiels don't take up as much space and if you need to get to them you can just unstuff the folder and get em.

Its kinda roundabout but will save space on the iMac.

I agree with the firewire drive suggestion. Definately seems like the best way to go. Get a few more flash cards and get a firewire drive.

I know you can get a pretty nice price from General Cybernetics....I did. Just pm Backtothemac and he can get you a good deal on your computer needs

 

[bousozoku]

I tend to use all of my flash memory cards while I'm out as well. I just bought two more 64MB cards a week or two ago.

If you're like me and you'd potentially like to process your work in the field, get the iBook. Photoshop runs comfortably on the 800 MHz machines. It is slightly amazing on any G4 but that's gravy if you're trying to do some basic editing.

My idea is to have an iBook with a large capacity hard drive (external is better--you may want to connect it to your iMac) and a battery-operated photo printer.

If you don't intend something like that, buy more memory cards.

 

[Stinkysteve]

A company called minds@work have a product called a digital wallet. The largest capacity model holds 30GB. With all of the computer and Mac magazines I read every month, I have never seen a review on this. I would look for someone who has used this before buying, you don't want to risk data loss.
If you have the cash, an i-book would be very nice. Otherwise buy more memory cards, (IMO).

 

[yamadataro]

Originally posted by Stinkysteve
A company called minds@work have a product called a digital wallet. The largest capacity model holds 30GB.

Yeah, I also think that Minds@work is a nice way to go. I also know many Japanese photographers who use Vaio Picturebooks for storage.

Well, since swahilibill is talking about 128MB cards, it doesn't sound like he needs a huge storage though. I do professional shoots on D1x with 512 Sandisk Ultra compactflash cards (approx. $480 in Tokyo). Even that card fills up after a serious session. So I transfer all of the stuff to my TiBook wich takes about 10 to 15 min. If you have a real computer for storage purposes, you can also review photos on location I guess.

 

[alex_ant]

Re: Possible iBook Solution for Digital Photographer!!!

Originally posted by swahilibill
The cards are about 170 each for the 128 mb ones.

That isn't 170 US dollars, is it? Are you sure xD cards cost that much? 128MB CompactFlash & SmartMedia cards are under $50 now if you get the cheapies.