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Data Storage Hardware

Transfer Digital Pictures from Flashcard to CD? 56

Posted by Cliff from the eliminating-the-need-for-a-laptop dept.
chimpo13 writes "I'm riding a 40-year-old, Italian made 250cc motorcycle round the world and doing a journal with pictures (avoiding the 'blog' word). Small bike, not much room, and I'm doing this on the cheap. There is no laptop because you can't trickle charge one. I'm looking for a flashcard to CD burner so I can post digital pictures. I need reliability, battery power, and hopefully someone makes one with an option to 'save for web' to speed up uploads in Internet cafés. Unless someone else has a better idea. I leave from Sydney Australia in 4 months if anyone world wide wants to give me a tour of their town, email me."
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Transfer Digital Pictures from Flashcard to CD? More

Transfer Digital Pictures from Flashcard to CD?

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  • Kanguru FC-RW (Score:3, Informative)

    by mechugena ( 311767 ) on Monday May 10, 2004 @05:49PM (#9111090) Homepage
    Located here [kanguru.com]. Got good reviews from PC Magazine a few weeks back. I'd definitely trust this company...a good long history of good products

    • piggy backing (Score:3, Informative)

      by chimpo13 ( 471212 )
      I'll just piggy-back off the first post, so I get noticed and address a bunch of comments. Thanks for all the good comments posted along with the personal emails. It's mostly useful.

      I'm burning to a cd so I can post the photos on route without dealing with trying to put drivers on internet cafe computers. A friend of mine will fiddle with 'em so they load fast if I can't do that from the internet cafe computers.

      It's a Ducati, being purposely built for the trip by Phil at Road & Race [roadandrace.com.au] in Sydney Austr
      • AHH, to be young, single, in love with the world, and filthy rich enough to ride around it in 3 yrs.

        anyhow, while I understand you want to burn pics to cd from storage media, the question is why? if for archival purposes until you get pics uploaded then by all means go for it. if you are doing it in order to upload pics because you are afraid of running out of space, that may not be necessary. you are carrying more than 1 quantity of digital pic storage, are you not? many photo processing places in the U
        • Part of why it's going to be a long trip is I'll be looking for under the table jobs. The US dollar tanking took away most of the money I was going to travel on. The price of my bike has gone way up. And I'm 34 which is basically middle aged, with the average American male living to be 75.

          Filthy rich is what Ewan MacGregor is. Him and a pal are riding round the world with brand new BMW bikes. While being followed by a film team in 4x4 trucks. They're doing their trip in 3 1/2 months.

          I'd thought about
          • I've been to Denton TX. if you think that's nice..... that's why I live in Austin

            http://www.oasis-austin.com/
            http://www.oasis- a ustin.com/wcv1.html

            Shiner, TX (where they make that beer) is just down the road about 100 miles from us. http://www.shiner.com/home.html
            They even have "Shiner Sound and Motion" on their website to let you experience the full effect :)

            Also, about 100 miles away is Brenham, TX, the home of Blue Bell ice cream. http://www.bluebell.com/Default.htm

            Quite a bit of difference 'twee
            • I like Austin too, but I was expecting to. I think I was just surprised at how nice Denton was. I've been there a couple times. I've been to Texas 3 or 4 times and drove across it once. At some point I'll make it to Corpus Christi. I've always been curious about what Texas is like that deep.

              They started selling Shiner Bock up here. I'd love to tour their brewery.

      • Christ, I should've looked into a camera that burns cds. Didn't realize they existed, and I bought a Canon A70 last week. Damn. I'll reckon I should sell it and buy a Sony Mavica. Thanks, ivanandre.

        We have two of the Sony Mavica CD-350 and have had nothing but problems with them. They are very fragile when it comes to vibration, and haven't had good luck on pulling the pictures off.

        I vote for the iPod and media reader. For a portable computer I use a HP Jornada 720. It has a built in modem or I use a wi

        • Thanks for warning me about problems with vibration. I've started doing some research on the Sony Mavica CD cameras and haven't found anything about how well they hold up. But I'm looking for something that runs off AA batteries because I'll rig up a solar recharger on my bike.

          I wish there was an "adventure photographer" site where I could find out what works and what doesn't work. I'm not sure how modern most internet cafe computers are. That's why I'm uncertain what method to use for uploading pictur
          • I am a owner of a Sony Mavica CD500. While I love the manual mode, the camera has to be handled a little more delicately then a camera that uses flash or SD. Because of the mini CD burner on the camera, shaking it while reading or writing it a no-no. Writing the pictures to the CD takes longer than to a flash/sd card. Another issue is that I have yet to find a driver to read the unfinished discs that the CD500 creates (tried by DirectCD and Nero's version, can't remember the name, neither worked). To act
            • The photos look pretty nice. I don't think most internet cafes are going to let me load drivers onto their computers. Which is a big reason of why I'd like to burn the pictures onto a cd.

              I'm leaning towards an Addonics MFR, but I'm still looking around.

  • This may work (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 10, 2004 @05:49PM (#9111095)
    No upload to web, but may fit otherwise.

    http://www.roadstor.com/

  • If you have an iPod (Score:3, Informative)

    by foidulus ( 743482 ) on Monday May 10, 2004 @05:50PM (#9111100)
    You can purchase the Belkin media reader accessory. It takes the pictures and transferes them to your iPod. You can get iPods up to 40gigs if need be. It reads all types of digital camera cards, isn't too bulky, and doesn't eat up too much power.
  • Look for a CompactFlash to PCMCIA adapter and all of a sudden your problem changes to 'find a machine with a CD reader so I can upload my pictures' to find a laptop that has a PCMCIA slot available so I can upload my pictures. In a pinch, consider a USB CompactFlash reader and all of a sudden any computer built since 2000 can probably read your files.

    I am guessing that you were planning on finding some sort of computer to send the pictures to the Internet once you had them on CD, so just short circuit the
    • Try this one:


      http://www.roadstor.com/
      • Blarg! Between the Roadstor and the Kanguru I publicly admit to being entirely without a clue.

        That said, unless the OP is going to be saving all his CDs and posting pictures to the web once he gets home, he is going to need to find a computer to read the CDs he creates while he is on the journey and the computers he finds will likely be able to read the CD directly with either a CF to PCMCIA adapter, or a USB CF reader - and both of these are incredibly light and cheap. Put the $199 from the RoadStor or
    • Actually, you can find them, many other posters have listed links to them. And the other thing is, he may not have enough CF cards to last him between trips to computers to upload, whereas with a cf-cd burner, he can burn cds and erase the full cards and just keep traveling.

  • Apacer (Score:4, Informative)

    by angst_ridden_hipster ( 23104 ) on Monday May 10, 2004 @06:03PM (#9111202) Homepage Journal
    I use the Apacer Disc Steno II [apacer.com].

    Works fine.

    Does exactly what you're describing. Fairly small, runs on 110-240VAC at 50-60Hz. Writes CDs at something like 24x.
    You can burn multiple cards to a single CD (multisession), or a single card to multiple CDs (spanning) depending on your relative CD/Flash capacities.

    It'll play your pictures as a slide show on a TV, or play DVDs, if that's what you're looking for. You can use it as a USB external CD drive for your computer, if you want. I haven't used either of these features. It does not have a built-in LCD for viewing pictures (there is one for copy status).

  • As an alternative (Score:2, Informative)

    by smalloy ( 600866 )
    Macally.com [macally.com] makes the SyncBox [newegg.com] which allows you to transfer USB->USB without a computer for about $32. Runs on AAAs. Especially handy if you've already got a USB hard-drive based MP3 player.

    At least it'd let you empty those media cards and get to an internet cafe with a CD burner less often.

    Looks like the Kangaru CD-burner (above) might meet your needs better if you can justify the price tag.
  • I use an Archos GMINI 120. It has a CF reader and is a USB 2.0 20GB HDD. It will let you dump your CF card to it on the go. The Transfer speed from my CF card to the GMini is about 2mbytes/sec. That's using standard CF cards, no Ultra or 45x cards.

    The only downside is a lack of disposable batteries for your use. But you might be able to rig something up with your bike, considering the power usage of the thing.
  • Hi there,

    I've found myself quite happy with Gallery ( gallery.sourceforge.net )
    for this sort of thing. It's got a java applet that lets you upload
    pictures, or you could upload via standard html. Thus, take your photos,
    fill your card, find an internet cafe or a friendly stranger, upload the
    photos, and repeat.

    Gallery auto-thumbnails so you don't have to worry about mass
    conversions, although it may take a bit of time if you do want to
    preserve the photo's quality by uploading the full size image.

    For what it'

  • Trickle charge your laptop. (Score:4, Informative)

    by stienman ( 51024 ) <adavis@@@ubasics...com> on Monday May 10, 2004 @06:23PM (#9111356) Homepage Journal
    If you can find a suitable tiny laptop with burner, you'll end up with a much more flexible platform for doing what you want to do.

    To trickle charge your laptop, you break the chargin into two steps:
    1) Trickle charge a suitable gell cell or other battery (via solar or generator on cycle)
    2) Charge laptop from battery

    If you are misery with your energy, you can charge a small battery with a small solar panel on your cycle all day, then charge your laptop from the battery for an hour or two at night (or simply use the battery for power, get rid of the laptop battery)

    Pros: get to charge battery all day, don't need to leave laptop with charger or cycle while battery is charging (safer).

    Cons: have to lug around another 5-10 pounds of stuff.

    Also, you might consider using an ipaq or similar pda. It'll be less power hungry and time consuming than a cd burner, and with built in wireless you're liable to find more open hotspots than you are liable to find cyber cafe's. Connection and transmission speed should be higher going directly from the flash card to the wireless internet than from flash to cd to computer to wired internet.

    -Adam

  • Two MuVo2s + USB2.0 CF Reader = solution (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SchnauzerGuy ( 647948 ) on Monday May 10, 2004 @06:25PM (#9111396)
    Just buy a couple of $200 MuVo2 MP3 players, extract the 4GB compact flash cards [andymack.com], and you have more than enough storage for the whole trip on 2 cards. Or if your camera doesn't support Type III CF or are worried about moving parts, buy several cheap 512MB solid state cards.

    Either way, it is going to be more compact and reliable than dragging around a fragile CD writer + batteries and, unless you hope to buy them along the way, fragile and bulky CD-R discs. Copy the Win98 drivers onto a floppy, and you'll have no problem finding a compatible computer to upload images from the CF cards.
    • I dunno. You probably don't shoot as many pictures as some of us do.

      A sustained 3 fps chews up memory like a mofo, especially when you're shooting at 3008 x 2000.

      My philosophy is shoot 'em all, and sort it out when you get home. The time spent during traveling is best spent experiencing everything; I'll have plenty of time to sort and organize when I get back home.
      • Would you take a 6MP camera capable of shooting 3 frames per second(!) on an around the world trip on the back of a 40 year old Italian motorcycle? I wouldn't.

        Even if you did, at an average of 2,200kB per image with acceptable compression from a 6.1MP camera (that is about what I typically see), you could get upwards of 3700 pictures on the 2 4GB cards. That's 10 "keeper" pictures every day for a year. If that is not enough, just keep buying those $200 MuVo2s.
        • Having been hit by a car while on a motorized cycle here in Los Angeles, and listening to the EMTs progressively giving up on saving the guy on the neighboring gurney (a motorcycle crash victim) while bleeding, hurting, and waiting to be stitched up, I'd be very unlikely to go on public roads on a motorcycle of any sort. Hearing EMTs react in horror to a person's condition is pretty traumatic ("Oh my god! OK, forget about the legs, they'll have to come off, but let's see if we can at least save that one arm
          • Yeah, life's fun like that. I'm pretty cautious. 10 years of motorcycle riding and I haven't gone down yet. I know it's coming though. The best train of thought is to assume everyone is out to get you, and no matter where you are, someone's going to turn in front of you.

            But veering as you said, I'm just looking for a reliable way to load photos onto my site from an internet cafe. No idea what sort of computers are around the world, so I figure burn 'em onto a cd. It'd be the easiest way of loading the
    • Note: The 4GB storage on the MuVo2 is a drive, not flash. Read the link for specific details (it doesn't work on all compact flash capable cameras).
  • You might look to a portable harddrive storage unit. Some have various media readers built in. The reason I suggest that is due to the fact that you're going to have quite a bit of dust grit and gravel working into everything, plus potential wipeouts. All of which adds up to the CD's survival being dubious. A parked harddrive (when shutdown), wrapped in a shirt (and the shockproof shell it comes with), seems to be much more likely to survive.

    By the way, if you have any sort of sendoff from Sacto, let me know, and I'll buy you a beer. I was at the Trekkies II filming and also heard you (I think it was you) on KDVS awhile back, and I've been following your plans for travel here on Slashdot. No Kill I is one of the reasons I moved cross country. A region thick with Star Trek bands that don't take themselves seriously seemed pretty cool.

    Good luck with the trip.

    --
    Evan "Gorn Subgenius"

  • Addonics MFR, runs off battery or wall power: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/addoni cs_mfr.html [steves-digicams.com]
  • to carry around a laptop or burner that will just get destroyed/stolen.
    I would use maybe 10 256MB CF cards and bring a $10 usb card reader
    the large number of CF cards also provides a small measure of "redundancy"
    • i second this post. get lots of memory and use a modest camera (say 2 mega pixels) that will store lots of pics in not a lot of room.

      even if you can't trickle charge a laptop, as long as you can kick start your bike, you don't have to worry too much about using its battery for your electronics.

  • HD 6 in 1 memory card reader (Score:4, Interesting)

    by p7 ( 245321 ) on Monday May 10, 2004 @07:06PM (#9111781)
    Here is another option. It's just a battery operated HD that you can copy memory cards to. Then it hooks up with USB, as an removeable drive. Probably won't need drivers on Linux, Win2k or WinXP.
    http://secure.serverlab.net/shop/merchant.mvc?Scre en=PROD&Store_Code=T00107&Product_Code=602 0

    The only caveat would be that you need to be able to hook up to a USB port at the Internet Cafe.

    Can't remember what mine is, but it I found it for USD$99 for 10GB storage.

  • Why are the CD's in the equation (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jhoger ( 519683 ) on Monday May 10, 2004 @07:22PM (#9111892) Homepage
    You didn't say why you are recording onto CD...

    Why not just buy extra flash cards, enough so that you don't fill them up completely between cafes.

    Then use a wireless PDA with flash reader to upload in the cafe, but if you're lucky the will already have a flash reader.

    -- John.

  • Archos Multimedia (Score:3, Informative)

    by szyzyg ( 7313 ) on Monday May 10, 2004 @07:36PM (#9112005)
    I've got one of these - it's essentially a 20 gig HD with enough processing power on board to play and record audio and video.

    The package I got included a gizmo that let me read compact flash, so I was able to backup all my Honeymoon photos to this device while travelling.
    It is possible to charge it a lot more easily than a laptop and since it only needs to run for as long as it takes to transfer photos then it could probably go a long time between charges.

    It's also a standard USB hard disk so you can plug it in to a regular PC at an opportune moment and back up things further.
  • Buy a Sony Mavica Cd-350 or CD-500
    Burn your photo/video directly in CD...
    • The parent is underrated. The Sony Mavica cameras offer a single, simple solution to your problem, as they burn directly to 8cm CD. The first CD-based Mavica also had a 10x optical zoom. Newer ones will burn to CDRW.

  • Kiosks (Score:3, Informative)

    by Kris_J ( 10111 ) * on Monday May 10, 2004 @09:23PM (#9112793) Homepage Journal
    I was wandering around Perth city yesterday and I came across at least three kiosks designed specificly to burn flash cards to CD. And I didn't even go into an Internet Cafe, these were in and about camera stores.

    Also, will you be staying with friends? I burnt some photos to CD for friends travelling with a Kodak CF-based camera. I don't know what most other people are like, but my home PC can read SM, CF and MMC, at work we can also read Memory Stick, and a couple of close friends can read SD.

    • I would be really surprised if you can read MMC but not SD, as the formfactor is the same. SD just has the write protect switch.
      • MMC is older. SD has more contacts and is slightly thicker. I have a Sandisk USB MMC reader/writer that pre-dates SD, therefore doesn't support it. Also, my (original, with the USB access to the flash card) N-Gage supports MMC but not SD.

        Be surprised if someone says they have SD support but not MMC.

  • PDA (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ikeleib ( 125180 ) on Monday May 10, 2004 @09:47PM (#9112937) Homepage
    get a PDA with 802.11 and a compact flash card (toshiba e740). Upload the pictures wirelessly. Very small. Can be had real cheap.
  • Walmart has these computer setups in their photo section. You put in your card, and you can get one hour prints or have it burned to a CD (in about an hour). It's not too expensive either.
  • What about an Apple iPod. The new ones with the flash adapter will suck the data right into the device. Don't know about charging, but I do know that they have battery packs for them. Charging might be an option too. You get music and picture storage. 40GB is a lot of pics.

  • If your Digital Camera is CF then pick up this combo, use an Ipod as a photo library. Insert a CF card and transfer all photos on it to the Ipod's HD, and then clear the card for use again.
  • Inverters are quite cheap. See http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&cate gory=42167&item=3480410775&rd=1 for just one example. (I picked this at random, there are 1,000s of inverters on EBay.)

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