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Picture storage with Pocket
PC
July 12,
2002 (updated September 3,
2002)
How do you store thousands of digital pictures while you're away from your computer? Whether it is a vacation trip with a hotel every night, an assignment covering a remote event, or a camping trip to the middle of Alaska, you need a way to store all of your digital pictures until you get back to your main computer.
I just returned from visiting friends in
Seattle for 10 days, five of which were spent hiking and
camping in the Northern Cascade Mountains. I use a Nikon
D1x camera, which generates 8MB raw .NEF files. That's a
tremendous amount of data to deal with! It simply isn't
cost effective (around $1,600) to buy a 4GB stack of
Compact Flash (CF) cards, especially since 4GB isn't even
really enough - I exceeded 4GB on this trip and expect to
do so again later this summer. Just a single panorama can
take 10 or more frames, so storage disappears in the blink
of an eye. I originally transferred pictures from CF cards
to a laptop's hard drive, but it was difficult to balance
the laptop on my knee and squint to see the screen while
transferring the pictures outdoors. Not to mention a
laptop wouldn't fit in the pocket of any clothing I was
willing to wear...and I certainly wasn't taking anything
that large, heavy, and fragile hiking.
There are a number of products that help to solve this picture storage problem, but they typically only do one useful thing - transfer pictures to a built-in hard drive. I don't trust all of my pictures to any single device unless I have to, especially on a long trip. Plus, the last thing I need is another electronic widget to carry around...not to mention a charger, extra batteries, etc. I like to get as much as possible out of the equipment I already have, and my Pocket PC already goes pretty much everywhere since it holds my calendar, address book, notes, calorie tracking software, ebooks, and news from the newspapers and magazines I read. Why not use it for storing pictures as well?
I use a Compaq (now HP) iPaq Pocket PC, which supports a slide-on expansion sleeve that holds two PC-Card (PCMCIA) cards. The complete setup includes:
- Compaq iPaq 3600 series Pocket PC
- Compaq dual PC-Card expansion sleeve (includes additional battery power)
- Compaq Compact Flash expansion sleeve (smaller & lighter than the dual-PCMCIA, used for compressing images in place)
- PDA Armor aluminum case
- SimpleTech 256 MB CF card
- Ridata 512 MB CF card
- Compact Flash -> PCMCIA adapter
- Two Toshiba 2GB PCMCIA hard drives (model MK2001MPL)
- IBM Travelstar 8E 8.1GB hard drive (has a PCMCIA connector)
- 30W Digital Camera Battery with case and cables for the D1x and the iPaq. (Note: the iPaq cable isn't currently listed on their website, but they were able to sell me a beta version, which I used for this trip. Contact them for current availability.)
To use this setup, you slide the dual PC-Card sleeve onto the back of the iPaq, slide the case onto the front to protect the screen, insert the CF card that contains the pictures into the PC-Card adapter, then insert the adapter and a hard drive into the two sleeve slots. The CF card and the hard drive appear on the iPaq as separate folders, allowing you to copy or move images between them.
If you use a camera that takes SD memory cards instead of Compact Flash, several Pocket PC devices already have built-in SD slots, which allows you to use a smaller single PC-Card sleeve since you don't need two additional slots - just one to hold the drive.
I use three Pocket PC programs for storing
images:
- Pixfer transfers images efficiently. (Glass Lantern software)
- StorageTools formats and verifies storage cards.
- Storage Brick driver runs the Travelstar 8E drive. (The 8E drive is not specifically listed as supported, but it does indeed work.)
Of course, you could just use cut/paste in the Pocket PC File Explorer to transfer images between drives. However, this plan has some problems: transfers are very slow, the device times out and shuts off while transferring unless you change the battery options, there is no indication when the transfer is complete, plus other annoyances. Bottom line: the built in Pocket PC functionality was not designed to repeatedly transfer hundreds of megabytes of data. Pixfer solves these problems:
- Transfers over twice as fast as the built-in File Explorer, saving time and power.
- Automatically powers off the screen when the transfer begins, saving battery power. Pushing the application button assigned to Pixfer turns the screen back on.
- Powers off the Pocket PC as soon as the transfer is completed. This makes it OK to put the iPaq in my pocket/backpack while it is transferring, knowing that it won't be wasting power when it is complete.
- Chimes when transfer is complete, to let me know the card is clear.
- Displays total/free/used space information for each card.
- Displays battery % remaining & stops transfer if it gets too low.
- Deletes each picture off the card as soon as it is fully transferred, so I can stop the application at any time if I need the card, and it will have freed as much space as possible. This option can be turned off to copy instead of move files.
- Optionally compresses (completely lossless) raw NEF files using a custom format, getting ~30% compression. This is much slower than a straight transfer, but freeing up over 500MB on each Toshiba drive is often worth it. The uncompress program (currently only command line) works on Mac OSX and Windows. It can also compress onto the same card, essentially giving me an additional ~30% space on my CF cards without having to use the hard drives, or compressing images that I already transferred to the hard drives when I get back to a power outlet. Yes, I could shoot compressed NEFs instead, but I don't want to figure out if the camera's compression is really visually lossless, and I don't want the longer write times. [NOTE: Compression has been removed from the potential feature list due to performance and support issues. If you need to compress, you can try other Pocket PC tools such as CrunchIt. Try the bzip2 compression, which should handle 12-bit data better than most other compression algorithms.]
Clearly, the right software makes a huge difference. Just in case something happens to the iPaq on a trip, I copy all of the software to a small Compact Flash card so that I can restore it in the field if necessary. I haven't had to do this yet, but it is better to play it safe.
Digital cameras and iPaqs (and probably hungry deer) eat
batteries like candy. You can't have too 
much power or too much storage; the trick is
balancing them so that you have enough power to fill all
of the storage you have brought along - it stinks to have
storage left over without any power to transfer more
images. With the iPaq and dual PC-Card sleeve fully
charged, Pixfer can transfer well over 6GB of images to
Toshiba 2GB hard disks. That's quite a bit of data.
However, since raw NEF files are so large, I like to
compress them so that more fit on each card. Whenever I
can hook up the iPaq to a power outlet, I turn on the
compression to shrink the files by 25-30%. This takes
considerably longer than just transferring the data, and
thus reduces battery life significantly. Fortunately,
there are a number of solutions to this problem. The
Digital Camera Battery product can power both my Nikon D1x
camera and the iPaq. Using this battery, I can get
somewhere around one full charge of the iPaq system, or
less if I also use it to power the camera for a while. Rob
Galbraith has an excellent review
of the battery and how much power it can provide. Note
that in talking with the folks that make the Digital
Camera Battery, recharging devices is very hard on the
DCB, and will drain it quickly. In the future, I'll be
reserving the DCB for the camera, and only using with the
iPaq in a pinch. I also brought an Electric Fuel Instant Power
cartridge and iPaq cable for backup power. I didn't end up
needing it on this trip, but it should theoretically
provide something like a full iPaq charge with the dual
sleeve. Of course, due to losses during charging, you will
probably get less than this. But it is small, light and
inexpensive, so was easy to carry. A few additional
comments on power:
- Because transfers will take longer on slower Compact Flash cards, your battery life will be reduced. Fast cards are not drastically more expensive than slow cards. Rob Galbraith and DPReview have lists of which cards are fast and which are slow.
- Like gas gauges in most cars, status indicators showing battery power remaining are unreliable. For example, after using the Digital Camera Battery for a couple of days, it would start off showing green, then jump to red (skipping yellow) or flashing red (shutting down) after shooting a picture or two. You need to use your batteries for a while to make sure you know how long they will last.
- If you're going to be driving on your trip, consider a car lighter power adapter.
- Cold weather can kill your battery life. Try to do transfers during the day when it is warmer, or put the iPaq or external battery into your sleeping bag/jacket to keep it warm. A really solid protective case helps - I fell asleep on top of my iPaq a couple of times while it was compressing & transferring images.
- There are power adapters that take AA batteries to power your iPaq, from suppliers such as Semsons & Co. I have not yet tried this, but may on a future trip.
It was cold at night...not good for batteries.
Workflow? On a camping trip? Yup...you need to have a plan before you go. Your brain will hurt if you try and figure out the best way to get all of your images backed up while you're tired, cold and sore. Here are the basics of what I did:
- Alternate between the 256 & 512 MB CF cards.
- When at a stopping point and one or both cards have images on them, do a quick run through the images on the camera LCD, deleting any obvious losers.
- Turn on compression if battery power is plentiful or there is an AC outlet.
- Transfer from card to Toshiba 2GB hard drive. (Or directly to the IBM Travelstar if near AC power.)
- Once images are off the card, format the card in the camera.
- If the trip is long, transfer from the Toshiba drives to the Travelstar back in the hotel/at a friend's house. Unless I'm sure that I'll have lots of space left over, it is a no-brainer to turn on compression when transferring to the Travelstar, especially when it can chug away overnight.
- When shooting is done for the trip, use any spare space on the drives to copy as many pictures as possible to multiple locations in case of damage or loss.
- Back at home, put the iPaq into the synchronization cradle and transfer the pictures to the desktop PC using Microsoft ActiveSync. I use a USB connection, which is not the fastest, but I just leave it running overnight. Hopefully upcoming devices will include USB 2.0 for faster transfers. I may pick up a PCMCIA ethernet card for the iPaq or a PCMCIA card reader for my desktop machine. You could also use a laptop with a PCMCIA slot to do the transfer quickly.
- Back up images to 2 separate CD-ROMs, mailing one
offsite for safety.
I'm happy with my iPaq 3600,
but I'll probably upgrade to a newer Pocket PC later this
year. Up until recently, the iPaq was simply the fastest
device out there, but newer models from almost all
manufacturers are now competitive. For example, the
new
Toshiba models that are coming out have an updated
processor called XScale (I'm hoping for faster
compression/transfer speeds and longer battery life) plus
a built-in CF slot. The total package with a single-slot
PCMCIA sleeve should be significantly smaller/lighter than
my current iPaq setup. Plus, it would be able to compress
NEF files in place just using the built-in CF slot, making
it a no-brainer to carry everywhere.
If I were looking for the least expensive kit possible, I'd investigate something along the following lines. This can probably be had for under $450 total even if you buy everything brand new from decent online retailers. It isn't the most portable, but it is quite inexpensive considering you can easily add more storage later and you get a full Pocket PC PDA:
- iPaq 3100 series (greyscale, not color screen) Pocket PC (< $175)
- iPaq dual PC-Card expansion sleeve (~ $175)
- IBM Travelstar 8E 8.1GB drive ($55)
In the future, I'm hoping for the following developments:
- The ability to hook up a standard USB or Firewire hard disk to the Pocket PC. Casio has indicated they are working on USB host support necessary for this, but as of now, I'm not aware of any hard disk drivers to actually make this work.
- USB 2.0 or Firewire connections from the Pocket PC to
the desktop, making it faster to transfer large numbers of
images from the drive.
I'm glad that I chose to use the Pocket PC rather than a laptop or dedicated device. I now have a total of almost 14GB of storage (over 1700 D1x NEF images) between CF cards and PCMCIA hard drives. Plus, I can expand my storage easily by purchasing additional inexpensive drives. I may try putting a larger laptop drive, say 20GB, into the Travelstar case and see if that works. Or, I may just buy another Travelstar 8E.
Pros:
- Less expensive than buying a stack of Compact Flash cards.
- Smaller than a laptop.
- Comparable in size and weight (roughly) to dedicated image storage devices.
- Not a one-trick-pony device. You get a full Pocket PC PDA that keeps your schedule, takes voice recordings, manages storage cards, etc.
- Compact Flash & PC-Card reader functionality is built-in. Using an optional PCMCIA or CF ethernet connection is extremely fast, but the built-in USB works fine.
- Less cost & equipment to worry about, especially if you already use a Pocket PC.
- Additional functionality over time. As new software comes out, you can just install it since the Pocket PC is a complete computing platform.
- Strong accessory market. External battery packs, cases, external keyboards and more are all easily available due to the large number of existing Pocket PC users.
- Adding more storage space over time is easy - just buy additional drives.
- Redundant data is possible. Instead of a single drive holding all of the images, they can be copied to multiple locations.
- Compression. With the right software, compression makes storage go further.
- Large screen previews .jpg images today, and hopefully .NEF files in the future.
- Screen is easily visible in darkness or direct sunlight, unlike most laptop screens.
Cons:
- Initial setup can be more expensive than a dedicated device, especially if you don't already have a Pocket PC.
- Without good software to do the transfer, it can be a hassle.
- The dual-PCMCIA expansion sleeve is not tiny - the setup including a Toshiba PCMCIA drive is a little over a pound and fits in a large pants or a cargo pocket, but smaller and lighter is always better. Hopefully future Pocket PC devices with built-in CF slots will result in a smaller and lighter total package.
See our Pocket PC and digital photography resources for pointers to specific products and resources related to using your Pocket PC for digital photography.
Jeff Blum, CEO of Glass Lantern, LLC, has been photographing since snapping pictures for his high school yearbook in the 80's. He bought his first digital camera in 1997, when the technology was even more painful than it is now. Drop him a line at jeffbl@glasslantern.com.
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09/03/2002 |
Added information about RAW image compression. |
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09/03/2002 |
Added pointer to the Pocket PC digital photography resource list, replacing the few extra links that were already in the article. Other wordsmithing/clarifications. |
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07/24/2002 |
Added pointer to Pixfer software instead of the "let me know if you're interested" link. Minor wordsmithing. |
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07/16/2002 |
Updated weight of entire setup - had said it was under a pound, but weighed it at the Post Office, and it is actually 18.1oz, including the iPaq, dual PCMCIA sleeve, Toshiba 2GB drive, CF->PCMCIA adapter, CF card, and cover. Added Semsons & Co link for iPaq AA power. Updated information on Digital Camera Battery life. |
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07/11/2002 |
First posted |
Articles attempt to provide accurate and timely data, but use this information at your own risk; Glass Lantern, LLC is not responsible for any bad experiences due to inaccuracies, exclusions, or other issue, and does not vouch for any of the products or suppliers in this article, which is meant to provide guidance only. Make sure you are comfortable with the solution you decide to use through your own research, and investigate any company before handing over your credit card. Now go take pictures.