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One of the neat aspects of digital photography is the capability to shoot as much as you want and not have to worry about all that film development cost. One of the banes of digital photography is, because you can shoot as much as you wish, you often fill up your memory cards more quickly, especially when shooting in the highest image quality supported by your camera. I often carry more than 1GB of memory cards when I shoot for a day, and more often than not, even that is not enough anymore. So what are the solutions? There are a few. You can continue to buy more and more memory cards, you can carry a notebook computer and offload them as the memory cards fill up, or you can buy and carry one of the new portable media drives that support the reading of memory cards.
SmartDisk has such a solution in the SmartDisk Digital Photo Bank, which is basically a memory card reader with a built in hard disk drive. Measuring 4.5x 3.1 x 1.0 inches and weighing less than a can of soda (9.2oz), the SmartDisk Digital Photo Bank PB 40 is a 40GB storage device that enables digital photographers to offload their memory cards to the device and continue shooting. What the SmartDisk Digital Photo Bank does is it gives you the freedom to shoot without having to worry about memory card constraints. The PB40 enables you to store up to 40GB of digital imagery, which is plenty for a day's or even a week's shooting. While it all depends on how often you shoot, you won't have to worry about full memory cards while on a shoot, and if you plan accordingly, you'll have plenty of space to spare.
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| Digital PhotoBank features 40GB of storage. |
How it works
The SmartDisk Digital Photo Bank is very simple to use. There is virtually no set up, and it ships with a built-in, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, so there are no batteries to replace. You can use it in the field with the battery power, which takes up to four hours to fully recharge, and conversely you can also use it with the included power adapter. It features memory card slots for the most popular memory card formats, such as Compact Flash Type I and II, Microdrive, Secure Digital, multimedia card, Smart Media, memory Stick, and memory Stick Pro.
The memory card slots are built along the sides of the device. Compact Flash and Micro Drive are located along the top of the unit, Smart Media along the right side, and SD, MMC, and MS located on the left side of the Digital Photo Bank. When you power on the unit, you can then insert your memory card and the Digital Photo Bank will detail the amount of memory on the card as well as the amount of disk space remaining on the drive. Press the copy button (which is next to the on/off button) and it will start copying the data from the memory card to the drive. While other similar devices will enable you to view your images, the SmartDisk Photo Bank is strictly a storage device for storing and transporting digital images to another device, such as a computer. When images are stored to the SmartDisk Photo Bank, the device updates, displaying how much space is left on the unit.
Copying images from the device involves plugging one end of the in the included USB cable into the SmartDisk PhotoBank and the other into your Windows 98SE or later or Mac OS 9.2 or later computer. Turn the SmartDisk PhotoBank and it will appear as the drive letter PHOTOBANK in Windows or a drive icon on the Mac OS. Drag the folders on the PhotoBank to the host computer. As it copies, it shows an icon detailing the type of memory card installed, as well as the percentage of copying performed. Once copying is complete, it will read 100 percent. The chart below details how fast the device writes data from various memory cards.
| Card type/capacity | minutes:seconds |
| Compact Flash/505MB | 3:28 |
| SD/252MB | 2:46 |
| Compact Flash/ 252MB | 1:47 |
| Memory Stick Pro duo/987MB | 8:08 |
First impressions
The SmartDisk PhotoBank PB40 is the perfect device for digital photographers who need to offload their memory cards while on assignment but don't want to lug around a notebook computer to do so. It is nicely built and supports the most popular memory card formats. Slightly larger than a deck of playing cards, it is constructed of metal and plastic and sports a tiny but readable LCD screen. The data you can read on the screen includes the amount of disk space left on the drive, the amount of space read on the memory cards, if the unit is attached to the computer via USB and battery power. It would nice to have the capability to preview the images and delete them, but that is not a feature this device possesses, perhaps due to battery constraints. It would also be nice to see a rubber grommet to protect the Compact Flash opening at the top of the unit, as its pins are the only ones that are exposed on this otherwise well built device. It is so simple to use and helps to reduce the amount of stuff you would have to otherwise carry that I highly recommend it for anyone serious about taking lots of photographs during a shoot, be it for vacation or work. The SmartDisk PhotoBank ships with a USB cable, carrying case, manual, and AC adapter for charging the battery or powering the unit. It is priced at $179.99 and comes with a one year US warranty. For more information, visit www.smartdisk.com.
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John Virata is senior editor of Digital Media Online. You can email him at jvirata@digitalmedianet.com
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