Review: Picture Porter digital photo backup

Computerworld - If you're used to the sleek elegance of an iPod, the boxy look of Digital Foci's Picture Porter is likely to disappoint. Although one can technically use the device as an MP3 or video player on the go, you're not likely to want to take it with you on your morning run.
However, the Picture Porter has a couple of features that make it potentially more useful for a serious digital photographer away from home: long battery life and built-in memory-card readers. This is particularly handy if you're looking for a way to back up your vacation photos while you're still on vacation.
With the current generation of high-megapixel digital cameras, it doesn't take more than a couple of days of shooting for a serious photographer to fill up even a 1GB memory card. If you're on vacation for a week or more, that's a lot of cards to have to buy and tote around. And if you're on the paranoid side, as I am, the thought of all those priceless memories being stored on those easily losable little devices is a bit unnerving. But how best to back them up? Unless you have access to a computer where you can plug in your camera, download files and either burn a DVD or upload them to an online storage site, options can be limited.
Before heading to Switzerland this spring, I investigated portable backup options, and I didn't find anything I wanted to buy. As it turned out, I was staying with a friend and used her PC, card reader, CD burner and Internet connection, but that wouldn't have been possible had I been staying at a hotel. And the overseas public Internet cafes I've seen don't let you download files onto their systems.
There is a $29 connector for the newer generations of iPods that allows you to connect most camera cables to the device and back up that way. I haven't tried it -- I've got an older iPod that won't work with the connector, and Apple didn't have any newer iPods available for review just yet. However, from what I've read, the connection is somewhat slow and battery life is an issue. Some have complained that unless the iPod battery is completely fresh, it can all but give out before a 1GB card transfer is complete. Based on the battery life I get from my older iPod, as much as I love it, I'm not sure I'd want to count on it for a full gig download after a day of sightseeing.

Picture Porter by Digital FOCCI available from $399

I took the Picture Porter down to New York last month, and backup was quick and painless. I didn't need my camera cable (nor did I need to drain my camera battery), but simply popped the memory card into the reader. It took about a second per 2-plus meg picture file, completing a day's worth of backup in a minute or so. I did take the power cable with me but didn't need it during my six days away. And it was certainly simple enough to connect it to the computer and download. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a simple option to "back up everything on the card since my last backup," which would be handy -- sometimes I want to keep things on both the card and the Picture Porter for added backup security.
I used Picture Porter to listen to music while traveling to and from New York (i.e., sitting), even though I had no desire to drag it along with me while out for a stroll. Had I been traveling with someone, it has a nice feature of two audio jacks, so two people can listen to the music at the same time. Alas, I made the mistake of moving my iTunes music files directly to the Picture Porter and couldn't quite figure out how to make it "shuffle" randomly among different folders. There's newer firmware I didn't get a chance to download, though, and that might have fixed the problem.
Digital Foci touts Picture Porter as a good way to display your digital photos while traveling. It does indeed display, although the LCD isn't any bigger than my camera's, so I didn't see much point unless I was worried about saving my camera battery (I wasn't).
The Picture Porter might be appealing for a real digital camera enthusiast who travels a lot and doesn't want to lug around a laptop. However, at $399 for a 20GB version ($469 for 40GB), a more versatile alternative would be something like Dell's Axim X51 (on sale for $298) if you've got a camera that uses the same SD memory-card format as the Pocket PC. Even the new video iPod costs less for more storage: $299 for 30GB. Picture Porter is charging an awfully high premium in size, weight and price for built-in card readers.
"If it was $99, those things would go like hot cakes," a gadget-loving colleague said of the Picture Porter, adding that it could be useful for a traveling group where people had different memory formats. "$399 is too much."
Ultimately, the folks at Digital Foci need a better understanding that for a product in this class, people aren't simply searching for something practical. You also need to generate some technolust -- and sleek, industrial design is a critical part of that. People in the office were clustered around my colleague's new video iPod. The initial reaction to the Picture Porter's appearance was decidedly less enthusiastic.
If you could have a Picture Porter in an iPod-like form factor, with Picture Porter's battery life and an SD card-reader built in, at the iPod price point? Now that would be something to get excited about.

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