Canon's new Media Storage M80

[JohnLund]

Canon has come up with a new portable storage unit called the Canon Media Storage M80 at 80 gigs. There is a M30 as well.

They look very slick and at first look, comparable to the new Epson P-5000.

Canon here
NEWS! - Canon: New photo viewers
Epson here
Epson P-5000

Somewhere in the bumph they say they are targetting the Canon Series 1 users and that they are made out of magnesium alloy which gets my attention.

Now I hold my breath to hear how much they cost as Canon tends to premium price everything. However if they are priced within $100 of Epson's P-5000 at $699, I will probably pay the extra.

Cheers,

[robert_baker]

My first question with all this portable media storage is battery life in transfering high res files...your link indicates up to 30-40 gigs of transfer on one set of batteries....that would be the best I have seen thus far...thanks for posting.

[JohnLund]

Oh yes....that was the other thing Robert, they use the same batteries as the D series cameras, the BP-511A, which really makes sense.

Now if they are tough enuff to live with me on the road that will mean the laptop can stay home. I use a 40 gig DigiBin for some of that now but they are a plastic piece of you know what and you can't confirm file transfer or view your files. Junk really.

Cheers,

[robert_baker]

Originally Posted by JohnLund

I use a 40 gig DigiBin for some of that now but they are a plastic piece of you know what and you can't confirm file transfer or view your files. Junk really.

Cheers,

LOL...I have the exact same dog....I bought it the first year I was shooting the Iditarod start....the batteries lasted about 1.5 hours after only 2 gigs of transfer...and, yea, totally paranoid if the files got there or not. LOL

[Joost_de_la_Court]

Does anyone know which one (Epson or Canon) device has the fastest download speed from CF?
Regards,
Joost

[JohnLund]

Joost,

I clipped this from the Canon info:
<TABLE cellSpacing=4 cellPadding=4 width=400 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top align=left><TD bgColor=#666666 colSpan=3>Data Transfer Speed</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top align=left><TD bgColor=#cccccc>CF Memory Card to Hard Disk</TD><TD bgColor=#cccccc colSpan=2>4.1MB / second</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top align=left><TD bgColor=#999999>SD Memory Card to Hard Disk</TD><TD bgColor=#999999 colSpan=2>3.8MB / second


</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top align=left><TD bgColor=#cccccc>Hard Disk to PC</TD><TD bgColor=#cccccc colSpan=2>7.5MB / second</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

And this from the Epson info:
...."Epson has incorporated a number of features that ensure the P-5000 is a truly professional back-up tool for photographers. An 80GB storage capacity allows you to store up to 4,500 files in RAW format . You can free images from your digital camera by simply inserting your memory card into the card slot and downloading your photos. Back-up speed is incredibly fast with a transfer rate of approximately 155 seconds for 1GB of data from a Compact Flash card....."

At first blush, it looks to me that the Epson is the more versatile product. The Canon (at this stage) will only support Canon RAW files while the Epson covers all manufacturers' file formats.

I guess this means that you can save other camera's RAW files, you just can't view them on the M80.

As to speed....I think both units will be the fastest out there. A few seconds either way is not as critical to me as security, versatility and ease of use. Not to mention not having to pack heavy laptops around the world.

Cheers,
John

[AndrewCassino]

I can find no mention in the specs about whether there is a transfer verification. Did anyone spot information on that?