Best prtable Hard Drive for the money?

N

nouveau

Member
I am trying to avoid, carrying a laptop around and I want the best portable hard drive with enough space to house 64 gigs of footage..I am looking for a good download speed as well..any suggestions?
Brian-
 
Macsales.com OWC Mercury:

OWCMOTGPRO22.jpg


http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MS8U5640GB8/

That's 640GB for $179.00
 
I should also mention, I am using a 32 gb P2 card and an 8 GB card. Will I be shooting and (streaming right into the Hard drive?) I'm still learning..Is there a setting for this?
 
The manual explains it. The drives have to be formatted by the camera. The camera cannot power the drives, you need external power. and firewire only.
 
OWC and GLYPH are two of the most reliable drives you will find. both are superb choices!

now just so we dont confuse terms here, you CAN NOT "stream" from the camera to a hard drive. and by "STREAM" im saying that its not possible to shoot footage straight from the camera to the hard drive. if you want to shoot live to a storage device, you need a firestore, laptop or other such device.

what you CAN do is shoot to your cards. stop shooting, then connect the hard drive via firewire to your camera, switch the camera into playback mode, and TRANSFER the footage youve shot to the drive.

im not trying to quibble over terms here. its just that the word "streaming" often confuses people. typically streaming refers to a live data flow. usually from a capture source to a viewing device. not simply moving data from one place to another...
 
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Does the OWC power itself or with a battery during the transfer process you described? Should I purchase additional AC adapter for OWC? When I stop and turn off camera and transfer footage to Hard Drive, is the drive then powered by the camera or do I need additional power souirce for drive?
On another note, where can I purchase the largest Battery for HVX200? Are you familiar with model number for battery? .....I believe I will using the format you just described above..transfer footage via firewire and playback mode..how long does the 32gb transfer usually take with this OWC drive?

Thank you for all your help my friend, I really appreciate it..
 
the owc drive shown above is whats called bus powered. meaning its powered by the computer its connected to. bus power will NOT work for connecting directly to your camera (camera does NOT send power over firewire like a computer would). you need a drive with its own power. be that some kind of battery, car inverter or simply connected to an ac outlet.

there arent really any LARGER standard type batteries for your camera. just dont buy cheap knock-offs. i get my batteries from spec-comm. they are a sponsor of this site. i find they perform as well or better than the stock panasonic batteries. they are about $100 each

http://www.spec-comm.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=80

as far as transfer time. i havent clocked firewire transfers in a while. but as i recall, a 16gig over firewire400 usually takes + or - 15 min to transfer. so youre looking at roughly 30 min to move a 32gigger.

and transfer times shouldnt vary much (if at all) from drive brand to drive brand.
 
Does the OWC stay charged like a battery or it needs power? And for the battery how long does the biggest one for 100.00 last??
 
no, it doesnt "charge" it gets its power from the firewire connection from the computer. but since the hvx/hpx dont send power over their firewire connection, youd have to find a power source for it. and in that case youd be just as well off with a normally powered firewire drive.

like this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
i have a small squadron of those. and i buy the quad interface version

ive never clocked specific run times on the battery, but it seems to get 2-4 hours depending on what youre doing... i have 3 of them and they get me through an 8-12 hour day just fine
 
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OWC sells bus powered external drives, which contain no batteries to "stay charged."

The power is supplied, if at all, by the host to which the external drive is connected.

In this case, it is the cam, and the cam does NOT supply power.

The OWC drive must be powered by a power source, which you can buy from OWC. Then attach it to the drive, and to a wall plug, and then follow the manual
 
OK...i feel, im finally understanding the route I need to take..It feels like I should have at least one more 32 gig card..(and) and external/portable just to do what I need to do on the field, and then get home to download..does this sound reasonable? Where do you feel is the best place to buy 32gb P2? or is there now a 64gb P2?
 
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