ASKA's 20GB Tripper Light: autonomous HDD for photographers
By Darren Murph 
posted January 26th 2007 9:15AM
posted January 26th 2007 9:15AM
We're fully aware that digicam sensors are getting incredibly large (sometimes unnecessarily so) these days, and it seems like alternatives to carrying around an assortment of flash cards are popping up everywhere. Even if you aren't shooting with a camera that produces 78MB RAW files with each shutter click, high quality images can churn through megabytes with ease, and ASKA's 20GB Tripper Light is looking to lighten the load on your poor memory card(s). Similar in function to Polaroid's autonomous HDD, Axxen's renditions, and SavitMicro's HyperDrive, this device handles your CF, SD, MMC, MD, MS, and MSPro cards and copies all files to the handy drive with the press of a button. It boasts 20GB of internal space, on / off button, Mac and Windows functionality, USB charging capability, 2.49Mbps transfer rate, and USB 2.0 connectivity. So if you're frustrated with carrying around oodles of half-filled flash cards, you can pick up the Tripper Light for ¥19,950 ($165) and save yourself the trouble.[Via AkihabaraNews]
They already have usb enclosures with this functionality selling for like 20 bucks without a HDD. Am i missing something here?
Anyone know if iPod can serve the same function? Which 3rd party device is best to connect it?
I'm gonna take a wild guess and say the "iPod camera connector."
The problem with the IPOD is that it takes almost a full charge to transfer a 2 gig card. Not bad if you can charge it, but not great for constant usage.
How about flipping the image right-side-up?
You could buy a USB bridge and back up to an ipod or any device that supports USB Mass Storage (UMS). I have a device from Delkin that can do this and used it for a trip to Morocco. Plug in a cardreader on one side, an iriver on the other, press the "copy" button and wait for it to finish. It runs about $40. The downside is that USB on-the-go is (or was) way slow compared to USB 2, but it comes at a fraction of the cost and lets you dump to a multifunction device like your music player.