iPod Camera Connector
im going to holiday to ibiza in june (wooooo!!!!!) and im going to be taking my camera. i was just thinking, ok, im going to take more that 200 pics (the number of 5mp shots my memory card can hold) and was thinking of the cheapest way to increase the amount of storage i could get. new memory card? no, £18. then i thought about the ipod camera connector. thats only £20 from the apple store (but id get it from eBay). ive got a 5g iPod, so it should work fine. the camera is a Sony DSC-W1, which isnt on the supported camera list on the apple site 
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will it work with my camera and has anyone had any problems with it?
thanks for any feedback
\ will it work with my camera and has anyone had any problems with it?
thanks for any feedback
Comments
Are you sure the 5GB iPod is even supported by the Camera Connector? Also, with a 5GB iPod I'm surprised you have any room on it for photos.
Have you checked memory card prices lately? Here in the States they've fallen dramatically and many stores have them on sale from time to time. I'm assuming that since your camera is a Sony you use memory sticks?
And finally, where the heck is Ibiza?
I have no personal experience using a iPod/Camera Connector to download pictures, but on camera boards that combination is not highly thought of for that purpose as is extremely slow and very battery intensive for both iPod and camera.
Are you sure the 5GB iPod is even supported by the Camera Connector? Also, with a 5GB iPod I'm surprised you have any room on it for photos.
Have you checked memory card prices lately? Here in the States they've fallen dramatically and many stores have them on sale from time to time. I'm assuming that since your camera is a Sony you use memory sticks?
And finally, where the heck is Ibiza?
1. 5G refers to the 5th generation iPod, the video one.
2. Yeh i checked prices, about £18 for the 1gb models. UK prices are crap
3. Ibiza = the original party central of europe. the biggest clubs there fit 10,000 people
1. 5G refers to the 5th generation iPod, the video one.
2. Yeh i checked prices, about £18 for the 1gb models. UK prices are crap
3. Ibiza = the original party central of europe. the biggest clubs there fit 10,000 people
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1023
I recently bought a Sandisk 2GB CF card here locally for US$29.95.
I obviously don't live anywhere near Europe party central. Thanks for the geography/cultural lesson on Ibiza. Have fun and be safe.
OK, so I missed the lack of a B when he put down 5G. Boy, did I ever step in that one. Maybe I can plead age and failing eyesight? Anyway, the basic information about slow and battery intensive still stands. You might want to check the Storage and Media board on dpreview.com as there have been several threads about the iPod Camera Connector.
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1023
I recently bought a Sandisk 2GB CF card here locally for US$29.95.
I obviously don't live anywhere near Europe party central. Thanks for the geography/cultural lesson on Ibiza. Have fun and be safe.
thanks for the link, answered a few questions. i think ill be looking on ebay for one, the connector that is, im skint at the moment and cant be bothered to spend £20 on one.
cheers for the feedback
Design
The Camera Connector is tiny with attractive finish that perfectly complements the white iPod (not so much for black iPod). It is very simple with two connectors, iPod Dock Connector (male) at the top and USB connector (female) at the bottom.
Usage
I heard one can get better results importing from media card reader (Belkin is supposedly compatible). I've tried with a couple of media cards I have lying around (SanDisk and Sony), but neither worked.
To begin the import, attach XTi or SD800 via USB cable to the Camera Connector. Turn the camera on and iPod will switch to the Import menu. You can then begin the import. It's worth noting that iPod will create separate "roll" from each camera and memory cards. The import process is slow (see Performance below) so you will want to take a shower, get lunch/dinner, or whatever. You can abort the import process at any time, although resuming is a bit flaky.
Once the import is complete, you can choose to delete the memory card (I recommend formatting the card using the camera after making sure all the images were imported) or view imported images. Although iPod will import RAW, it is only capable of previewing JPEG. If that bothers you, you will want to shoot JPEG+RAW. I actually prefer RAW-only as iPod is not taxed generating iPod-sized preview image (I wish there was such an option for JPEG).
iPod restarted once near the beginning of the import, but it was able to continue after restarting without any ill effects.
I use Aperture to import photos. It imports photos as if coming from the memory card. I suspect iPhoto works the same way.
Performance
Yes, it's slow. Your results will vary depending on the camera, image type (e.g., RAW vs. JPEG), and image size. I Importing images from XTi is significantly faster, I am guessing largely thanks to it being RAW. With JPEG, iPod must process and render thumbnail image, which eats additional battery life and processing time. With XTi, the import averaged around 650 KB/sec. With SD800, the import became much porkier at around 300 KB/sec.
Transferring about 1 GB worth of RAW images from XTi (100 images), took about 25 minutes. Transferring about 1 GB worth of JPEG from SD800 was considerably slower at about an hour.
Battery Life
For larger import, you will want to charge both cameras and iPod before the import. I was able to transfer 1 GB without draining the iPod. The battery bar was red after importing from SD800, although it did bounce up after several seconds of inactivity. I have not yet tried for larger import as I prefer to import frequently.
Conclusion
The bottom line is, the iPod Camera Connector works. It's slow but it's offset by the low cost. I suppose one can carry a notebook to accomplish the same, but I prefer to travel light. Dedicated media vault (media card reader with hard disk) will probably work better and faster, but I already have iPod and Camera Connector is much cheaper.