|
|
| Click photo to see images of all the Editor's Choice 2007 products. |
This portable hard drive lives up to its brand name. It's definitely a smart disk -- the first we've seen that tells you exactly what's inside even when the drive itself is off. It does that with a separate, dedicated 1.6x2.4-inch monochrome LCD data screen that's always readable whether or not the unit is turned on. Information displayed includes the drive name as it would appear on a connected computer; the date when data was last saved; a "percent-full gauge" that resembles a cell phone signal-strength meter; total drive capacity; and available free space.
Smarter still, the display provides space for personalized information, which you enter using SmartDisk Notepad software installed on your PC or Mac, then upload to the drive. The applet has variable fonts, text sizes, and justification. It even lets you create and add a hand-drawn graphic, or import one created in another program. The FireLite Xpress measures 3.3x5.1x0.9 inches, weighs 10 ounces, and is available in both USB 2.0 and FireWire versions. It's bus-powered, meaning it gets the juice it needs from the data cable itself. About $150 (80GB) and $190 (120GB).
OWC Mercury Blu-ray External
While hard drives are cheap these days, serious shooters often back up image files to recordable DVDs because they're less vulnerable to physical damage and can be easily stored in multiple locations. The capacity of these disks is limited to 8GB, however. Enter the Blu-ray format, which squeezes up to six times the data on the same size disc. Blu-ray disks are relatively expensive -- about $17 for a 25GB single-layer and $35 for 50GB dual-layer -- but prices are likely to fall when the new format's high-density rival, High-Definition DVD (HD DVD), offers writable disks. (HD DVD is currently limited to read-only movies.)
Even 2X Blu-ray writers like the OWC Mercury, an external drive, are cheaper than their 1X predecessors. This one uses a Panasonic mechanism that allows recording of 25GB in about 45 minutes, a rate of 9MB/second. The one we tested came with Roxio Toast 8 Titanium, which we needed because the Mac OS X we used doesn't offer native support for Blu-ray burning. The Mercury's rugged plastic case has a cooling fan along with three data ports, two Firewire and one USB 2.0. About $650 (with cables and two 25GB discs).
American PHOTO Editor's Choice 2007
|
 |
|
|
