Digital Focus: Make Your Batteries Last

Dave's Favorites: Store Your Photos on PicturePad

You already know the drill: When you go on vacation, you're supposed to bring spare memory cards so you can take lots of pictures. But even a handful of memory cards run out eventually, and it can get awfully expensive to cart around a gigabyte of cards whenever you travel. Worse, those postage stamp-size cards can be easily lost. Now that I've had a chance to play with Delkin Devices' EFilm PicturePad for a while, I can assure you that there's a much better way to manage your vacation photos.

The PicturePad is a small portable device, about the size of an MP3 player, with a hard disk (capacities range from 20GB to 60GB) and a 1.75-inch color LCD screen. When your digital camera's memory card is full, you insert it into the PicturePad and transfer the images to the portable hard disk. Then erase the card and stick it back into your camera to continue shooting.

Unfortunately, the PicturePad is not cheap. The 20GB version that I used costs a whopping $550, and it works with a CompactFlash slot only; if your camera uses SmartMedia, Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, or Memory Stick, you'll have to pay extra for an adapter.

Nonetheless, if your budget is big enough, the PicturePad is a really cool alternative. It stores such a massive number of images that you can choose to shoot in TIFF or RAW format for better quality and transfer images to the hard disk frequently. The LCD screen lets you preview pictures and delete ones you don't like. At the end of the day, you can even attach the PicturePad to your hotel room's television to watch slide shows. The PicturePad comes with an AC adapter and the integrated battery has about an hour worth of runtime between charges.

When I last checked, I found the 40GB PicturePad at the PCWorld.com Product Finder for $670. For more information and complete price lists, see the Delkin Web site.