Digital Foci Picture Porter 35 PPR-350 500GB Digital Photo Manager with 3.5-Inch LCD Display

I found the Digital Foci very simple to learn to use. I like that you can see thumbnails of the images, titles and some of the metadata. Very simple and quick to download a couple of hundred images from a 16 GB Compact Flash Card to the device and then download them to the computer when I got home. I bought the device so that I wouldn't have to carry my heavy laptop with me on trips. I highly recommend this device.

Bravo! This does the job when it comes to backing up and copying compact flash cards on the go. For added assurance, you can display the images on the built-in screen. The size is a tad on the large side, but still light and portable; build quality is OK; the screen is functional (though text is not very readable and looks like a badly resized bitmap); you can power it from a USB port; it has a battery; it works with NEF files amongst others; the UI is straightforward, functional and mostly consistent. All in all it just works. It would be nice if it could recognize memory card serial numbers or some such thing and do incremental backups without the user having to remember and select the right destination folder. And it would be nice if it was smaller. But in the category of "backup compact flash cards on the go" there's nothing to beat it, as far as I can tell. Update: I used the device on and off. After a while it died. Then it miraculously recovered, but the hard disk was corrupted. After reformatting the drive, it worked again, but repeatedly shut down in the middle of transfers. Turns out that the device does not support fast / UDMA compact flash card. It stands to reason that if you're in the market for a half-terabyte device of backup, you're probably going to be using high speed cards, right? The description now says "Note that some high-speed UDMA CF cards are not compatible. Typically, cards rated as 200x or 30MB/s or higher will not be compatible." and I'm pretty sure it didn't say that when I bought it. In any event given these reliability and compatibility problems, my Picture Porter is now a doorstop and I'll see whether I can cut my losses by returning it to Amazon.

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Life as a photographer in the field has changed for me. Previously, I would take along my 64GB iPad 3G and a Digital Foci PST-251 250GB Photo Safe II on a photo shoot. The Photo Safe II would provide image backup and in studio input support for my photos. The iPad would be used with the Camera Connection Kit to view my CF cards images while in the field.

Sadly, that is no longer possible. Without warning, Apple has downgraded the iPad in IOS 4.2.1 so that many CF card readers no longer are recognized by the iPad. This is a result of the iPad's power limitation having been drastically curtailed.

With an upcoming photo shoot scheduled for early next week, I was in a fix. I sat here this morning trying to find a way around this nasty iPad limitation. Every CF reader that I used issued the same complaint from the iPad--too much power required for the device. So my collection of CF card readers proves rather useless.

I happen to own a brand new Picture Porter 35. I absolutely love the device, but in all candor, the LCD image quality, while useful, isn't quite good enough for client viewing in the field. So that option didn't seem to be feasible.

Just when I thought that all must be lost, on a lark, I took a CF card and used the Digital Foci Picture Porter 35 to copy the entire CF card's images to a formatted SDHC card. I then placed the SDHC card in the iPad's Camera Connection kit. The iPad immediately recognized the SDHC card and began importing the images.

This product is an absolute life saver. Now if I could only find a way to connect the Picture Porter 35 to my iPad...

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I had a previous 80GB model, so was surprised that this newer one is considerably slower booting and responding. If you don't need the larger storage capacity, I recommend the older style if you can find it. That said, this is the best unit for digital photographers who travel for weeks at a time. It is easy to use and the display, though not very good definition, lets you know what you have in the can.

Also I'm very pleased with their Customer Service Dept. They repaired mine (I dropped it on pavement without the case on) for a reasonable fee and fast turn-around time.

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I purchased this product on January 1, 2011. It has never worked properly. File transfers from my laptop to the unit crash before they complete. This often results in the hard drive becoming corrupted, requiring it be formatted again and me starting from scratch. My photos require 300GB of space. This unit has a 500GB hard drive. What's the point of having that available space, if you can't get your photos on to it?!?! During the past year I have tried everything as time allowed. I updated the firmware. I turned screen saver and auto-shutdown off. I tried it with the unit connected directly to my several different laptops. I have tried it with the unit connected to several different powered hubs, using several different USB cables from several different manufacturers. I have tried it when the unit is "cold", i.e. just turned on. I have tried it when the unit has been running for a while. I have tried it on battery power without the AC adapter attached. I have tried it with a different battery in it. Finally, I got around to e-mailing tech support a few days ago. They suggested I update the firmware. I already had. They suggested trying with the AC power connected. I had and have again. They suggested re-formatting the drive and trying again. I have and did again. I came home this afternoon to find the unit had crashed again during the file transfer I started when I left this morning. I haven't checked yet, but likely the hard drive is corrupted again. Since this product is not reliable, I cannot trust it with my photos. I wasted my money on it. I have wasted countless hours trying to get all of my photos transferred to it. Insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and getting the same results. I am not that insane, so I am done with this product. Like another reviewer said, it will now be a door stop. Do yourself a favor. DO NOT purchase it. I should be able to give it 0 stars.

WOW! I left for dinner tonight at 8:00 p.m. When I got home at about 10:00 p.m. my Picture Porter display indicated it was still connected. That was about 1-3/4 hours longer than it had ever stayed connected before. Trouble is, I shut my computer down when I left for dinner!

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