Howard Winter wrote:
> Dave,
> 
> On Thu, 11 May 2006 21:16:11 -0400, David VanHorn wrote:
> 
> 
>>Why would you not just do forward error correction, and store it on multiple
>>cards conventionally?  Then you're protected from small bit/byte/block
>>errors, and from "dead card" errors.
> 
> 
> Reading between Russell's lines (!) I think for data-security he wants a device to plug into the camera 
> instead of the card, which then records the photo twice immediately, as part of taking the photo, rather than 
> doing something manually with the single card afterwards.  Hence his not being able to change the recording 
> side, only the card-emulator.
> 
> I wonder if using the camera's USB interface (I guess it has one) to record to a belt-worn USB hard drive 
> would be feasible?

Nope. I already asked a camera expert at a professional camera store.
There are some cameras that can fire their images over USB to a program
running on a laptop, and some that can store on a remote hard drive (high end
pro cameras typically used by newspaper photographers) but none of the consumer grade
cameras will talk to a stand alone remoted drive. Most consumer cameras stop
being cameras when you plug in the USB connection. A few will od 'webcam' mode,
but I doubt that Russell is using such a camera.

The expert was also surprised to hear of Russell's problem with the memory cards.
He said that in 5 years of card sales, amounting to well over 7 thousand cards,
he has had only 5 returns, 2 of which were due to physical damage to the card
(drowned and bent). None of the returns failed during use as far as he knew.
It might be useful for Russell to phone around to the bigger photo shops and
see if they're have a high failure rate with a particular brand or batch of cards.

I think my original comment about there being something wrong with
the camera's firmware still holds.
Has Russell checked the makers web site to see if there is a firmware update
for the camera, and what the update fixed? What make/model camera is it Russell
so others can be 'forewarned'?

Robert

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