Using N900 as photo storage device during travel?
 

Hi!

Now, I haven't actually gotten my N900 yet *grumble*, but I'm already planning all kinds of awesome uses for it. One of these is to use the 32GBs for storing images from my DSLR during travel. I've got an 8GB SDHC (regular size) card that I use in my camera, which fills up fairly quickly when I shoot raw (which I always do), so it would be very neat to be able to store images in the N900 (and view them, but I saw there's a raw-viewer app currently in extras-testing for that), since my regular computer obviously won't be available then. Now, since it's a regular SDHC card, it won't fit in the N900, thus meaning I have to find some other way of transferring the images from the card to the phone. Any ideas for what would be the best solution in this case?

I've read that the N900 doesn't support plugging in external storage devices, which effectively makes it impossible to plug the camera in straight to the phone with a proper cable, however awesome that would be. Even more awesome would be if I could then plug in my portable external 300GB hard drive into the N900 and transfer the images to that, but I guess that's just wishful thinking. Does anyone know if there will be any plug and play support for the N900 in a foreseeable future?

So yeah, I guess that's two questions. All ideas are most welcome!

Re: Using N900 as photo storage device during travel?
 

Blehhhh, as much as I hope host mode gets supported, my suggestion would be to get one of those hard drive and SD card reader all in one solutions.

Re: Using N900 as photo storage device during travel?
 

8 or 16 GB microSDHC card. These usually come with adapters for use as full size SD cards.
Nokia decided that USB charging eliminated possibility of USB host.

Some cameras have wifi. Don't know if that will ever be common.

Re: Using N900 as photo storage device during travel?
 

You can use an MicroSDHC Card in a "normal" SDHC Card Adapter in your camera and then put the MicroSD card back to your N900

Re: Using N900 as photo storage device during travel?
 

also, even if cams have wifi, i doubt that you can simply use it without a windows box in the same network that has some fancy administration software to remote-control the cam. simply switching wifi on on the cam and then having the n900 connect to it in ad hoc mode.... that alone would be haven. but then? there would need to be some way of "mounting" the cams sd card over wifi without extra software. i doubt this will ever work.

anyway, i'm having the same issue. with my n800, i used to swap cards to do some basic image editing and to mail pictures during my holidays. on the n900, the sd slot is less accessible, so even if i would use adapters and all that, i simply wouldn't want to to it.

but even mass storage wouldn't work:
my cam only supports PTP. would PTP work? or does it need host mode also?

Re: Using N900 as photo storage device during travel?
 

Koeus, I have the same desire as you do. There isn't a direct solution for using the N900 to store photos during travel. There was some discussion about that in the N900 will not allow USB OTG! thread.

The two best options I've found are to carry an N800 for photos or to transfer photos from camera to N900 at an Internet cafe.

Re: Using N900 as photo storage device during travel?
 

Well, without emotions such as urgency, I dream of the day various devices are available with transfer capability based on scp and/or rsync. There could be some fancy gui wrapper on either end, but the simple command would work as well.
It is a shame that there is no up to date Zaurus like clamshell that provides its own case, has various radios built in, has compact flash and SD externally accessible ports, and 10 hour heavy use runtime. Widespread rsync support via wifi and/or bluetooth would reduce the need for moving storage cards around.

Re: Using N900 as photo storage device during travel?
 

talmage,
why ignore the obvious answer mentioned by oliver and benny above?

Re: Using N900 as photo storage device during travel?
 

I've just submitted a Feature Request for the Eye-Fi card to support the Maemo platform... not that I expect that it would be soon provided.
Wonder if the "Community" could pitch in?

Eye-Fi is awesome, btw; nothing better than snapping pictures in and around the house, going to your laptop and having the pictures there already! :)

Re: Using N900 as photo storage device during travel?
 

Yeah, great forum etiquette: post question, receive succinct and useful answer, ignore answer.

Here's your summary again in case you missed it:

"Use MicroSD adapter."

Re: Using N900 as photo storage device during travel?
 

16gb microSDHC with adapter costs roughly $50, only problem is that you have to remove backplate when plugging the card in. but you can do it twice before devices memory is full....

personally i see no point lurking raw -files with n900. you can do it with your camera more energy efficiently...

Re: Using N900 as photo storage device during travel?
 

I mostly agree. In the three weeks that I have had my n900, the back has been off twice. Once to put in the battery and an SD card. Second to put in a SIM a couple of weeks later. I even went through the pain of reformatting the SD card to ext2 with sfdisk rather than open the back to take it out.

But the OP seemed at a loss as to how to deal with his camera using SD and n900 using microSD.
Yes, but the n900 display is far nicer than the LCD on any camera I've ever seen. I doubt it would be worth it to me for the time and/or hassel of data transfer.

Re: Using N900 as photo storage device during travel?
 

Eye-Fi works only in ad-hoc mode (also, Pro edition only), which means no power saving. The other problem is you can't be connected simultaneously to the camera and an access point. The Eye-fi-s I tried out were also sloooow, definitely not something I would want to use with several gigabytes of images/videos...

Re: Using N900 as photo storage device during travel?
 

Um, because I didn't think of it? :)

Seriously, are the micro SDHC cards fast enough to be used in a DLSR? If so, then you're right: getting a micro SDHC card with an SD adapter is a good solution.