By Andrew Liszewski

Canon just announced a couple of new prosumer video cameras that record directly to compact flash memory cards, but those already using the company’s HDV and Mini-DV camcorders don’t have to feel like they’ve been left out of the solid state storage party. Canon’s also announced the FS-CF and FS-CF Pro solid state video recorders which are actually made by a company called Focus Enhancements. They connect to the camera via its firewire port and are able to record up to 2.2 hours of 1080i HDV footage to a single 32GB CF card. Using a 64GB card will of course double your record time, but I assume Canon’s using a 32GB card as an example since the device’s removable Li-on battery pack is only good for about 3 hours of recording.

The FS-CF and FS-CF Pro both support HD framerates ranging from 24P up to 60i in both QT, M2T and MXF OP Atom formats, but can also generate MPEG-4 proxies which are easier to share online. You’re also able to review recorded footage on the device’s color back-lit LCD display, and browse through a thumbnail gallery of your videos using a convenient scroll wheel. (The Pro version also provides a web interface.) And when it’s time to edit, you can either remove the CF card in order to transfer the footage to your NLE, or simply connect the device to your workstation via USB 2 and use it as an external drive. The FS-CF and FS-CF Pro are expected to be available sometime in late April for $995 and $1,295 respectively.

[ PR - CF-Card Recording With Canon HDV Camcorders Through Focus Enhancements Solid State DTE Recorders ] VIA [ SlashGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Do you value looks over capacity, speed and price point? Then step right up as Brinell has a series of portable drives which they refer to as “the exclusive portable hard disk.” It does seem a little snooty, but with finishes that include wood, chrome, leather, brushed stainless steel and what looks like carbon fiber, that’s exactly the clientele they seem to be going after.

Besides an included microfiber cloth to keep the drives looking their best, there’s not much to talk about in terms of features. They’re your basic USB 2.0 external drive, available in either an XS size which uses a 1.8 inch 160GB drive, or an S size that uses a 2.5 inch 500GB drive. Pricing depends on which finish and size you get, with the least bang for your buck being the XS black chrome & wood version which will set you back about $250 for a mere 160GB.

[ Brinell Purestorage ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Evan Ackerman

Infinitec is introducing what they’re calling the “next generation” of USB flash drives, the Infinite USB Memory (IUM) drive. Rather than storing data on internal flash memory, the IUM pairs with your computer, forming a wireless data transfer link. So, whatever device you plug the IUM into sees it as simple USB flash drive, while behind the scenes the IUM is streaming data directly from your computer, making available as much data as you care to give it, hence the “infinite” moniker. This isn’t some kind of infinite cloud storage thing, however, it’s just that the capacity of the IUM isn’t limited by the hardware on the IUM itself.

I can’t immediately figure out how the wireless bit works, but it’s going to be one of two ways. The first, which seems most likely from the way the IUM is described, is that it uses your laptop’s wireless card to transfer data. This means that if you’re out of range of your laptop’s wireless signal, your IUM loses its functionality. The alternative (and I don’t think it works this way) would be that it somehow connects to your laptop over the internet, which means that the IUM would function anywhere it could get WiFi access, possibly allowing you to set up secured access points ahead of time.

Whichever way it functions, I wouldn’t really think of this as a USB flash drive at all, for the simple reason that you can’t use it to back up or transfer data independently of your laptop. It’s more of a wireless USB network adapter, in that it gives any USB compatible device access to the data on your laptop via a local (ad-hoc) wireless network. This is definitely a handy capability, although its usefulness is limited to electronics with USB ports but without a network connection that you don’t want to plug your computer into directly (although there is something to be said for ease of use, which the IUM certainly appears to offer).

The cost for this convenience is $129, which seems rather steep to me, although (for what it’s worth) it’s generally equivalent to the Eye-Fi Pro, which offers the same kind of wireless ad-hoc network functionality.

The Infinitec IUM Drive goes on sale July 1.

[ IUM Drive ] VIA [ ZDNet ]

By Andrew Liszewski

So I realize that CF’s days are numbered, and SD will eventually win the flash card war, but for now compact flash manages to stay just one step ahead of secure digital when it comes to storage capacity. Well maybe a few steps to be exact, given Panasonic just announced a 64GB SD card, where as Silicon-Power just revealed their new 128GB CF model. The 400X card features write speeds of up to 90MB/sec allowing it to file away your monstrous RAW shots as fast as you can snap them, though there’s no word on how quickly it will snap away your hard earned cash.

[ PR - Silicon Power Announces World’s First 400X 128GB Compact Flash Memory Card ] VIA [ Mobile Magazine ]

By Andrew Liszewski

We didn’t get a chance to play with it while at CES, but on many occasions at the show we would have loved to have the functionality promised by the AirStash flash drive. It’s a bit clunkier than the handfuls of regular flash drives we walked away with, but that’s because it’s got a built-in 802.11b/g wifi access point as well as an SDHC card slot allowing you to access the contents of an SD card from any wireless device. Like a laptop, PC, and more importantly, the iPhone.

Want to email a pic you just snapped but don’t have a computer handy? Well using any web browser you can access the contents of your camera’s SD card with the AirStash, or just browse through the photos on your iPhone’s large display. Unfortunately because it was just announced at CES there’s no info on pricing, availability or even how long its rechargeable battery will last, but we’ll keep you posted once those important tidbits are made available.

[ AirStash Wireless Flash Drive ] VIA [ Engadget ]

By Evan Ackerman

Lacie would like to offer you some free cloud storage to back up your data and make it accessible to you and your friends anywhere, anytime. It’s called Wuala, and you can get as much of it as you want. Really. Infinite cloud storage, for free. Absolutely free.

Well, sort of free.

Kinda.

Okay, so it’s not totally free. But you don’t exactly have to pay for it, either. Wuala (it’s pronounced like “voilà”) functions by transforming your local storage into cloud storage for someone else. Here’s how it works: if you want a gig of cloud storage, you donate a gig of your local hard drive to the Wuala cloud. Wuala will dump a bunch of data onto your drive, and in return, you’ll get up to a gig on Wuala. Unlike most cloud storage solutions, Wuala itself isn’t a bunch of servers somewhere, but rather a bunch of users who have donated drive space to other users. Your data is encrypted before it leaves your computer, and it’s stored in several different places (like a big distributed RAID system), so it’s safe. Essentially, you’re just trading storage with other people, and Wuala is managing everything.

Now, this does mean that you’ve got some random stranger’s files on your computer. They’re encrypted, so you can’t DO anything with them, but I could see being bothered by having a bunch of random crap sitting on one of my drives. Plus, if random stranger dude wants to get at his stuff, it’s going to cost you bandwidth. Since the storage network is distributed, it’s not a big deal, but again, it’s the principle of other people using your resources that I could see being mentally problematic, even if it does make a lot of practical sense. The other catch is that this system collapses if everybody shuts their computers off, so unless you leave your computer on pretty much all the time, you won’t get a 1:1 trade for your storage.

Any way you look at it, Wuala is an interesting communal storage idea. You can try it for free from Wuala.com, and it comes bundled with Lacie’s hard drives and flash drives, including these durable little flash drives shaped like keys:

The key drives start at $20 for 4 gigs and are available at 32 gigs for $100.

[ Wuala ]
[ Lacie USB Keys ]

By Evan Ackerman

I’m not quite sure how they do it, but Eye-Fi manages to keep on cramming feature after useful into their wireless memory cards. This time around, they’re introducing a new tier of card (above Pro), the Pro X2. It costs $150, but at least read about what it does before you scoff at the price… The X2 is an 8 gig SDHC card with a built-in 802.11n antenna. N! N means faster uploads at greater distances, so that’s definitely good. And more storage is good too. But the most useful feature of the X2 is the option to have the card delete pictures after it uploads them, giving you an infinite amount of memory (provided you’re near some source of WiFi) while sharing and backing up your pictures real time. The card won’t delete anything until it’s confirmed that the upload was successful, but hypothetically, you can just stop worrying about whether or not you’re running out of space when taking pictures (or videos).

The X2 also comes with all the rest of the awesome Eye-Fi features, like RAW support, geotagging, ad-hoc WiFi connections, and Wayport WiFi access. Unfortunately, from what I can tell from the press release, the infinite memory option will be available on the new X2 cards only. This is a bit of a disappointment, since previous useful firmware upgrades were made available to all of the cards. But, I guess it’s probably somewhat unrealistic to expect to keep getting free goodies, and for you heavy shooters, the additional SDHC space and the potential for never having to worry about space again may make the X2 a worthwhile upgrade.

Look for the Eye-Fi X2 on Amazon and the Eye-Fi website.

[ Eye-Fi ]

By Andrew Liszewski

With 200 MB/s read and 170 MB/s write speeds, A-DATA’s new N002 flash drive makes a convincing argument to upgrade to USB 3.0. But if you’re not ready to take the bleeding edge plunge just yet, the drive is also equipped with a SATA II connection and is even backwards with USB 2.0, though you’ll be taking a bit of a speed hit there. A-DATA claims the drive will be hitting the market sometime in January of 2010 and will be available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities, though pricing information has not been announced yet.

[ PR - A-DATA N002 Combo Flash Drive ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Remember the PhotoFast compact flash adapter that would accept up to 4 microSD cards, allowing them to be used in a CF-only DSLR? Well the company’s JBOD USB Flash Drive is the exact same idea. It uses the JBOD or ‘just a bunch of disks’ protocol to make up to 4 microSD cards appear as a single USB flash drive when attached to your PC, and while the microSD cards can all be different sizes, the total supported capacity maxes out at 64GB. ~$64 from Geek Stuff 4 U.

[ PhotoFast microSD USB Flash Drive ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]