Duo for Photo Downloads

[Lizard1 at aol.com]

Jim,

You never mentioned how big the hard drive is in your 280c.  Unless you've 
already spent some buck to upgrade to a bigger SCSI drive, then I'd assume 
you still have a drive that's less than 1gb, maybe 500mb, so right there 
you've got a lot less disk space download photos to.  Those drives are hard 
to come by and expemsive as well.  A SCSI dock with a small external hard 
drive would work, but then you still need a way to connect the camera.  I see 
some other folks have already suggested a few ways.  An yes, you will run 
into problems getting software that will run on it, too, as most stuff wants 
at least OS 8.1 and a PPC processor).

I bought a Kodak DC3400 a couple years ago, and am still very happy with it.  
One of the main reasons I got this model was because it had both USB and 
serial connectors, and I knew I would be working with, and have access to, 
older non-USB Macs for quite some time.  I was able to get the camera to 
connect to my 2300c through the serial port, so now I can easily off-load the 
images to the 500mb partition I set up on the internal 2gb HD, eliminating 
the necessity for me to go buy a bigger CompactFlash card (for now).  I only 
have two 64mb cards for right now, but then it's only a 2 megapixel camera so 
the biggest images are still less than 1mb each as .jpg files, so hard drive 
space isn't as big of a issue for me (right now) as it seems to be for you.

Considering your situation, and given how cheap bigger CF cards are getting, 
it might just be more cost-effective to invest in a few more CF cards, or 
sell of your smaller ones and invest in a few 1gb cards.  I can understand 
your desire to keep that good ol' 280c useful, but it may end up being a bit 
too costly and convoluted.  Considering what list this is, this might sound 
like herasy, but given your circumstances, you might be better off selling 
the 280c and getting a somewhat newer Powerbook or even an iBook that will be 
more friendly with your camera.  Even if you have an a big HD and you get you 
hands on a SCSI-to-USB adapter, I suspect that the speed of the 280c will be 
another factor.

Good luck!
Mike Ripca


In a message dated 5/13/03 2:12:59 PM, DuoList at lists.themacintoshguy.com 
writes:

>    New to the list and am looking for some help to keep my trusty old 280c
>useful. I have some ideas on the subject outlined below, but would like
>to see what comes out of the list.
>
>     I'm a writer/photographer that has long used the Duo on the road for
>writing work. I recently upgraded to include a digital camera in my photo
>equipment and wonder how I could adapt the Duo to download photos. The
>lack of a USB port and hard drive space are the two most obvious problems, 
>but I also see some problems with software (I use a Nikon). Any comments
>appreciated.
>
>
>
>Jim Allen