The Portable Hard Drive Grows Up

There are a lot of options out there for portable photo viewers. Cell phones, PDA's, iPods... They all have their advantages. But for my money, there's only one way to go if you're a serious photographer: a portable hard drive storage device.

Though most of these devices are a little too large to comfortably fit in a pocket, they easily ride in a medium-sized camera bag or a backpack. And they provide enough storage space to download an entire vacation's worth of high-resolution photos - and then some.

While there are a handful of brands to choose from, when you consider features vs. price, I believe Digital Foci's Picture Porter comes out on top. The Picture Porter includes built-in slots for 10 flash memory card formats. It's compatible with five photo file types - including RAW files - four video file types and four sound file types - including MP3 and AAC.

For travelers, the Picture Porter can also serve as an entertainment system. You can download your favorite music and listen via the built-in speaker or with headphones. Plus, you can record video ( your favorite movies, perhaps) to the Picture Porter and play it back on the bright 3.6" color screen. There's even a built-in FM radio and direct audio-recording feature.

If you take a lot of digital pictures, or use RAW or TIFF formats, you'll go through memory cards quickly. A portable hard drive device such as he Picture Porter could be just what you need to store and organize your pictures on the go.