Review: Amplio Tripper

Don Bradbury looks at a digital image storage device

Product	Tripper
Company	Amplio Technology Ltd.
Web	www.ampliotech.co.uk
Price	From £180
We like	Portable; easy to use
We don't like	No file viewer; CF/microdrive only w/o adapter
Rating	8/10
Requirements

Until recently called the PhotoBank 20G, the more snappily named Tripper (or rather less snappy, USB 2.0 Portable Storage, the manufacturer not appearing to be quite sure what to call it) does the same job. You take it with you on trips where you expect to take a number of pictures that exceed the capacity of your memory cards and copy them to the Tripper. Or, of course, where you'll feel happier knowing you have backup copies of unrepeatable shots.

Not a likely scenario? Then consider this; you're the photographer at a family wedding, the church shots are in the bag, and now there's just the reception to cover. Without warning, your Microdrive (or other Compact Flash memory) decides to call it a day by acquiring a dose of corruption and it needs formatting. What now?

Well, if you had backed up the church shots onto a Tripper, they'd be safely stored away. You'd have been free to format your memory card for the reception pics. Unlikely? Well, yes, but it does happen. So the Tripper is a safety device as well as a capacity expander.

Portability

Quite neat in two tone grey, weighing 300 grams, jacket-pocketable, and quite easy to use, it's the sort of device that lends confidence to the dedicated digital photographer. To use it, simply make sure the 3.3V Li-ion internal battery has been charged for a couple of hours, pop in your memory card, either when it's full or when there's a lull in proceedings, switch on the device, select Menu on the 100 x 64 graphic monochrome LCD, choose either Quick Backup (accept the folder default), Backup to HD (editable folders), or Move to HD (again, editable folders), and make your transfer of files to the Tripper's internal, 2.5 inch EIDE, 20GB drive while watching the red access LED for confirmation of file transfer.

When you're confident that the files are safely stored away (and you haven't use 'Move') you can select 'Delete From CF' to free up your memory card's capacity for more shots. You also have the option to 'Restore to CF' if you need to do that, say to a backup CF card.

'Move to HD', by the way, does exactly that; it transfers files as per Windows' Move command, ie it copies them and then deletes them from the source (the memory card) all in one process. Moving files is not usually recommended under Windows for any file transfer that is in the least important as corruption may possibly occur in the process; it's generally considered safer to copy them and then, when satisfactory transfer has been confirmed, delete them from the source. We'd recommend one of the Backup commands followed by 'Delete From CF'.

The Tripper's menu also lets you set the date and time - which is used to identify folders it sets up - the LCD's contrast, and select a beep to confirm functions. It also lets you summon 'HDD Info' where both disk space used and remaining are displayed, another useful confirmation that the files transfer has completed satisfactorily.

Software limitations

What the Tripper menu does not let you do is delete its own contents directly, nor format its drive if it becomes corrupted; those moves you have to make while the device is attached to a PC. It's in this mode that you make file transfers to your PC's hard disk.

Tripper's menu doesn't let you view the folders structure it has established, either, you have to wait for PC connection to see that. It can be a little unnerving, when you have multiple backups to make to Tripper, not being able to confirm where they're going. The software is, however, smart enough to recognize different memory cards and apply appropriate folder names.

Similarly, Tripper does not let you view any of your picture files. We think that a file viewer would have been a really useful addition, though it could have pushed up the already not inconsiderable cost of the device.

Apart from the power-in socket (charger provided, though with only a two-pin shaver plug), an on-off and an Enter switch, and the menu control and status LEDs, there's just a socket to accept the USB 2.0 lead which is also provided.

Performance

File transfers from Tripper to a notebook equipped with both USB 1.1 and 2.0 demonstrated the advantage of using the latter. Via USB 1.1, 28.3MB/min was the measured transfer rate, while over USB 2.0, a rate of 61.7MB/min was recorded. A speed advantage of 2.2 times is clearly worth having, and it justifies the provision (and cost) of fitting USB 2.0 to Tripper. As usual, the data transfer speeds we recorded were not close to the theoretical for either port type; many other factors are involved.

File transfers from Tripper to PC are done in the normal way, using Windows Explorer. While in this mode, Tripper's LCD displays the message 'Key Operation Is Not Received' - a not particularly useful report. The Tripper software might, we suppose, be described as basic but adequate.

However, it does include symbols showing card insertion, USB 2.0 connectivity, the power saving timeout you have set, a battery status indicator (though it was of the quickly-down-to-half-charge type that leaves you wondering if it's going to last out the day). Finally, Menu and Enter key usability is also indicated.

A Windows driver is supplied on CD for Tripper for those not using Windows XP, and there's a demount utility that you must use before the device is removed from a PC with appropriate Operating Systems.

Memory Card Adapter

Compact Flash (including Microdrive) is the only type of memory card that Tripper will accept directly. Fortunately, Amplio can supply an adapter so that you can use five other common types of memory card, though at an extra cost of £20. Ideally it would have been included.

The card types supported by the adapter include Smart Media, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Secure Digital, and MultiMedia Card (each with its own stated minimum and maximum capacities - check with Amplio if necessary). Basically designed for Windows CE, Palm PC, and other handhelds, the adapter is doubly useful for PC users who may already use a PC Card slot and an adapter to read Compact Flash cards on their computers. The Amplio adapter will piggy-back onto the PC Card CF adapter, and the assembly then accepts any of the stated memory card types, perhaps further justifying its cost.

The advantage of using this sort of adapter on a PC is, of course, that only one additional drive letter has to be assigned by Windows because all the card types are made to think they are CF; you're not left wondering which drive to access if you use multiple memory card types.

However, we do wish manufacturers would install card orientation detection for when you can't remember which way up the card should be inserted. It's a drawback of this Amplio offering, as with so many others; at least it was with the SmartMedia and MultiMedia cards with which we tried it.

When used with Tripper on a PC, the adapter registers separately with Windows as another drive, so Tripper itself, especially when fitted with the card adapter, can also act as a multi memory card reading interface while attached to a PC. That may, if you don't already have a card reader, save the cost of a separate one - which may approach or even exceed the £20 cost of the Amplio adapter.

In conclusion

Especially useful for dedicated digital photographers, for whom it is intended, Amplio's Tripper or PhotoBank offers useful capacity, is easy to use, is just about pocketable, and appears quite robust.

But Tripper could be used for file transfer applications other than digital images, of course. Some will use it for moving files between home and office, for example, or simple archiving. The 20GB drive is adequate for many such duties. The price of the device is substantial, it has to be said, but depending on the application it's cost will be justified by many.

 

Don Bradbury