Comments on: Hyperdrive HD80 – Hands-on Review

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 01:11:52 +0000

Excellent review. Just started shooting RAW and suddenly find myself desperate for more shooting capacity while out taking photos. I think I’ll be picking one of these up …

By: Bud

Bud — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 19:29:53 +0000

A sincere thank you for the review. I’m headed off to Iceland this summer along with a Canon 5D / Rebel XT. Given that summer in Iceland can mean two weeks of rain, two weeks of sun or (I hope) some combination of the two, with daylight of about 21 hours I have no way of predicting how many CF cards I’ll need. Thanks in part to your review, I purchased a Hyperdrive. It’s worth noting for those of us who find themselves in really wet / inclement conditions that the Hyperdrive fits perfectly into a Pelican 1020 Micro case. The case weighs 9 oz but should survive any sort of moisture and add demonstrably to the HD’s ability to survive any number of traumas.

By: Rick

Rick — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 11:49:42 +0000

How refreshing to find an easy to comprehend article (with detailed pictures to boot) regarding a product I debated about purchasing, due to my recent 8GB-CF upgrade for RAW file format shootings. It seems my trigger-happy photo finger just wants to click away like there is no tomorrow, and the 8GB-CF just gave it a license to do exactly that. Now that the order for a barebones HD80 is placed, I am off scouring the internet for that pie-in-the-sky biggie 2.5HDD! Cha-ching. When all is said and done, it will be interesting to see how quick 8GBs copy, but at least I can utilize the 1GB and 2GB-CFs in my arsenal while waiting. My other concern will be to see how an 8GB transfer feeds on the power of the 4-AA NiMH. If there is anything I posses a lot of it’s AA-NiMH rechargable batteries. So on the rare chance the 8GB transfer drains the power sooner rather than later, I will have spares to boot!

By: Aaron Mahler

Aaron Mahler — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 21:50:17 +0000

Other Aaron,
Yes – true. I didn’t mean to imply that you HAD to use the batteries it came with. I suspect any AA will perform in some capacity – some better, some worse. Lithiums are probably pretty excellent in this context. Alkalines, on the other hand, would probably fail miserably.
A good point and thanks for commenting!
- Aaron

By: Another Aaron

Another Aaron — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 18:14:21 +0000

Great review.
Let me just add that you don’t *have* to use the rechargeable NiMH AAs that come with the HD80 (which is sort of implied by the wording in the review). I don’t like carrying extra stuff (ie, chargers) when I travel, and I chose the HD80 so I could just put in regular AAs when travelling. Easy to replace anywhere if they should happen to run out. And, if you buy the expensive lithium AAs ($10/4) it makes the whole package noticeably lighter.
Probably not useful for a working pro who’s carrying lots of equipment anyway, but for a lightweight travelling shooter, it’s a help.

By: Tony

Tony — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 21:44:14 +0000

Nice review. Great level of information. It will prove very useful for those people who do not yet own a Hyperdrive HD80 or Compact drive PD70x (Alternate name)
Tony