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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Jobo Giga Vu Pro Evolution

Nigel Atkinson

New member
Has anyone tried one of these?

After the big promo on RG they took a long time to arrive in the shops. I haven't seen any reviews from users.

Nigel
 

Paul Schefz

New member
the one listed at calumet is the giga vu pro..not the evolution...which has (supposedly) a much better screen and much better raw file handling...the evolution pro looks like the only real solution out there...histograms, great screen (you can even calibrate!!!) and workable raw file browsing...still haven't seen one in stores yet, waiting to see a review...
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Unless I have it wrong, IGB CF is copied in 12 minutes for the Giga Vu Pro.

"Using a SanDisk 1.0GB Extreme CF card I copied 292 files (a mix of JPEG, RAW and BMP) totalling 1020MB in 12:42. The Verify operation took another 13:05. These times were for the default copy and verify method with preview enabled. Using the "Fast" option disables the preview function and yielded a copy time of 12:12, not exactly what I would call "faster." You can set the Giga Vu PRO to automatically verify after copy and turn itself off for unattended operations. What was very impressive was the copy to the host computer speed - I copied one of the backup folders with 960MB of files in it in just 60 seconds!"

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2005_reviews/gigavupro.html

So it has a Raz-Ma-Taz screen and can blow uup RAW 400%. Why am I yawning? It's speed I want!

That, is not really better than my Flashtrax.

Now the whole thing about a data bank, for me at least, is to rapidly get the CF card copied. 12 minutes per GB is not practical to get a CF card back into the work cycle in good time. Even at the end of the day, who wants to stand around for 24 minutes per card for each of several 2GB cards?

I guess we need to just use 8GB cards and go to bed while this things work in auto.

In auto mode copy and validate each file and then put itself to sleep 3 1/2 hours later! That sound great!

So where is the special advantage: well I think it is the validate. When you get up in the morning, the 8GB drive is either copied and fine or it isn't . At least you know. If it is O.K., one can backup to your laptop through the USB-2 at 1GB/min if you are lucky. So 8GB should only take 10-15mintes in real life. Not bad. That can be while you are having breakfast.

I can't see however, it worthwhile to use this Jobo any other way! For me at least!

To me, the best route today is Firwire 400 and 800 CF readers direct to the Powerbook. Then, backup to another portable drive to keep on you, is the practical way, IMHO.

Asher
 
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Nigel Atkinson

New member
Asher,

I agree with everything you say, but you are looking at the wrong product.

The evolution claims to download a 1GB card in 2min 30 seconds and then allow access to the raw file data. It also allows you to download the data to another USB device such as a second drive. This all sounds great but they delayed the launch several times and I have yet to see any review from a user.

UK pricing is 379 pounds for 40Gb. While not a bargain its in-line with an ipod for a useful set of features that no-one else is doing.
 

Ray West

New member
Hi Asher,

if you want speed of copying from compact flash to a mass storage device, the the hyperdrive seems to be the way to go. I have used mine successfully in the last week or so, on hols. It is fast, and reliable. Then downloading from there to the pc (USB2) is a bit slower, but I did that at home. It saves taking a notebook pc. There are plenty of timings re copying speed, and the manufacturer's spec./timings seem to be accurate.

afaik, it is still the fastest option for getting data from your cf card.

Best wishes,

Ray
 

Ray West

New member
Hi Asher, I bought the unit earlier this year 1oogB drive fitted by them, you can now get faster drives. You swap cf cards, put the ex camera one in the drive. in a minute or so, its copied. I tested it when I bought it, and it performed as specified - 16MB/sec, (about 1gB per minute) and a filled the drive, and I remember I tested download speed to pc, too.

Last week, speed was not an issue, it wiil not be for you, unless you only have one cf card. I have ultra II and III, and didn't notice any speed difference, I can't imagine it woulfd be an issue.

Its also straightforward to use - I forgot the handbook, couldn't remember the instructions, but simply plug in cf card, switch off/on, and it copied cf contents to new folder.

a link is here, http://www.hyperdrive.com/shop/information.php?osCsid=6f0b321f6b959b03faeb3d995b92ad77&info_id=5

and you should be able to download the pdf instructions, too. It is one of the few recent devices I have bought that work exactly as described.

At the end of the day, I simply copied the cf card contents to the hd. I only formatted cf when full, so this meant that on return I had multi copies of some files on hd, plus the last couple of days on cf, too. Easy to drag and drop the folders to where I wanted them on PC, remove duplicates, back up as normal, etc.

Best wishes,

Ray
 

Steve Fines

New member
Hello,

I've had 2 PD70X's (100gb) for a while. I think its the same thing as the hyperdrive. CF card goes from camera to PD70X #1 to PD70X #2 and then back to the camera. Gives me double backup of 100gb in the field with lithium AA's that will do about 75gb per set. They are also the fastest game in town for getting data off of a cf card in the field.

I had pre-ordered a GVP Evolution for a recent trip but they called me the day before I was scheduled to leave.

I'm surprised that RG, after such positive initial comments hasn't offered a full review as they are now available.

I've heard that the histogram and preview is actually based on the RAW file and not the embedded jpeg - would allow much better sharpness checking. But this is heresay - I haven't actually seen one.
 

Petter Stahre

New member
I have had both the GigaVu Pro Evo (GVP) and the HyperDrive (HD) unit for two months now. On the first test of the GVP it stopped working. I had downloaded 56 GB (!) of images during a two day wedding shot. At one time when I was browsing the images the unit suddenly halted. I had to turn it off and then on again. After that the unit reported that there where 0 images on the harddrive (and 0 GB free disk space).

Later when I got back at the office I hooked the GVP to my computer but there were no images to be found. Scary!

Luckily I have had the routine of making backups to the HyperDrive simultaneously before erasing the CF-cards and shooting on. And the HD-unit worked perfectly. There is only one big problem with the HD I think and that is the question you ask yourself "Have I already downloaded this card or not?". With the GVP you can look at the images, with the HD you can't. So I suspected there might be 1 or 2 cards that was only at the GVP.

I sent the GVP unit to Jobo at Germany and the guy there were very service minded. After approx. 5 days I got it back with all the data resqued. Jobo said that it was a problem with a hard drive cable which was replaced.

But when I have used the unit after that I have had a new "scary moment". After downloading a CF-card the unit suddenly halted while transfering images (fully charged battery!). At the main menue it reported "0 GB" free space on the hard drive. Here we go again I thought, but after turning the unit on/off it started working ok again.

Bottom line ... I'm not at all trusting my GVP. I would never trust it as my single backup source (for less important images). But I have continued using it as an extra display when shooting on location and don't want to bring a computer.

This is quite sad I think. I really wanted the GVP to be the perfect unit. In other respects it is doing a very good job. Beautiful screen. Fast browsing. Easy to use. Very fast transfer (almost as fast as the HD). (But forget looking at the RAW-data ... it takes minuteS before you can even start to zoom into details, for each image.)

But then again the GVP has some other veird issues. Like when the battery is low. It never says anything ... it just suddenly shuts down the hard way (it seems) and then you can never start it up again if you don't plug it in. How comfortable is that? The same happens way when it downloads CF-cards at the end of the battery. I tried to download a 4 GB CF-card when the unit reported approx 8-10% of battery charge left. Suddenly, at the end of the transfer, the unit went black. After that I couldn't start it up. Back at the office attached to the computer I could see that none of the data from the last CF card was on the hard drive. Maybe this is a "feature" - a way of securing the rest of the data on the hard drive. Fine, I can understand that. But it's not a comforting way of communicating with the user. Why not put a message on the screen "Low charge, turn off now or risk loosing data" and then auto power off if the user doesn't see the message?

And about the battery ... after downloading approx. 20-30 GB data the fully charged battery was out. I had to connect the GVP to a power cord during the wedding shot, while the HyperDrive just went on and on backuping all the data. The battery in the GVP is truely a joke! The only good thing about the hard drive failure is I will get a battery pack for the GVP free of charge (still waiting for it after 6-8 weeks though).

A hyperdrive, with an added B/W greyscale screen just to validate what pictures are on the hard drive, could be the ultimate product in price/performance.

// Petter
 

Dave McCaughan

New member
I'd like resurrect this thread to see if anyone has more to add about the GVP. Specifically head to head with the Epson 5000. As we transition from film, this looks like a good way to replace polaroids. Has anyone connected a GVP to a dSLR via usb? The Galbraith review says it's slow but I'm only interested in transferring one image at a time. We were frustrated by having to turn off the camera, take out to card, insert the card turn on the Epson, wait, view the image turn off the epson, eject the card, insert the card back in the camera and turn the camera back on. Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Dave
 
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