Review #1

Product: Image Tank 10 GB HDD
Power supply used: mains/battery/car cigarette lighter.
Location Duration: Tanzania Duration 3 weeks
Temperatures: -20 to 42 deg C

The main reason for purchasing this storage device comparing to two other competitors is that:

1. Flexibility of swapping hard drive. 10 GB was used.
2. Powering the Image Tank via
      1. Mains
      2. Battery Hipower 2000
      3. Car battery
3. Transfer speeds
4. Simplicity
5. Physical size
6. Ruggedness
7. Practicality

The requirements of the Image Tank were to take it for six days walk to the summit of Kilimanjaro (5895m above sea level) and back again. The photos could be transferred quickly and easily with the minimum of fuss, because at such heights it is difficult to keep a clear head! I had to take the Image Tank out two times a day to transfer the photos from the CF cards (128MB, 32MB and 16MB) in .jpg and .mov formats. Conditions were from humid, damp, very rugged terrains, dry, dusty, windy, hot, to freezing temperatures. The Image Tank was kept in a zipper plastic bag (to water proof it) and a small fridge bag (to keep the HDD from freezing and battery from discharging too quickly in cold temperatures). In fact I didn’t have to charge the battery once whilst I was in Tanzania.

For the safari I used the car’s cigarette lighter to transfer the images in temperatures of around +40 Deg C as there were no tops to the Landrovers! Very rough terrain, I must admit I was a bit worried about the hard drive from all that shaking, tossing and turning but all turned out fine! Again the quick transfer was a great bonus!

Dar es Salaam/Zanzibar stayed a few meters away from the sea so salty air was imminent. There was a small worry about the rust (from the salty air) affecting the pins of the CF slot but no problems there at all!

Most of the photos were around 1.2MB each (hi res pictures), of which I took around 1,300 photos and 5 small movies (11MB each). So the 10gig was more then enough for the duration I was in Tanzania. Battery was a lifesaver especially as blackouts are common sight there!

It simple without any thrills and spills, quick, tough (if you look after it moderately); as far as I am concerned I will be taking it on my next adventure, Siberia!

Author: A. Siala - Date: 06/12/2001