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(More customer reviews)I received this memory card reader from Amazon this week and have had a couple of days to use it.
The ZoomMediaPlus adapter coupled with the zoomit application from iTunes provides the ability to transfer photos from an SD/SDHC card from your digital camera to your iPod Touch or iPhone. This functionality is not available from Apple at this time. In my search this was the only third party option I could find to perform this funciton.
I particularly wanted this function because we are taking a two week trip to France later this year. I will not bring a laptop, depending solely on the iPod Touch for things like email, news, weather, maps, notes, etc. all using WiFi which is readily available in Paris. But I do want to transfer some photos from my digital camera to email or my SmugMug photo web site while in France. This will allow me to share our trip with friends and relatives back home. I have the 32GB iPod Touch 3G which has lots of available space. Using the Zoomit app and hardware I hope to transfer photos from my digital camera so I can free up space on my SD cards as well. Another advantage is viewing the photos on a larger screen than the 2" swivel LCD on my Panasonic DMC-FZ30. The combination of this hardware, and the free app from the iTunes store will provide exactly what I want, and more.
It is quite easy to use. Just download the app, plug the ZoomMediaPlus into the connector on the bottom of the iPod Touch, insert the SD card which nicely clicks into place, start the app and transfer images from the SD card to the iPod's memory. From there it is possible to email the file, send it to Facebook, send it to Flickr. You can also transfer photos without first copying them to the iPod. In my case I want to upload to SmugMug for which there is a specific app so I must first copy photos from the card to the iPod for transfer with the SmugMug app.
There are other features available with this hardware and the app. You can:
1) Copy photos from the iPod back to an SD card.
2) Copy documents (PDF, XLS, Doc, etc.) other than photos to and from an SD card.
3) Copy audio and video clips to and from an SD card.
4) Watch videos stored on the SD card on your iPod Touch or iPhone.
5) Works with iPad too.
Requires Apple OS3.0 or later on the iPod Touch, iPad, or iPhone. Works with any version of the iPhone or iPod Touch (not Nano).
The good news:
- I finally have a method to transfer data to and from an SD card for my iPod Touch. Apple is quite lame with these types of add-ons so we must depend on third party suppliers.
- Coupled with the SmugMug app and email I can now share photos with friends from my digital camera while on trips without a laptop.
- I can free up digital camera memory by using the large memory in my iPod Touch.
- Good solid Zoomit adapter construction.
- It works!
- The app provides pretty good functionality, allowing bidirectional transfer, not restricted to photos, can even do RAW photos. It allows ALL photos to be transfered in a batch, selected photos in a batch, or single photos. Photos and files can be renamed. Files can be stored in ZoomIt created directories, or copied to the iPod Touch photo application folders.
- The ZoomIt hardware has an internal battery for which there is a battery level display in the ZoomIt app. The Zoomit internal battery is charged with the supplied USB cable from any powered USB port.
- The iPod Touch ZoomIt app is free.
- Can copy folders full of images too.
- Customer support through the zoomitonline web site is functional. I've had answers in less than 48 hours and they do seem to be working to improve their product.
The bad news:
- The software is clunky and could use a lot of improvements and a much better user interface. For example my camera, by default, stores all images in a single folder. There is no way to search for an image in the ZoomIt app so I have to scroll and scroll to find the image to transfer rather than type in an image file name. There are indications they are working on new releases.
- The hardware is quite expensive for what it does, about double what it should be in my opinion. Update Aug 8 I see the price has dropped $9 since I made my purchase. The price is getting more interesting but in my opinion it should be more like $29.
- Transfer of photos is painfully slow apparently due to the Apple SDK provided to third party suppliers. An example is a 2.5MB photo took 38 seconds on my 3G iPod Touch running IOS4. Extrapolate this to 100 images, or 250 Megabytes, of the same size images and you're talking about more than an hour. A full 2GB SD card would take 8 hours. You have the choice of saving three different quality images, Small/Large/Full Size, which might help for email or Facebook sharing. The same image in Small took 15 seconds and would be adequate to view on a small screen such as an iPhone but too small for a computer screen. A Large image of the same size took 25 seconds.
- The USB port on the Zoomit hardware has no other function than to charge the internal battery.
- You can not charge or otherwise power your iPod Touch while the Zoomit hardware is plugged into it. There is a danger of the iPod battery running out before all images are transferred on a large batch transfer.
- The user documentation and web site are simply void of sufficient detail. The user manual contains way less than this Amazon post.
I will be able to use this hardware/software combination but with some challenges and will have to first charge both batteries before doing any batch transfers. Your mileage, as always, may vary.
What would be great is if the USB port would also supply power to the iPod Touch while it is in use so there would be no concern of running out of power while transferring files. Not only is that a missing feature but it is also not possible to insert the supplied USB connector when an SD card is in the slot so it isn't even possible to power the ZoomIt hardware while in use. It is a shame sometimes to see a great idea and design fall just a little short in some areas.
I hope this helps. I'll try to add good tags so others can find this hardware.
UPDATE Aug 19
Last week I attended a conference with only my iPod Touch and cell phone. I took a photo with the cell phone, removed the micro SD card, inserted the micro SD card into an adapter which I plugged into the ZoomIt and transfered the file to my iPod Touch. I then emailed it to my wife. This, of course, is all much simpler if I had an iPhone or any smart phone but I refuse to purchase an expensive data plan on my cell phone. This method works for me the few times I want to send a photo, and it is free!
UPDATE Sept 30, 2010
The Zoomit rep said if I had a faster SDHC card it might transfer quicker. Well I purchased a SanDisk Extreme 30MB/s SDHC 200X (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002HFER6O/ref=oss_product). It is labeled Extreme Performance for Extreme conditions. I copied a 7.23MB image in 101 seconds which is 72Kbps. Comparing that with the example I gave above in the original review with a slower card... that one took 38 seconds for 2.5MB which is 66Kbps. Using the Extreme performance SDHC card only produced a 10% improvement in throughput. I appreciate the input from the Zoomit staff but the results remain; transfer times are painfully slow. Using my previous example, "An example is a 2.5MB photo took 38 seconds on my 3G iPod Touch running IOS4. Extrapolate this to 100 images, or 250 Megabytes, of the same size images and you're talking about more than an hour," the same 100 images or 250 megabytes using the faster card would take about 57 minutes. It does seem the transfer time is limited either by the SDK provided by Apple to Zoomit, or Zoomit code. I hope there could be a software update in the future to improve the copy throughput.
Click Here to see more reviews about: PNY zoomIt SDHC Flash Memory Card Reader for iPhone 4 & iPad
zoomIt is a revolution in managing content with the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Combining application software with an intelligent accessory, zoomIt adds SD and SDHC capability and media management tools that allow you to easily view, listen to, and share all of your photos, music, video and files on the go without the need to connect to your camera, Mac or PC.
Click here for more information about PNY zoomIt SDHC Flash Memory Card Reader for iPhone 4 & iPad
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