by Juliet Chase

Created on: March 25, 2009

Recently faced with the dilemma of needing vast quantities of photo storage on an extended road trip I did a little digging for the most practical and inexpensive solution. After several reviews of bulky picture viewing devices, I finally found the Wolverine PicPac which turned out to be the perfect solution for travelling lightly in the digital age. As camera mega pixels grow exponentially more affordable so does the need for storage. Not wanting to drag my laptop along for fear of it being stolen or damaged from being left in a baking car, neither could I afford to buy enough memory cards for the three weeks I expected to be gone. The PicPac makes no pretenses at the extras (there's no ability to preview images) but its solid design and large storage capacity give confidence that unpacking from the trip will be an enjoyable experience. At $240 for 250 GB capacity it's an affordable solution to a growing problem. As mega pixels increase with each new version so does the file storage requirement.

Design
The PicPac is a palm-size black device about the size of an older-model PDA. It can slide easily into a spare corner of your camera bag or backpack. The memory card slots are along the sides leaving the face for a simple informational screen and two simple buttons: On/off and Info/Copy.

The data is stored in a folder structure one folder for each copied memory card that makes the later computer transfer via USB a fairly simple drag and drop operation. If a card fails to copy correctly, error messages will direct you to retry and additional storage is not used up by the bad attempt.

How many GB do you need?
The PicPac comes in three capacities: 160, 250 or 320 GB with approximately $100 in price separating them. There are smaller capacity and price options available in the Wolverine FlashPac. If it's going to be awhile before you can download to another device or your computer, try to anticipate your needs based on your past picture taking behavior - how many GB in memory cards do you use on a great, perfect-light day? Multiply that by the maximum days you expect to be away and you should have a conservative idea of what you will need.

The Negatives
The one downside to the PicPac seemed to be the battery capacity; measured in three bars it typically fell to one bar after copying one full 4 GB memory card.

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