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B. Self (Seattle, WA)

I bought the Wolverine 60Gb unit for a trip to Greece. Since I shoot 8 megapixel shots and panoramas, hard drive space is essential as is the transfer rate. The Wolverine was pro quality taking both SD cards from my Elph and compact flash cards from my Canon 20D. Transfering 2Gb took a little more than 5 minutes and shooting as much as 3Gb per day on a 10 day trip was a piece of cake for the unit.

When other people in my tour group discovered I had it, they asked to store their photos on it too, since their cards were full. The Wolverine took a friend’s XD card, which I’d never tried before, without a hitch.

After transferring 3Gb, only the first of 3 LCD battery indicator bars was used up. The battery never came close to running out. Plug it in at the hotel with a 220 volt adapter, and it was charged in about an hour.

I had used an iPod video on another trip in December. The battery on the iPod would die after 45 minutes and less than 1Gb transfer. The iPod was painfully slow. A nightmare. I literally had to stay up until the middle of the night to wait for the battery to recharge to finish transfering my pictures, since the iPod could not be plugged into AC and the camera at the same time. The Wolverine is industrial strength by comparison and ready for prime time.

In addition, it does not have to be connected to the camera to transfer photos as the iPod does. So you can shoot on one card while transfering from another. Very handy.

The display is simple and doesn’t permit previewing the photos. This is okay because it indicates when the copy is completed. I tested it several times at home in a controlled environment to be sure it worked as advertised. Only one note, don’t connect or disconnect the power cord during a transfer as it will cause the Wolverine to blink momentarily. This is just enough to corrupt the transfer. Restarting the transfer will solve the problem. Once connected to a computer, delete the first incomplete copy.

After 10 days of heavy use and 6,000 photos, the Wolverine was roughly half full--even with the addition of friends photos. All photos and video clips were faithfully stored in folders designated by each transfer. Very simple. My PowerBook instantly booted it.

Having returned home, the Wolverine now doubles as a handy companion drive for my PowerBook, adding 60Gb of storage. This every day usage makes the purchase even easier to justify.

Versatile, well-built, great price and performance. 5-stars!