Several years ago I purchased a digital camera and have been taking 
digital images exclusively ever since then.

Naturally, I would rather not lose these, so I frequently have written 
them to cd's for storage.  Also, printed them off, generally four to an 
eight by ten sheet.  (I bought a nice cutter for cutting them up into 
four by five photos, but have never bothered.)  So now, I have stacks of 
sheets of photos, cd's, and image files that I transfer from build to 
build when I build a new computer or change a hard drive.

(It is slides all over again.  I have boxes and boxes of old slides 
sitting in their trays that I "ought to" organize some way.  At our last 
road trip in April we looked at the images on the camera screen in the 
motel at night, and I have not even bothered to copy them to the 
computer!)

I am not up-to-date with all the stuff out there, and I am hoping that 
somebody can give me a recommendation for storing and viewing my current 
crop of digital images.

Here are some of the things that I have thought about:

A. A 16GB iPod with the touch screen.  This would be ideal, since it has 
the file structure for handling and organizing the images.  (I would 
still want to back them up to a cd.)  The trouble with an iPod is that 
the screen is a bit small.  And, it is an expensive way to go. And, I am 
not sure if iTunes will let me sync images onto one iPod and music onto 
another. (?)

B. A digital image viewer.  The kind of thing that sits on your end 
table and gives an endless slideshow.  These are very nice and not too 
expensive.  However, I don't think that they have the appropriate file 
structure for archival purposes.  They are limited to a few hundred 
megabytes.  And, they tend to be a bit bulky with some having to be 
plugged in.

C. A portable dvd player.  I don't own one, but one could view images 
that were stored on cd's.


The iPod looks to be the absolutely coolest way to do this, but it seems 
like crushing an acorn with a sledgehammer.  And, the screen is a bit 
smaller than I want.

Has anybody run across some new product that will do what I want done? 
Store all my images in a nice, organized place, be able to carry them 
around and force them on unwilling victims (I have to look at pictures 
of their grandkids!), and have a screen big enough for senior citizens 
(my friends) to view without eyestrain?  It seems like an opportunity 
for a new product.

Dean Kukral 

                         PCBUILD's List Owners:
                      Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
                       Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>