Photography News Issue 56

Photography News | Issue 56 | photographynews.co.uk

First tests

Imaging kit First tests We get our hands on the latest kit and share our first impressions – so you know whether or not to add it to your wish list

Reviews by Will Cheung and Kingsley Singleton

WDMy Passport Wireless SSD From£198.88

Specs

You probably know how important image back up is and having a strategy – any strategy – to prevent image loss is a very good thing. Camera storage cards are very reliable but they can still crash, physically break, get lost or stolen. I usually take a laptop often with an external hard drive when I go away to back up cards each day. That is all well and good, but it is an effort and takes up space so a portable storage drive likeWD’s My Passport Wireless SSD is a great idea. Current My Passport Wireless devices have traditional hard drives and these are available in capacities from 1TB to 4TB. But now there is the SSD (solid state drive) option too, in sizes from 250GB to 2TB, but they do come at a cost. As a price comparison the 1TB conventional HD unit is £139.99, against £429.99 for the SSD version. That is a significant premium but the upside is that you get the durability and reliability of SSD. This version also comes with a protective bumper and together the unit is said to be able of withstanding a 1m drop on a carpeted concrete floor. I didn’t try that particular test, but I did take my test unit on several trips, home and abroad, in both hand and hold baggage. So far, it has proved to be thoroughly reliable. The My Passport has an SD card slot, a USB 2.0 port compatible with a range of card readers and USB storage devices and a USB 3.0 port. The unit is a powerbank too so you can recharge your smartphone or tablet too.

Prices 250GB £198.88, 500GB £259.99, 1TB £429.99, 2TB £667.99 In the box My Wireless unit, drop protection bumper, USB cable, USB power adapter Interface SD USB 3.0 slot, Wi-Fi 802.11ac/n, USB 3.0, USB 2.0 for importing Compatibility Windows 10, 8.1 or 7. Mac OS X 10.7 and higher Requires DLNA/UPnP or Plex enabled devices for streaming Battery capacity 6400mAh Dimensions (wxlxh) 126x126x24mm Weight 440g Contact wdc.com

Above The My Passport SSD comes with a protective bumper – a rubber slipover jacket.

the top left corner indicating state of download – four glowing blue LEDs confirm download complete. These four LEDs double up to indicate how much charge is left. To assess battery capacity, with a fully charged unit I used a full 64GB SD card from a Nikon D850 and downloaded it as many times as I could until the battery fell over. I got ten full downloads with each taking around 20mins – that is over 10,000 Raws, so a significant number of shots. By the way, in this instance I downloaded the same content over and over again, but the WD app lets you alter the unit’s settings so when you download an SD card only new files are imported. Given the huge capacity of SD and Micro SD cards, this is useful so you can back up as you go without doubling up files. A full recharge from flat using the supplied USB mains charger took three hours, and it can be used for image viewing during that time. WC

Backing up cards is one thing but it is always good to see that they are successfully backed up. You can do that with the My Passport thanks to the built-in Wi-Fi so you can access and view your downloaded shots or stream video to your smartphone or tablet using the free WD My Cloud app. The unit can also show Raws from most cameras. I had no problem previewing Raws from the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, the Nikon D850 and the Fujifilm X-T2, although it takes around 20 seconds per image in the case of the D850. I had no issues connecting up with my devices. In fact, once paired, they connected with the WD drive automatically taking over from the existing network as soon it was powered up which was around 20 seconds to start up, with a pair of blue LEDs on the front telling you what’s happening. Insert a card, push a button and download begins with four LEDS at

Below The unit has a USB 2.0 port, a USB 3.0 port and an SD card slot (not visible in this this shot). SD card download starts with a push of the far right button, and this doubles as the battery check button. Four blue LEDS indicate state of battery charge as well as download status.

Verdict

The WD My Passport Wireless SSD is a capable, reliable and versatile device. Loading SD cards onto it and downloading files from it to the computer went without a hitch while its Wi-Fi proved very stable. I used it to watch films, enjoy tunes as well as checking out my snaps with it. Yes, it is pricey but it is potentially an excellent long term investment.

Pros Good battery life, reliable, versatile, stableWi-Fi Cons Price when compared with the non-SSD version