Steven Leong’s Blog

Right… before I start… allow me to do a short introduction for the device. NEXTODI is a Korean company who specializes in making portable storage devices and to date, they have made four products, the ND-2500, ND-2300, ND-2325 and ND-2525. They are not a very large company but in the recent years, have gained quite a good reputation for making fast, reliable and economical portable storage devices.

The version that I bought (sorry Canon & Epson :-p) is the ND-2525 which is currently the latest and fastest PSD that NextoDI makes.

I have always worked with PSDs with an LCD as it gives me more confidence that the images are indeed loaded as I can check them visually but this time, I opted for to be brave and bought one without.

The next day after the device arrived, I took it out for a proper field-test on a rather demanding assignment… a fashion show with roughly 100 outfits on the non-stop on the runway . This would normally lead to 500-700 shots for the runway alone and this was in the space of 30-45mins and close to 10GBs of data (yes, I shoot RAW). I needed something that is fast as well as reliable and easy to use.

The 2525 did NOT disappoint me at all, it copied all the data I threw at it without breaking a sweat. It could basically swallow data much faster than I could shoot and I was able to swap the card out by the time the current collection finished, giving me a chance to perform a verify if I needed and swap the card back onto my neck-strap.

In operation, the 2525 is simple, just slot in the card you would like to copy, switch it on by pressing long on it’s only button, wait 1-2secs later, tap the button again and it should begin copying; after copying is done, it switches itself off automatically, saving battery life.

Verify is simple too, simply insert the card to be verified, switch the device on; tap the button again, it will then beep and prompt you to select to verification mode. A short tap on the button selects the “Sampling” mode which samples 128kB at a time or the exhaustive mode who compares the file on the 2525 to the file on the CF bit-by-bit.

In summary, here are the PROs of the ND-2525 was:

• Very fast backup speed – tested at 97seconds to copy, 7seconds to verify for Transcend 120x 2GB CFs.
• Cost effectiveness – it’s relatively economical for what it does.
• Able to be charged from USB and Firewire. Car charger included.
• External battery (2200mAh) included.
• Small size and weight

What about the CONs then? Here they are:

• Tiny text LCD screen giving little feedback
• The LCD is very difficult to see once you place the 2525 into the leatherette pouch on your belt.
• Only one button requires you to be really familiar with the device sequences of “long” and “short” presses to navigate through it’s functions especially when you don’t have time to check the LCD after every button press.
• Lack of audio or visual feedback when it is needed. Some signature beeps that indicate start of copying, start of verification or a multi-colored LED up on top of the device to indicate it’s current mode of operation would be very useful to a photographer who needs to work fast and has the device on his/her belt constantly.
• No way to set the device to verify automatically after copy.

All in all, you can probably see most of the ND-2525′s issues are with the usability to someone who shoots like me; granted there aren’t many that the same requirement as I have but I believe if they made a device that works well with my shooting style (shooting RAW on events and carrying only 6GB worth of cards), the device should be quite usable for all but the most demanding photographers.

Well… would I buy the ND-2525 AGAIN if I had the choice? Yes and no…

After using the ND-2525 for one assignment, I am still yearning to work with a PSD with a proper LCD display; the blazingly fast speed combined to the tiny LCD gave me little confidence that the ND-2525 really did it’s job by copying every image I took. And to me, the loss of 1 image might well spell trouble for my entire assignment; so, I need to be really, really sure and confident that my PSD works reliably 100% of the time.

But… however, I do love the ND-2525 for it’s simplicity, speed and flexibility it offers through the multiple ways you can power the device. Now… if NextoDI made a ND-2525 clone with a proper VGA-rez LCD and better thought out button layouts, effective audio & visual feedback… I think I will jump on that almost instantly.