Seagate GoFlex Satellite - Tethered or no?

[andyptak]

Before anybody laughs, I am not a techie, so please go easy on me!

The new Seagate Satellite external HD has its own battery for power. Although it's inteneded to communicate with an iPad through its self contained router I'm wondering if it could be used to shoot tethered without a computer?

It doesn't contain any software to manage shots, but if it has its own power should it be able to receive shots if it's connected by USB to a camera and become a 500 gig "card" ? With an estimated 5 hours of use time from the internal battery it could become a great asset for intensive shoots. Does a camera care what's on the other end of a USB cable if it's set to shoot tethered and will a self powered HD receive anything or not? Thanks

[John.Murray]

It's a good question!  The answer, however is no.  In order to use the storage via wifi, you need to install an app on either the ipad or android device.

[andyptak]

Thanks John - however, I wasn't thinking of using the built-in Wifi, but using the attached USB connection instead, from the USB connection in the camera. What made me wonder of this was possible is not the WiFi, but the fact that the drive is powered by it's own battery.

[John.Murray]

My experience (at least with Canon and Nikon) is that the USB connector is handled differently by the Camera than the SD/CF media.  The USB providing access to the internal card by the Host it's connected to, but not the other way around.  In other words - the software running on the Host would pull the images from the Camera, as opposed to the Camera pushing to the Host.

[andyptak]

Thanks John. I had a feeling that you must be right because this sounded too good to be true. Considering the cost of a good CF card, getting 500 gigs of RAW storage for only $200 was such a tempting thought!