http://tinyurl.com/2kuf4y

It can be configured as a RAID drive with two 500 gb drives or its default as a 1 terabyte drive using RAID to split the data writes across both drives. It has FireWire 800 and comes with a cable. Paired with SuperDuper, it appears to be working well.

For the laptops, I bought a 500gb firewire 400 Western Digital drive at Costco for $219. Very nice drive that is relatively quiet, although not fast enough for heavy lifting, once the initial backup is complete, the incremental runs of SuperDuper take just a few minutes.

I’m having a tough time locating the Western Digital one you are planning on purchasing, and was wondering if you could shoot me the name of it, or anymore information.

The My Book Pro Edition doesn’t appear to have either the dual FireWire 800 – or the RAID 1 component. Thanks.

I have a D70 (inspired by your good selves I might add) and I love it to pieces, and at some point I’ll upgrade to the upcoming D300 or similar. Principally cos I have now built up a collection of brilliant Nikon lenses, my father has a lot of valuable Nikon lenses, and so does my grandfather, and I can still use them all on my 2005 Nikon.

The whole Canon/Nikon war is pointless – each has pros, and each has cons. Simple as that. (btw Canon make awesome printers, beautiful colour management with them). The PC/Mac war however, is cut and dried – the Mac is waaaaay better. Period

One can take outstanding photos with either Nikon or Canon. When I was ready to purchase a DSLR a couple of years ago, my concern was shutter lag. All I had was a point and shoot that didn’t shoot fast enough to capture the whales in Alaska before they went under again. Got nothing but some damn fins.

So what to buy? I knew either Nikon or Canon. Ultimately, my decision at that point was the D70 because it felt better to my hands.

Yesterday, I received my new Nikon D200. It’s not that I’m disinterested in Canon, but my needs were better served by staying with Nikon. I don’t have to replace lenses or start another collection. My batteries, CF cards, and flash all work with either camera.

However, the big reason is that I found features in the Nikon line, important features to me, that aren’t present in the Canon line. Auto-ISO is one of them. There are a number of features in my D200 that solve little problems for me to manage my camera. It doesn’t hurt that it’s faster and creates slightly better exposures than the D70, too.

Maybe one day I’ll get a Canon. I have nothing opposed to the brand and admire the technical quality of the images. It just wasn’t the right thing for me at this point.

Enjoy your new camera. Wear it out.

I got the camera, the lens, and the flash for under a grand.

The 430 is lighter than the 580 and works like a champ. I didn’t want to lug around a truckload of gear and am not a pro, so the additional expense didn’t seem logical to me at this stage of hobbydom.

I really don’t trust RAID. I work in the IT field as an on call technician and I’ve walked into so many situations where things have gone horribly wrong due to neglect, poor initial setup, or just bad luck. Our setup here is a 4 bay, SATA, enclosure with removable drive drawers, hooked up to the server (aka a g4 tower), and shared on the network. We use Acronis TrueImage & Mac OS Disk Image to image the drives & our computers twice a week. Serves us up quite nicely.

My aunt went through the same sort of thing with her daughter as you are going through with Leta. I don’t see how people can be so freakin rude; they can’t possibly know what is going on in your day to day. Don’t let people pressure you two and stress everyone out more than they are already. She’ll come around when she’s damn good and ready. Thanks for the great pictures and enduring my long comment.

i also adore the photos you and heather take. thank you!