Quick—what's the biggest drawback to going on vacation with your digital camera? The answer, of course, is storage. Filling your camera bag with flash memory cards is too expensive an option for most of us, and you may not want the hassle of having a laptop computer along to transfer images every night.

Enter the Kanguru FC-RW Portable Flash Card Burner. Like similar solutions we've tested lately (from Addonics and Alera), it's a portable CD burner with slots for your camera's memory cards (CompactFlash, Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro, Microdrive, MultiMediaCard, Secure Digital, and Smart Media). With no attachment to your PC, the FC-RW will copy the contents of a card to a CD.

In standalone mode, the FC-RW tells you its innermost thoughts via a small LCD screen and a multicolor LED. You can see what percentage of the CD is still available. Each time you hit the record button, the FC-RW creates a folder with the full contents of the card and beeps politely when it's done. You can also erase a CD-RW by pressing the right combination of buttons. We found that the FC-RW worked quickly, transferring the contents of various sizes and formats of memory cards to disc in a minute or less. The FC-RW does not clear the memory card; you do that (if you so choose) when you return the card to your camera.

When you attach the FC-RW to your PC or notebook via the USB 2.0 port, you have a full read-write outboard CD drive—and each of the three card slots appears as a drive, as well. You can read and write to each of them, giving you maximum flexibility, no matter what memory format you use. The FC-RW installed effortlessly under Windows XP, and the company provides drivers for Windows 98 and information on getting the latest drivers for Windows 2000 from Microsoft. A light version of the Nero CD-burning software package (Version 5.5) is bundled with the drive.

As a multifunction read/write device, the FC-RW is cost-effective and flexible. As a portable device, it's far less expensive than your laptop, and it's not as subject to damage and data loss in the field. But portable is a relative term. It measures a hefty 8 by 6 by 2 inches; together with the power brick, it weighs 2.6 pounds. And battery power is not an option. But if you need to work with multiple card formats or spend extended time away from your computer, the FC-RW is a fine way to get your images into permanent storage so you can keep on shooting.

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