R
RML
Guest
And yet, a laptop is NOT travelling light! Odd as it may seem in this motorised world, some people prefer to walk and carry their stuff.
What storage method for files on trip?
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robg
Member
Much depends on the innumerable factors (heat, altitude, power, rain, security, ...) which mount up. I'd have no problem taking a laptop to a nice hotel in Paris or Rome or London or Venice for a few weeks, but backpacking around Asia during summer, going on a junket to Antarctica, or heading to the wilds of Africa may call for different solutions.
footnoteblog
Member
Yeah. Traveling light with digital equipment, you can scale equipment to fit your needs:
--One body, lots of cards.
--One or two bodies, two backup drives (Wolverine, et al)
--One or two bodies, small laptop with burner
--Two bodies or more, (usually med. format, and 35mm SLR) redundant zooms, 15" and 17" laptops, hard drives (this is what I used to lug, and my pro friends as well on commercial shoots).
There are pros and cons to each level; it's up to you to weigh those options and decide which are acceptable compromises -- are you getting paid?
The Macs are great because the chargers are generally small and inconsequential. Every other pro I know uses them from iBooks to the latest C2D MBPs. They all have DVD burners and quickly, simply plug into FireWire drives for a secondary backup since like, year 2000. You can even image your system quickly onto another external for secondary bootable drive, ever since, what, 1995 and OS 7?
Get another iGo or Kensington to charger your smaller peripherals like phones, iPods, most small point-and-shoots, video cameras, games, etc.
Unfortunately, you have to lug the ginormous Leica charger for the M8, or take ten batteries...
--One body, lots of cards.
--One or two bodies, two backup drives (Wolverine, et al)
--One or two bodies, small laptop with burner
--Two bodies or more, (usually med. format, and 35mm SLR) redundant zooms, 15" and 17" laptops, hard drives (this is what I used to lug, and my pro friends as well on commercial shoots).
There are pros and cons to each level; it's up to you to weigh those options and decide which are acceptable compromises -- are you getting paid?
The Macs are great because the chargers are generally small and inconsequential. Every other pro I know uses them from iBooks to the latest C2D MBPs. They all have DVD burners and quickly, simply plug into FireWire drives for a secondary backup since like, year 2000. You can even image your system quickly onto another external for secondary bootable drive, ever since, what, 1995 and OS 7?
Get another iGo or Kensington to charger your smaller peripherals like phones, iPods, most small point-and-shoots, video cameras, games, etc.
Unfortunately, you have to lug the ginormous Leica charger for the M8, or take ten batteries...
eon
Established
How many photos do you plan on doing?
500, 1000, 2000, 4000 or 10000?
The most safe storage is to keep them on the SD cards until you're back home.
Now the cards are so cheap this is a economical soultion too. They don't have to be the fastest there is for asituation like this, just keep to know brands like Sundisk.
The battery charger for M8 is unproportionally large, but the batteries are small and lighter than many other.
/Erik
500, 1000, 2000, 4000 or 10000?
The most safe storage is to keep them on the SD cards until you're back home.
Now the cards are so cheap this is a economical soultion too. They don't have to be the fastest there is for asituation like this, just keep to know brands like Sundisk.
The battery charger for M8 is unproportionally large, but the batteries are small and lighter than many other.
/Erik
jobo
Established
When travelling, I just burn two copies of my RAW files (to CD), and keep them in separate bags (one in the carryon). If someone has a laptop or I get computer time, I might put a third backup on my iPod.
Where in Europe are you going, btw?
/Jobo
Sounds like a plan if you want to have control over when and where to do the burning, otherwise any internet cafe will get the job done. You might want to bring a card reader or a SD usb stick (eg http://www.lexar.com/readers/trio.html), just in case.boilerdoc2 said:
Where in Europe are you going, btw?
/Jobo
bottley1
only to feel
Marco,
I would be interested to know how you download the digital files from the SD card to your i-pod. I have an i-pod and have been unsuccessful so far
I would be interested to know how you download the digital files from the SD card to your i-pod. I have an i-pod and have been unsuccessful so far
saxshooter
Well-known
rsl
Russell
eon said:
Not so. Keep in mind that the cards are magnetic storage. Optical storage is much, much safer.
dspeltz
Portsmouth, NH USA
This is a really important question! I was on a two week trip to Hawaii and shot 1500 photos with both the M8 and the Hasselblad H3D. I ALWAYS store on two media. In this case I first dump ed everything into the Epson 4000 or 5000 (DNG only, I do not use JPGs on the M8) and I dont care about viewing) and then into the laptop. If I do not carry the laptop, I dump into the Epson 4000 and then the 5000 or Gigaview (I have that as well but the Epson has the more compatible card reader built in). If I only had one media archiver I would write-protect the card and not overwrite it. Never never use just one device for saving images. If you do, there is a law somewhere that says it will fail.
I will be traveling all over the West and then Europe the next few months. I do carry a laptop but also two Epsons.
BTW, the Epsons do show the M8 jpgs just fine.
I will be traveling all over the West and then Europe the next few months. I do carry a laptop but also two Epsons.
BTW, the Epsons do show the M8 jpgs just fine.
Steve L
Established
I've benena fan of Photo Storage Devices....until my Archos died last week. And I saw that Costco has Sandisk Extreme 2-gig cards for $35 each....
M
mad_boy
Guest
with the price of SD cards falling quite quickly, the cheapest, easiest and lightest may well be to stock up on SD cards.
mad_boy
mad_boy
boilerdoc2
Well-known
Think I'll stock up on SD cards. That's the lightest way to go. Just have to make sure and not lose them, huh?
steve
steve
migtex
Don't eXchange Freedom!
Cards get lost. Still 6 cards and
2 Jobo Ones with 80 Gb (4 min per Gb) / or a Jobo one and Ipod (at nigh on the hotel room).
The Jobo on the backpack the Ipod with you on you jacket.
If they take the backpack you still got Ipod (and insurance), if "they" take you... you have more things to worry than the photos you have taken... I guess.
2 Jobo Ones with 80 Gb (4 min per Gb) / or a Jobo one and Ipod (at nigh on the hotel room).
The Jobo on the backpack the Ipod with you on you jacket.
If they take the backpack you still got Ipod (and insurance), if "they" take you... you have more things to worry than the photos you have taken... I guess.
saxshooter
Well-known
Something to keep in mind: SD cards are more fragile than their compact flash counterparts. I've had non Lexar and non Sandisk SD cards "split" apart (this comes from repeated pressure of spring-loaded SD card slots and applying repeated pressure to the SD card's bottom edge, which is a seam joining its plastic faces and cheaper cards I have had eventually split), losing the write protect tab, rendering the card unwritable. Chintzy plastic. I've since then just bought Sandisk, but by design, they are thinner and more likely susceptible to case breaking than CF cards, which are very robust (mine which have been through the laundry and dryer more than a few times and were fine). Stock up on SD cards, but keep them safe too.
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DaveB
Established
I used to dump CF cards to an X-Drive as I had no other way to clear my expensive cards on long wilderness canoe trips. When electricity is available I always clear the cards to two separate hard drives. I now use the X-Drive simply as a redundant 60gig external drive because I need to "see" the pictures on a screen to confirm the transfer.
Thanks heavens memory prices have dropped as file size, RAW particularly, has swelled. I will never clear a CF or SD card until I've confirmed the transfer to two independent hard drives. Burning DVD's would be fine, but takes too long. I've had more bad results with burning disks, as well as when using the X-Drive as a card reader, than I ever have had using laptops.
In an ideal world I would return from a trip with pictures on two separate hard drives and on the original memory cards as well.
Thanks heavens memory prices have dropped as file size, RAW particularly, has swelled. I will never clear a CF or SD card until I've confirmed the transfer to two independent hard drives. Burning DVD's would be fine, but takes too long. I've had more bad results with burning disks, as well as when using the X-Drive as a card reader, than I ever have had using laptops.
In an ideal world I would return from a trip with pictures on two separate hard drives and on the original memory cards as well.
saxshooter
Well-known
I agree. I may do without the DVD backups of the HD and go this route too. Using borrowed computers, when I can. Thanks.DaveB said:
And don't keep it all in the same bag, in case of grab and run theft!
HenningW
Well-known
I've used a couple of different storage devices, including the Epson 2000. A great screen, but poor battery life and quite slow, and not that cheap. The main reason to get it, or the 4000 is really the screen. And then, going from picture to picture is often quite slow. I gave up on it.
I got 2 'Nexto DI' units; you buy the shell and put whatever 2.5" drive in it you want. Firmware does the formatting and transfer, and a small screen keeps you informed as to the status and capacities available. When you get home you download to your computer via USB2 or Firewire; it can also act like an external hard drive. I put in Fujitsu MVH2100AT drives (relatively low power 100Gb units). They are about 3-4 times as fast as the Epson, and, with the extra battery pack they hold enough charge to download 100Gb of images. You really don't have to recharge them until they're full. No screen to view images, but 2 units complete with 100Gb drives and the extra battery cost less than one Epson 4000. Even with the extra battery packs, they're still smaller than the Epson 4000.
I downloaded images to both units on our recent 3 1/2 week trip, and then my wife kept one in her suitcase and I kept one in my suitcase. We shot over 80Gb of images, and it all worked wonderfully, and so fast that there was always time to download to both units.
I've travelled with different units, and also with laptop and external hard drives as duplicates, but unless you need the laptop for other things, these Nexto units have been by far the least hassle.
Henning
I got 2 'Nexto DI' units; you buy the shell and put whatever 2.5" drive in it you want. Firmware does the formatting and transfer, and a small screen keeps you informed as to the status and capacities available. When you get home you download to your computer via USB2 or Firewire; it can also act like an external hard drive. I put in Fujitsu MVH2100AT drives (relatively low power 100Gb units). They are about 3-4 times as fast as the Epson, and, with the extra battery pack they hold enough charge to download 100Gb of images. You really don't have to recharge them until they're full. No screen to view images, but 2 units complete with 100Gb drives and the extra battery cost less than one Epson 4000. Even with the extra battery packs, they're still smaller than the Epson 4000.
I downloaded images to both units on our recent 3 1/2 week trip, and then my wife kept one in her suitcase and I kept one in my suitcase. We shot over 80Gb of images, and it all worked wonderfully, and so fast that there was always time to download to both units.
I've travelled with different units, and also with laptop and external hard drives as duplicates, but unless you need the laptop for other things, these Nexto units have been by far the least hassle.
Henning