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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

backing up photos when abroad (1 Viewer)

Steve Babbs

Steve Babbs

Well-known member
Sorry sure this has been covered before but things change so probably worth doing before. Having just returned from a trip abroad I realise how much I worry about sd/compact flash cards being stolen/lost/failing. I looked at the warehouse express websit and there seem to be a number of options anyone any thoughts on the 'best one'. This is likely to mean 'best value', especially as my wife is really not convinced that the Canon 40D I want for my next birthday counts as a budget camera.

Cheers
 
Steve Babbs said:
Sorry sure this has been covered before but things change so probably worth doing before. Having just returned from a trip abroad I realise how much I worry about sd/compact flash cards being stolen/lost/failing. I looked at the warehouse express websit and there seem to be a number of options anyone any thoughts on the 'best one'. This is likely to mean 'best value', especially as my wife is really not convinced that the Canon 40D I want for my next birthday counts as a budget camera.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Two things you can try. First there are dedicated photo storage devices. I like the Hyperdrive Colorspace. You can buy it for £143 and stick a 2.5" 320 GB hard drive (£41) in it. That'll give you something that can backup everything you shoot, with room to spare.

The second option I'd recommend is getting a Netbook. These are very small laptops with a long battery life. You can get one with a 160GB hard drive for around £250 - £280. The big advantage of these is that, as well as backing up your photos, you can use them to view the photos, browse the web and check your email.

The solution I use is to have one of each! That gives me double backups.
 
Since netbooks came along (and they are really getting cheaper and cheaper), the days -or at least the sales- of those dedicated image tanks are fading.

I use a netbook with an additional external 2.5 inch HD when on the road. Not only to back-up CF cards, the display permits preselection and if required some basic processing with the software I am used to (faststone image viewer for screening, Lightroom and Photoshop). Cost me way less than one of the fancier image tanks .....

Ulli
 
seaspirit said:
Since netbooks came along (and they are really getting cheaper and cheaper), the days -or at least the sales- of those dedicated image tanks are fading.
Click to expand...

There are still some advantages. When I go away the netbook stays in the hotel room, it's a bit bulky for taking out. But the Hyperdrive is easily small enough to use during the day.
 
Two things would bother me about that one. Only 40GB. Thats only 5 X 8GB cards ;) Also what happens if the battery runs out during a transfer. :eek!:
 
Cactusdave said:
Two things would bother me about that one. Only 40GB. Thats only 5 X 8GB cards ;) Also what happens if the battery runs out during a transfer. :eek!:
Click to expand...

It is actually 4x 8gb cards + 3x 2gb cards because the 40gb is the total size of the hard drive and includes the OS software to run the the unit. I have used one of these and they are useful in the field. However with the recent crash in the price of CF cards it is better to have a wallet full of them.

If this enquiry is about 'in the field' which includes taking your equipment abroad then I take a laptop with me and back up images to that and I also have a second USB portable hard drive and back up to that too.

Chris Galvin
 
Cactusdave said:
Two things would bother me about that one. Only 40GB
Click to expand...

And that fact implies that it's old - very old. Which would also suggest that it's going to be slow - very slow. That means fewer image transfers before the battry packs up.



Cactusdave said:
Also what happens if the battery runs out during a transfer. :eek!:
Click to expand...

You could say the same about all the backup methods discussed. That's why I went for something with a long battery life - Hyperdrive Colorspace.

If you're going on the trip of a lifetime costing thousands of pounds and you're taking photos using gear that cost a few more thousand, then I reckon it's worth spending a few hundred to make sure those photos survive the trip.
 
40GB would do me. Not sure how many shots that it s but even RAW it must be several thousand.

Never sure what people mean by trip of a lifetime, I spend a fair chunk of each year abroad but it's not about cost - if it wasn't for the weight a netbook would be ideal I could use it for other things as well. I'll have a car in Namibia next year so a netbook is probably ok but then I plan to backpack around Brazil anyone who has done such a thing knows that even a netbook is a considerable weight gain. To put it in perspective I spent about £500 on Nikon ED to save me much less than the weight of a netbook compared to my Zeiss scope on backpacking trips. It's also not about saving money on cards but to back them up in case of loss/damage. I go abroad to see wildlife much more than photograph is but I still get paranoid about something happening to my cards.

Having said it's not about money a few hundred quid for a multiuse netbook is no problem the same for a hyperdrive that only can be sued to back up photos is not appealing. Teacher's wages aren't that great.
 
Last edited:
Question is- will you trust it, or use it purely as back-up and also keep pics or at least selected pics on the CF cards as well?

I took a Flashtrax 20G or 40G (I forget which, but Flashtrax is a Smartdisk product I think) on a long trip a few years ago and in my innocence loaded stuff onto it from CF card and deleted them from CF card to maintain card space.. So when the Flashtrax failed after a week (horizontal lines like a broken telly...) they were irrecoverably gone, except for a few faves which I had kept on card.
 
ed keeble said:
Question is- will you trust it, or use it purely as back-up and also keep pics or at least selected pics on the CF cards as well?

I took a Flashtrax 20G or 40G (I forget which, but Flashtrax is a Smartdisk product I think) on a long trip a few years ago and in my innocence loaded stuff onto it from CF card and deleted them from CF card to maintain card space.. So when the Flashtrax failed after a week (horizontal lines like a broken telly...) they were irrecoverably gone, except for a few faves which I had kept on card.
Click to expand...

No I wouldn't trust anything completely the plan is to keep the stuff on the cards and have a copy on whatever I take. Then if one broken/stolen I have the other. At home I never delete from cards until copied onto computer hard drive and external hard drive and every month or so I make another back up to another external drive which is kept at a friends house.
 
Trying to resuscitate this forum. I often bird/photograph in the middle of nowhere (lived in Argentina until Oct) and, while in the field and away from a powerpoint, relied on downloading CF cards onto a Jobo Giga One/Jobo Ultra. I've now had four of these wretched things, and all have crashed/died after various lengths of service. I'm now in the market for a different brand. Anyone know anything about the merits of a Vosonic VP5500 80GB Portable Media Player 5400, which WE are doing at a reasonable price right now. Can anyone advise?
 
Hmm. When travelling, I can easily shoot 1,500 images a day without blinking. I can get c.250 on a 4GB card. So that's six cards. With a ten-day trip, that's 60 cards. At which point, an in-the-field downloader looks good value.

Steve: thanks for the tip-off. I'll try to locate some reviews of it.
 
JCL said:
Hmm. When travelling, I can easily shoot 1,500 images a day without blinking. I can get c.250 on a 4GB card. So that's six cards. With a ten-day trip, that's 60 cards. At which point, an in-the-field downloader looks good value.

Steve: thanks for the tip-off. I'll try to locate some reviews of it.
Click to expand...

I've asked on a general photography for similar thoughts. Not much response yet, but I only posted yesterday.

I'm sure Jos realises - from the winking face - it's fear of losing the pictures on the cards, not the cards per se, that worries me.
 
JCL said:
Hmm. When travelling, I can easily shoot 1,500 images a day without blinking. I can get c.250 on a 4GB card. So that's six cards. With a ten-day trip, that's 60 cards. At which point, an in-the-field downloader looks good value.

Steve: thanks for the tip-off. I'll try to locate some reviews of it.
Click to expand...

On my Xmas trip to The Gambia, I took maybe 500 photos. I've just spent the last few evenings sorting them out for a talk tomorrow night, and I've found it pretty hard going. I simply cannot imagine what it would be like to have to go through 15,000!
 
In case anyone else is interested, I bought the CBA digital Photobank. 80GB for £79.99 and £4 postage. A good start it arrived the next morning. Charged it up and, as they say, it does what it says on the tin. It quickly copied my photos. Haven't tested the speed but I'd guess it dealt with the 24, 15 Megapixel RAW shots on my camera in a minute or so. It claims to be 2-3X faster than the 'the other ones on the market'. I will try timing it when I have a lot more pictures to back up. It's about the size of a fullsize ipod.
 
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