Data Transfer and Storage at Trackside

Since purchasing a Nikon D70 in April I've been shooting in JPG

because of the greater number of shots that will fit on a CF card.

I want to shoot in RAW, but to do so means purchasing either a

portable CD writer or hard drive. Since I typically shoot about 300-

400 images per day over two days at an auto race, and since a 1GB CF

card holds ninety images, that means 4 to 5 data transfers per day,

or 8-10 per race weekend. To complicate matters, chances are that

I'll have to carry this peice of equipment with me while shooting

because it's not always possible to return to my car trunk between

on-track activities. Knowing all that, are there any

recommendations for a lightweight solution to this problem? And

does anyone have experience with units with data transfer

verification either through software in the unit or an included LCD

screen to review the images?

Just a bump because I'm interested in this as well. I have purchased a gaggle of CF cards to address my need for more storage, but I've often hoped for a better solution.

 

<p>Sean

<br><a href="http://www.stnphotography.com">www.stnphotography.com</a>

Fred, once again I'm going to suggest going to robgalbraith's storge forum. Read the archives and make a post there <a href="http://www.robgalbraith.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=UBB10&PHPSESSID="> RG's storage forum </a>, and also check-out sportshooter.com and their forums (frankly I can't with my old IE3.02). With my D1H I have 3.5gb of cards, so raw I get about 900 shots and compressed-raw 1800. No need for external storage but then I carry six batteries! I'd get a D70 in a second even with no metering with non-cpu lenses (all MF/non-cpu for me other than 12-24 Nikkor and 500F4P), but the lack of remote capability for use with my MW-1 radio remote and MT-1 Intervalometer stop me. I just have to be patient for the D2X -- or a D2H for 2 gees. <a href="http://www.jaypix.com/pix/stest2.jpg"> STS-1 </a>.

I use a 20GB tripper for storage. It works fine but the batteries die fast. I can transfer 2 1GB cards and 1 512 in a day, but then it dies on me. What size are the D70 RAW files? I can get 160 shots on a 1GB card with the 10D in RAW. I use the smallest embedded JPEG file, since I could care less what the JPEG looks like. The tripper was about $250.

 

I know many using MAC's use iPods. The iPods have great battery life, but I'm not a MAC user.

I shoot in large fine jpeg with my D60... RAW slows the poor thing down too much!

 

Maybe that will change when I upgrade to a 1D mk 2 in the spring, but at the moment, I'm quite happy shooting in jpeg. I don't tend to edit my shots much (and save as bmp / tiff if I do for prints etc) so not shooting RAW to me is no great loss.

 

I've just bought more flash memory myself actually - a 512 Mb card to go together with my 4 256 Mb cards. That now should be enough (shooting highest quality jpeg on a 6.3 Mp camera) to get me through a day's worth of work without having to rush to the media centre at lunchtime and upload at least a couple of cards to my laptop so that I can continue shooting.

 

I have thought about data storage / portable hard drives etc, but at the moment they are (a) pretty expensive and (b) the battery life is truly lousy... I think that it is probably easier and cheaper at this point in time to buy more compact flash memory instead.

I recently spent a little over a week shooting the <a href="http://www.teamvelowear.com/photos/raam04/index.html" target=_blank> Race Across America </a>and

 

took along the 30gb <a href="http://www.nixvue.com/" target=_blank>Nixvue </a>Album Lite.

 

I purchased the Nixvue after trying the <a href="http://www.grand-level.com.tw" target=_blank>ImageTank </a> G2, which completely failed me during the race prior to RAAM.

 

I WOULD recommend the Nixvue, and the only criticism I had with it was that it is a bit slow to copy (though not

 

Unreasonable, unless you only have one flash card) and the battery needs a recharge after copying 4-6 CF cards.

Thanks to all who contributed a response to this question. :-)