Portable storage device

<p>What would you recommend for storing your digital images while traveling? Some dedicated portable storage device, a netbook, etc? Which is most flexible and/or cost effective?</p>

<p>Marvin, where are you going and will you have occasion when you access electricity?<br>

I assume you are CF based and they are relatively cheap in this part of the world (UK). Will you be camping in the wild or in a more luxorious setting? FWIW I've recently bought a netbook precisely for storing photos on the move. Its low power demand is ideal for when I'm away from electricity. It also provides backup for my cards and allows me to clear a few in extremis.<br>

Jim</p>

<p>If you are actually carrying a PC rather than just a storage device, then it's good to be able to run the standard Canon software on it. Most netbooks are (a) a bit underpowered to do that, and (b) have too low a screen resolution to allow Canon software to run (the minimum requirement is 768 lines, 600 or even 720 won't do). There are some expensive netbooks that don't have these limitations, but there's little real distinction between these and compact laptops. The one I use is quite a few years old, but still does the job reasonably effectively. It is a Samsung Q35, with a decent Core 2 Duo processor and a 1280×800 12-inch screen. I have upgraded the memory with a 2GB module and the disk to 250GB. A current-generation machine of that general type would be quite a good bet. You don't need a built-in DVD R/W drive (which that has) becuse it's better to carry one or two external USB disk drives. which are very compact and light. If you can find a compact laptop with a proper 24-bit screen, that would be ideal.</p>

<p>I also carry a Canon M80, which I found at a bargain price shortly after they first came out. This has the advantage of providing a storage capability completely independent of the laptop, and will still do the storage/checking job if it is not practicable to take the laptop (becaue of weight restrictions, for example). It has enough capacity to cope with my needs on a trip, although there are probably plenty of people for whom that would not be true. It is in many ways a very nice little device, although in other respects a missed opportunity. but depite its age and the lack of any recent firmware update, it can display the embedded JPEG from even the most recent camera bodies. Probably the latest such devices from Epson and possibly JoBo would now be a better bet – Canon have not developed the M80, which reads cards painfully slowly. But examine carefully any claims to be able to display RAW files. I think one of the JoBo devices could/can do that, but apparently it takes far too long to be useful, and all that is happening in other cases is the extraction of the embedded JPEG. What has left all these little units a bit stranded is the dramatic improvement in camera LCDs, which means that displaying an image on a storage device now offers little advantage over displaying it on the camera.</p>

<p>What you should be able to do, of course, is to hook a USB drive directly to the camera and write to it from the card. That would require tha camera to have proper host USB capability and a simple means for copying/moving files around, not a big deal and certainly something that should not require an expensive add-on like a WFT, but Canon (and other manufacturers) do not seem to have grasped this.</p>

<p>Finally, the price/GB of CF cards has much more than kept pace with the growth in RAW file sizes, and although you may want to back up and view your images, just buying enough cards is now a viable way to cope with the storage issue for photographers who don't run entirely in machine-gun mode.</p>

<p>I guess it comes down to your travel style and personal requirements. I recently did a 6 week trip with a laptop and an external USB drive. The computer gave me email (and photo.net!) access and the external drive gave me a second copy of my images. If you can see yourself carrying a computer on your trip (I used mine for basic Lightroom edits as well), the drive was light and only a little larger than a deck of playing cards for 1TB. If you need rugged, many recommend the Lacie units, but I didn't have any trouble with just a standard external. If you go the netbook route, you'll save weight but have less room on the internal drive.</p>

<p>When I was preparing for my trip, several people recommended just carrying lots of CF cards as a way of keeping weight down, but I like to view my images on a larger screen while I travel. I didn't find the little portable Epson P-3000 and similar units to be cost effective, but they might suit your needs.</p>

<p>I have the Epson 3000 to view and store photos and is excellent for that. I reformat the card after I have downloaded but you do not have to do that if you want the storage to act as back-up.<br>

The Epson is a reasonable size and I use the viewer to learn as I go along (composition, lighting etc) and delete the obviously bad photos. And it dispalys Canon RAW with no problem (though if you have a newer Canon you may need a download for it). If you are not bothered about viewing pictures there are a host of alternatives with LaCie and JoBo being the leaders.</p>

<p>Do you want to edit the pictures as well?<br>

My next alternative would normally be the netbooks as these are about the same price (or cheaper) than the Epson but I did not think about the display limitations that Robin mentioned: we have only just got a netbook and I have not tried DPP on there yet. I would not use the Netbook for editing so would think about loading only ZoomBrowser if I were shooting RAW+JPG.</p>

<p>I tend to go with either a large CF storage capacity (2x16G, 3x8G, 3x4G) if I'm away for a few days or will take a laptop and a Freecom 160G external hard drive.<br>

64G will just about last a week if not too much is happening, it's light and doesn't take up much space.</p>

<p>If I'm traveling light I carry a Wolverine, which is a portable hard drive similar to the Epson variety. Mine has a little screen but viewing is limited and of course you can't do any manipulation. It's about the size of a small pocketbook. Mine is a little slow for uploading (an older version) but I can't afford to upgrade it yet.<br>

Lately I have also carried a laptop, which comes in handy when waiting in airports. You can do the photoshop work there provided you bring an adapter for the local electricity available. I still take the Wolverine, which fits nicely in most hotel safes. I upload the cards to the wolverine and then I upload the wolverine to the laptop. So, I have the cards, the Wolverine, and the laptop all stored in somewhat different places. I haven't looked into online backup, which would add an extra element of complexity and possible safety.<br>

When I got my most recent laptop I looked into small notebooks, but they don't seem to have the speed capabilities of larger devices. If you want to run hungry programs like Photoshop you evidently need something larger. Too bad.</p>

<p>I think the OP needs to provide more info about his needs. The best solution will vary greatly depending on the length of travel, amount of data created, need to simply archive versus process, his budget, etc. etc. No offense and I'm sure it wasn't the poster's intent, but questions like this with inadequate detail can wind up wasting a lot of people's time and energy.</p>

<p><em><strong>Sorry to have not provided enough detail but travels will vary</strong></em>. First - a 5 day cruise; I'm trying to travel a little lighter than with my laptop. Second - a driving trip to Bar Harbor, Maine; Not much of a problem there. Third - a flight to Las Vegas and a tour through the national parks; again, just trying to travel lighter. Fourth - a trip to the Galapagos; I suppose the cruise boats will electriciity but again I thought to conserve space.</p>

<p>Just take enough cards to last for your trip, plus a couple of extras. You can get reliable 32GB CF cards for about $75 now (if you have to buy more cards along the way you'll only find small cards and you'll probably pay 4x what they're worth). It's also a good idea take a portable storage device (I use HyperDrives) for backup. They will hold up to 500GB. Don't keep the backup device in the same bag as the filled CF cards. If you are paranoid or extremely concerned about weight you can mail the Hyperdrives home as you fill them. Carrying a netbook or iPad is ridiculous, IMO, unless you need it for some other reason. They are big, heavy and power hungry.</p>

<p>Never try to reuse a CF card before you've got the images on your computer at home and backed up. This is by far the most likely way to lose data (oops, formatted the wrong card...).</p>

<ul>

<li>Laptop with photo software.</li>

<li>Enough memory cards for the entire trip without having to erase photos until returning home (unless of course if you take so many photos that that is not practical).</li>

<li>portable hard drive.</li>

<li>Case to hold memory cards. I have a Gepe Card Safe...waterproof and looks like it is strong enough to stop a bullet.</li>

</ul>

 

<ul>

<li>At the end of the day, copy photos to the laptop, and back up on a portable hard drive. If card is nearly filled, flip it to backside showing in case and do not erase.</li>

<li>Keep memory card case in pocket at all times. Preferable to keep portable harddrive separate from laptop in case of theft.</li>

<li>When you get home, copy from memory card to home computer. You should have two other copies as backups. A fair amount of work, but that is what I do and would recommend for photos that are not easily replaceable.</li>

</ul>

<p><br />That is what I did on a trip to the Western U.S (I live in PA). Prior to that, I had no intentions of purchasing a laptop. However, the laptop was a bonus as I use it extensively and it has a very sharp screen and is great for bing mobile and showing friends "slideshows" on the computer.</p>