Portable Storage for Digital Images

<p>I'm taking a trip to Maine in the near future. A friend and I will spend a week traveling, seeing the sights, and taking photos. I'm curious what others use to off load photos from the camera's memory card outside of a laptop. I'm thinking something along the lines of a small external hard drive but I'm curious to know if there is something that will copy directly from a memory card. I'm open to other suggestion too. What do you use?<br /><br />Thanks,<br />John</p>

<p>For a week, you should take enough memory cards and not jeopardize your files.</p>

<p>Hyperdrive units have a good reputation and work well. I used one for a trip a couple of years ago. But now, I just carry a lot of memory cards.<br>

<Chas></p>

<p>If I'm away for more than a few days, I'll take a laptop and a 180G external hard drive. Seldom use anything like that much memory and now would probably be inclined to just take enough cards to make sure I had enough.</p>

As a compromise to the laptop you don't want to use (and I don't blame you) I use my tiny netbook. It's a real computer that actually fits in my camera bag. However, I use it as redundant storage. Like others have written here, use lots of memory cards.

<p>Lots of memory cards plus either a laptop or small external drive (there are many to choose from). I don't erase the cards until all of the photos have been transferred to my main computer and backups (I have four duplicate drives at home and two in a safe deposit box).</p>

<p> Well you could take a couple memory cards and just wait until you get home or you could take a laptop. For myself I would just take what memory I thought I would need as I do not own a laptop. I spent a week in Sequoia National Park recently and was fine with a 4gb card but I do not take tons of pictures. I probably shot about 40 shots the first days and about 40 shots the rest of the week. Jpeg is fine for tree pictures so I still had room for about 300 pictures.</p>

<p>On long trips I use hyperdrives too. Two of them. I've also used stand-alone CD and DVD writers, but if I can get away with memory cards, that's what I do.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the input. I think for this go round I'll just buy additional memory cards. I was flirting with that idea but I was curious what others do. I haven't had a "real" vacation in some years. I'm hoping there will be some fall colors still in play presenting lots of photo ops. Thanks again.</p>

<p>I agree with the guys above that say more cards. Cheaper than HDD (the price of a Lexar 32GB SD for example is only $88 these days) and safer as no intermediate transfer involved.</p>

<p>I bought a Colorspace Hyperdrive a while back before a multi-week trip abroad and yes in itself it performed well, but to be honest I think it was a dumb investment and I don't use it any more.</p>

<p>Obviously, for those who are 'backup-inclined', modern models with two card slots are a blessing and reduce further the need for any other intermediate device.</p>

<p>Stephen - I certainly admire your work and your words on this site but... wow... why so much redundancy? I'm genuinely curious.</p>

<p>If you don't shoot many pictures, then perhaps CF cards are an adequate solution. For everyone else, some means of secure backup are advisable. A laptop is not only the most flexible tool for these backups, but gives you the ability to edit and communicate with home (or clients)</p>

<p> I'm distrustful of hard drives for two reasons. Hard drives can and do fail. They are not tolerant of being dropped, or having a write operation interrupted, and sometimes just give up the ghost unexpectedly. Secondly, the files on an hard drive can be lost in an instant at the touch of a key. The same is true for any re-writable medium, including CF/SD cards.</p>

<p>I shoot a lot when traveling, and generally carry only about twice the memory in CF cards that I anticipate using in a day. I carry a laptop (sometimes two), and backup the cards each day to an external hard drive, but also to DVDs (which can't be accidently erased). I carry empty DVDs in a "book" type holder, replacing them with the burned DVDs as I go. The "book" protects them, keeps them in order, and is a lot more compact than jewel boxes or stacks.</p>

<p>Most important - the CF cards don't get erased until both backups have been done, then I reformat the cards IN THE CAMERA.</p>

<p>It has been my experience, over the last 15 years, that "faded" CDs and DVDs are nearly always the result of operator error at the time of creation or physical damage. If you use high quality media (e.g., MAM, Verbatim or Taiyo-Yuden), good technique (e.g., only disc-at-once burns) and verify the results of each burn, you will be fine.</p>

<p>Costco has great prices for 8 gig cards. A bit slower speeds, but great price. They also have dual layer 100 spindle dvd's for a great price.</p>

<p>Right, just buy more memory cards, which are based on flash memory and a lot safer than any hard-drive-based alternative, as hard drives are mechanical devices that spin rapidly. They are much more vulnerable.</p>

<p>You are shooting scenic and travel, not sports. A few 8G cards should be more than sufficient for a week of travel.</p>