How to store images when in remote areas?

[kris_francis]

I am a film photographer who is about to make the jump to digital. I

plan on my usual extended backpacking trip (14 days or so) this

summer, and my question is about storage of images. Since one can

quickly exceed the capacity of any memory card, I investigated the

avaibility of devices to store the data on CD or DVD. I am unable to

find such a device that works on batteries. I don't mind carrying

AA batteries. There isn't a convient 120 VAC outlet (or car) where I

can recharge batteries where I go backpacking.

 

I could purchase enough CF's to hold the images, but this is not a

viable economic solution.

 

Please excuse me if this has been answered in the past.

 

Kris

[leo_griffiths]

What about this?

 

http://www.disqworks.com/en/digimagicportable.html

[mike_elek]

You should also make sure you have a second (or third) battery for the camera. 14 days is a long time when considering a high-drain device such as a digital camera.

[mario_gonzalez1]

I know this isn't the AA battery solution you're looking for, but I use a Gmini 400 from Archos. Their website is down at the moment, so the best I can point you to is www.archos.com and click on Music. The Gmini 400 is an mp3 player/video player/20 GB hard drive that is pocket sized and runs off of rechargable (inaccessible) batteries. I bought it because it has a built-in CF slot and I love it for that reason. I don't know how many gigs of photos you expect to shoot but 18 usable GB with 5 MB jpegs is 260 photos/day for 14 days. The most I've every downloaded in a day into my Gmini is 3 GB and I didn't notice the batteries getting drained. It's going for $337.99 on Amazon right now. I can give you more info if you want.

[Wayne Melia]

Apacer Disk Steno

[waltz]

<a href=http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/>These guys</a> sell lots of different portable hard drives, CD/DVD burners, etc. I have no affiliation with them, but have found them good to work with, and they seem to have fair prices.

[klix]

CompactDrive PD7X uses AA batteries; you'll also need extra batteries for your camera.

[jimstrutz]

It's pretty easy to make an external AA power pack for most any portable hard drive or CD burner. I made one to power the portable hard drive, as well as recharge the camera battery. Takes a lot of batteries to do it all though. Use Lithium AA's if back packing, they're lighter & last 3-4x longer than Alkalines. It is also possible to use solar power to do the recharging, but this is slow and dependent on the weather.

 

However, the cost of CF cards is not that much more than the cost of the external drive, and you don't need extra batteries to run them. You should also consider Micro Drives instead of CF cards. You can get them for about half the cost, but they do use a bit more power to run.

 

You don't say what camera you are using, but if it takes proprietary lithium ion types, you should get enough cheap additional batteries for your camera on eBay to last the whole time. If you don't waste energy by chimping, and just turn the LCD off, you can save some there as well.

[pjmeade]

I've got an Apacer disc steno, it's an excellent device. If you are going to be back packing out of a car, you can charge the batteries in that and can leave all the disks in there too. Or a better option, make two copies and post one home.

[tholte]

I also have an Apacer disc steno and can fill up about three or four CDs before the battery loses its charge. Unless you can recharge with your car or bring extra batteries, I don't think this is your solution. You can buy 1GB compact flash cards at Sam's Club now for $70. Buy a few of those and use just a little discretion in what you shoot and you should be set. My opinion only and make sure you have enough spare batteries for your camera.

[kris_francis]

Thanks for the responses. I need to do some research before I decide what looks best. Again, thanks for your responses.

[afanifitafa]

Last fall I went to the south coast of Turkey on a sailboat. I used an Apacer disc steno for all my images and those of a friend. It worked flawlessly. I would copy our secure digital and compact flash images when we were in port when things were calm & kept the device out of the salt spray. I highly recommend it.

[jcuknz]

Once you have solved the problem of battery power a solution to get more shots on the card is to maintain highest resolution but increase compression. I suggest you check this out before you go and see if it is acceptable compromise for your purposes.

[nikhil_shah]

This reply is only useful to those who use Compact Flash cards.

 

I don't think that EZDigiMagic CD burner is a good solution here. You have to carry the CD also and max you can burn only upto 700 MB of pictures which ofcourse is a lot of pictures. But if you are taking a pictures in RAW format you can easily count 4 to 5MB per picture.

 

Friend of mine just went to China for 3 weeks. He took two 2GB Ultra II CF cards but he did carry portable harddrive with him which was very useful. He used to take 300-400 pictures a day. Below is his reply when I asked him what did he use to store the images.

 

Here is the link to a site with information about portable hard drives. Look under Image Storage Devices. I got the Delkin PicturePAD which is 30GB. All you have to do is hook the CF card, follow the instructions on the LCD screen of PicturePAD & copy the pictures & format the CF card. I used Shopzilla.com to find the best price. I do not remember which store I got it from, but should be able to find out from my bills at home.

 

http://steves-digicams.com/digi_accessories.html

 

 

I hope this would be useful. This PicturePAD can be little costly but very useful.

 

Nikhil