Digital Media Management on the Road

[robincjohnston]

I am planning a trip to Italy - Tuscany region, then Rome then back to Venice -

in August/September. I'm concerned about having enough storage for my photos

while on the road.

 

What are the best options for downloading/saving files to free up card space

while traveling? I'm hoping not to have to carry a laptop.

 

Thanks!

[mendel_leisk]

My ploy last time we were on vacation was to just stock up on more cards. One side benfit: if you're back home and only needing one card at a time, you can procrastinate on wiping them after transfer to computer, giving yourself one more back up. To keep track, either number them, and/or have "empty" and "full" compartments in you camera bag.

[bueh]

You could try having your pictures burned from the cards on CD/DVD in some stores. Another alternative is some kind of device that utilizes a laptop harddisk and doesn't need a computer to copy files on it. The third options is a lightweight laptop (two words: "Asus EEE") with an external USB harddisk.

[SteveH]

Small laptop with Lightroom and a portable external hard drive to back up. I tried a Flashtrax

a few years ago and was unhappy.

[charles_stobbs3]

Film is a possible solution. I went to Tuscany two years ago. took 6 rolls of film, no problems. Have a great trip.

[ronald_moravec1]

Do not burn stuff on public computers. It might not be readable when you get home. That was the explanation to one who did just that, but I did not understand the technicalities except some disks are only readable on the computer that created them.

 

You own lap is best and burn back up cd on the way.

[mrivers]

Apple iPod worked for me a couple of years ago during a month in Australia. They sell a usb connector that you plug your camera into at night. I had plenty of music loaded as well for the multiple flights.

There are also portable storage devices with small screens that allow you to delete images on the trip.

[waltz]

There are a bunch of portable devices that work well for backing up memory cards on the road. Most have a memory card slot and a notebook hard drive inside. Stick a card in, push a button, and a few minutes later your pictures are all on the hard drive. Most have screens and go by the generic name of Portable Media Players. Epson makes a pretty popular one. Creative Labs makes one too. Vosonic is another brand that also goes by the name Wolverine.

 

Of course, dumping the contents of your memory cards onto a rapidly spinning platter with a read/write head flying just above the surface has its risks. But in 2004, I took one of these devices on a three week trip. I wasn't particularly careful, but I had no problems with the device.

[joseph_smith3]

I use a portable card reader/backup device. There are many brands to choose from. Some allow you to see the image, so do not. Mine is made by Hyperdrive: http://www.hyperdrive.com/

 

Current models are Space and Colorspace.

 

Joe Smith

[Ed_Ingold]

You should plan to backup to a portable hard drive (for convenience and editing) and to DVDs for security. While you can find stand-alone devices for each part, they are expensive, need charging and somewhat bulky. More important, you are flying somewhat blind in that you can't review the quality and integrity of these recordings as well as when using a laptop.

 

My conclusion is that a laptop is the most desirable core instrument in this process. In addition to the laptop, I carry a couple of 120GB drives, each the size of a deck of cards. The laptop has a built-in DVD burner and I carry blank and (subsequently) recorded DVDs in one of those zippered notebooks for CDs.

 

Noting a comment above, 6 rolls of film in Tuscany seems like a good first day. The first time I went to Europe I shot 125 rolls of film in three weeks, which weighed more (and took more space) than my laptop and drives in subsequent travels.

[keith_leonin]

You're not exactly going out to the boonies, so I'd say go to an internet cafe and upload your images to an online site. It doesn't haurt to have add'l cards AND a portable drive on top of that.

[tim_schultz1]

I use an Epson portable hard drive. I never bring my laptop to Europe anymore!

[joseph_smith3]

Robin, whatever you decide, do not rely on one type of backup. You need redundancy--like a laptop and a portable hard drive. Or two hyperdrives; or one hyperdrive and one Epson. Failures do occur, and unfortunately they occur when you least expect them. My portable harddrive failed in the middle of a week long nature shoot. I had to reformat it to get it going again. My laptop saved me. When you reformat, you wipe off everything on it. The next time I go to Europe, I will take my laptop and a hyperdrive or two hyperdrives.

 

Joe Smith

[santo_giorno]

Hi Robin:

 

I agree with Mendel. Memory cards are very inexpensive, and with no moving parts, they rarely fail in the field. Lexar and Sandisk 4GB cards frequently go on sale for $40 - $50 in the local "big box" stores.

 

cheers,

Santo

[fredrik_steffen]

Check out Jobo

 

http://www.jobo.com/web/GIGA-one-ultra.181.0.html

[ted_marcus1]

When I got my digital camera three years ago, memory cards sufficient to store the raw files from a week of travel cost $900. So 3 gigabytes of storage and a stand-alone hard disk device (the discontinued SmartDisk Flashtrax). At the end of each day, I copied the files from the memory cards to the Flashtrax, used the Flashtrax's byte-by-byte verify feature to make sure everything copied correctly, and then formatted the memory cards for the next day. This was an adequate solution, but hard disks are mechanical devices inherently subject to catastrophic failure.

 

Now that memory cards are significantly cheaper than they were in 2005, I have bought enough of them for a trip and retired the Flashtrax. No need to worry about the hard drive or carry a power supply nearly as large as the Flashtrax. And it's one less electronic device to trigger an intrusive inspection from the TSA goon squad. Memory cards aren't 100%+ reliable, but they're most likely more reliable than a portable hard drive.

 

It's really a matter of how much risk you're willing to accept balanced with how much hardware you're willing to schlep (and how much money you're willing to spend). A laptop that can burn DVDs is probably the safest belt-and-suspenders protection. Copy the memory cards to the laptop, copy the files from the laptop to DVDs, and perhaps FedEx the DVDs home as you travel.