Travel solution: Hyperdrive, CF cards, netbook, other

[notso bad]

<p>I am taking a family trip (17-18 days plus travel) to Europe and India. I plan to shoot in RAW (or RAW+JPEG - haven't decided) so I have a better chance of rescuing my mistakes. Right now I only have 4 1GB CF cards (for the canon 20D) and I worry about running our of space. My choices are:<br>

1) buy more CF cards. At $13 per 2GB, this may be the cheapest solution. I can buy 4 of these and triple my storage. CF cards seem pretty reliable.<br>

2) get a hyperdrive of wolverine device so that I can have backup - even if I don't use up all my cards. I would hate for my first CF card failure to wipe out a day in Paris. These things seem to cost 200-350 depending on the drive size and bells and whistles.<br>

3) get a netbook. It looks like these go for about $300 and have the advantage of wifi and a larger screen for review. That may be a big plus for future domestic travel. Are wifi hot spots popular in Europe and Asia? I assume it will run some reasonable windows software as well.<br>

I don't get out much, so I appreciate any advice from experienced people.<br>

By the way, I am just an amaeur shooter. I doubt I can possibly take more than 1000 pics on the trip, though I could end up surprising myself. Also I will eventually upgrade my camera, probably when canon puts video on the 1.6 crop camera, so my memory needs will grow one day.<br>

thanks</p>

[sattler123]

<p>I am an amateur too. When I travel, I want at least double backups. I typically carry a Nexto 160GB stand alone drive and a 250GB WD Passport portable HD and sometimes a laptop - it all depends where I am going and if I'd have access to a computer or not. The Nexto is great because it downloads CF cards very fast and has been very reliable.<br>

I had a laptop HD crash once while on a trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons. That tought me a valuable lesson - always have a backup of your files, no matter what.<br>

And yes, you should get some 4GB CF cards - they are really cheap these days.</p>

[martin_howard1]

<p>I would get more cards as a starting point, I usually have at least 2 x 4Gb cards and a couple of 2Gb cards.</p>

<p>The netbook idea is a route I took, although most netbooks don't come with a large amount of internal storage, my EeePC 901 has around 8Gb free after I installed windows 7 on it. Plus 16gb on a SDHC card and I also have a 320Gb Western Digital My passport HD which runs off the USB port. I also have to take a CF card reader along, so the kit starts adding up.</p>

<p>Another point about netbooks is the screen size, the vertical size on my eeePC of 600 pixels prevents DPP from running for instance (although you can set the resolution to 768 and it will squeeze it onto the 600 high display).</p>

<p>WiFI Spots are pretty prevalent in most cities in Europe, a lot of chain stores / cafes etc also have availability, some may require subscription to services such as The Cloud</p>

[martin_howard1]

<p>dbl post</p>

[bruce_margolis]

<p>Really, personal preference here. I have a notebook and travel with it all the time. Biggest advantage: multiple copies of my shots because they are on the puter, external drive, and on the cards (until I have to re-format to use the card again). </p>

<p>Many don't want that much trouble or expense. Hyperdrives seem to be a good alternative but of course, you will have only one copy of your images. Notebooks, the same thing but they are bulkier to travel with. If you do go the notebook route, I suggest you seriously consider an external drive as an additional backup, though some suggest using CD's or DVD's instead. And yes, there are wi-fi spots throughout Europe depending, of course, on where you are.</p>

<p>Another possibility...... cross your fingers and hope that each city you are in has a public computer nearby where you can download your cards to CD/DVD disks. Lightest and easiest solution but again, you are hoping that each city (or at least enough cities) can do this and of course, your disks are your only source so if they get corrupted....</p>

<p> </p>

[waltflanagan]

<p>I'd get a Netbook. Look at the specs closely, some come with small (20GB and under) flash drives, others come with 160GB hard drives. Some come with Windows, others come with Linux. Personally I have an Asus EEE 1002 and replaced the drive with a 500GB hard drive.</p>

[swenson]

<p>My wife and I have been using PD70X, now HD80, for years without a problem. It's based on laptop HD's. Last time I checked you could buy 80 gig drive for $25. The device cost abot $180. For the first 80 gig. Another $25 if that's not enough. Downloads are very fast. It been re-released with another name. They are very comapct and small. Very easy to use. No cords cables. Just pop the card in and download.</p>

[notso bad]

<p>Thanks. I think I will have to decide between a hyperdrive (pocket sized) and a netbook (costco has an acer with 160gb HDD for $300 and has the added bonus of wifi.</p>

[michel_poirier]

<p>Hi, had the same dilemma a month ago.<br />I found that a backup unit was a little mor eexpensive than a netbook.<br>

So I purchased an Acer Aspire One, the WinXP home version with the 160gb. drive.<br />I am getting a good run for the money, will also be able to do email while on trip.<br />And with a reasonnable wi-fi connection and some time to spare, can also upload some or all of the pictures to an internet backup service.</p>

[jean_marc_liotier]

<p>I went on a two weeks bicycle tour with a DSLR and a Samsung NC10 netbook, and I'm very happy with this setup. Reviewing and selecting the pictures works well on the netbook, and the netbook has many other uses. Not shooting and keeping too many pictures, I have used a 32 GB USB key for backup on the way. I'll use the same setup next time !</p>

[notso bad]

<p>If I get a netbook, should I go with Linux or Windows? All I need is internet and the ability to view RAW photos.</p>