RAW Storage

[flickr portfolio]

<p>My dad is leaving for Tibet next week for a month long trip through the country and he will be taking multiple CF cards equivalent to about 32 GB of memory. I told him the importance of shooting in RAW for the purpose of editing and archiving and he knows the importance of this. The only thing we are unsure of is what sort of facilities he will have to dump cards or possibly upload images if he has the chance and wanted to know if anyone out there had been to the area to photograph and if there was a recommendation to upload the RAWs to?<br>

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Merry Christmas!</p>

[PuppyDigs]

<p>RAWs are way too big to upload to a cloud or photo hosting site. Instead, upload to a "digital wallet" or notebook. Or, if he wants to stay ultra light, buy another mitt full of CF cards. That's what I'd do. Memory is cheap 'n tiny.</p>

[jamie_robertson2]

<p>I agree with Puppy Face. If he's worried about running out of space he either needs one of those ridiculously expensive portable photo storage devices, a laptop/notebook, or more CF cards.</p>

<p>I always go with more CF cards. They're cheap, reliable, take up no room and if you drop them they don't end up in 17 different pieces. He could also do some editing on the camera after each day's shooting (i.e. deleting the photos that are obviously no good).</p>

[caba]

<p>Tibet.... you will be happy if you find a place to send an email out of the country....<br>

Take lot of cards and/or image tank (I'm using my netbook for backup). And don´t forget spare batteries - power outtages are common. Tibet is extremely photogenic. So be prepared for lot of pictures. I was there 2007 for 7 days http://caba.sk/?p=258</p>

[daniel_blondowski]

<p>Is he taking a laptop? How about burning them to CDs or DVDs.</p>

[JosvanEekelen]

<p>32 Gb is a good amount to start with, of course depending on the filesize of the camera in question. My advise would be to buy extra cards. Laptops/Netbooks and image tank all need a power outlet sooner or later. Just bring enough cards and extra batteries. And if you run out of cards you can always save the last images in jpg. BTW, in a month time it will be cold in Tibet. The capacity of the batteries may be severely affected.</p>

[zml]

<p>Notebook, and an external, USB powered, drive or two. This way there will be 2 or more sets of backups. Self contained photo storage is priced grotesquely high and doesn't allow simple operations that the cheapest notebook performs with aplomb. And everything needs batteries (cameras too...) so this is a moot point.</p>

[g dan mitchell]

<p>I'm in the "take many CF cards but copy to a hard drive" school. As someone wrote, CF cards are cheap, so I prefer to carry enough of them that I probably won't have to erase anything. In most situations I can also bring along a small laptop so I'll copy the RAW files directly to the laptop so that I have a second copy.</p>

<p>I have not done it myself, but I have heard of people copying the RAW files to a DVD and then mailing that "back home" while on the road.</p>

[mike_hitchen]

<p>Is he going with a guided tour? If so then it may be worth asking them what facilities they would have - if they will be in trucks/camps they may have their own generators. But even then he will probably have a dozen other people wanting to charge various items from cameras to shavers to ipods !<br>

What sort of camera has he got - if a 10MP, then 32GB would be equivalent to about 3,000 shots = 100 per day. Plenty enough if he is disciplined, but unfortuantely digital does not lend itself to being disciplined! (10 shots per day would be enough if he were shooting film!).</p>

<p>If this is one of those 'trips in a lifetime' I would get one of those portable hard drives - the cost of that in relation to the whole trip will be negligible and worth the security they offer: I would look at it as a back-up, not a way to free up card space. The Epson viewer is great but power-hungry once you start looking at the pictures on-screen so he should reserve doing so for when he actually knows he has recharge facilities. To avoid temptation I think I would prefer a Jobo Gigavue and get yet more cards.<br>

An alternative is when he gets to a hotel in a city, try an burn them to DVD as back-up and then decide whether to re-use the cards.</p>