Portable Storage Devices

[walsh2000]

What do you recommend for backing up digital photos in the field??

I'm new to DSLR, but, I plan on shooting RAW and accumulating quite a bit of shots on a lengthy Indonesia trip.

I don't own a small laptop and I'm considering buying a Portable Storage Device.

Some of the PSDs offer image playback and others are simple storage only.

Please offer me some advice!

[Daniel]

If I didn't have a laptop, I seriously consider the Epson P5000 80GB Storage/Viewer.


80GB, high-capacity hard drive
4-inch Epson Photo Fine Ultra LCD
Adobe RGB color space support
Ultra fast processor for downloads
On-the-spot download device to save, view and share photos, videos and music anywhere you go
Hi-Speed USB 2.0 for fast file transfers
RAW file support - zoom capabilities to check the focus and fine detail
External Hi-Speed USB 2.0 hard disk drive when connected to computer
Photo File Format - JPEG; RAW (from select DSLR cameras)
Video File Format - DivX, MPEG 1/2, MPEG 4 (AP), WMV9, H.264 and Motion JPEG
Audio File Format - MP3, AAC and WMA
Built-in Memory Card Slots - CompactFlash Type I/Type II and IBM Microdrive (3.3 V) Secure Digital and MultiMediaCard Memory Stick, xD Picture Card, and SmartMedia supported with optional, third-party CF adapter, sold separately
Direct Print Support - All PictBridge&153;-enabled printers
Internal power - rechargeable Li-Ion battery, 3.7 V, 2600 mAh
External power - AC adapter/battery charger, 100 - 240 V, 50 - 60 Hz input
Minimum System Requirements - Windows 2000, Professional, XP Home Edition, XP Professional or XP x64 Edition Macintosh OS X 10.2 or later (PowerPC/Intel)
Dimensions - 3.5" (88.7 mm) x 5.9" (150 mm) x 1.3" (31.1 mm)
Weight with battery - Approx. 1.0 lbThen again, for the price you could get a low-end laptop.

Daniel

[Papa Bear]

You can get 160 gig hard drive (USB) for $109.0 + or - almost all locations have a computer or someone with a laptop can down load your card through the camera or a reader! Fast and cheap! With little wight to carry and pay for!:D

[Clay Coleman]

I agree with Daniel. I had a chance to fool around with an Epson P-2000 (40g) unit today, and it looked great and seemed hardy. Not cheap, though, considering the storage space. -Clay

[Jonathan Bird]

Then again, for the price you could get a low-end laptop.

Daniel

Daniel said it right there. Get a laptop. Put Lightroom on it. Now you can save a LOT of time when you get home by staying current on your edits. I wouldn't mess around with a storage device, but just get a little Apple ibook.

Just my $.02

Jonathan

[walsh2000]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

I ended up buying a laptop along with a 120GB USB backup drive. The laptop includes a DVD burner and the advice from the computer support guys at work is to burn DVDs as yet another layer of backup.

The Epson device looks cool, but, I made the laptop decision based on its versatility. I may add LightRoom and a digital projector when my photography budget recovers!

-mike-

[Jonathan Bird]

Mike,
Lightroom I think still has a 30 day tryout period. Download it, install it, and you can mess with it in Lembeh for 30 days free. If you like it, it's only $300.

Jonathan

[jamesw]

I bought a Jobo Giga Vu Pro Evolution for trips where I'm only allowed 33 lbs max. The difference in weight between the Jobo and a laptop is about 3 lbs so that means I can bring an extra strobe and lens...

The Jobo has a nice screen and has a 120gb drive which you can upgrade as newer bigger drives come along.

It worked great on my recent safari and diving in Zanzibar.

Cheers
James

[DavidScubadiver]

Daniel said it right there. Get a laptop. Put Lightroom on it. Now you can save a LOT of time when you get home by staying current on your edits. I wouldn't mess around with a storage device, but just get a little Apple ibook.

Just my $.02

JonathanJonathan, do you just connect the laptop to your desktop when you get home and move the files?

[Jonathan Bird]

No. My workflow is a little weird. I export a catalog from lightroom on my laptop (which is a file that contains links to the raw files and all the tweaks I did, along with keywords and captions I added.) Then I manually move the raw files from the laptop to an external drive that I use to archive images, as well as the catalog. Now I copy the files from the archive drive to my office computer and import the catalog, which combines the new pictures with my master catalog. The images stay on the external archive drive as well as the internal drive on the office machine. I delete them from the laptop for the next trip. I also back all the raw files up on archival-grade DVD+R for offsite storage. So I end up with the original raw files in three places.

Jonathan

[Ken Hawk]

No. My workflow is a little weird. I export a catalog from lightroom on my laptop (which is a file that contains links to the raw files and all the tweaks I did, along with keywords and captions I added.) Then I manually move the raw files from the laptop to an external drive that I use to archive images, as well as the catalog. Now I copy the files from the archive drive to my office computer and import the catalog, which combines the new pictures with my master catalog. The images stay on the external archive drive as well as the internal drive on the office machine. I delete them from the laptop for the next trip. I also back all the raw files up on archival-grade DVD+R for offsite storage. So I end up with the original raw files in three places.

Jonathan

Sounds simple enough to me :rolleyes:

Now were did I put that cork screw, time for another bottle ;)

Ken

[Jonathan Bird]

Basically, when you are on a trip, you want to tweak your pictures a little for fun and maybe to save some time when you get home. You can get a lot done on an airplane on the way home. But you don't want to lose all that work you did, so you need to export the catalog from lightroom and import it into the Lightroom on your office machine. No biggie. You import the catalog, manually move the RAW files, and then you have merged the new pictures with the other pictures. But you want them backed up in more than one place since they can be lost otherwise. I keep them on two different hard drives (office computer and a firewire back up) plus a set on DVD that I keep out of the house.

Jonathan

[sorvju-f]

I bought a Jobo Giga Vu Pro Evolution for trips where I'm only allowed 33 lbs max. The difference in weight between the Jobo and a laptop is about 3 lbs so that means I can bring an extra strobe and lens...

The Jobo has a nice screen and has a 120gb drive which you can upgrade as newer bigger drives come along.

It worked great on my recent safari and diving in Zanzibar.

Cheers
James

Looks like rather expensive to me...anyhow you are right with the question of weight when flying!

Jukka

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by jamesw http://www.uwphotochat.com/forums/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.uwphotochat.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2841#post2841)
I bought a Jobo Giga Vu Pro Evolution for trips where I'm only allowed 33 lbs max. The difference in weight between the Jobo and a laptop is about 3 lbs so that means I can bring an extra strobe and lens...

The Jobo has a nice screen and has a 120gb drive which you can upgrade as newer bigger drives come along.

It worked great on my recent safari and diving in Zanzibar.

Cheers
James

---------------------------------

Looks like rather expensive to me...anyhow you are right with the question of weight when flying!

Jukka


A more affordable alternative are the storage devices from Hyperdrive (http://www.hyperdrive.com/). Their largest unit is 500GB.

Cheers!
Daniel :)