Long Trip, Lots of Shots, No Laptop -- Best Practices?

KED

I'm sure this has been discussed on Dgrin, but I can't think of how to search for it effectively. I currently have two 8GB CF cards, but I am thinking of making an extended photographic tour this summer that would exhaust (++) that capacity. I do not have, and do not want, a laptop and don't intend to do PP on the road, so what I am looking for is the best way to deal with high volume shooting in these circumstances. One approach, obviously, is to buy more CF cards. But I've also come across these portable media storage devices that have LCD displays and more than enough storage capacity (40 GB and up) -- Epson, among others, makes them but seems to discontinue its models frequently.

What do you laptopless road warriors recommend?

And in general if people believe that there is no way to deal with this effectively OTHER than via laptop, I am receptive to logic.

Thanks!

nightowlcat

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=98914 that would give you five of those cards, or one of these and add your own seperate laptop drive to it, I've seen a 320GB SATA notebook drive for $141.50... which would give you about 40 cards worth of storage...

http://www.hyperdrive.com/HyperDrive-COLORSPACE-O-Casing-Only-p/hdcso-000.htm

Ann McRae

I use the Epson P2000 - have had it since they were first released and it has not let me down to date. I suspect later models have larger lcds and are likely faster, but I would recommend the Epson without hesitation.

ann

Art Scott

The Hyperdrive seems to always get good reviews also

claudermilk

Definitely a Hyperdrive. The empty Space case is about $150, and you can get 80GB drives for well under $100. That should be enough for quite a while. The Hyperdrives are rock-solid reliable...yes, keep in mind there's a laptop drive in there so treat it as such. They are also a more cost-effective solution and easier to deal with IMHO than an equivalent-capacity pile of CF cards.

My old HD80 has been discontinued for a long time, just like my 20D and neither seems to care much. They just keep on working.

Foochar

claudermilk wrote:

Definitely a Hyperdrive.

I'll add my voice to the chorus supporting the Hyperdrive units. I have one of the ColorSpace models and have been very happy with it.

anwmn1

another cheap option is to just map out camera stores like Ritz across your route and just have them burn you CD's. then you just pack away the cd's until you get home- then load them on to the computer.

Art Scott

anwmn1 wrote:

another cheap option is to just map out camera stores like Ritz across your route and just have them burn you CD's. then you just pack away the cd's until you get home- then load them on to the computer.

MY fear here is that I have already had some store burned cd's become corrupt and if one is on a very long journey they may very well become scratched........I am trying to get ovr 100 corrupt CD's recovered......professionally burned, triple checked and stored......now all are corrupt....Hmmmmmm. But they weren't Mitsui (Mam-A) Golds either.......
So I still think either a ton of CF cards or something like a Hyperdrive is the way to goooooooooooooo.:D

anwmn1

Art Scott wrote:

MY fear here is that I have already had some store burned cd's become corrupt and if one is on a very long journey they may very well become scratched........I am trying to get ovr 100 corrupt CD's recovered......professionally burned, triple checked and stored......now all are corrupt....Hmmmmmm. But they weren't Mitsui (Mam-A) Golds either.......
So I still think either a ton of CF cards or something like a Hyperdrive is the way to goooooooooooooo.:D

A hyperdrive could very easily crash or become corrupt too


I had a harddrive I had to make the determination on whether or not to pay to try and recover.

Chances are chances
Odds are odds

It's all relative...


There are several options- they all have a certain risk involved- just pointing out one that wasn't offered up yet.

Art Scott

anwmn1 wrote:

A hyperdrive could very easily crash or become corrupt too


I had a harddrive I had to make the determination on whether or not to pay to try and recover.

Chances are chances
Odds are odds

It's all relative...


There are several options- they all have a certain risk involved- just pointing out one that wasn't offered up yet.

Yes they can and I have also had to make that decision....still have the hdd's stored away.......

No media is fool proof.....none of it......:D:D:D maybe someday there will a NON-corruptable flash card in the 500gb range for $89.99....... I can hope can't can't I:ivar

Hardware like a Hyperdrive is a lot less likely to crash from a drop or constant bouncing in a pack when turned off than the same hardware turned on and dropped........I know htere are armored hdd.s out there that the military is using (armored, dust proof and waterproof...was designed for the Gulf War, but I have no clue if a Hyperdrive style is availble)......................

kdog

On a related note, if you really care about your pictures, you shouldn't rely on a single storage mechanism. You should always have copies of your pictures in two places. So that means having enough CF cards for your trip AND backing them up to a laptop or storage device. Or, you could store them on a laptop internal drive AND to a portable external USB drive. Or a laptop and a DVD. You get the idea.

-joel

KED

Thanks All!
I checked out the Hyperdrive website and liked what I saw (except for the prices maybe, but it's way cheaper than a MacBook Pro!). It's not very often that you get anything this close to consensus about a product, but that's comforting as well. I appreciate all your feedback.

Photoskipper

I have been using the Epson P2000 40 GB portable HD with 6" LCD and CF card reader for 5 years and it never let me down.
It survived 10K photos in 22 days trip to Alaska, 8K photos in 18 days Europe holiday, 8K photos in 12 days trip to Tibet and similar in Shangrila.
I like it because of the built-in CF and SD card reader, the LCD can let me share photo with others and delete unwant photos. I can download the files while I am shooting in the field. It also allows me to organize the files by Date or theme. Sorting and re-arrange of the files are possible within the Epson 2000.
The cons of it are the size and battery life. The download time is a bit long, take almost an hour for a 4 GB CF card and the battery just enough for that 4GB download.
The newer model use the same LCD but just increase the HDD.

In order to safeguard the hard taking photos, I have 6 4G Extreme III CF cards. The card will not be erased till I need the space.

There are many other choices in the market but not all of them can review the photo or built-in card reader. CD burner usually run on AC and may not be ideal for on the road.

KED

Photoskipper wrote:

I have been using the Epson P2000 40 GB portable HD with 6" LCD and CF card reader for 5 years and it never let me down.

I just found Epson's own website, with all the discontinuations etc. very disconcerting (and on topics like this I'm easily disconcerted ) so soon, maybe even tomorrow, I will be a Hyperdrive guy, and I'm sure all will be well, even if it could have been better. Thanks!

Moogle Pepper

Even though I just purchased a macbook pro for my storage and processing utility, I am going to purchase a hyperdrive sometime in the future as well. I can sure bet that there will be travels when I don't want to lug a laptop with me while hiking, because the additional weight to my camera gear is not going to be fun. Even though I am a pretty strong guy, after hiking 5 miles the weight bares down.

Hyperdrives are small and lighter.

denisegoldberg

kdog wrote:

On a related note, if you really care about your pictures, you shouldn't rely on a single storage mechanism. You should always have copies of your pictures in two places. So that means having enough CF cards for your trip AND backing them up to a laptop or storage device. Or, you could store them on a laptop internal drive AND to a portable external USB drive. Or a laptop and a DVD. You get the idea.

-joel

Excellent point.

I haven't done any long trips recently, so I've managed to get away with carrying lots of CF cards. The HyperDrive looks very interesting, but it is a hard drive and a single point of failure.

I don't wipe my CF cards now until I have copied the files to my computer plus placed a copy of the files in an off-site storage location.

I have had an external hard drive fail in the past - one copy of my photos is just not enough.

--- Denise

Photoskipper

KED wrote:

I just found Epson's own website, with all the discontinuations etc. very disconcerting (and on topics like this I'm easily disconcerted ) so soon, maybe even tomorrow, I will be a Hyperdrive guy, and I'm sure all will be well, even if it could have been better. Thanks!

the newer model P3000 with 40GB and P5000 with 80 GB are available in Epson website.

KED

Moogle Pepper wrote:

Even though I just purchased a macbook pro for my storage and processing utility, I am going to purchase a hyperdrive sometime in the future as well. I can sure bet that there will be travels when I don't want to lug a laptop with me while hiking, because the additional weight to my camera gear is not going to be fun. Even though I am a pretty strong guy, after hiking 5 miles the weight bares down.

Hyperdrives are small and lighter.

I ordered a Hyperdrive, but the one I received was defective so am awaiting its replacement. I will probably reverse your process and eventually get a macbook pro, but it would be overkill right now -- even though I'd like to jump right into Lightroom on the road, weight is the primary consideration. A working Hyperdrive is a pretty elegant solution.