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Digital Image Storage while travelling
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I will be going to Chile for three weeks in April, and while I was on Inishmore for a day last weekend,
I realised that I need a lot more storage than the 3 Gb I currently have.But even say 5 x 2Gb don’t really strikes me now as not quite enough storage for such a trip when shooting RAW.
I have a 20Gb iRiver with a USB host port, but it’s only USB 1.1 and therefore quite slow.How do you guys handle image storage on longer journeys?
I use a Jobo GIGA one. 40GB USB2 device.
It can copy a 1GB cf card in 7mins.
No display to view images.
Very simple to use.
Insert card and press copy button.Regards Neil
Epson P2000 I bought before heading to Africa. Worked beautifully. Original Epson batteries are pricey so I bought 3rd party spare batteries. I found that they go flat in seconds in high temperatures! The device itself is fantastic. Big screen, good quality. Accepts SD and CF. 40GB. Plays MP3. There’s a P4000 with a 80GB drive and I think there’s a new P3000 with 40GB. Pricey … but way cheaper than buying the amount of CF I would have needed for the trip. I never go shooting without it … often it is holsterred to my belt. I only need 2 1GB CF’s … one in the camera and one in the P2000 either copying or waiting to be swapped in.
The Jobo’s also get good reviews. There’s a new one for pros that allows you to daisy chain them to copy images from one to the other as a backup.
Other brands have gotten into this game as well.
Also … if you have one of the larger IPods, there is a dongle you can buy to copy contents direct from the camera. It is very slow from what I’ve read.
I’m with Aidan – P2000 is AMAZING! The screen is by far thee best out of any similar device – SO crisp and clear – great for reviewing shots.
I also bought 3rd party spare batteries, and yes – they’re terrible!!
Tim
neilmcshane wrote:
I use a Jobo GIGA one. 40GB USB2 device.
It can copy a 1GB cf card in 7mins.
No display to view images.
Very simple to use.
Insert card and press copy button.Regards Neil
I have something very similar. The advantages are that it’s very cheap, especially if you’re comfortable fitting hard drives and buyt the unit and hard drive separately. Disadvantages are that there’s no way of viewing the images, so you just have to trust that everything’s woking.
The Epson units are lovely, but the price they charge, especially for the higher capacity ones for what is after all only a larger hard drive, is a bit outrageous. I believe th Jobo GigaVue Pros are really nice too, but have yet to actually see one.
JMcL wrote:
I believe th Jobo GigaVue Pros are really nice too, but have yet to actually see one.
It seems Conns stock it.
But I think I am looking for something slightly cheaper. :shock:Search for these: CompactDrive PD70
I have 2, they come with car chargers and mains chargers. They work of rechargable AA batteries, and they can charge them when plugged in. Download 2g in less than 5 minutes.
Merv.
I’ve seen both the P2000 and P4000 units and they are very nice. When I’m traveling though, I want redundancy. I bring a laptop with an external USB hard drive. When I get back to the hotel after a day’s shooting I dump the images onto the laptop’s internal drive and copy them to the external. Just have to make sure I have enough card storage to see me through a full day of shooting.
When in Iceland I had a disk fail on me half way through the trip. Since I’d been careful with maintaining duplicates of all the images, I didn’t lose anything. Disk failure will hit you sometime – best be prepared.
If you want the convenience of the Epson for reviewing images on the go, then bring one of those and a laptop and be sure to copy the contents over at the end of the day.
Thanks everyone for the advice.
We were considering the laptop option, but it seems like a lot of extra weight for us amateurs to carry around.
I will pobably checkout prices for the Epsons, Jobos, etc.If annybody else has further suggestions: Keep ’em coming.
A slimline laptop is an option … maybe get a Lowepro Computrekker and a low end laptop and an external HD. Fly with the camera/laptop on you and HD in your checked in bags. Then hike with camera gear only. At night, load onto laptop and backup onto USB HD. Could be handy if your CF is enough to last through a day and you have power to keep the laptop charged.
The only problem will be power. I got by with my P2000 for around 3 days on one charge. I was mainly shooting wildlife so there was much more shots than I’d do for landscape. A laptop would not have lasted for me, mainly because you don’t find many electrical outlets when camping in the Serengeti for 5 days :-) Also, the P2000 is portable so it’s soooo handy, i.e. 2 * 1GB CF. Wouldn’t really recommend an 80GB model. 80GB is a lot of photos. A LOT!
Here’s a detailed review of the CompactDrive PD70
http://www.phidong.com/archives/000405.php
For those of you who picked up What Digital Camera [the free Level one] there’s a piece on storage on p. 160I bought a Plextor shockproof external hard drive last week from Elara. Now just got to actually do the backup thing!
If anyone is looking at external USB, it sometimes is cheaper to buy a case and a normal IDE harddrive than to buy a completed kit. Check out komplett.ie. I love that company.
This seems reasonable to me – http://www.berminghamcameras.ie/store/index.php?target=products&product_id=1821
Jobo 40GB for ?179
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