Device for downloading photos

[Alexander Hogg]

I'll be going abroad later this year and I don't want to take my laptop with me as it's quite an expensive one  Is there any other devices that are good for downloading photos while away One camera can back up onto another card but the other camera doesn't Any advice will be helpful Not really need to edit photos  while away as I'll be doing that when I'm back

[geogphotos]

Photoshelter or similar Cloud service would do this. 

[NYCat]

You could take a lot of cards and just secure them as they are filled.

 

Paulette

[Michael Ventura]

On my last extended trip, I downloaded to an iPad and then uploaded to the Apple Cloud, there is a small fee for additional storage space from Apple....I think it was $3.99/month.  Then when I got home, I downloaded from the Apple Cloud.

[M.Chapman]

5 hours ago, geogphotos said:

Photoshelter or similar Cloud service would do this. 

But he'd still need a device to download images from the camera and then upload to internet... Can some phones do this?

 

Mark

[Jill Morgan]

If your camera has wifi, you should be able to send images to your phone and then upload to a cloud service.  My Canon 90D has Camera Connect, so I can ship them to the phone then upload to my OneDrive account.  If your camera does not have wifi, then I would stick with Paulette's idea and just take lots of cards.  They are pretty cheap these days.

 

Jill

[NYCat]

I actually got that idea from someone who told me Jay Maisel took hundreds? of cards. Of course, he had an assistant to do the downloading when he returned.

 

Paulette

[wiskerke]

10 hours ago, M.Chapman said:

But he'd still need a device to download images from the camera and then upload to internet... Can some phones do this?

 

Mark

Yes but for me it's really slow. Like a 128GB takes a whole night. No idea why.

I use a Transcend TS-HUB5C  USB-C hub which is otherwise quite fast. I back up to a Sandisk SDSSDE30-2T00  2TB SSD which also is otherwise quite fast. On my Xiaomi phone or Samsung tablet I use Total Commander with the free app Microsoft exFAT/NTFS for USB by Paragon. No idea how I set it up back then, but plenty of tutorials on line.

The trick is to power the hub with a generic phone adapter.

 

At the moment however if at all possible I tend to borrow my wife's laptop for half an hour and zap my 3 128GB  cards to the SSD that way. Also using Total Commander btw. I wouldn't know how to run any computer without a decent file managing program and this is still the best. However the Android version has lots of quirks (to use a polite word) just like Android itself because it has to run on... Android. Duh.

In all: I am on the lookout for a nice small tablet-size tablet-weight laptop again. However there is none that fits those, let alone my other requirements like a full size SD slot (must have) and a decent SSD of say 4GB or (also must have). User upgradable would be nice to have, like buying it with a 256GB and upgrade it with a 4TB.

 

wim

Edited August 2, 2023 by wiskerke
links added

[sooth]

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Edited August 9, 2023 by sooth

[Alexander Hogg]

59 minutes ago, Jill Morgan said:

If your camera has wifi, you should be able to send images to your phone and then upload to a cloud service.  My Canon 90D has Camera Connect, so I can ship them to the phone then upload to my OneDrive account.  If your camera does not have wifi, then I would stick with Paulette's idea and just take lots of cards.  They are pretty cheap these days.

 

Jill

One of my cameras does have WIFI but my mobile isn't that great The phone is ok for some photos to get uploaded but not for this trip as I'm expecting to take around 8000 photos The other camera doesn't have WIFI at all Paulette's idea is a good suggestion too 

[geogphotos]

1 hour ago, M.Chapman said:

But he'd still need a device to download images from the camera and then upload to internet... Can some phones do this?

 

Mark

 

 

Ah good point. 

 

I have a cheapo Chromebook and apart from using it for bookings/email etc it can be used to download from camera and upload to Cloud. I experimented once and it did do the job. But I just wait until I get home and take plenty of cards.

[Alexander Hogg]

1 hour ago, M.Chapman said:

But he'd still need a device to download images from the camera and then upload to internet... Can some phones do this?

 

Mark

It can be done

[Alexander Hogg]

39 minutes ago, wiskerke said:

However the Android version has lots of quirks (to use a polite word) just like Android itself because it has to run on... Android. Duh.

Would it be better to go for something like Apple instead of Android tablet if I went down this route 

[Mr Standfast]

Last few holidays I've just taken all my sd cards.

[spacecadet]

Running the numbers on this, OP's images are about 6000x4000, so I assume will be about 70MB RAWs. 8000 pix is about half a TB or less than 10 64GB cards at £7 each.

[Alexander Hogg]

5 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Running the numbers on this, OP's images are about 6000x4000, so I assume will be about 70MB RAWs. 8000 pix is about half a TB or less than 10 64GB cards at £7 each.

I have 2 cards at 128GB(300mb) and 2 at 32GB(95mb) Probably have to get another couple of cards in case 

[wiskerke]

58 minutes ago, sooth said:

My go to method is to temporarily transfer the contents of the camera card into the memory of an android phone using a card reader attached to a USB to go dongle.

 

Phone <-- USB to go <-- card reader <-- camera card

 

Swap out the camera card reader for a bare SSD drive attached to a USB adapter (attached to the USB dongle). 

 

Transfer the contents of the phone memory to SSD.

 

Phone --> USB to go --> SSD adapter --> SSD drive

 

Use the fastest USB versions of all adapters. Even using latest Android phones, transferring the contents of a 128Gb card to phone takes at least 30 min, and another 30 to transfer back to SSD.

 

Maybe that's a solution for me. My phone does have 256GB of which I only use about 40 to 50. OTOH 3 cards would still mean 3 hours total.

Let's do some testing.

 

wim

[NYCat]

39 minutes ago, Alexander Hogg said:

I have 2 cards at 128GB(300mb) and 2 at 32GB(95mb) Probably have to get another couple of cards in case 

 

If your camera has two slots for cards you might set it to do two copies of all pics so you have a sort of back-up. Would require twice as many cards, of course.

 

Paulette

[NYCat]

Then store the cards separately, of course. My trips were unrepeatable so I would have one copy in checked bag, one in Carry-on and one in the laptop I took.

 

Paulette

[Alexander Hogg]

5 minutes ago, NYCat said:

 

If your camera has two slots for cards you might set it to do two copies of all pics so you have a sort of back-up. Would require twice as many cards, of course.

 

Paulette

One of the cameras has two slots and I agree about needing more cards just in case I will be taking both cameras anyway just in case something happens to either of them I could afford to go back if the photos didn't work out

[wiskerke]

55 minutes ago, Alexander Hogg said:

Would it be better to go for something like Apple instead of Android tablet if I went down this route 

Apple, like Android, has no file management system by design. It's not an omission it's a safety feature.

Of course there is Files now, but it's very restricted. It may do what you want on a Mac, but not on a phone or an iPad where it will only allow you to work within Files itself.

I'm sure that people have found ways to do it on an iPhone/iPad just like Sooth: copying files to his phone first and then from there to the SSD. I'm going to try that out as well.

Normally I make sure that my files are not backed up to a cloud service while traveling: my online storage is not limitless and depending on your mobile subscription plan and location, uploading terabytes can be costly.

 

wim

[Allan Bell]

3 hours ago, M.Chapman said:

But he'd still need a device to download images from the camera and then upload to internet... Can some phones do this?

 

Mark

 

My device is a usb-a to usb-c cable. One end plugs in direct to computer, other end plugs in direct to camera. Switch on camera. Start image capture on computer and download images to folder.

 

Allan

 

[IKuzmin]

39 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

My device is a usb-a to usb-c cable. One end plugs in direct to computer, other end plugs in direct to camera.

Except that he does not want to take laptop.

[IKuzmin]

1 hour ago, NYCat said:

If your camera has two slots for cards you might set it to do two copies of all pics so you have a sort of back-up. Would require twice as many cards, of course.

Am happy to see these repeated suggestion. Given that CFexpress cards sell for ~$0.8 per Gb, 6-7 such cards will cost like a laptop (not a top one though).

This is a sale by the way: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1551687-REG/sandisk_sdcfe_128g_ancnn_128gb_extreme_pro_cfexpress.html

I personally do not see an alternative to a laptop.

 

[IKuzmin]

2 hours ago, spacecadet said:

OP's images are about 6000x4000, so I assume will be about 70MB RAWs.

Well... I would expect a half of that size.

[Alexander Hogg]

1 hour ago, wiskerke said:

Apple, like Android, has no file management system by design. It's not an omission it's a safety feature.

Of course there is Files now, but it's very restricted. It may do what you want on a Mac, but not on a phone or an iPad where it will only allow you to work within Files itself.

I'm sure that people have found ways to do it on an iPhone/iPad just like Sooth: copying files to his phone first and then from there to the SSD. I'm going to try that out as well.

Normally I make sure that my files are not backed up to a cloud service while traveling: my online storage is not limitless and depending on your mobile subscription plan and location, uploading terabytes can be costly.

 

wim

My Cell/mobile isn't that great I wouldn't try Travelling to Australia Looks like more cards just in case 

Thanks Wim