Carole Lloyd Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Hi There's probably an answer to my question on the forum somewhere but I can't see where! So I'll risk boring everyone and ask again in the hope that some of you will be patient and reply. I'll be travelling UK and Europe for 11 weeks in August and wondered what everyone does to store their photos while on the road. It's been 10yrs since I've had an extended trip (usually I'm only away a couple of weeks) and the last time I carried an average sized laptop which served it's purpose but felt like a couple of bricks in my back pack. I have a netbook with 250GB of storage on it which I have used in the past but didn't really want to take it with me as I'm concerned with weight and convenience of travel - increasing age bows the back as well as the legs I also have an iPad mini which has 64GB of storage, as well as numerous portable HDD (500GB and 1TB). I've never uploaded to the Clouds as somehow I've never trusted them for my photos and thought it would take too long to upload the RAW files. I'm not sure how to get photos from the SD card/camera to the cloud anyway although I'm sure checking the camera manual would no doubt help in that area! I have considered buying the Western Digital wireless HDD with the SD slot but it's expensive and without a laptop I'm not going to be able to see if the photos are actually on it before reusing the SD cards. If it's only got a USB charger I'm not going to be able to charge it without the netbook anyway. It has mixed reviews on the internet ranging from slow wifi, complicated to set up and limited battery life to excellent. I've considered buying a heap of SD cards but I usually manage to fill at least one or two 16gb cards in a day so at that rate I'll need a bag full of them! Is there any easy, relatively cheap solution to the problem? Has any used the WD wireless HDD or should I resign myself to carrying the netbook just for storage Carole Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Morgan Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 If you are visiting relatives - assuming they have computers - , you could just bring the portable hard drives and move the files on to the drives at the end of the day using their machines. If you are not visiting any relatives or friends, it would be wise to bring the netbook instead of the ipad. You wouldn't have to carry it around with you all day. Just leave it in the hotel room for downloading on to the drives at night. I always take my laptop with me wherever I go. If you really don't want to bring the laptop, then there are probably places you could go to that would move the files over for you, for a fee. Jill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustydingo Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 If you are visiting relatives - assuming they have computers - , you could just bring the portable hard drives and move the files on to the drives at the end of the day using their machines. If you are not visiting any relatives or friends, it would be wise to bring the netbook instead of the ipad. You wouldn't have to carry it around with you all day. Just leave it in the hotel room for downloading on to the drives at night. I always take my laptop with me wherever I go. If you really don't want to bring the laptop, then there are probably places you could go to that would move the files over for you, for a fee. Jill I too always travel with a laptop (the lightest I can lay my hands on easily). Every night I transfer each day's cards to the laptop (one copy), then onto two usb hard drives (for a total of three copies). The two hard drives are stored in different cases when in transit (and if travelling with someone, one person carries one, the other the other). minimal fuss, pretty good security. dd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jools Elliott Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 I take my laptop with my plus a portal HD. I usually buy the Western Digital ones as they are good on price and have a decent amount of storage. Since last year I have been concentrating a lot on time lapse so I need to have a large amount of storage with me for the sequences I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 OTG drives don't need a computer. They seemed to go out of fashion as cards got cheaper and bigger than laptop drives, but they still exist. As long as they verify the copy they're fine. I never lost a file when I used them. This sort of thing although I paid much less 5 years ago https://www.usbgear.com/USBG-OTG25.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armstrong Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 My camera has two card slots. I have the camera set up to write each photo to both cards. I average under 8gb a day when travelling so I shoot onto 8gb cards. When the cards are full I separate them. One stays in my camera bag or luggage and the other on my person. It's been cost effective for me so far although I haven't done extended trips. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanGibson Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 If it was me I'd take a netbook with buil in SD card slot and a USB hard drive. I'd also fill my camera bag up with SD cards - I never wipe them, I use them like film and they are a part of my back up strategy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abiyoyo Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 I carry my laptop with Window and two HD. Of course with USB 3. Mandatory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Carole, leaving your netbook home on a long trip like that, is like leaving half your camera home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 I've considered buying a heap of SD cards but I usually manage to fill at least one or two 16gb cards in a day so at that rate I'll need a bag full of them! I failed to fill two 16GB cards in a five week trip, and still have a nightmare of processing on my hands. We are all different I guess, but, brought up on film, I shoot reasonably economically and purge as I go along. Perhaps you are shooting video as well as stills? I carry a laptop (it doubles as a TV) and/or a netbook (it doubles as a Satnav), but I don't use either for photo storage, and, other than for the likes of Facebook, the screens are not good enough for processing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vpics Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 I was in Amsterdam yesterday and took just under 1000 pictures ... And I shoot RAW, that's 32GB for one day. If you're travelling Europe, this will add up. You say you have a netbook. They are not terribly good for editing, but they will help you transfer data to an external hard drive. I have a couple of 2TB Seagate hard drives and they should do the job. Forgot to add. That's what I did when I travelled South America for 3 months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiskerke Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 http://strobist.blogspot.nl/2015/06/on-road-backup-without-bulk-up.html got me thinking. I may buy one and leave the 1Tb ordinary Seagate at home. However I do travel with a 500Gb notebook (and 1 x 128Gb and 2 x 64Gb SD-s) 500Gb holds between 1 week and 1 month. Depending on where I am. vpics - Yes, Amsterdam in the right weather can fill up cards quickly! wim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Wim, I had a device like that very early on in the digital adventure. Not as sophisticated as these, and it didn't have the SD card option. I never used it. Gave it away. There is a ton of things I don't know about digital tech, but I do know a lot about myself. And one of the things I know is that I could not go off on a three month shoot where every day I would worry if my backup was okay. I would have to have a laptop with me. Otherwise, my anxiety would go out of control. iPad and iPhone tech has not yet reached the point where it's replaced the need for a laptop for photographers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDoug Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 I move images to my laptop and 500GB Transcend external drive. As an added precaution in some cases, I also burn DVDs which I mail to myself. If something happens to the kit en route, I still have the images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiskerke Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Wim, I had a device like that very early on in the digital adventure. Not as sophisticated as these, and it didn't have the SD card option. I never used it. Gave it away. There is a ton of things I don't know about digital tech, but I do know a lot about myself. And one of the things I know is that I could not go off on a three month shoot where every day I would worry if my backup was okay. I would have to have a laptop with me. Otherwise, my anxiety would go out of control. iPad and iPhone tech has not yet reached the point where it's replaced the need for a laptop for photographers. Yes exactly, this is why I do take my tiny notebook. I used to have a Sony that could run Photoshop. Now I have 4 times the memory, but the screen is a TN panel that is totally rubbish for editing. OTOH it costs 10x less then the Sony. So I now only use it as storage and to review my images. Which I could not do without. The hdd would only be an extra storage/backup. Like Philippe says: laptops are thief magnets. wim edit: typo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Philippe, who does an mega amount of PP, is also dead against editing on a laptop, at home or on the road. A terrible screen and a slightly wrong angle is not what we need to do a good edit. And for me, the last thing I want to do is work in my hotel room when I could be out enjoying the local cuisine. Wim? What is that super-economy notebook you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 I have a 125 GB iPad with adapters that will let me download to it. Then all I have to do when I come home is plug the pad into my Mac to transfer. I never shoot more than 8 GB a day. The iPad will easily hold what I shoot, and I'll keep the cards, also. I have plenty. I haven't downloaded LR for the iPad, for fear I'll get too much stuff on my iPad and not leave the room I need for storage. I need to figure out what I have free, and how much space the software uses. It might be good to view and delete during down time. Betty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiskerke Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 Philippe, who does an mega amount of PP, is also dead against editing on a laptop, at home or on the road. A terrible screen and a slightly wrong angle is not what we need to do a good edit. And for me, the last thing I want to do is work in my hotel room when I could be out enjoying the local cuisine. Wim? What is that super-economy notebook you have? http://www.notebookcheck.net/Medion-Akoya-E1318T-MD99330.111751.0.html I have the 8 Gb version I think I paid around 225 Eur because at one time there was a strong rumor that medion would cease their laptop series or go out of business totally, and it would all be branded Lenovo, which is the maker. So shops feared to be left with Medion branded boxes. It had been 250 EUR for Christmas. And this was around 4 weeks later. My 11 Inch Vaio cost around 2500 imported from Japan and had a 32Gb SSD That alone was 1200 ;-). The 2Gb/120Gb was not enough on the road any more. But it had a good IPS panel that could be calibrated well enough for editing on the road. I have done editing on a 17" Macbook with a very similar panel. That was with a full size A4 Wacom tablet. For the Vaio I have a Wacom Bamboo. For this one (I'm typing on it right now) I don't bother taking a tablet. I may try the wifi WD with an iPad. However leaving the notebook at home woud mean no backup. I don't see the Lenovo counterpart anywhere. It is a 2014 model, made in 2013, but still on sale here, now for 299, because of the weak Euro. (Thanks to the Greek we now pay around 25% more for our gas and computers and cameras Flights are about 35% higher.) wim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 Thanks, wim. I had a Sony Vaio before I went to work at Time Warner, then I switched to Macs, since they were using Macs. Edo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 I wish there were 11 weeks in August, and every other month. It would give me enough time to complete all I want to do. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carole Lloyd Posted July 13, 2015 Author Share Posted July 13, 2015 Many thanks everyone for clarifying my thoughts. It looks like the netbook will be coming with me - it's basic and not suitable for processing but is excellent for storage and I can easily copy to another portable hard drive for safety. And most important - I can see what I've downloaded. I'd be devastated if I got back home and found my photos had disappeared as there's no chance I'll ever be able to revisit and reshoot. Allan - I wish there were 11 weeks in July, my list of to do's before I go doesn't seem to be getting any shorter Carole Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 Carole if you think you will be visiting Cambridge City and want to ask any questions let me know what they are and I will try to answer. There are other contributors in the area who could possibly help too. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brooks Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 I carry lots of memory chips and never back up on the road. For safety I keep the full chips either in the room safe or in my camera bag. I also inspect the sensor at the end of the shooting day. Everything else I can check out using the display screen in the camera. I only shoot images when on the road, and a computer gets in the way of shooting. Computers will not fit into a room safe, and are thief magnets. If you wipe the camera memory chips and then rely on a computer and spare hard drives left in your room, you are more at risk than my method. I check my email with my iphone, and that is it. If I was on assignment for a client I would carry a laptop and back up and check out my image quality at 100%. However I am shooting stock, and if I were to loose some stock digital images no one would know except me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carole Lloyd Posted July 14, 2015 Author Share Posted July 14, 2015 Many thanks for the offer Allan but unfortunately I won't be anywhere near Cambridge. We're heading to Scotland, Northumberland and Lake District then train to Devon and Cornwall before heading across to the Dordogne region in France and Spain. But I appreciate your offer as there's nothing like local knowledge Carole Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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