Edit and backup on the go
It's still over a month to my vacation, but I've started to think about securing my photos and optionally improving my photo workflow on the go. Actually I'd like to cut off as much as possible, meaning no laptop. Smartphone in a backpack - preferably not used. Of course I'm taking my camera and some gear with me, but I think I'll upload daily pics after return. Fully aware of the backlog it'll generate.
My main concern is backup so I've started to looking around some solution that would not require laptop. I've tried almost no-cost solution: use my smartphone and flash-memory and camera connected together using OTG. Then using smartphone copy from camera to the flash-memory. But it's too slow and not quite reliable. There are wireless SD cards, but I'd still need something to store the RAW files from 2 weeks trip. Then, there are wireless HDDs for that purpose, but it's just too much. As a geek, I could handle that, but I do not want to waste my time for that on my vacation. I'd like something that just works - but no apple please ;)
And today I've bumped into this post: petapixel.com/2017/05/23/hands... Quite pricey, but looks like an interesting compromise. Being able to do basic edits on RAW files sounds also tempting. Maybe with that device I could also try to catch up with my tookapic. What do you think about that?
And more general question - what do you use for backup and/or basic edits during your vacation? Do you always carry your laptop with you?
Michał Ha, I forgot that I could plug in SD card to my phone, although only those with micro size will fit. And the main SD card in my camera is a super-duper-fast-and-large but... regular size. Maybe It's not that quick and easy but anyway, investing in spare memory cards (micro with adapter) sounds like very simple yet affordable option. Thank you Agnieszka. Have a nice trip and great photos!
ps.
"less is more", but currently I'd rather shoot too much photos, than regret later that I didn't take the shot. I guess it'll change in time ;)
agnieszka bladzik i have problem that my regular 64 card doesn't fit to my old phone ;) up to 32 only. and I have wedding in spain to shoot ;)
Rafal This one is also bright idea for longer journeys - wdc.com/products/portable-stor... (it is Hard Disc with SD card reader and a powerbank in one). But still it is an electronic device
Michał Interesting option, I'll have to take a closer look at it. Compared to gnarbox it provides more space for less. The only flaw I is that the app is not able to generate preview from RAW files. But I think I could live without it.
Aaron Langley I second the hard drive with the card reader if you need to have the photos on hand. If you are going on a long holiday in the future and anticipate thousands of photos, bringing extra smaller sd cards could be an option. Split a few days across a card and mail it to a friend or a post office box.
Michał Quite unusual option with a post office but I like it :)
Satoshi T
I also want to back up memory cards when I take a lot of pictures during travel and mountains without Internet. Also in Japan there is some products , but I feel three problems.
1) It does not correspond to the high-speed interface of SD cards nowadays = It need a long time to copy.
2) It rely on SmartPhone for operation and it can't display each camera's RAW.
3) Backup fails unless all of this unit, HDD or SSD, and smartphone are operating perfectly at all of long backup times.
Originally reliability is most important thing for backup, but I feel that the system is somewhat unreliable.
I used to do the same 10 years ago with a newest card reader, a laptop and a portable hard disk. IMO, that it is still the most reliable.
Oh I noticed! In order to maximize reliability and minimize the amount of baggage, it is good to prepare 2 sets of cards and shoot with a camera with double slots. :)
Michał Thank you Satoshi for your input. It summarizes pretty well the current state where having your laptop at hand is the most convenient option. But right now I'm rather into buying HDD with card reader + additional card(s). Trade-off but I think good enough for me.
And by the way, camera with double card slot does not help in case of its loss (i.e. result of an accident or a robbery). Considering all possibilities, you can not dismiss this risk... But let's not become paranoid and stop here ;)
Ian Prince This is where a "high-end" camera that writes to two cards simultaneosly comes in really useful ;)
Michał Yeah, but those cameras are usually labelled as a "pro", and my budget is not "pro" tailored unfortunately ;)
Ian Prince Not in my budget either :) But if/when I'm looking into a new camera it's definitely a cool feature to have when travelling.
Michał Thank you all for your suggestions. Eventually I've decided not to invest too much in a device that would be used occasionally, at least in my case. Although I've had already WD My Passpor Wireless Pro in a basket (thanks @Rafal) I've changed my mind and finally ordered Kingston MobileLite Wireless G3 (kingston.com/pl/wireless/wirel...) instead. I've paired it with a new 1TB HDD ( WD Elements Portable). It was also reasonable to get spare SD card, just in case.
Compared to WD My Passpor Wireless Pro, my setup seems to be rather bulky, but its much cheaper. And I can easily replace HDD or plug in flash memory, so in a long run it might be more flexible.
After playing with this setup for a while I can tell it's capable of doing what it's intended to: backup SD cards to external storage and get the possibility to download files to smartphone. It's not super fast, but it was not my concern anyway. Also the mobile app is not capable of presenting thumbnails of RAW files, which was the same in the more expensive alternative. Well, I'll shoot RAW+JPEG to get previews easily.
Few more days and I'll have a chance to see if it works out in reality. I'll keep you posted.
Side note: I was struggling with my portable HDD was not being recognized neither by the card reader nor by any other "non-computer" devices (like audio receiver, TV set, etc.). It was still working perfectly fine when attached to PC though. It turned out that the root cause was a GPT partition style (factory setting). It took me some time to find out this root cause, but then it took just a few clicks to fix it, simply by changing partition style to good-old MBR.
Satoshi T I am glad you found a good backup solution. btw, whether it is GPT or MBR is not what the end user is concerned with, but we are living in those times... :)
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agnieszka bladzik i'm going tomorrow to Spain for a week, I never take laptop as I usually go with only hand laguage. I prepared bunch of regular SD cards and a phone. i usually switch the cards in the evening with my mobile, edit and upload if wi-fi in hotels will allow. From some time I try not to shoot to many photo on my holidays