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Quote from: tickstock on October 08, 2013, 18:55

Quote from: Uncle Pete on October 08, 2013, 12:41

This is going to sound odd, but a friend does this. (I can't because at the races I might shoot a few cards full a day)

Buy numerous cheap SD cards and don't transfer anything, just take the full cards home.

Done and it's cheaper than you think. Don't need a tablet or laptop and it's light and small.

8GB cards, $1 a Gigabyte, how's that for cheap? You run out? You buy another card... This is the ultimate cheap way to carry your photos. No batteries, no computer, nothing, and pretty darn secure.

SanDisk 16 GB Class 4 SDHC $11 !

What he does is even stranger. Copies the files to hard drive and files the original cards. I'm still using CF memory so it's a bit more expensive and I run 500 and up GB a year in photos, no video, just still pictures. But if I had all cameras that used SD, I'd start buying cheap 16GB cards and stop using electronic or hard drive as primary backup. Original cards as backup, electronic as working files.

Quote from: Freedom on October 05, 2013, 13:52

Why not just carry a lot of SD cards? They are pretty cheap these days.

Yup, that's the way I see it now.

ps I have an ASUS netbook for travel, built in card reader. Portable USB hard drive. I'm considering next trip, no hard drive, just buy a card wallet.

SD cards still need to be backed up so I'd still need a tablet or laptop.  Costs for 1TB worth of SD cards would be around $750 compared to $100 for 2 500gb hard drives.  For $100 I would only be able to back up 64gb with SD cards.  Also carrying 30 SD cards doesn't seem very practical either.

Why ask the question when you already know the answer? Every suggestion, by well-meaning contributors, you have immediately dismissed. Were you expecting a new technology to be invented especially for your particular needs or what?

I often see an angry post from you around midnight UK time.  You seem to have missed the point in the OP here.  As technology changes all the time, there might now be a way to back up photos on the road but without a laptop and without spending lots of money on a Mac.  Some of the suggestions don't seem to provide a way of getting a backup.  Having had an SD card failure, I can understand the desire to have photos on more than just one SD card.

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I don't know where you live Pete - but one thing to remember is that most European short flights have a max cabin luggage limit defined not only be weight (now typically standardizing at 10kg) but also by volume. I have no idea about flights in the empire We are talking about a small backpack - probably something like 50x40x20 cm.

So all of that messing around with additional items and their power adapters, batteries etc  is going to be a practical issue. Especially if you also need to carry surge protection, extra batteries and regional adapters. And you also want to carry your actual cameras and lenses. And the regulations now also restrict the number of lithium ion batteries which can be packed. No spare batteries basically.

Which brings us back to the MacBook Air. It is a netbook. It is small and light. It uses a switching power adapter - you can buy a cheap pin adapter at the airport wherever you land because voltage is not an issue. And when you come to sell it 2 years later you will get a significant chunk of your money back - the non Apple tablet or another brand of netbook will have very little value. A thing which quickly loses resale value is more expensive than buying the better thing to begin with.

Yes, Macbook Air is another good one.

Yes we have limits, but not that restrictive. Had to go convert, US limit is by volume, "carry on" but also 40 pounds. That might vary, but that's a good bit of gear. Oh here's the secret chart, be amused, no standards and yes some say no limit, which is funny because the pay for weight on checked luggage is 50 pounds or they stab you. So put it all in the carry on and you're OK? Stupid

http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/10460865/airline-carry-on-bag-policies/

I sold my 400mm f/2.8 because of flight restrictions. They wanted to check it. Yea, sure, let some baggage gorilla throw my few thousand dollar lens, or have it stolen? No thanks.

You know the real answer is online backup. LOL Carry nothing.

I had a device that read from cards to CDs, no computer needed. Gave it away. Might have used it once. Cool toy. Now they make them for DVDs. I hate discs for backup, unreliable and fragile. What would be nice is if the camera could save to a hard drive. No computer needed? Plug and go.

Here's the problem. For something that will read cards and save to a hard drive, without a computer, it's going to cost about the same as just carrying a computer and external drive. I already own a netbook, it's small it's light, and I already own the external drives, I use them as back up, but store everything on the computer too.

That was the point of carrying 1T of cards, vs 2 500GB drives, where both drives would need to have the same data, to be a real "backup" and there goes the weight issue again. It's still only 500GB total? And not trusting the images to cards which are more reliable than electrical mechanical drives, because of size? They are smaller and lighter and just as much of a backup as everything on one drive.

A mess of contradictions. Cost, size, weight? No computer but take a tablet? And now added, no internet, so the real answer is out. (you could send the files while you sleep, if the connection was slow) For every answer there's an argument why it won't work.

That's the answer. Pick what works best for someone personally and that's the right answer. And now you've added another, depending on where you live and how you travel. 

I don't know where you live Pete - but one thing to remember is that most European short flights have a max cabin luggage limit defined not only be weight (now typically standardizing at 10kg) but also by volume. I have no idea about flights in the empire We are talking about a small backpack - probably something like 50x40x20 cm.

So all of that messing around with additional items and their power adapters, batteries etc  is going to be a practical issue. Especially if you also need to carry surge protection, extra batteries and regional adapters. And you also want to carry your actual cameras and lenses. And the regulations now also restrict the number of lithium ion batteries which can be packed. No spare batteries basically.

Which brings us back to the MacBook Air. It is a netbook. It is small and light. It uses a switching power adapter - you can buy a cheap pin adapter at the airport wherever you land because voltage is not an issue. And when you come to sell it 2 years later you will get a significant chunk of your money back - the non Apple tablet or another brand of netbook will have very little value. A thing which quickly loses resale value is more expensive than buying the better thing to begin with.

Hang on a sec - don't some cameras have the ability to write between two cards. Wouldn't that be the best option ?

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Yes, CF is expensive, I have the ones I use, enough for one day. Then I back up at lunch or night. That's one 8GB a couple of 4GB and some 2GB cards. Carry a USB drive and leave everything on the computer until I'm sure the backup worked. (if that's sounding strange, I copy from the cards to the computer and then one big backup from the computer to the backup drive, which is slower. )

Sometimes I can back up at Lunch and start the computer to drive copy and go back out working. Speed for backup isn't important, I'm not watching it. 

I thought you said you wanted to get a tablet and some reader that stores? If you can back up without a computer, in whatever form, that's easiest. Up until now you never mentioned CF instead of SD, that changes a bunch.

How long are you going?

Quote from: bhr on October 09, 2013, 14:39

Hang on a sec - don't some cameras have the ability to write between two cards. Wouldn't that be the best option ?

The camera I own only has one card slot and it's CF.  I'm thinking about getting an NEX-7 but I think it just has one slot.  That would be good for weight and ok for price but I think I'd need to get a much larger camera then. 

I see the D7100 has 2 sd card slots so that might be a solution too.

Quote from: tickstock on October 05, 2013, 09:09

Quote from: sharpshot on October 05, 2013, 02:11

This is a cheap device but I'm not sure if it would be good for transferring raw files from a card to a USB stick?
http://www.ravpower.com/ravpower-rp-wd01-filehub-3000mah-power-bank.html

Edit:  Found a review of the Verbatim 98243 MediaShare Wireless.  Looks like the same product and looks like it can be used to transfer raw files from an SD card to a USB stick.

I've seen the wireless hard drives but there isn't much information on how they will work for my purposes.  Most people use them to stream movies or music and not for downloading data, I've seen people say you really need to hook it up to a computer to move data onto it.  Since they are powered I wonder if they will work connected to a tablet that normally wouldn't be able to power a hd?

I saw in the reviews that some people were using it to transfer files.  One said in the field but that should be quite similar to on the road
Here's the quote
"I need to be able to back up critical data 'in the field' where there may be no power or mobile signal. It could be many files of typically 25 - 30 Mb at a pop. This does it !"
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Verbatim-98243-MediaShare-Wireless/dp/B00CZ0P0PS
Those file sizes seem similar to raw file sizes.  I ordered one but it will take about a week to get it.  I'll report here if it works.

This arrived today.  Quite easy to setup.  I just downloaded the free app from Google play, charged the device up and put in my SD card and a USB stick.  Found the device using my tablet, put in the password in the manual and it connected.  It was quite straightforward to transfer files from the SD card to a USB stick.  Took 7 seconds for each raw file.  They were around 31mb.

I use a Wolverine when I need to.

Like this: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/456243-REG/Wolverine_5080_ESP_80GB_Portable_Multimedia.html

"No longer available"

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