Field Storage Solution ideas? - DPChallenge Forums

Sigma 20mm f/1.8 EX Aspherical DG DF RF for Canon

04/03/2005 10:53:18 PM · #1

I'm leaving for Arizona and New Mexico in about a week and will be gone 10 days. I know I'm asking a lot but I do not want to carry a laptop and don't really want to spend hundreds of bucks. Any ideas for cheaper storgae solutions?

I want to shoot RAW but may have to go to hi quality jpgs to have enough space. I have two 1GB cards and one 512MB card. Figure that will get me either 350-400 RAW or 900-1000 jpgs.

yido

Canon EOS-5D

04/03/2005 11:02:06 PM · #2

I guess one thing you can do is bring a cable or a card reader with some CDs and burn the RAW files on other people's computers if you have access to the computers. It will take a lot of CD's though.
I think should consider shooting in JPEG except for certain shots you really want in RAW. If you have about 150 shots in RAW, that still gives you about 450 JPEG High quality shots for a total of 600 shots over ten days. That's about 60 saved shots a day. Not bad but cheaper than any other options.

Skip

Canon EOS-1D X

Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM

04/03/2005 11:05:40 PM · #3

when i went to london/dublin, i took a roadstor and burned cds every night. i could complain, but, all the same, it basically did what i needed it to: let me shoot all day without having to worry about storage. (i was shooting large/fine, and took close to 2500 images in about 5 days.)

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

04/03/2005 11:13:51 PM · #4

I like the idea of trying to anticipate shots I would want in RAW and taking the rest in jpg. We will mostly be in remote areas where computers (libraries etc.) will be hard to find. But we will be stopping in Sante Fe about halfway through so I may be able to dump all the photos to CD there. Like skiprow I would hate to be slowed down on firing away!

Canon EOS-20D

04/03/2005 11:22:29 PM · #5

The 20GB 4200RPM Compact Drive Portable Storage Device PD7X was recommended to me as a good storage solution. I haven't ever actually used it myself. It's $160 - I don't know if that's considered "hundreds of dollars."

Another option is to just visit local photo shops and have them burn you cds. When I went to Yellowstone a couple of summers ago, my laptop died as soon as I got there so every night, I found a little photo shop wherever we were and had them burn the day's photos to disk. I think the majority of places do this now. It was around $10. Depending on how many photos you want to take, you could go a couple of times and clear out your cards.

Skip

Canon EOS-1D X

Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM

04/03/2005 11:25:21 PM · #6

roadstor pros: small, good battery, reads directly from your card, keeps burning session open across multiple cards, cables for previewing images on a tv, plays dvds and music cds

cons: somewhat slow, firmware sucks (it only reads and writes, won't let you manage (ie, delete) images), all-or-nothing: if your cd holds 700mb and you have 2 512mb cards, you will have to burn 2 cds.

it's about $300

Sigma 20mm f/1.8 EX Aspherical DG DF RF for Canon

04/03/2005 11:30:21 PM · #7

Thanks guys and gals! I think I'll take mk's advice and stop when I can and have a shop burn them for me. Instead of a portable cd burner I think I would rather wait and buy one of the newer devices down the road. They will eventually come down from the lofty perch of $400-500 or so the now hold.

yido

Canon EOS-5D

04/03/2005 11:43:23 PM · #8

A standard CD holds 700MB of memory at about a dollar per CD if you buy on sale. So in theory, it may hold about 100 RAW shots. Sounds like a good idea to empty the CF data onto a CD every few days. If you are out in the woods and can't regularly download, then not a good idea. However, the 20GB holder sounds interesting too. But for $200, you can also get about two 1 GB cards(I bought a Kingston's 40X 1052MB CF card for just about $60 after rebate), or even two 1GB cards and a 256MB card. This would make your total RAW Shot count close to 700 including the 2.5GB of starage you already have. The 20GB data storage sounds fiarly good, but I'd spend the money on extra cards and "limit" myself to about 70 RAW shots a day. However, if you are regularly going to shoot a lot of RAW without downloading or burning CD, it might be a good investment. As for me, I've a big old bag that holds my laptop.

faidoi

Pentax K10D

Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF

04/03/2005 11:47:49 PM · #9

Originally posted by mk:

Another option is to just visit local photo shops and have them burn you cds. When I went to Yellowstone a couple of summers ago, my laptop died as soon as I got there so every night, I found a little photo shop wherever we were and had them burn the day's photos to disk. I think the majority of places do this now. It was around $10. Depending on how many photos you want to take, you could go a couple of times and clear out your cards.

Just a reminder for potential challenge entries. There was a thread about EXIF info being altered by using some kiosks.

PhilipDyer

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

04/04/2005 12:06:56 AM · #10

I just use my iPod. The Belkin Media Reader copies files straight from the card onto the iPod. It's kind of slow, but I just bring two cards and copy one while I shoot on the other.