DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register
 

DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> Portable storage
Pages:  
Showing posts 1 - 6 of 6, (reverse)
AuthorThread
03/28/2006 07:13:35 AM · #1
Right guys i am of to China in about 5 mounths and starting to do a rough inventory for my travels. My main concern is saving my thousands of photos that i will be taking over the mounths.

My question is what would be the best thing to take with me so that i can save everything. I will be backing up on cd as well and posting them back home every so often as well.

Thanks Cowie
03/28/2006 07:30:37 AM · #2
Woohoo, China rocks! I've been here more or less since august and I've used the Nikon Coolwalker to back up all my stuff without incident until last week when the power adaptor stopped working. I haven't been out yet to find a new one but I have my laptop as well...I would recommend whatever you bring, to use it with an power converter so as not to blow out anything (like I did).

A big consideration though, is whether or not you shoot RAW. Since you have canon your RAW files won't be able to be viewed on the coolwalker as well as on a number of other media. JPEG's on the other hand are no problem. Also think about how much you will shoot and how long you will be there...the coolwalker is only 30G, and that can fill up pretty quick if you shoot a lot and in RAW.

I'm probably going to sell it when I get home this summer, and if I invest in another device like this I'll probably go with something like the Epson Photo Fine Player which is bigger (80G) and supports viewing many different RAW formats.

For quite a bit cheaper, you can also buy storage devices like these that don't have an LCD screen, although I don't know of any off the top of my head.

A small laptop is also an option, though that can get considerably more expensive.
03/28/2006 07:43:10 AM · #3
Originally posted by bfox2:

if I invest in another device like this I'll probably go with something like the Epson Photo Fine Player which is bigger (80G) and supports viewing many different RAW formats.


I have the 40G version of the Epson storage unit (P-2000) and must say, I love it. It does a beautiful job of letting me review pictures in the field and it's great for storing pictures off my cards.
03/28/2006 08:07:38 AM · #4
The epson storage devices are fantastic. They feature a screen with more than 200DPI resoltion which is equal to or better than what you sometimes get in some of the crappier photo processing labs that you might come across.

I have a PDA with a similar resolution screen and I LOVE the look of photos on it.

I read an article a little while ago about a device that could strip the info off a 1GB card in like 2 minutes. It was in a link somewhere in hardware, but durned if I can remember where. He was able to get 15GB per battery charge too...

Something about tripod heads or the D70? dang I hate it when the brain freezes like that. Shoulda bookmarked it.

Anyhow, I have an older Digimate II and it copies in about 15-20 minutes. That sounds slow, but if you have 2 cards, it's not really so bad. What I really like about it is that the battery runs well enough that I can use it as an external drive for either my PDA (which has USB host) or my laptop for several hours. Nice USB 2.0 drive...

Be careful with external enclosures like this that you don't reformat them using WinXP. It will force you to format anything over 2gb as NTFS WITHOUT the option of FAT-32. I'm still waiting to 'borrow' a copy of partition magic from a friend to get that settled back to normal. The drive cannot see the NTFS partition. Nor can my PDA. The NTFS drive becomes exclusive to my laptop. Which kinda blows.

Thanks MS.
03/28/2006 08:19:02 AM · #5
Thanks guys will look in to the piggy bank. one question is do i need wires or card readers for the epson as i was looking at the amount of wires etc that i would have to talk with me and my god i could fill my travel bag with just wires and still have forgot something. SO i was looking for some thing that would hold everything in it for SD and CF cards.

Thanks guys this website rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!
03/28/2006 08:54:39 AM · #6
The Epson should come with a carrying bag which probably has a couple of pockets for cards. If you only have a 1GB card and were strapped for cash, I'd probably go for a cheaper 512 or 256 just to fill you in for the 7-9 minutes for a 1GB transfer. This will allow you to keep shooting quite continuously.

You won't need to carry around a laptop either.

It is it's own card reader too. No need for an extra readers.

You will probably be supplied a USB cable. You can probably also go to your local hardware store and see if you can find a retractable "USB 2.0 Hi Speed" Compliant cable that fits it too when you go to buy. Shouldn't add much more than a few bucks to the bill. The convenience is pretty great though...

A word of caution here though.

I live in Taiwan (feel free to PM me if ya want to hook up in Taipei for shooting or anything else... I can take ya lots of places and I speak Chinese) and I've spoken with several people who have visited China.

BE VERY VERY CAREFUL WITH YOUR EQUIPMENT

***ESPECIALLY ON ANY FORM OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT***


My boss's husband went all around mainland (they've got some funky desert stuff and their own little 'Petrus' carved out of rock amongst many other things) last summer and while he has a D70, he took the family P&S.

Another 3 friends have reported that while on trains, (these are often VERY crowded, such that Taipei buses have that nice open feeling to them) they have experienced feeling MANY, REPEATED 'hands' casually attempting to enter places they ought not. EVERY pocket they had on them was 'checked.

I STRONGLY advise finding ways of locking down your equipment VERY securely under lock and key. Pockets should be of the zip variety and you MAY want to consider finding secondary fastening mechanisms.

A lot of this depends on where you go and what times you ride transit. And indeed what forms of transit you end up taking. A lot of guys I hang out with here are students, so risk might be higher than someone on a tour.

But such are the caveats.

My backpack has corded zipper pulls and I use small samsonite locks (not so amazingly pick-proof, but certainly would be noticeable if someone tried to force) that I picked up in Walmart in Canada in a bulk pack of like 8 or 12... They all use the same key, so that's good for me.

Having your wits about you can save you a LOT of headache.

Travel insurance that includes theft might also be quite wise.

Where are you planning on going?
Pages:  
Current Server Time: 03/29/2024 08:04:33 AM

Please log in or register to post to the forums.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Prints! - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2024 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 03/29/2024 08:04:33 AM EDT.