Photo storage while abroad

[msommers]

Curious what you guys have done when on extended vacations or have taken way more photos than a set of cards allow.

I'm trying to figure out the smallest, easiest and cheapest way but it seems like I have to give up something.

1) Use my netbook as a transfer platform from memory card to USB sticks. Cheapest but the largest.

2) (Potentially) Use my Nexus 7 for the same thing but I don't think it's gonna work well or at all.

3) Buy an photo storage device. Very expensive.

4) Bring a bunch of CF and SD cards. This is a surprisingly expensive option.

5) Buy a new netbook with a high capacity hard drive. Seems they are called ultrabooks now, not that small and $500+?

Not sure what the heck to do...

[Thaco]

netbook +dropbox +logmein on your home pc

assuming you have wifi where you're staying, dump the pics to your netbook on a dropbox sync'd folder, let it run all day to upload the pics, remote in to your home pc with logmein, move the files to your home archives, delete from dropbox, and do it all over again.

[Darell_n]

USB hard drives are cheap and I think are up to 1GB now.

[msommers]

Thaco,

Ideally I didn't want to rely on a computer. Availability to use a computer likely isn't wide spread as I'm not staying at hostels or hotels, and upload speeds for that matter are going to be God aweful in the middle of Africa. Anywhere else this would definitely be the best plan.

Darell,

Did you mean 1TB? The largest USB sticks I've seen are 256GB though rare and very expensive.

I'm really considering a NEXTO storage device of some sort.

[blitz]

Photo storage devices aren't that bad these days, and some let you buy it without the hard drive so you can add your own.

Any way you do it, I'd make sure you have the files stored in 2 places at any given time I.E. Download to a HD and don't erase the memory card until you can upload to an online backup.

[Graham_A_M]

Originally posted by Darell_n
USB hard drives are cheap and I think are up to 1GB now.

1 gig is small. my smallest is 4gig. They go past 10 gig now, not too sure what the biggest is.
You can pick up an 8gig for about $25-30 at most places

[msommers]

Decided on a Nexto device and some large 128GB USB sticks as a 2nd backup. Here's hoping everything works out! Thanks

[blitz]

Take a look at these Matt, you buy the shell for $250 and can throw your own 2.5 HD in. They also have a removable battery, so you can take multiple ones with you if you won't be near an outlet for a while.

http://www.hypershop.com/category-s/133.htm

[DeleriousZ]

What about uploading your pictures to skydrive every few nights on hotel wifi?

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by blitz
Take a look at these Matt, you buy the shell for $250 and can throw your own 2.5 HD in. They also have a removable battery, so you can take multiple ones with you if you won't be near an outlet for a while.

http://www.hypershop.com/category-s/133.htm

I use that exact thing and it's fantastic. I back up everyone's photos that are on vacation with me too. Accepts any card and it's UDMA compatible.

[blitz]

Yup, I've had mine for a year and a bit and it's been great. Simple to use and great battery life.

Heck Matt, you could buy 2 of them + 2 1TB laptop drives for $700, and then sell one afterwards.

[msommers]

Comparing the Nexto NVS1501 to the Hyperdrives, the things I like are:

- Integrated USB support without adapters or needed power supplies for getting secondary backups onto USB flash drives. This is the sole reason I decided to look at this unit vs. it's smaller brother, the ND2730G (at half the price )
- Robust and pretty bomb proof. Can get rattled a lot in the overland vehicles. Lots of redundancy and damage control. Just seems better suited for the field to me
- Fast transfer speeds
- One reviewer on B&H mentioned that they lasted a whole month on a charge. While I doubt I would get that, it's nice to know it's possible without being dormant the whole time
- It doesn't look like much and less likely to get stolen. Doesn't need to stay cushioned in a backpack or case (in comparison). I especially need to have it separate from my camera bag should the unfortunate occur


Things I like about the Hyperdrives:
- I could put in a big SSD if I really wanted to for probably less than the Nexto. Otherwise, it's nearly half the price using same size HDDs from the factory, and likely much less if I put in a HDD myself
- The screen is much bigger and useful for previewing
- It appears it can be used while being charged
- I MIGHT be able to buy it at TCS which is a huge plus if something happens before I take off
- At least it comes with a case of some sort
- Removable battery should the main one shit the bed. We have a charging station on the vehicle so it's not imparative to have multiple backups for power but for longevity it seems important. Nexto does a how-to on replacing the battery (though opening it voids the warranty)

The way I'm looking at it, it comes down to better functions and build quality for ~2x the price.

Summaries of both:

This one is quite thorough.


I couldn't find much on the new UDMA2 but this is about as thorough as it gets...

[Darell_n]

Originally posted by msommers
Thaco,

Ideally I didn't want to rely on a computer. Availability to use a computer likely isn't wide spread as I'm not staying at hostels or hotels, and upload speeds for that matter are going to be God aweful in the middle of Africa. Anywhere else this would definitely be the best plan.

Darell,

Did you mean 1TB? The largest USB sticks I've seen are 256GB though rare and very expensive.

I'm really considering a NEXTO storage device of some sort.

Yes, I meant 1 TB, sorry. I bought a WD 500 GB USB drive for $120 like 4-5 years ago and fits in your pocket. I think they are double that now for the same money.

[Tezzating]

Sandisk Extreme USD1 16Gb are $25 at BestBuy.. I've got 4 of them and cycle them when travelling. Even shooting RAW I fit 640ish shots per card (@24mp).
Makes sense to me anyway

[msommers]

Unfortunately the D800 is a pig on memory

I had to call down to California to get an answer but the Nexto will not actually be able to transfer data onto a USB flash drive, only take data from it. This is a feature on their next firmware update which is being released sometime in July. So the big selling point of why I wanted to buy it is not possible without getting a power pack (interestingly these are used as backup devices for journalists in Afghanistan with the army).

Sooo I'm going with the Sanho case and putting a Samsung 840 500GB SSD (on sale at newegg for $350 w/ free shipping). The USB attachment needs a power source to work which sucks but can accept up to 1TB and sync data onto it. In the end it was still quite a bit cheaper.

[Thaco]

Originally posted by msommers
Unfortunately the D800 is a pig on memory

I had to call down to California to get an answer but the Nexto will not actually be able to transfer data onto a USB flash drive, only take data from it. This is a feature on their next firmware update which is being released sometime in July. So the big selling point of why I wanted to buy it is not possible without getting a power pack (interestingly these are used as backup devices for journalists in Afghanistan with the army).

Sooo I'm going with the Sanho case and putting a Samsung 840 500GB SSD (on sale at newegg for $350 w/ free shipping). The USB attachment needs a power source to work which sucks but can accept up to 1TB and sync data onto it. In the end it was still quite a bit cheaper.

looks like with the OTG adapter on the UDMA you can do exactly that

With optional USB OTG adapter - Backup directly from digital camera and USB drives - Sync/backup entire drive with another USB hard drive

edit, nevermind, i guess you said that already, i didn't read it properly.

[dragonone]

finally something to use with the 2.5" drives that we've all swapped for ssds usb3.0 would make this even better

[revelations]

For OP, a 2.5 mechanical drive in a rugged case still makes the most sense as they are a proven long term storage solutions where as NAND devices (SSD, usb sticks) can fail.

I would never use USB sticks for long-term (months) primary storage - only backup.

[ga16i]

Maybe for extra paranoia, on top of the Sanho device, keep lots of smaller memory cards on you, and once backed up onto the Sanho device, mail that card back home at the next convenient location for extra backup. Then sell off the small cards once back home to mitigate some of the cost.

[blitz]

Are you taking a computer of any sort Matt?

If you are, flagging and rejecting photos every few days could save you a lot of memory room. You might take 500 GB of photos, but you're not going to take 500 GB of good photos