Camera on holiday storage advice

Associate
Joined
22 May 2004
Posts
1,809
Location
N.Ireland
Hi guys I wonder if you can help me.

My dad got a pentax 10d and Is looking abackup solution for holidays. How do you all back up your images.

We have seen ipod cardreaders that we are thinking about anyone else any ideas without telling me the place to get them from as this would break the rules.

Thanks guys
 
There are plenty of HDD based card backup devices out there that are far better than the ipod card reader. Things like the Epson P3000, the Jobo Giga Vu and umpteen offerings from Vosonic.

You need to look carefully at the features offered by each one though, some have better compatability with various RAW formats, some don't have a great battery life and some are slow at copying from the card (which limits how much you can download per charge).

I've tried a couple of them and have actually given up with both. The original ImageTank I had just wasn't trustworthy, it had no screen to speak of, just a status bar on the LCD that let you know when it thought it was finished. That was replaced by a 40Gb Flashtrax which was a nice wee device but blooming slow (20 mins+ for 2Gb downloaded). I still use it for showing photos becuase it has a nice TV out mode but I don't take it out in the camera bag any more.

So what do I use instead? Lots of CF cards and a laptop. You could be looking at £150 to £200 for one of these devices, these days that'll get you 15-20Gb of good flash cards.
 
Energize said:
Just use a hard drive?
How? You can't just hook up your average external HDD to the camera's USB port and copy across. You need one device to be the USB "master" device and control the transfers. I only know of one external HDD caddy which operates in this mode and I wouldn't use it for this purpose - you have no way of knowing whether any of the photos were copied successfully until you get back to a PC after you've deleted the originals from the cards.
 
Oh right, something to use when you are on holiday.

MP4 players 40GB+ usually have card slots. They cost about £200 though, your probably better just buying many cards and spreading the photos across them.
 
one option would be to get a cheap second hand laptop

but then of course you need to have access to a power point to keep life in the battery


the other way, and probably cheaper way, would be to get a few extra memmory cards
 
rpstewart said:
There are plenty of HDD based card backup devices out there that are far better than the ipod card reader. Things like the Epson P3000, the Jobo Giga Vu and umpteen offerings from Vosonic.

You need to look carefully at the features offered by each one though, some have better compatability with various RAW formats, some don't have a great battery life and some are slow at copying from the card (which limits how much you can download per charge).

I've tried a couple of them and have actually given up with both. The original ImageTank I had just wasn't trustworthy, it had no screen to speak of, just a status bar on the LCD that let you know when it thought it was finished. That was replaced by a 40Gb Flashtrax which was a nice wee device but blooming slow (20 mins+ for 2Gb downloaded). I still use it for showing photos becuase it has a nice TV out mode but I don't take it out in the camera bag any more.

So what do I use instead? Lots of CF cards and a laptop. You could be looking at £150 to £200 for one of these devices, these days that'll get you 15-20Gb of good flash cards.

Thanks guys. Ill tell him and get him to look into some options

Thanks
 
Mel_P said:
Just use internet cafes / CD or DVD - (and send a copy home?){snip}
Was thinking the same thing! Maybe just carry a USB card reader & some blanks or a Re-writable?

Most places/areas have IT facilities, even on a Safari holiday!
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom