File storage during travels

What's the best solution to store photos taken while on vacation? I'll be in Mexico for two weeks and plan to take lots of shots. Shooting all in RAW on my 40D, I expect to need a lot of storage. Have no intention of taking a laptop.

Is there a small external storage device that hooks straight to the 40D? Would my new 80GB classic iPod work? (Have about 60GB available on it.)

Thanks to the DPR brain trust!

I'm finding myself in a similar sitation right now, and am torn between bringing my laptop or leaving it at home.

One product I have been very interested is the Archos 705 media player. Has a nice 7" 800x480 screen and comes in 80GB and 160GB. Has wifi, does movies, photos, etc and has a USB 2.0 host port. Price tag is holding me back at the moment, as I struggle to justify spending that kind of money on such a product rather than putting it towards a new lens. The only other thing that I don't quite love about the product is the touchscreen overlay which detracts from an otherwise great screen. Archos has a bad habit of using a matte finish touchscreen, which lends a slightly grainy and washed out quality to the images. Its not that severe, and you may not even notice it unless you had it side by side with one of the smaller/lesser models without touchscreens.

Here is a link if you are interested

http://www.archos.com/products/gen_5/archos_705wifi/index.html?country=global&lang=en

I try to take a laptop when I'm shooting either on vacation, or for a client, and enough storage that I don't have to dump my CF cards before I return home.

For example, I'll do a daily transfer to my laptop with the EOS Utility (it flags files already transferred), and if I have access to the internet, all those files are backed up by Carbonite to secure servers out in the the web cloud (very cheap, and very reliable). Just for an extra paranoid measure of security, I leave the files on my CF cards as well until I get home, and I am sure that everything is safe.

You don't have to do that, of course, but the more copies in the field, the better off you are. I don't know if my iPOD can store RAW data, but there are fairly cheap devices out there that are made for the purpose, if a laptop is out of the question. In that case, I would still suggest using large CF cards, and leaving the files on those cards until you get home.

I currently use 16 gig SanDisk Ext III cards, which can hold around 1400 RAW images each (on a 40D), and can accept data as fast as a 40D can write it (faster than the Ext II series, which is fine with a 30D, but is a cork with the 40D). Two should take care of a two week vacation with ease, but I keep three on hand just in case.

--
Voyager

There are lots of PSD (Portable Storage Devices) on the market. A nice Epson, with RAW conversion, big full color screen, etc. will set you back a pretty penny. Nearly enough to buy 60GB of ExtremeIII cards.

I bought a less expensive, less feature-filled PSD from hyperdrive. No fancy screens, just dump the CF card to a hard-drive a the end of the day, then transfer it via USB when I get home. $249 with a 60GB drive. hyperspace.com

I prefer to take with myself in a trip and photobank and notebook
http://whitemouse.ru/photo/hardware/vp8390.wmb
http://whitemouse.ru/photo/hardware/p1510.wmb

--
White Mouse
http://WhiteMouse.RU/photo/
http://WhiteMouse.PhotoSight.RU/

Since I do weddings.... I need a storage device that dumps High Speed CF cards fast. With a Sandisk Extreme III you an dump about 1gig in less than a min with the hyper colorspace. 2gigs in less than 2mins etc.

http://www.hyperdrive.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=23

I got myself a case and stuck in my 100GB Seagate Drive.

Works great.

It's great for backups for weddings since I don't want anything to happen to the photos.

I use a laptop because --
-- You'll get a huge amount of storage space.
-- You can burn (backup) to DVD.
-- You can carry one onto an air plane, no questions.

-- You can get into some serious editing on those quite (boring) holiday nights. --- If editing, be sure to calibrate the laptop to your home screen.
-- You can never have enough computers at home (go wireless).
-- You will be guaranteed a great screen picture.
-- You can hop on line FREE at heaps of places these days and check this forum.

Here's a link to their website:

http://secure.serverlab.net/shop/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=T00107&Category_Code=ESP

There are many devices out there in varying price ranges, funtions, and styles. A lap top in another option, if you have the desire to carry around another large device. I prefer the portability of one of these smaller Multimedia devices.

--
bryan
--------
Oak & Acorn
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oakandacorns/sets/

G9 ISO 3200 Gallery: http://bryanw.zenfolio.com/p706413854/

New Zenfolio Gallery: http://bryanw.zenfolio.com/

Canon G9 Gallery: http://bryanw.zenfolio.com/f836894562/

For travel last year I bought the Nexto OTG. You can put any hard drive in an empty case or buy one with a hard drive installed. Works very well and is fast coping files. Here is a link to their website:

http://www.nextodi.com/en/

NewEgg has Transcend 16GB cards for $76. A few of these should go a long way. I have an external hard drive, but find myself just swapping out cards because it's easier and much lighter to carry.

Ed Ellks said:

NewEgg has Transcend 16GB cards for $76. A few of these should go a
long way. I have an external hard drive, but find myself just
swapping out cards because it's easier and much lighter to carry.

Click to expand...

I agree completely. About 5.5 years ago I paid almost $300 for a 10GB Storage Tank and I only used it in on one vacation. The biggest waste of my photography budget money ever. Storage is cheap today. Shooters should just get as many cards as they think they will need.

PS, I also use thumb drives to load the same photos onto different hard drives.

I have one of these, with the 160 GB hard drive. It works very well as a PVR (personal video recorder), letting me record TV shows and movies from cable and watch them either on the built-in screen or on a TV.

The Archos unit can work as a standard external HD device when connected to a PC, but it can also act as a USB host device. In the latter mode, you can copy files directly from the 40D to the Archos unit, or connect a card reader to the unit and use that with the 40D CF cards. It will certainly show JPG images on the 7" screen (or on an attached TV), but I'm not sure it will show the RAW images.
--
Jeff Peterman

Any insults, implied anger, bad grammar and bad spelling, are entirely unintentionalal. Sorry.
http://www.pbase.com/jeffp25
http://www.jeffp25.smugmug.com

I have travelled and I plan to travell for more than a couple of weeks. Backpacking that is. I found the Nexto the best imagetank anyone can buy. That's to say...I do NOT like screen/radio/video/music/etcetc (all battery consuming); I like very fast one button device. Nexto is absolutely top!
Ow...in mine there is a 80G harddisk.

Same situation going to thailand in may for 3 weeks and dont want loads of cf cards. thinking about vosonic 160gb hdd. CF and sd card reader, also doubles as mp3, mp4, radio etc etc. just google vosonic, looks very similar to wolverine

Ed Ellks said:

NewEgg has Transcend 16GB cards for $76. A few of these should go a
long way. I have an external hard drive, but find myself just
swapping out cards because it's easier and much lighter to carry.

Click to expand...

I'm planning a month-long trip this year and am also considering my options. I'm not sure how many photos I will take, but I can easily see taking 100 / day, which means at least 3000 photos. That means 3 16GB cards for about $230.

Or, for just a little bit more money, I could buy TWO of these 80GB PSDs:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OSG5EI/ref=s9_asin_image_3_subs_c4_61_11_10?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0KANNKYYTHF77CGQRD3A&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=278240301&pf_rd_i=507846

Two because I don't trust HDs as far as I can throw them, but I figure, what are the chances of both crashing during a single trip?

Still weighing my options.

Ken

PictureLake said:

Two because I don't trust HDs as far as I can throw them, but I
figure, what are the chances of both crashing during a single trip?

Still weighing my options.

Click to expand...

Funny you should mention that. I had a 60GB Tripper that uses a Toshiba hard drive inside. I took it to a motorcycle race, and since i had spent most of my budget on the Tripper, I was using a single 2GB flash card. Wouldn't you know, the Tripper died after the last card dump and I lost everything that wasn't still on the flash card. It was a $300 lesson for me.

I can understand why people would want to use them. They can be very handy, especially if you are staying in a hotel room or something and can dump the card when you get back. It's just my preference to keep everything on the flash card and take enough along with me. I probably wouldn't fill one 16GB card, let alone three.

Ehm....take a closer look at Nexto devices....

is what I use and highly recommend it.
--
http://www.pbase.com/pwh

Nexto devices are excellent HD enclosures/data vault. You can bring as many 2.5" laptop drives as you want, swap them out of the shell, and have virtually unlimited storage capacity. So is easy to make double copies for backup on multiple HDD. Beware, though that some Nexto models won't work with Western Digital BEVE type drives:

http://www.nextodi.com/en/support/view.php?bbs=en_qna&id=91

I ordered a BEVE drive and had to RMA it.

I second the wolverine vote. Cheap(er), reliable, light, easy. You can't view the pictures after you put them in but it is very simple to use. I used it in New Zealand for 3 weeks shooting RAW on a 1GB card. I just downloaded everything at night and started over in the morning.

One thing I really liked about it is that I could grab my friends pictures who I was traveling with on the trip and have them all instead of waiting for them to give me their best. I am much more motived to do vacation pictures than everyone else. I got mine from B&H but I am sure you can get them from a variety of places.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/367686-REG/Wolverine_7060_60GB_FlashPac_7000_7_in_1.html

Hank