Back-up of CF-card without laptop computer

Has anybody a good suggestion for backing-up CFs on the road from a 40D without Laptop or PC, like external harddisks, IPods (??), ...

I do not have the extra battery unit (I understand that it will let you connect any external HD) and do not intent to buy one.

Thanks, Eckhard

check out...

http://www.hyperdrive.com/

I have the Hyperdrive Colorspace and works great....

Thanks, looks very good. Do you know of a way to use an IPod, since I have been thinking to get one anyway.

Belkin makes a reader for Ipod that sells for round $100... there i also this

http://www.macworld.com/article/53197/2006/10/novdigitalphoto.html
--
I may be, and probably am, completely wrong.

I beleive the iPOD does not support RAW files.

But I could be wrong, so better check first if you shoot RAW.
--
Robert
http://www.pbase.com/rgravel/mes_photos

ehinrichsen said:

Has anybody a good suggestion for backing-up CFs on the road from a
40D without Laptop or PC, like external harddisks, IPods (??), ...

I do not have the extra battery unit (I understand that it will let
you connect any external HD) and do not intent to buy one.

Thanks, Eckhard

Click to expand...

It's a little out of context - but unless you need vey high capacity storage - for the price you pay for the backup unit you will buy lots (25-30GB) of CFs GBytes... It's cheaper, less complicated and maybe safer than the back up - CFs are (much) less prone to break down than a hard disc.

Just another perspective - Hope it helps!

Regards,
Pedro

I recently wanted the same thing, but went for the ultra cheap route of buying a Thecus YES Nano hard-drive enclosure.

It supports USB on-the-go, so you can plug a USB card reader into it, press the copy button on the Nano and it copies everything to the internal hard disk.

It cost me about £15 (around $30), but you obviously have to supply your own hard disk.

It's has a separate battery back (4 * AA's), and copies a GB in a few minutes (the colorspace copies 1GB/minute I think) - but it works and cost a fraction of the price.

A word of warning - if you do go this route, it's a little picky about the HD's you can put in it so do some research on the net and find a combination that works. I've only got 20GB in it at the moment, but there's been plenty of success with 100GB drives.

Alternatively, you can buy a HD enclosure (generic) for less than £5, and a Asus EEEEEEEE PC thing for less than £200. Plug CF card and HD into the EEEEE PC and copy between the two. This is still cheaper than a Colorspace enclosure, although a bit bigger.

Just a few thoughts.

Oh, incidentally, a recently UK camera magazine (Digital Camera) just did a review of storage devices included Canon/Epson pricey ones, Colorspace, Jobo Giga and Digitmate III. They liked the Digimate best - around £80 for 80GB.

Rich

--
Gallery (under construction!) at: http://picasaweb.google.com/MadMezza

Another option is the Vosonic Xdrive II+ which costs about $100A (Australian), and you add a 2.5" hard drive of your choice. I can get a 160Gb 2.5" drive for about $80A, so total cost would be $180A. That's about 75 pounds, or $140US at the moment.

Here's a link to an Australian seller of them, but you can probably buy them anywhere:

http://www.mittoni.com.au/vosonic-vp2160-xdrive-ii-enclosure-p-1860.html

I think this is better than the multiple CF card option, as there's always the danger that you'll accidentally erase or re-use a CF card by mistake.

Regards,
Dean

I don't actually have one, but the NextoDI device looks promising:

http://www.nextodi.co.uk/prod_nd2325.html

I don't see why it wouldn't, it's just a file. You won't be able to view the images, but I can't imagine why you couldn't store a RAW file just like a Word, txt, etc. file.

But I'd also recommend a PSD dedicated to the job - I also have a Hyperdrive.

dgawler said:

I think this is better than the multiple CF card option, as there's
always the danger that you'll accidentally erase or re-use a CF card
by mistake.

Regards,
Dean

Click to expand...

I personaly like the ideea of having larger/more CF's than an extra device for backuping the photos. I don't see any way to reuse the card again ..and about accidentaly erasing the photos, I have to pay some attention or use different pokets in your bag for full and empty cards.

Anyway , how many GB's do you espect to save on the backup unit?

ipods are horrible for use as PSD's. do a search in the storage forum, this has come up before. the storage & media forum also has lots of talk about various PSD's that will probably be helpful.

Heh, during a busy event weekend (4 days altogether, I only stopped shooting while I was sleeping) I shot a TON (well over 40gb) and so many people were so happy even with what I thought were utter cr@p pics. I could have saved a lot of space not shooting raw, but then the images I was really really happy with I wouldn't have had raw latitude in editing. My hyperdrive did everything it was supposed to do and paid for itself in that weekend alone. If I had had to worry about swapping CF cards while running around outside during 4 days of a UK summer... yeah I'm not even going to bother thinking about that.

Dear All,

thanks a lot for the plenty suggestions, very helpful.

Regards, Eckhard

I carry 32 GB of CF cards - I don't have a capacity need. I do need backups daily until I get to my laptop. For daily backup - not really big storage - you can transfer card files directly to a USB drive using an Aleratec card reader.

http://www.adorama.com/VDAL330100.html?searchinfo=aleratec&item_no=31

Runs on three AAA batteries.This does it for about $60.

It's battery powered, lots of different slots, can be used as a card reader, is powered by its USB port when connected to a computer, etc. I just transferred 1 GB from a card to a USB drive in a few minutes. Handles RAW files. Fairly small - has a belt carrier pocket and your USB drive(s) go in your pocket.

I've had three PSDs each costing about $200, were much larger and heaviier, and I never got near their capacity. I just saw a 4GB USB drive selling for $25. A couple of these satisfy my daily temporary backups.

... how much data (approximately) would you estimate can be transferred on one set of batteries? (One of the reviews on the site you linked complained that the batteries weren't up to large transfers - although I wouldn't have thought it would be a problem).

Also, will rechargeable AAAs work with it?

ehinrichsen said:

Thanks, looks very good. Do you know of a way to use an IPod, since I
have been thinking to get one anyway.

Click to expand...

Everything I've read in the forums indicates iPods are not very good for image backup - you need an additional piece of hardware (no built-in memory slots), they're slow, and the batteries are drained very quickly. Get a dedicated portable storage device (PSD) instead - check the Storage & Media forum.

Mark

http://www.hyperdrive.com is a fantastic devise. They even have an affordable one that has an image viewer that can show your raw images.

best devise on the market I think and it is fast and has best battery life too.

ehinrichsen said:

Has anybody a good suggestion for backing-up CFs on the road from a
40D without Laptop or PC, like external harddisks, IPods (??), ...

I do not have the extra battery unit (I understand that it will let
you connect any external HD) and do not intent to buy one.

Thanks, Eckhard

Click to expand...

--



http://www.pbase.com/zylen

'Never argue with an idiot, they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience'

huh.. where can you buy 60gb of good Extreme sandisk card for 330$?

a sandisk 4gb extreme IV cost 100$.

NumberOne said:

ehinrichsen said:

Has anybody a good suggestion for backing-up CFs on the road from a
40D without Laptop or PC, like external harddisks, IPods (??), ...

I do not have the extra battery unit (I understand that it will let
you connect any external HD) and do not intent to buy one.

Thanks, Eckhard

Click to expand...

It's a little out of context - but unless you need vey high capacity
storage - for the price you pay for the backup unit you will buy lots
(25-30GB) of CFs GBytes... It's cheaper, less complicated and maybe
safer than the back up - CFs are (much) less prone to break down than
a hard disc.

Just another perspective - Hope it helps!

Regards,
Pedro

Click to expand...

--



http://www.pbase.com/zylen

'Never argue with an idiot, they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience'

Ovidiu Sopa said:

dgawler said:

I think this is better than the multiple CF card option, as there's
always the danger that you'll accidentally erase or re-use a CF card
by mistake.

Regards,
Dean

Click to expand...

I personaly like the ideea of having larger/more CF's than an extra
device for backuping the photos. I don't see any way to reuse the
card again ..and about accidentaly erasing the photos, I have to pay
some attention or use different pokets in your bag for full and empty
cards.

Anyway , how many GB's do you espect to save on the backup unit?

Click to expand...

we returned from Yellowstone with 100gb of photos for 2 persons for a 2 weeks trip. It goes quickly with RAW files.

--



http://www.pbase.com/zylen

'Never argue with an idiot, they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience'