Travel back up question?

When traveling (not local, one of those "once in a lifetime" trips), how do you handle backups?

Assuming that you do backup your memory cards onto something (laptop, tablet, portable drive, etc.), do you erase the memory cards after the backup or leave the photos on the memory cards until you get home and can further back up the pictures?

I purchased a Kingston Mobile Lite backup device and a large USB drive on which to back up the files and everything works great EXCEPT the software that Kingston makes to control the device (you install it either on a mobile phone or tablet) is not smart enough to say "Hey, I will ignore the first days pictures because I already copied them". And as far as I can tell you have to manually select the new photos to backup, which on a long trip - with a lot of shots on the memory cards after a few days - can take a bit of time to run through and get to the new ones.

Thanks, Steve

Steve,

I use an old notebook (10") + USB drive. Transfer pictures from camera card to drive at the end of each day. Not really a backup but a temporary storage. Do the backup when I come home. Can the USB drive fail? Not likely but possible....

jacob

I travel with a 10 notebook, save photos to the HD on the computer and to TWO 128GB USB drives. I download everynight to these three locations and delete the files from the card. You don't want to have a perfect sunset in front of you and a full card!

Thenotebook and USB drives travel in separate bags so that if one is lost, the other might get through. Then final backup to external HD or cloud once home.

I have a RX100MII and I was able to fit 5000 jpgs on a 128GB USB drive with room to spare. If you shoot raw, get several more drives.

Have fun on your trip.

Aloha,

Val




I never thought I would visit Firenze again, but I did. The Duomo

A few years ago I purchased one of these - http://www.hypershop.com/HyperDrive/UDMA-2/ You can put whatever size disk in it that you like (and its very easy to do)

I use it because I can just insert the card and backup to it. You are able to review the images (even RAW) but I dont use it for that. My system is that my camera and cards travel with me but this unit goes in my luggage - if I lose one I still have the other because I don't erase the images on my cards.

I still carry a laptop to use for my images and email, etc but that also travels with me as carry on lugagge

Its a long way from Australia to Europe so I treasure my images

Here's my photo of the Duomo that I hope to return to next year - http://www.roblewisphotography.com/Italy-2012/i-sMvrP2w

--
Rob Lewis
http://www.roblewisphotography.com/
'Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time (to take photos).' Apologies to Stephen Swid

For very short trips (no more than 3 days), I copy the photos to a laptop and also keep them on the SD card, without erasing any shot at all.

On longer trips, I usually bring along a compact external hard drive that plugs into the laptop via USB. I copy the files from the SD card to both the laptop's internal hard drive and the external hard drive, and then format the card in-camera.

When I get back home, I move the files from the laptop's internal drive to my main computer's hard drive, which is much bigger, and process them.

My system is a bit labour intensive but ensures I have 2-3 copies of my photos at any time:

- 32GB SD/CF cards in each camera. I shoot 3-5 days worth of photos.

- 2 x 2TB portable USB3 drives (e.g. Western Digital Passport). One drive is set as the main working HD (let's call it MAIN_HD), the other as the backup (BACKUPHD). Each hard drive is stored in a different bag.

- Every night I will copy that day's photos to MAIN_HD, organised into folders by date (e.g. 20140801), and subfolders for camera (e.g. EM5, EPM2). I create a Lightroom catalog on this HD and add the photos on the HD to it. This allows me to use different computers to edit the photos if I need to.

- Every few days when the memory cards start getting full, I completely copy the photos to the BACKUP_HD, organised into folders according to camera type and date range. e.g. EM5_20140701-20140801_backup. Once this is done, memory card is formatted in camera.

- I don't store photos on my laptop due to the small hard drive, although this is also a good idea.

Steven Wandy said:

When traveling (not local, one of those "once in a lifetime" trips), how do you handle backups?

Assuming that you do backup your memory cards onto something (laptop, tablet, portable drive, etc.), do you erase the memory cards after the backup or leave the photos on the memory cards until you get home and can further back up the pictures?

I purchased a Kingston Mobile Lite backup device and a large USB drive on which to back up the files and everything works great EXCEPT the software that Kingston makes to control the device (you install it either on a mobile phone or tablet) is not smart enough to say "Hey, I will ignore the first days pictures because I already copied them". And as far as I can tell you have to manually select the new photos to backup, which on a long trip - with a lot of shots on the memory cards after a few days - can take a bit of time to run through and get to the new ones.

Thanks, Steve

Click to expand...

OK - it does get asked ALL the time - but tech moves on! And people travel differently.

I travel on a tight budget, travelling light, backpacking - In the past I always carried a portable harddrive (NO laptop or tablet). Every once in a a while I would find a PC (either hotel, internet cafe, or borrow from other traveler) and dump everything onto my hdd.
If I were to travel on a tour, (ie not light backpacking) then I would take and use my own laptop instead.
I then delete 'excess' pics off the cards - keeping a backup of the better shots.

In future, with availability of such cheap memory cards - i will just take spare cards and back up 'best' shots onto these.

Another tip: always swap cards around, never filling them in one go, so if a card gets lost or corrupted you don't lose all shots of one location.

--

fb.com/nearernirvana

Offering a little advice - not my rules nor my judgement.

A small netbook or similar is a quite affordable way to backup images. Or, depending on the length of your trip, a pocket full of cards is another good, rugged solution.

When I take one of those 'once in a lifetime' trips, I take two 32 gb cards and my notebook. I download all the info on the card every night, then I go back thru the card and delete the lesser pictures and leave as many of the best on the cards...Brent

Steven Wandy said:

When traveling (not local, one of those "once in a lifetime" trips), how do you handle backups?

Assuming that you do backup your memory cards onto something (laptop, tablet, portable drive, etc.), do you erase the memory cards after the backup or leave the photos on the memory cards until you get home and can further back up the pictures?

I purchased a Kingston Mobile Lite backup device and a large USB drive on which to back up the files and everything works great EXCEPT the software that Kingston makes to control the device (you install it either on a mobile phone or tablet) is not smart enough to say "Hey, I will ignore the first days pictures because I already copied them". And as far as I can tell you have to manually select the new photos to backup, which on a long trip - with a lot of shots on the memory cards after a few days - can take a bit of time to run through and get to the new ones.

Thanks, Steve

Click to expand...

Steve,

I have been using the Kingston MobileLite with my Android tablets for a number of trips. I follow much the same process you seem to. I tend to own plenty of memory cards, generally enough for 5-6 days of fairly heavy shooting. My preference lately has been to backup to 128GB USB memory sticks on shorter trips. On longer trips I carry a small, spinning HD that the MobileLite can power.

I ran into the same issue with daily backups that you did. My own resolution varies by the level of concern I have in losing that single days images. On more casual trips with less images I tend to only copy when a card is nearly full and then put it away until I return home. On trips with a lot of photos in a day when I might backup daily I found an easy solution. After I complete the copy of the images to the backup memory I simply rename the folder on the camera media to the date instead of the default folder name (on my Olympus cameras it is 10xOLYMP). The camera creates a new image folder automatically when it cannot find one it recognizes. The only drawback I have found to this method is that, on Olympus cameras at least, the images in the renamed folders are not visible to the camera for on camera review. In some ways that is almost a plus as I cannot accidentally delete them unless I format the card. It also saves time will reviewing the most recent images on the camera while eating, etc.

Ken Gosden said:

Steven Wandy said:

When traveling (not local, one of those "once in a lifetime" trips), how do you handle backups?

Assuming that you do backup your memory cards onto something (laptop, tablet, portable drive, etc.), do you erase the memory cards after the backup or leave the photos on the memory cards until you get home and can further back up the pictures?

I purchased a Kingston Mobile Lite backup device and a large USB drive on which to back up the files and everything works great EXCEPT the software that Kingston makes to control the device (you install it either on a mobile phone or tablet) is not smart enough to say "Hey, I will ignore the first days pictures because I already copied them". And as far as I can tell you have to manually select the new photos to backup, which on a long trip - with a lot of shots on the memory cards after a few days - can take a bit of time to run through and get to the new ones.

Thanks, Steve

Click to expand...

Steve,

I have been using the Kingston MobileLite with my Android tablets for a number of trips. I follow much the same process you seem to. I tend to own plenty of memory cards, generally enough for 5-6 days of fairly heavy shooting. My preference lately has been to backup to 128GB USB memory sticks on shorter trips. On longer trips I carry a small, spinning HD that the MobileLite can power.

I ran into the same issue with daily backups that you did. My own resolution varies by the level of concern I have in losing that single days images. On more casual trips with less images I tend to only copy when a card is nearly full and then put it away until I return home. On trips with a lot of photos in a day when I might backup daily I found an easy solution. After I complete the copy of the images to the backup memory I simply rename the folder on the camera media to the date instead of the default folder name (on my Olympus cameras it is 10xOLYMP). The camera creates a new image folder automatically when it cannot find one it recognizes. The only drawback I have found to this method is that, on Olympus cameras at least, the images in the renamed folders are not visible to the camera for on camera review. In some ways that is almost a plus as I cannot accidentally delete them unless I format the card. It also saves time will reviewing the most recent images on the camera while eating, etc.

Click to expand...

Ken - that is a great idea (renaming the folder on the card - which I guess you do using the MobileLite reader and app) - have to try that out (to make sure I do it correctly) before we go. This will be my first trip using the MobileLite and while I really like it, I do wish that it would display the images on my iPad quicker than it does - that would allow viewing the images even from the past days easily.

Thanks for the tip, Steve

I have a Wolverine stand-alone hard drive that I use. It has card slots on the drive and copies the contents of a card to a new directory whenever you insert a card and push the copy button. The drive can be connected by USB to a PC, and has a 110v AC adapter.

On a photo trip, typically by myself (like Yellowstone), I take a laptop and the Wolverine drive. Each evening, I copy the cards from the day to the laptop and to the Wolverine drive. Once that's done and verified, I reformat the cards.

On a trip not devoted to photos, like the 2 weeks in Hawaii my wife and I just returned from, I take enough cards to allow shooting without needing to re-use a card while on the road, and copy each card to the Wolverine drive when the card gets full and I swap it for an unused card.

In both scenarios, I end up with duplicate storage - something I learned to be insistent about (the hard way, of course).

Backups in terms of the photos, In my recent trip, I uploaded everything on my iPad daily. Before I went to bed, I uploaded the keepers to flickr (1TB) as I had the luxury of a fast wifi.

Backups in terms of equipment, two batteries per camera, multiple CF/SD cards per camera, multiple outlet adapters to charge all the batteries and gadgets.

Had this good system running smoothly for 1 week.

Steven Wandy said:

Ken Gosden said:

Steven Wandy said:

When traveling (not local, one of those "once in a lifetime" trips), how do you handle backups?

Assuming that you do backup your memory cards onto something (laptop, tablet, portable drive, etc.), do you erase the memory cards after the backup or leave the photos on the memory cards until you get home and can further back up the pictures?

I purchased a Kingston Mobile Lite backup device and a large USB drive on which to back up the files and everything works great EXCEPT the software that Kingston makes to control the device (you install it either on a mobile phone or tablet) is not smart enough to say "Hey, I will ignore the first days pictures because I already copied them". And as far as I can tell you have to manually select the new photos to backup, which on a long trip - with a lot of shots on the memory cards after a few days - can take a bit of time to run through and get to the new ones.

Thanks, Steve

Click to expand...

Steve,

I have been using the Kingston MobileLite with my Android tablets for a number of trips. I follow much the same process you seem to. I tend to own plenty of memory cards, generally enough for 5-6 days of fairly heavy shooting. My preference lately has been to backup to 128GB USB memory sticks on shorter trips. On longer trips I carry a small, spinning HD that the MobileLite can power.

I ran into the same issue with daily backups that you did. My own resolution varies by the level of concern I have in losing that single days images. On more casual trips with less images I tend to only copy when a card is nearly full and then put it away until I return home. On trips with a lot of photos in a day when I might backup daily I found an easy solution. After I complete the copy of the images to the backup memory I simply rename the folder on the camera media to the date instead of the default folder name (on my Olympus cameras it is 10xOLYMP). The camera creates a new image folder automatically when it cannot find one it recognizes. The only drawback I have found to this method is that, on Olympus cameras at least, the images in the renamed folders are not visible to the camera for on camera review. In some ways that is almost a plus as I cannot accidentally delete them unless I format the card. It also saves time will reviewing the most recent images on the camera while eating, etc.

Click to expand...

Ken - that is a great idea (renaming the folder on the card - which I guess you do using the MobileLite reader and app) - have to try that out (to make sure I do it correctly) before we go. This will be my first trip using the MobileLite and while I really like it, I do wish that it would display the images on my iPad quicker than it does - that would allow viewing the images even from the past days easily.

Thanks for the tip, Steve

Click to expand...

Steve,

Renaming might be more difficult using an ipad. On Android I can access the MobileLite attached drives using other apps besides the one from Kingston. Most are better at renaming. So far I am only using the Kingston app to initiate the copy process since once started from that app I can turn off the tablet and the copy will continue. This lets me preform the backups while I take my tablet out and about.

I have been searching this and other resources for a good way to back up SD cards in the field...and I do mean in the field. Last year a trip to the Amazon and next year a trip camping in the Serengeti.

Recently I found the following:

RAVPower FileHub Wireless SD Card Reader, Wireless External HDD/Flash Drive Media sharing, Built-in 3000mAh External Battery Pack,Wireless USB,Wireles. This was $37 on Amazon

and

Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB Portable External Hard Drive with Mobile Device Backup USB 3.0 (Black) STDR2000100 This was $99 on Amazon. But the 1T was only $70.

The RavPower FileHub does a bunch of cool stuff, BUT one additional thing it does do it transfer files. It has a slot for an SD card and a USB for the portable hard drive. Using my iPhone or iPad (and I'm sure a bunch of other devices) I can copy the SD card to the hard drive. It is USB 3 which should make it pretty fast.

At this point I set it up (easily) and transferred a photo to make sure it actually worked. I haven't yet tried my typical hundreds of photos or AVCHD video yet, but I am feeling hopeful.

I intend to use a separate SD card for each day and backup the photos (and hopefully video too) each night.

Oh - and the RavPower FileHub powers the external hard drive.

Pretty excited about the possibilities.

Steven Wandy said:

When traveling (not local, one of those "once in a lifetime" trips), how do you handle backups?

Assuming that you do backup your memory cards onto something (laptop, tablet, portable drive, etc.), do you erase the memory cards after the backup or leave the photos on the memory cards until you get home and can further back up the pictures?

I purchased a Kingston Mobile Lite backup device and a large USB drive on which to back up the files and everything works great EXCEPT the software that Kingston makes to control the device (you install it either on a mobile phone or tablet) is not smart enough to say "Hey, I will ignore the first days pictures because I already copied them". And as far as I can tell you have to manually select the new photos to backup, which on a long trip - with a lot of shots on the memory cards after a few days - can take a bit of time to run through and get to the new ones.

Thanks, Steve

Click to expand...

Hi Steve,

Your question is a good one; I leave the information or pictures on the memory card after I back up my images on "cloud" software. I use "dropbox" and google's cloud back up service. They are both free and are easy to retrieve photos when you want them.

I suggest that you try "dropbox" on some of your images. You might come to like "cloud" services.

After I have successfully backed up my images, and this is after I am at home I erase the memory cards. But that is just me.

Kind Regards,

HGreblo

kendelmar said:

Recently I found the following:

RAVPower FileHub Wireless SD Card Reader, Wireless External HDD/Flash Drive Media sharing, Built-in 3000mAh External Battery Pack,Wireless USB,Wireles. This was $37 on Amazon

Click to expand...

Oh my goodness - No need to ever waste my time in an internet cafe again!

kendelmar said:

Pretty excited about the possibilities.

Click to expand...

Me too !

It's about time! This technology actually existed 13 years ago (with the 1st gen ipod classic) - but it was too slow for today's larger file sizes and sadly the men in the finance dept held back the tech as the planned obsolecence helped pay for their sports cars & coke

Anyway, ranting aside, my question is: What's the card-to-USB transfer speed ?

It doesn't seem like dropbox is an option when no internet is available. Am I wrong?