Backup Storage Solution when travelling

[Bery]

Hello,

I am looking for a solution for the following:

When travelling I usually don't bring a laptop or tablet along. I take photos with a Sony A7IV and would like to backup my cards onto a device without the use of any laptop or tablet. So, basically a physical device that I can put the memory cards in and back up to an internal SSD.

Is anybody aware of something like this?

Thank you for your help!

 

[kciuk aka Ken60]

If you are lucky enough to have a Galaxy S20 or prior smartphone, they are able to take micro SD cards to expand their memory. I have around 1TB and with the Android software, and a short cable, am able to attach a card reader to download my images. These can then also be copied to an attached 2 TB portable SSD. So having two copies of the images means that when I format my cards for the next day , they are reasonable secure.

Another advantage is running a tethering software on the phone allows remote shooting.

 

[larsbc]

Hello,

I am looking for a solution for the following:

When travelling I usually don't bring a laptop or tablet along. I take photos with a Sony A7IV and would like to backup my cards onto a device without the use of any laptop or tablet. So, basically a physical device that I can put the memory cards in and back up to an internal SSD.

Is anybody aware of something like this?

Thank you for your help!

I did similar to this last month when my laptop died. I used my Samsung S23 Ultra phone and a USB hub (w/built-in card reader) to backup cards from my 2 cameras, action cam and 360 cam onto a pair of USB SSDs every night. It doesn't backup to internal storage, though.


You can read my post and replies here: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/68207837

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[softmarmotte]

In all honesty, why bother. I have tried a number of options from phone back up to dedicated hard drive. The most secure, easiest and cheapest is to buy more cards and swap them out when (not even) full. Having a dual card camera helps because you always have 2 cards of pics which you then put in two different places

 

[Bery]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I don't use a Samsung. My camera does record onto 2 memory cards. I'm just about to figure out if it might simply be more cost effective to purchase more cards.

 

[TOTodd]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I don't use a Samsung. My camera does record onto 2 memory cards. I'm just about to figure out if it might simply be more cost effective to purchase more cards.

That’s the approach I would take. Memory is cheap. You just need to make sure you follow prudent backup practices, such as keeping the duplicate cards in different physical locations.

 

[mreynolds767]

In all honesty, why bother. I have tried a number of options from phone back up to dedicated hard drive. The most secure, easiest and cheapest is to buy more cards and swap them out when (not even) full. Having a dual card camera helps because you always have 2 cards of pics which you then put in two different places

This.... a few years ago this request was more common as many cameras only had 1 slot.

Now most have 2 slots so you can have duplication on cards in camera and cards are so much cheaper and so rarely fail it is better to just buy a bunch of cards.

Not sure either of these products are still made/being sold but they do offer what you are looking for:

https://www.westerndigital.com/en-ua/products/portable-drives/wd-my-passport-wireless-pro-hdd?null

https://www.huntsphotoandvideo.com/detail_page.cfm?productid=STGW4000800

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[larsbc]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I don't use a Samsung.

If that's a reference to my reply, I'd like to clarify that a Samsung isn't required, Pretty much any Android phone can do what mine did for the backup.

My camera does record onto 2 memory cards. I'm just about to figure out if it might simply be more cost effective to purchase more cards.

Yes, it all depends on what kind of backup frequency you want. If you want every day backups, then you'll need a card for each day for your camera.

 

[Travelerdave]

I agee about having extra cards, and writing to both. Simplest solution.

To add to the phone transfer thing. iPhones do that as well. (they do have a card reader dongle as well as a USB one). I use a little hub that fits the dock plug, (lightning or USB-C) My one has an SD card reader and USB A and C sockets. Anything plugs into it. A big USB stick, or an SSD. I do take my iPad to view and trial edit. So I often add them to my photo library, that way they go to the cloud as well.

 

[Meeces]

I used to have the same quandary, but as several have mentioned, the dual card system has become the most convenient.

I had a Western Digital hard drive that had a sd card slot built in (with ability to be used as a battery as well) and would automatically back up when a card was inserted. Think I used it twice and realized it was just an extra step, and an extra thing and cords to pack. Gnarbox was similar and popular for a while, but they went out of business a while ago.

I do usually take a laptop or iPad now, but even then will usually use it more for the injection of images off the card so they can start getting into the cloud. I have not tried it with an iPhone, and might on a future trip to cut down on things to pack.

 

[LumixCat]

Is this a paid photo job, like a wedding, in which you'll have huge raw files and you need to save all of the files? If so, you have to think about what would happen if your memory cards, hard drive, etc., got lost, stolen, or physically damaged. In that case, it may be necessary to use a laptop to upload the pictures to a box folder, Google drive, etc.

Or is this a family vacation, for which you want to save your snapshots? For family vacations, since we're typically walking outside in bright sunlight (where there is a lot of contrasty light, and dark shadows), I have my camera set for autoexposure bracketing. I take several hundred pictures per day. At the end of the day , I choose the best 30 or so pictures in the camera, and transfer them to my phone over wifi or with a USB cable. Then I share the pictures by whatsapp (which automatically backs up my photos). If there's a particular picture that is very important, I'll email the full resolution picture to myself. My phone is also set to automatically back up my photos to a Google drive. So if my camera, cards, or phone get lost, stolen, or physically damaged, the pictures will be available to download later.

In the past, when cards had a lower capacity, I would use multiple cards. But that increases the chance of losing or misplacing a card. Now I just one one high capacity card in the camera, and carry a backup card in case the primary card gets corrupted.

 

[Damnerd]

The versatile solution.