DSLR's, RAW and storage

[KennyG]

Now my motor racing season is back in full swing I am taking up to 3,000 shots over a weekend, all in RAW from either my 1D or 10D. I thought I would share with you what this means as far as storage is concerned.

On the job it isn't a problem as I download to my 30GB Flash Trax and alternate between two cards for each camera. I do carry more cards just in case, but so far they have remained in my bag.

Just so you can see what this means here is the storage requirement from this last two day's shooting.

10D RAW files for Sunday - 225 at an average of 5.2MB = 1.17GB
1D RAW files for Sunday - 1,110 at an average of 3.3MB = 3.66GB
10D RAW files for Monday - 310 = 1.6GB
1D RAW files for Monday = 1,325 = 4.37GB

Now, just to store the originals is 10.8GB

Throw away the duds after pre-processing and I am left with 9GB

Process in C1 with a 150% size conversion. This is required as most publications insist on minimum file sizes.

Total size of converted files for both days (sizes between 45MB and 73MB) that are worthy of publication or supplying to teams/drivers, usually about 200+ images - 10.5GB

It does not end there, add a further 1GB for web files and some specials and the grand total comes out at a whopping 20.5GB for a two day shoot.

You can imagine how quickly this eats up disk space. Also, C1 requires a lot of working space and I need at least 40/50GB free on one of my disks just so it will run the batches.

You may think I would be better off shooting JPG. It just does not work for me as I need the best I can get in post-processing and up-sizing a JPG to at least 30MB for publication is tedious and the results are not always that good.

I am fortunate to have half a dozen 120GB firewire drives hooked onto my dual Xeon system as well as RAID ultra 320 drives to work on, so space isn't killing me - yet. I worked out that at the end of this season I will need to archive around 250GB of RAW files. Time for an AIT-3 drive me thinks, especially when I get my 1D MK-II producing even bigger RAW files!

I started my journey into digital with a camera that had an 8MB CF card and a PC with a couple of 5GB disk drives. How things have changed.

[availlant]

How about a DVD burner.......you can get blanks for $1.00 each now if you know where to look

[evilenglishman]

Process in C1 with a 150% size conversion. This is required as most publications insist on minimum file sizes.


What are you saving the images as????

[chris.bailey]

I would think twice about tape for archiving, great for server backups but as your only archive for pictures... I have gone the DVD route as well but am just adding firewire drives one at a time to my setup leaving the DVD's as backup. The new LaCie drives can even be mounted in mini racks 5 at a time which makes for a neat 600GB solution.

My first Digicam (An Olympus something or other came with a 512 kb card which was a whopper at the time.

[CoolToolGuy]

Kenny,

I notice you are using a Flash Trax. I am wavering between that and the Image Tank G2. Do you use the screen very much while on a shoot? How about after the shoot but before you dump them to the PC? If so, have you heard anything about support for the new raw format for the MKII? I read the info on the web site that says it will store any file you dump to it but it might not be able to display it. I'm not likely to need the MKII format any time soon, but I'm wondering how the upgrade support is from these folks.

Thanks in advance.

[KennyG]

I'll respond to everyone in one post.

I archive the RAW files for as long as I am doing this work. The large media compliant TIF files I keep until a couple of months into the new season. So, sometime at the end of May I will start dropping them off a month at a time as they can always be re-created from the RAW if push comes to shove. I have had requests 6 months after a shoot for a file for a season review in a magazine and having it on hand saves a lot of time.

DVD takes too long to burn and I just don't have the time to break up a couple of day's work to span disks. I only use DVD to submit files. I am more than happy with AIT and tape (IT is what pays my mortage). I will probably off-line everything to a fibre channel to SATA 500gb RAID array as primary back up, now that the prices are getting sensible and then keep the tapes off-site, just in case.

I trust the Flash Trax as do a lot of people I work with. You get the file's built-in thumbnail views for everything but JPG (where you can zoom) and they have said that the MK-II will not present a problem. At least they have updates on their site, which is more than can be said for some. I am always cautious when recommending peripheral hardware, but I am happy to endorse the Flash Trax.

One of my early digital cameras was a Casio QV10 with built-in RAM and serial connection. Mobile phones take better pictures!

Now, here is a golden oldie. Taken with a Kodak DC220 in the Prost garage at the UK Silverstone GP in 2001. Neither the camera or the Prost team are around any more. Now this is archiving old rubbish.

http://www.stiuk.dial.pipex.com/prost-1.jpg

[iwatkins]

Kenny,

You want one (or more) of these babies: http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?id=10118 :twisted:

Cheers

Ian

[BobbyC]

Great post Kenny, I'm running up against the same wall. I spent a whole day this week burning DVD's. I was so happy when I got that thing, now the DVD's don't seem that big anymore! I have a press room available that I set my desktop up in and burn CD's of the RAW files, but it's still a pain to go back and forth let alone set it all up and take it down. (My events are one day and probably a lot smaller than yours)

I've been toying between a laptop and a Flashtrax and I think you've convinced me to go that route. I'm thinking I can have it downloading in my vest pocket while I'm shooting. What do you think?

[KennyG]

I've been toying between a laptop and a Flashtrax and I think you've convinced me to go that route. I'm thinking I can have it downloading in my vest pocket while I'm shooting. What do you think?

That is essentially how I work. I have a side pocket attached to my Billingham 555 bag in which I keep the Flash Trax and some spare cards. When I get a break in the action and the card is more than half full, I just stuff it into the Flash Trax, pop the second card into the camera (format if previously used) and not even care how long the download is taking.

The big benefit is when I get back to the ranch. Stick the Flash Trax on the charger, plug in the USB-2 cable, run Downloader Pro, and a few gig of images magically appear on my local disks in rapid time and correctly sorted. What more can a busy photographer ask for?

Ian, I have six of the Lacie 120GB firewire drives which cost me next to nothing. I had 10 but sold 4 for £10 less than the complete lot cost me (that is £1.66 per drive). I think that unit may be a few quid more? Nice though, and maybe an alternative to the SATA box.

[evilenglishman]

you could save a lot of space by just trashing the tiffs once they have served their purpose. If you keep a record of the settings you used on the images, you can always duplicate what you did anytime it might be needed.

[KennyG]

you could save a lot of space by just trashing the tiffs once they have served their purpose. If you keep a record of the settings you used on the images, you can always duplicate what you did anytime it might be needed.

I don't fancy entering and keeping 200 records a week, it is easier to keep the files. I just don't have the time. I could re-write my database to store the info but I am not that masochistic.

My motorsport diary is a nightmare what with extra meetings on all the bank holidays. I asked my wife what was her view of my very busy season and the answer came back that her view was my car leaving at dawn on a Saturday and coming back at dusk on a Sunday. I do not have a free weekend for the next six months since the clubs/circuits have sorted out the meeting clashes this year.

[KiwiRob]

Have you got any more MG6R4 photos, I have always loved that car and if I could (more like was allowed) I would love buy one one day.

[TomVeil]

Have you got any more MG6R4 photos, I have always loved that car and if I could (more like was allowed) I would love buy one one day.

Keep dreaming Kiwi boy.

[evilenglishman]

I don't fancy entering and keeping 200 records a week, it is easier to keep the files. I just don't have the time. I could re-write my database to store the info but I am not that masochistic.


What I meant was that you could record the settings in an action and then save the action instead of the image.
A PS action is what? Less than 1k?