media storage while on vacation?

[orangeclaw]

I will be going to the Galapagos in early June and I don't want to run out of memory and I need some advice on picture storage. I am debating on stocking up on CF cards, borrowing a laptop for storage, or I have read of portable media storage devices but they are expensive....

Any ideas or advice will be greatly appreciated

[nutsnbolts]

Epson P3000/P5000 which is very popular.

The Canon m80, however, it's not available everywhere. There are other alternatives popping up here and there but the time and tested device that is popular, I would say would be the Epson.

[Bushplane Ken]

I have an Epson P2000 (40 GB hard drive). It has served me quite well but once I started shooting raw & jpeg I found its size a bit small. I purchased a Hyperdrive Colorspace with a 160 GB hard drive last fall in preparation for a two week trip to Alaska in July 2008. I haven't used the Hyperdive extensively but so far it is working out well. The Hyperdirve has a couple of useful features; it will run on an external AA battery pack if need be and the internal battery is relatively inexpensive to purchase (I bought a spare).

The Epson has a great screen to review your photos. The screen on the Colorspace is much smaller but is useful non the less to confirm the photos are there and to allow deleting of obvious junk.

[tjrenegade]

I just picked up a Digital Foci 80G I picked it up for $114 Adorama had it on sale. You can't view the pictures on it and its not super fast on transfers but it does the job well enough for me and it simple to use.

[ed rader]

I will be going to the Galapagos in early June and I don't want to run out of memory and I need some advice on picture storage. I am debating on stocking up on CF cards, borrowing a laptop for storage, or I have read of portable media storage devices but they are expensive....

Any ideas or advice will be greatly appreciated


i have a 120 gb storage device (digital foci ) and frankly i never use it. when i go out of town i take my laptop and it has plenty of storage space. i also carry 30 gigs of CF cards.

ed rader

[nutsnbolts]

Ed:

You're so special. Can I be like you! Hahaha j/k.

You can if you want get the 40GB Epson P-3000 and do the mod to it to get 120GB. There is a link here somewhere of the tutorial. the P-5000 is 80gb fyi.

[Riff Raff]

I used to have one of these hard drive units (a few years back... I think it held a whole 4GB!), but with the rapidly shrinking prices of flash cards I think they're somewhat outdated unless you're going on a month long trip or something. With the current mail-in rebates, you can get a 16GB Sandisk Extreme III (a higher end card) for $110 after rebate. I'm seeing 2GB low-end cards sold for slightly under $10. Estimate about how much space you'd need on your trip, double it if you want to be really safe, and the compare then price of a hard drive versus how much the extra flash memory would cost. Then consider whether you'd get more actual usage out of the flash cards.

[nutsnbolts]

I used to have one of these hard drive units (a few years back... I think it held a whole 4GB!), but with the rapidly shrinking prices of flash cards I think they're somewhat outdated unless you're going on a month long trip or something. With the current mail-in rebates, you can get a 16GB Sandisk Extreme III (a higher end card) for $110 after rebate. I'm seeing 2GB low-end cards sold for slightly under $10. Estimate about how much space you'd need on your trip, double it if you want to be really safe, and the compare the price of a hard drive versus how much the extra flash memory would cost. Also, I'd feel safer about having the photos stored on flash cards.

Well, I can't say you should rule these out. These are for people who are willing to not have to carry a laptop (although it may be more helpful) to offload their images. No matter how many CF/SD cards you have, at some given point, you need to off load it and with the Epson P3000, I use it as a viewer for people (due to the awesome screen) and to store the images in while on a trip which I can carry with me 24/7 in the bag. The laptop will be too big to carry around.

Once I have the time, all I have to do is plug the device into the computer and do the transfer from there from all my shoots. I don't have to worry about each card one by one.

I think when the laptop becomes smaller, that's when these things will become obselete for it will match portability. Already it's becoming smaller and smaller.

[orangeclaw]

Thank you guys for the input, I will take it all into consideration (ask the wife how much I can spend).

[nutsnbolts]

Thank you guys for the input, I will take it all into consideration (ask the wife how much I can spend).

Take advantage of valentines day, it may help! Hahaha...good luck.

[APadilla]

You going to the Galapagos Island, that is great. I have been to Panama, Colombia and the Amazon River. What I suggest is to carry as light as possible. I have CF cards stocked up. You have still June to grab any specials on cards. I don't know what camera you have but I have the Rebel XTi/400D and it uses type II cards so I get the 8GB. Enjoy your trip and post the photos.

[Tapeman]

Some of the older PSDs like my Epson P2000 may be for sale cheap, only 40gb but a good back-up with a nice screen.

[tdodd]

Personally, I take a small laptop and a 120GB personal storage device for downloading my images while away from home. I think it is a risky strategy to dump your files onto a single device, on the assumption that it will not get lost/damaged/stolen or simply break etc.. My files go firstly from CF card direct to the PSD and then, separately from the CF card to the laptop. Only when I've checked the photos out on the laptop will I reformat the cards ready for the next day.

[nutsnbolts]

Personally, I take a small laptop and a 120GB personal storage device for downloading my images while away from home. I think it is a risky strategy to dump your files onto a single device, on the assumption that it will not get lost/damaged/stolen or simply break etc.. My files go firstly from CF card direct to the PSD and then, separately from the CF card to the laptop. Only one I've checked the photos out on the laptop will I reformat the cards ready for the next day.

Anything and everything is a risk. You can drop your bag that has your laptop and cf cards and all can be lost. Whichever method you choose to ensure that you have your pictures, it's all a gamble.

People who has 8gb cards risk corrupting their card or losing their card and that would be 5+ gigs worth of images. That's a lot of images!

Who knows, even at the end of the day when you have all your images in your laptop, your laptop HD can go corrupt. There goes your images again.

My only advice, go with top name brands, don't cheap out on CF cards, make sure you have redundant backups and cross your fingers.

[ben_r_]

Ed:

You're so special. Can I be like you! Hahaha j/k.

You can if you want get the 40GB Epson P-3000 and do the mod to it to get 120GB. There is a link here somewhere of the tutorial. the P-5000 is 80gb fyi.
Thats exactly what I would like to do... Anyone out there know the link to a good tutorial on opening the Epson P-3000 up and swapping the hard drive?

[ben_r_]

Nevermind, found the thread: LINK (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=354751&highlight=epson+p-3000+bigger)

[nutsnbolts]

Thats exactly what I would like to do... Anyone out there know the link to a good tutorial on opening the Epson P-3000 up and swapping the hard drive?

Here you go. I went through my bookmarks.

Here is the POTN Post about it. (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=354751&highlight=epson+120gb)

Here is his site on the tutorial! (http://juliuslagula.blogspot.com/2007/08/upgrading-hard-drive-of-p-3000.html)

Now get hacking! I mean get cracking!

[ed rader]

Ed:

You're so special. Can I be like you! Hahaha j/k.

You can if you want get the 40GB Epson P-3000 and do the mod to it to get 120GB. There is a link here somewhere of the tutorial. the P-5000 is 80gb fyi.

sure you can. e-mail me and i'll make you a hell of a deal on the 120-gig digital porter :D.

ed rader

[nutsnbolts]

sure you can. e-mail me and i'll make you a hell of a deal on the 120-gig digital porter :D.

ed rader

Dang I have to stop derailing these topics. So yes, Ben you have the link, OP, you should have a lot of information and decision on your mind.

There is also a 2 hour show i recorded last night of the Galapagos. Reason for recording it is to see what photo opportunities there are there. Duh, of course lots but you're a lucky b to go!

Another show that is ok...eh..just ok is Travel to the edge with Art Wolfe. Ok, i'm going off topic again.

[orangeclaw]

thanks again! I feel very fortunate to go, took a lot of saving money....buy lenses/go to Galapagos...is it bad that that was a difficult decision to make? I am stocking up on batteries and equipment, I just need to resolve this memory issue.

I will need to buy a converter to charge my equipment, I hope most of the places I am staying have outlets. We are doing 9 days on 7 islands, can't stay on the boats otherwise I will be green the whole time.

[nutsnbolts]

In a nutshell, you can't go wrong with any of these devices. They all do what they do amazingly depends on what is more important to you. Here is a simple view of the devices.

Hyperspace = the fastest transfer speed from CF/SD to device
Epson = The best screen/viewer
Canon M80 = Canon's device which shares the same battery as the XTI/400D (I think) and has the same look and feel (more look) in controls as in the back of your camera.

The other's I'm not sure what "features" they had but those were the top 3 I looked at. I am actually in the hopes of buying a hyperspace for it's speed transfers but not really a priority for me atm.

[TooManyHobbies]

I can buy cheap SD cards and transfer to those from the CF inside my camera (1d and 1ds). That allows me to store cheaply while shooting on more expensive and fast CF cards. I have an Espon P-2000 but it has corrupted things in the past and can't read all my cards.