location picture storage - suggestions

[Longwatcher]

Okay I think I asked this question about 2 months ago. Looking for better solution (if there is one) to MY problem of taking too many pictures outside of the studio and not having a good mechanism for storing those pictures until I get back to my workstation at home.

The Problem: I take more pictures faster then I have capability to put in storage for when I am on location
Symptoms:
1. On one of my for money photoshoots I will take between 1200 and 2000 pictures in a 5 hour session. Given that I use a 1DsMkII and shoot RAW+M2 jpeg this equates to around 16MB per image or a need of 32GB of storage.
2. I currently have a 30GB Delkin Picture Pad that runs at around 3Mbs from card to drive (this equates to about 25 mins with a 2GB card) (it runs at about 20Mbs from drive to computer via USB 2.0 - but not important)
3. I currently have a total of 3256MB of fast cards, 1000MB of medium card, and 1136MB of really slow cards (total: 5392MB) or about 27Gb less then I need.
4. The fastest portable drive I am aware of is the Epson P2000 running at around 7mbs from card to drive (I have been told about 7mins w/1GB drive, so a 2GB should take 15 minutes), with barely enough storage capacity at 40GB (meaning only one session max).
5. The largest storage capacity I am aware of is a wolverine drive at 100GB, but it runs at 2-3Mbs (same speed at picture pad). Also, while it lets verify the file, it won't let me verify the picture (given last shoot's issue, this is not acceptable)
6. If using my Sandisk Ultra II cards, I seem to fill then up as fast as I can take pictures or about 5 minutes if shooting away, 15 in normal mode.


So it appears to me, the Epson is close, but not quite fast enough for my needs (I need the card ready to go when I get done shooting up one, but it might work, but will only let me store one session. Then the cost $500, plus two batteries $60 each; total $620. I still need to get one more 2GB CF card at $180 so cost= $900.

One alternative is to buy a whole bunch of 2GB CF cards. I would need 15 to cover a whole session. cost = $2700 (for that I can almost get 1DM2)

A second alternative is to pickup a laptop and just cart that around (I hate taking laptops on trips - too big) Cost about $1800 with everything I would HAVE to have with a laptop since I would then have one with me, might as well use it. It would be fast and no storage problems. Just bulky and asking to be walked off with.

My current solution is to buy some cards and use my picture pad to suppliment the cards.
In a 5 hour session, I can probably download 8x2GB cards to the picture pad. I figure if I get 4 more 2Gb CF cards, this will get me close to what I need and if only doing one photo session provide dual storage for the second half of the session. Cost $735

I am open to lower cost or better alternatives if any one can think of one. If the Epson had a 80 or 100Gb drive, for the same price (or less) I would consider it (actually I would probably buy it), but 40GB is just not enough of an advantage.

BTW: I also considered
- Taking pictures slower (ruin my fun and not get as many good pictures)
- Switching to jpeg only (I like being able to fix my WB and exposure mistakes, so this is not a good solution)
- Getting the laptop and strapping it to my back and downloading straight to it via firewire.
- Wireless transmitter to laptop in car. (I can't afford the laptop, much less the transmitter and its not available quite yet, which leads me to.

I need to make up my mind like today, since I have a shoot on location (if weather nice) this weekend coming up and need the solution before then. My plan is this evening to order the four 2GB Sandisk Ultra II from BH this evening (if they are still in stock)

Again any suggestions for something I am not aware of appreciated.
Remember,
need 60+GB, 10+ (prefer 20+Mbs) transfer card to device, under $500, with changeable batteries and hopefully ability to view images to confirm I got them if going for a portable drive.

Thanks,

[patbob]

I don't see that you got a reply. It sounds to me like you are running into a hardware I/O bandwidth problem somewhere in your solution. A laptop may not help -- it takes mine about 3-5 minutes to copy 512MB from an SD card using the PCMCIA adapter. The 256MB CF card takes about half that. 3Mbps sounds in line with those off-the-cuff measurements, so you may be hitting an I/O bandwidth limit of the CF card.

There are only two solutions for increasing the I/O bandwidth: A) buy new hardware with better bandwidth, or B) buy duplicate hardware and ping-pong between them. For (B) you may need a few extra cards so you can shoot while you have two copies going on.

Redundant portable drives is probably better anyway -- one head crash on your portable drive and you're in trouble. With two portables, if ones dies you will still have some pictures on the other. Remember, few hard disk drives will survive being dropped while spinning.. seems putting all your turst in one for a professional shoot is, well, a bit risky maybe?

One thing I've learned with my laptop is to copy the files from the card, then do another pass to delete them. This is quite a bit faster than moving them over (does a copy and delete of each file). If your portable drive allows that, try it and see if it helps.

Lastly, if you determine the hard drive itself is the bottleneck (unlikely, but possible), Hitatchi has some 7200RPM laptop drives out there (a 60GB and an 80GB). I upgraded my laptop drive to one of those a while back and it is noticably faster for file access now. You might even be able to upgrade the drive in your current device to one of these.. but honestly I doubt this is where your bottleneck is.

hope that helps,
patbob

[kiwimichael]

Hallo Longwatcher,

You may want to look at the NextoCF PSD - it is etremely fast!! It will copy a 2Gb Sandisk Ultra II in less than 5 minutes which is less than the time it takes you to fill the card. I find also that the transfer from the PSD to the PC is also very fast. If you only require it as a fast storgae device (i.e. don't need to be able to view the images) I would definitely recommend it.

I shoot motorsports and can also fill my cards (2 x 2GB Ultra II) very quickly but the NexTO performs more than adequately. Battery life is also very good but can be supplemented with an optional external battery.
The unit has a very simple interface - one button which can be pressed short or long. If you mis the copy confirmation, it will be displayed next time that the unit is switched on. Furthermore the remaining storage capacity is displayed. Should you insert a CF card twice it will warn you that it has already been copied.

For a review/comparison and timings see: http://fhoude34.free.fr/PortableHD.htm

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Michael

[ae1969]

Considering the sheer size of storage you need............

Mini-laptop with a 80-100 gig drive........ Transfer all your files via firewire...... or plug in a reader.

When you get back to base.......transfer all files and be ready to go again.

[wannasmaxx]

Wow, someone's been thread-digging....

[razyl]

Hi there,

Have you seen the Compact Drive PD70X? It's very quick at ~16mbps and as it takes a 2.5" hard drive you can have up to 100GB. I've been looking at them here in Australia and can get a 40GB unit for around A$300 with a free car charger. Another bonus is the 70X runs off AA batteries so great for long trips without a power source.

Only downside I can see with this device: no picture viewer or any confirmation / verification of the download so I guess you have to trust it works each time!

Cheers
Darryn

[Longwatcher]

This is a really old thread that got revisited.
What I have now is
I have
- 4x2GB Sandisk Ultra II CF cards (plus what I had before)
- The Delkin Picture Pad
- A Wolverine 80GB Flashpac. I found they go about three times faster then Picture Pad, but still can't view pictures on device. For trivia though, the Delkin with USB 2.0 adapter transfer from device to computer faster then the wolverine, but I need the speed for camera to device.

The above seems to be acceptable since I found out what caused my lost image problem so I trust my camera to perform correctly again.

The Nexto and PDX-70 came out about two weeks after I got the Wolverine. Too late.

And the primary limitation to speed is the card reader interface, not the hard drive speed. The hard drives can handle much higher data transfer rates if the card reader would provide them.

Finally nothing I do is so critical that I have to spend extra to insure against loss at the shoot. I will lose some of my money and time, but affects no one but myself. I am more concerned by long term loss, which is why everything gets archived as soon as I get home. If I was concerned about loss at the shoot I would go with the device and full CF card option. Which means, copy card to device and then drop still full CF card in the full bag and not use until images from device on computer and fully archived, then clear cards. For my advert shoots I do occasionally, I basically do this; but I don't need to take as many pictures either and I have enough cards for this.

Thanks for trying though, even if a bit late.