raw vs. mraw for trip overseas

I am headed to Ecuador in a couple of days. I am bringing a laptop to store my photos. (bird photography) but yesterday I was testing out the logistics of getting photos back to my work computer I noticed that I could only get like 20 shots on a cd and I got to thinking I don't want to go thru 100 cd's to transfer all my images. so the question is if I shoot mraw instead of full raw will I regret it? or is there a way I can plug my laptop into my computer and just transfer the full raw direct? I don't want to spend two weeks in Ecuador shooting pics and find out all my stuff is ruined.

thanks
mark

No offense but... your laptop / work computer does not have a usb port for USB stick or external drive?
Is this 1990?

I'd just get extra memory cards and transfer things when back home, that's how I do it at least.

As scotchtape has indicated, do you not have an external USB2/3 port on your laptop? Surely, you must have a port that you can plug an external mouse into? I have 3 USB3 ports and 2 USB2 ports on my laptop. I have a small USB3/USB2 compatible Western Digital My Passport 1Tb drive that I carry with me to backup my image files after each days photography - http://www.wdc.com …ucts/products.a​spx?id=470. It has been to Africa three times, Ecuador once and to various parts of the US multiple times with no problem. It is always in my carry on luggage so very little chance of losing it. Alternatively, you can buy a few 64Gb flash drives that will hold a very large number of images as well. Either solution will let you transfer your files directly to your "work computer".

If you don't have any USB2/3 ports, then maybe you have an HDMI port? If so, you may be able to purchase a converter that lets you plug USB2/3 into the HDMI port. If you don't have any USB2/3 ports, then maybe you can get a computer shop to install one or two into your laptop before you go to Ecuador.

As far as Mraw files go, Mraw files can be as much as half the size of Raw files, so why lose all that detail when you don't have to. Hope this helps.

WesternGuy

P.S. I just checked Amazon and you can buy a 1Tb WD Passport drive for about $70 - http://www.amazon.com …n+digital+passp​ort+drives. This is about the same price as a 128Gb flash drive, and a lot cheaper than memory cards, plus you only have to keep track of the one "unit".

At a cost of around 3 cents a raw image, just buy more memory cards.

I'd avoid writing to CD unless it's a 3rd or 4th order backup. The poor I/O of writing to CD especially for GBs of files just wouldn't make it worth it IMO, not to mention that CDs or DVDs are very fragile mediums. A few scratches and there's a real possibility of data corruption/loss.

Surely your laptop has at least a USB 2.0 slot, so I'd carry several memory cards to get you through at least a days worth of shooting and an external HD. copy your files to your laptop and then take a second backup to the external HD. If this is a rare or once in a lifetime trip and If you have an older laptop & hard drive, you have to prepare for failure, better safe than sorry....

Get a dropbox account, and enough cards to last the entire trip without re-using any of them. Shoot a card, upload to computer, get a new card. Dropbox is automatic cloud backup. Camera->computer->dropbox. You now have 3 copies. No need for any extra hardware.

External hard drive/s
More memory cards.
Shoot full res.

Don't mess with optical disks.

GeoKras1989 wrote in post #17023323
Get a dropbox account, and enough cards to last the entire trip without re-using any of them. Shoot a card, upload to computer, get a new card. Dropbox is automatic cloud backup. Camera->computer->dropbox. You now have 3 copies. No need for any extra hardware.

You need to have reliable internet everywhere if you're going to rely on cloud servers, which isn't always the case overseas; I've run into troubles have reliable or fast internet overseas, even in larger cities.


I'd also recommend getting a back-up external hard drive. I bought a mil-spec USB drive for ~$80 (Amazon link: 1TB Silicon Power) which is waterproof and shockproof, its powered through USB, and it fits in my bag easily since its about the size of a smartphone; I love it and don't have to worry quite as much carrying in around since its shockproof and can take some abuse. I highly recommend something like that for travel.

That is quite interesting. Most surveys rank the continental US as poor in internet access and speed. Most third-world countries that never had a well-developed land-line system are way ahead of the US in deploying high-speed, broad-band access to the internet. One caveat, s'il vous plait, all my info comes from news magazines and second-hand accounts of others' travels. I haven't been overseas since well before the internet age. I think it was the bronze age. At least that's how I feel, somedays.

Heya,

A handful of USB sticks, or a USB hard drive would be plenty to hold your photos and transfer to any other computer.

Why on Earth would you want to potentially shoot less quality, for the sake of saving time on transferring from optical media? You're taking a trip to do photos and you're willing to sacrifice quality of your photos? Really?

Very best,

To OP: I recommend a 1 Tb external drive that is USB powered. I like my WD passport and it only cost $80
Shoot in RAW to retain the best possible data. And get a few 32 gig cards, Sandisk 45/Mb/s should be fine.

I will comment for Japan's available public internet.
Assuming you will be a tourist, without a smartphone and data plan, the internet is available at most cafes' and restaurants, always password protected and usually not free.
Mcdonalds and Starbucks are free, but you must get the password from an employee.

The rest of Japan, outside of major cities, is extremely limited access,
even in my town only three restaurants offer it to paying diners.
They have hard line computers at the local library though.

At my house I rely on my Iphone tethering for internet, although I could get High Speed DSL type line for about $55 USD a month, tethering with my existing smartphone is free.

Added info: So much for the idea below which addressed getting SD cards. I just noticed by your profile you have a 40D which takes CF cards. If that info is current SD cards won't be of much help so you need to fall back on to one of the other ideas since CF cards can be expensive when compared to SD cards.

I see you are from Florida so take the advice above and buy more memory. Go to your local Best Buy and pick up whatever they have on sale. Typically sale prices are running just over $1 per gigabyte so a 16 GB card will likely set you back about $18.

I get around 600 full RAW shots on these cards... at $10 a pop, they about double in price for double the size too ($20-32gb, $35-64gb)

http://www.amazon.com …=8-3&keywords=pny+sd+card

My mistake, I have never owned a 40D and just assumed it took SD Card as the 70D does.