Holiday pictures on flash drive

I am looking for a way to back up photos on our holiday. If I were to get a memory card reader and a flash drive, would I be able to move photos from camera SD card to the flash drive? Can this be done more than one time, say each evening? Does the memory card reader just use the camera power to operate? I have lots of SD cards but just would like a bit of insurance in case something happens. Never mind, I think what I am asking is impossible. Tried to delete, but kept getting error 3 message.

It probably would be a good idea to let us know what camera you are using. It probably doesn't matter too much, but then again depending on the model you may have some other options.

Let us know as well are you using Windows or Mac?

In most circumstances you won't be able to directly connect the camera to a card reader and accomplish anything. You might be able to accomplish some direct transfers with a tablet, again depending on what you have.

If you are staying in hotels that have a business center, you could have a large SD card, say a 128 GB, and move the contents of a 16 GB card to that 128 GB card, in theory 8 times using the business center computer. That is a simple copy, paste from the small card to the big card. That makes the assumption that the 16 GB is near full each time. That might be an unlikely scenario, depending on whether you shot RAW, JPG, or both (do you know). Once the small card has had its contents moved, I would suggest an in-camera low level format of the card.

Thanks for the info John. I have an older Rebel XS and use Mac at home for computer stuff. Will only be shooting Large Fine pictures. I have lots of SD cards so I think I will just fill up cards and not stress over backup. Thanks again.

Roofjac wrote in post #18629825
I have lots of SD cards so I think I will just fill up cards and not stress over backup. Thanks again.

That is probably the best plan. As you can see by the chart below (page 64 of the XS manual) you can stuff quite a few images on a 2 GB card even at the highest resolution...like 514! I do suggest you do a low level format on the cards prior to use, especially if there is any chance some of the "old" cards have been used in another camera, like a P&S.

I will do the format for sure on all the cards. I think I will try to use different cards for different parts of the trip. If something goes wrong then I have only lost a percentage of my photos. Thanks for your help.

Ravpower Filehub Plus is similar to what you want, worth considering.

Thanks Tim for the link. We leave on our trip tomorrow so will have to look into it when we get back.

Roofjac wrote in post #18629586
Does the memory card reader just use the camera power to operate?

I don't think card reader works like that. Card reader is a client. I think camera's USB interface is also a client. You will need host to use usb card reader. Plus I don't think camera can power a card read properly. You may want to use some kind of labtop if card read is your intention.

Having that said, USB flash drive is not the best choice for backup. Most if not all of them are lower quality than an average SD card. But since you are mostly writing data there a few time, it should work.