Backing up pics during wedding? When? Rethinking my backup strategy--proactive

Hey gang,
I am evaluating my wedding backup process and looking for some thoughts. Because I am anal about loosing/dropping etc my CF cards I have never downloaded or backed up cards during a wedding. But because portable hard drives are so affordable now I am trying to come up with a better plan.
Here is what I typically do. Take the CF cards and put them in a secure place (secret pocket in pants?/jacket or bad) I then download them when I am finished.
Lately I have had time inbetween the ceremony and the the reception and have thought about downloading them to my laptop.
Is it possible to copy them to a hard drive----without having a laptop/computer? (wishful thinking?)

Also-- is anyone using 8gig cards regularly? I just purchased a few 4gig and am thinking about even larger ----- I personally think I am more apt to have problems loosing a card than with a bad card----maybe my thinking is out of wack. dunno
(always trying to improve and perfect!)

I tend to use smaller cards 1-2 gigs, because if the card goes bad I'll only lose 100 or so pictures vs 500. I've already had a card go bad on me so it's not exactly uncommon.

As for backup strategies, there are backup hd's with built-in card slots for one touch backups then, they act as a portable HD when you get home so all you do is plug and go.

I use a 4GB card in each camera, I don't often need other cards. The camera's a safe place to store them Seems to me there's risk in backing them up, the more you mess with them the more can go wrong. I've never lost an image or a card.

I have a CardSafe, once i've finished a card it goes in there and then into my pocket. I should get a zip put onto that pocket.

I use a 40GB SpaceDrive. As soon as a card is filled up, I put it in my pocket. As soon as things slow down a bit (e.g. driving from one location to another, reception, dinner, etc), I copy the full cards to the hard drive (both the hard drive and the card never leave my person). When the night is over, I copy the remaining cards on my way home.

What had me thinking is I was hired to do a boxing event and was going through 2gig cards. The place ended up very lively by the end---I was ringside and felt like if I lost a card I was out a ton. Maybe larger cards with fewer changes could be the ticket........but then *anal-ness creaping in* if I a card goes bad I am SOL......

There has to be some type of portable HD with a screen and built in card slot just for this? Has David Jay made one of these yet?

stathunter wrote in post #4089034
There has to be some type of portable HD with a screen and built in card slot just for this?

They already exist. Put the CF card in, push the copy button, and let it go.

Do an ebay search for "Digital Partner" and you'll get just what you want. I've used this for a while for long vacations, but not for weddings. I find that just putting them in a safe place on yourself is the best method of security. Every time you pull the card out you have potential to lose or damage it. Solid state cards are much more reliable than hard drives.

Oh, and BTW... I moved on to 4GB cards just for convenience. Well, after getting schooled for the SECOND time with CF card failure, I am selling my 4GB cards and going only 2GB style. I only get about 115 shots out of each card but after having two cards messed up, I'm not taking any more chances. Anyone wanna trade 4GB ultra II for two 2GB ultra II?? ??

I use 4 gig cards and keep them in my pocket. The more a card is inserted and removed from a memory slot, the more likely it is to fail. Card failure at some point is inevitable but it's best not to increase the likelihood of failure.

We leave every wedding with a copy of the images on a mac book and the images still on the cards, I would feel very nervous leaving a wedding with just the images on the cards hence why we dont do it.

If we did have a problem with a card we would have a much better chance of doing something about it if we discovered the issue whilst we were still at the wedding even if it meant restaging something.

I remember reading an article about what the wedding photographer did to ensure the security of the images for Eva Longoria's wedding and I am sure if one of us had been shooting it we would have taken the same sort of steps, multiple backup HDD's, images on DVD's etc before they left the venue ....... are our current clients any less worthy of the same protection just because they arent famous though ?

We use 4gb cards, but rarely have more than 2 gig on them and they are spready across 5 bodies but using 4gb cards means that we can change cards when its most convinient to us rather than when were forced to due to getting close to running out of space which then results in rushing and risk to the card etc.

picturecrazy wrote in post #4089141
Oh, and BTW... I moved on to 4GB cards just for convenience. Well, after getting schooled for the SECOND time with CF card failure, I am selling my 4GB cards and going only 2GB style. I only get about 115 shots out of each card but after having two cards messed up, I'm not taking any more chances. Anyone wanna trade 4GB ultra II for two 2GB ultra II?? ??

Return them to Sandisk for a new one. I use 4GB Extreme III and have never had a problem.

tim wrote in post #4089697
Return them to Sandisk for a new one. I use 4GB Extreme III and have never had a problem.

well, getting a new one is fine and dandy... it's just the images that were lost that irritate me. I've had a Lexar Pro fail, and now an Extreme III fail. It doesn't appear either of these top two companies can be 100% relied upon. Not that I would expect it. Data loss is just a fact. It's not IF... it's WHEN.

Great info and insight guys! Thanks.
What would be cool is a pocket wizard that sends the pictures to my laptop (wirelessly) while also saving it to my card..........anyone?

Anyone who has not lost images on a CF card is lucky .. it's just a matter of time before you do.

I'm torn between using 8GB cards and putting my trust in data recovery software should something go seriously wrong and using 2GB cards and spreading the risk. Right now I'm using the 2GB cards.

But like all electronics the question is not if, but when failure occurs.
Mike

stathunter wrote in post #4090590
Great info and insight guys! Thanks.
What would be cool is a pocket wizard that sends the pictures to my laptop (wirelessly) while also saving it to my card..........anyone?

The 40D and 1 series are capable of doing this, provided you buy the extra hardware.