Storing Photos Whilst Travelling?

[leightonjames]

Hi Everyone, Hope you had a good Christmas!

I am here to ask where I can store photos whilst travelling (6-12 months in Australia) What would be the best option? Storage Websites, Lots of memory cards, Portable Storage?

Many Thanks,

Leighton James

[GetCarter]

I save them onto a notebook and upload them to my webspace as backup... but you obviously need a hotspot to do that, so depends how far into the desert you are going!

[leightonjames]

GetCarter said:

I save them onto a notebook and upload them to my webspace as backup... but you obviously need a hotspot to do that, so depends how far into the desert you are going!

Ah, Well i Don't have a notebook and I only have 300MB of webspace. 30 percent of which is already used. I was looking at some websites, Snapfish but that only lets you store Jpegs, no RAW. Dilemma!

[Olivero]

On the last long travel I burned to DVD but this time will take TWO portable drives and keep everything there. Only lost on DVD the whole trip, so only one days shoot, but still a shame.

[andy-xr]

Get a Pro Flickr account

[crmcatee]

plenty of places to burn your images onto DVD/CD - make two copies - post one home, keep the other to minimise the risk of potentially losing both.

Failing that - get yourself a laptop.

[Famous Graham]

andy-xr said:

Get a Pro Flickr account

Doesn't take RAWs afaik?

I used an external Freecom Toughdrive over my 9 months of travelling. I thought it had died on me about halfway through and I was absolutely gutted. Sent it back home thinking I would send it off to an (expensive) data recovery company when I got back, but as it turned out, it was just the USB socket in the second hand laptop I picked up

Used said laptop for the rest of the images.

I did intend to burn DVDs and send them back, but I never got around to it. As well as the HDD storage, I was processing on the go, so I could delete a load of RAWs off the cards themselves (had 16GB worth), ie duff shots rather than RAWs I'd processed.

[Simpo Two]

I would take a 12" laptop. As extra back-up you could then also burn the files to disk as you went along.

[andy-xr]

Famous Graham said:

andy-xr said:

Get a Pro Flickr account

Doesn't take RAWs afaik?

Ah, bugger. Missed that bit

[RobDickinson]

How much do you think your talking about?

I use an image tank from time to time but its old and only 30gig, I wouldnt trust memory cards over 6-12 months, how big go they get?


Prehaps buy a portable 1tb drive and use that USB in borrowed PC's + lots of cards?

[cirks]

I've got a Vosonic 8860 (160GB) but they do a 320GB version of it too. There are some annoying features of it but it displays RAW, stores music and video too. Just plug in your card and either edit or do a full back up. I'd still suggest burning to DVD and posting home but as a way of at least viewing your pics whilst away and sorting them out as well as having an extra back-up it (or something similar) may suit your needs without having the size of a laptop to carry with you.

[tinman0]

leightonjames said:

I am here to ask where I can store photos whilst travelling (6-12 months in Australia) What would be the best option? Storage Websites, Lots of memory cards, Portable Storage?

Portable storage device (http://fhoude34.free.fr/PortableHD.htm). Got one here because MsT takes absolutely loads when we are in the road and its easier than getting the laptop out all the time (and less conspicuous).

Memory cards can get lost, websites will take an age to upload.

[VxDuncan]

tinman0 said:

leightonjames said:

I am here to ask where I can store photos whilst travelling (6-12 months in Australia) What would be the best option? Storage Websites, Lots of memory cards, Portable Storage?

Portable storage device (http://fhoude34.free.fr/PortableHD.htm). Got one here because MsT takes absolutely loads when we are in the road and its easier than getting the laptop out all the time (and less conspicuous).

Memory cards can get lost, websites will take an age to upload.

I have a couple of these. Did rave about them, but these days the cheap ones are more hastle than they are worth. Mine can hardly copy one 4gbb card before the (fresh, new) Li-Ion batt runs out. And even over USB2 it's slow.

[LongQ]

leightonjames said:

Hi Everyone, Hope you had a good Christmas!

I am here to ask where I can store photos whilst travelling (6-12 months in Australia) What would be the best option? Storage Websites, Lots of memory cards, Portable Storage?

Many Thanks,

Leighton James

Leighton,

If you want to read about what a pro does (albeit for about 5k images in a 2 week shoot rather than several months) search through the Luminous Landscape site where Michael Reichmann writes on the subject about once a year.

Currently one of the more interesting options as a straight storage device seems to be a Sanho device which can be bought as a shell into which you can fit your own drives ... but you still have a single point of failure to deal with. Also although there seems to be a UK distributor I have yet to see an ad. for the product as far as I can recall.

You could consider setting up your own home server machine and uploading to that on the interwebnet thingy but, as with similar commercial solutions, upload speeds may be a factor when shooting large raw files. Can you live on coffee for 3 days as you upload yesterday's images?

Still, whichever way you view it, you will have more options and less risk than in the old days of film with its concerns about storage of film before AND after use. On the other hand the cameras did not require batteries to be charged every day or so ...

[Andy M]

Can highly recommend: http://www.epson.co.uk/products/product_hub/home_p...

[LongQ]

Here's a commercial option though the observation about upload speeds still applies.

You may also need to undertake some trick accou nt management for each upload to authorize the machine you are loading from. Unless you take a netbook with you ...

http://rapidshare.com/agb.html

[leightonjames]

Wow, Thanks for the response everyone! I will look into all the said methods and pick whichever one i think will work for me,

Cheers

Leighton

[LongQ]

Sanho review

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/accessor...

[tinman0]

VxDuncan said:

tinman0 said:

leightonjames said:

I am here to ask where I can store photos whilst travelling (6-12 months in Australia) What would be the best option? Storage Websites, Lots of memory cards, Portable Storage?

Portable storage device (http://fhoude34.free.fr/PortableHD.htm). Got one here because MsT takes absolutely loads when we are in the road and its easier than getting the laptop out all the time (and less conspicuous).

Memory cards can get lost, websites will take an age to upload.

I have a couple of these. Did rave about them, but these days the cheap ones are more hastle than they are worth. Mine can hardly copy one 4gbb card before the (fresh, new) Li-Ion batt runs out. And even over USB2 it's slow.

Yeah, its battery does get me as well, but I prefer to pull it out than the laptop sometimes. The one I bought was about a year ago and so I kinda hope they've improved a bit. There is one that everyone uses (name escapes me) that is more than the cheap ones, is fast and is production quality.

[tank slapper]

My brother is travelling at the moment and he bought a load of memory cards. As he fills each one up he finds somewhere to burn a dvd and posts it back. Once we have confirmed we have it intact he can then reuse the memory card. That way he doesn't have to worry about carrying a laptop and should he lose his stuff then all his earlier photos are safe.