Photo & Video Intensive Travel

[mattyn1]

Hopefully I can again rely on the expertise in these forums.

Off on holiday in the Summer, driving across the USA. We will be armed with a decent Bridge Camera (possibly a RX10 III), an Insta 360 X3, an iPhone 15 or 14 each, and a 4k dash cam (I do want to keep a lot of the journeys recorded by this - especially when we do the scenic routes along R66, in Colorado (Pikes Peak, etc). As it's a Route 66 road trip we will be taking loads of photos and videos on either or all of the devices.

- I am about to sign up for an iDrive account with 10TB of storage for 12 months - that costs in the region of £15.00.
- I have my iCloud account which gives us 2TB.
- I also have Amazon Photos which is unlimited for photos, but only 5GB of video storage.
- I will be taking my MacBook Air (13" M2, 256Gb SSD, 16Gb), and my 2018 iPad 11" Pro (64GB). I don't seem to be very good at storing photos on the MacBook/iPad in the photos app so these will need some housework before we go.

I know I need a fistful of SD cards which I can sort easily, getting the right compatibility for the cameras (the insta360 seems to be picky with its cards).
Also, I should have plenty of cloud based storage - photos can be stored in Amazon / iCloud and backed up to iDrive - but I cannot rely on decent wifi each evening in our hotels to do that process (which in my head will free up the SD Cards for the cameras). It is getting from the device to longer term storage that I am a bit lost on, and want to set up for success.

I am thinking a fast 2TB SSD something like Samsung T7 https://www.samsung.com/uk/memory-storage/portable... which will do the job of clearing the SD Cards daily. (I might be tempted to get another (suggestions please) purely for videos.) and then slower time backing up to the iCloud/iDrive/Amazon from there.

Am I over thinking this? I overthink a lot of stuff then clarity strikes - but to help with that your thoughts on the plan would be appreciated.

Cheers everyone. A bit wordy but TL:DR: I would like suggestions for one/two/three decent, reliable, and fast SSD and back up routine while travelling!!

[sgrimshaw]

Can't speak for use with Mac, but I have a couple of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08GV4YYV7/ref=twister...

You might get away with the Extreme and not Extreme Pro.

They're very small and light.

For online storage, in addition to Dropbox, OneDrive and Amazon Prime my main storage is (and has been for many years) OpenDrive. Personal plan is $99 pa for unlimited storage.

https://www.opendrive.com/pricing

eta - I believe that iDrive price (£15) is per month

Edited by sgrimshaw on Tuesday 27th February 12:52

[mattyn1]

Awesome thanks. Something to think about. I saw the Sandisks at the same time I saw the Samsung - they look sturdier too.

iDrive definitely reads as the price for the first year - cannot see anywhere a mandatory second year. I have the free 10GB package now, and this is the upgrade screen I get (so it even knows I am uk).



Good to know I am not thinking through my behind. Thanks again.

[mikef]

mattyn1 said:

I am thinking a fast 2TB SSD something like Samsung T7 https://www.samsung.com/uk/memory-storage/portable... which will do the job of clearing the SD Cards daily. (I might be tempted to get another (suggestions please) purely for videos.)

That really isn’t a fast drive by 2024 standards if you have an M2 MBA. For not much more you can pick up a Zike Drive enclosure (Thunderbolt 4/USB 4) ^ and fast NVM3/4 drive like a WD SN850X. I have two of those for my Macs and the enclosure and SSD cost me around £200 but are over three times faster than the Samsung

^ https://ziketech.com/products/zikedrive-worlds-fir... - the price on these goes up and down. I got both mine for £80
[/url]

[Tycho]

I can recommend the Samsung T7 Touch. It is the same as the one you were looking at but had hardware fingerprint encryption built in. I've had mine for a long time and it has been great. It might not be as fast as a newer NVME drive but all you are doing is backing up photos and not using it to run games off so you'll just start copying and leave it to go out for a meal etc.

[eeLee]

opendrive seems a little decayed - any people on this service and what is the impression of the speed and functionality?
can the windows app allow a drive to be mapped to this service?

[mattyn1]

mikef said:

That really isn’t a fast drive by 2024 standards if you have an M2 MBA. For not much more you can pick up a Zike Drive enclosure (Thunderbolt 4/USB 4) ^ and fast NVM3/4 drive like a WD SN850X. I have two of those for my Macs and the enclosure and SSD cost me around £200 but are over three times faster than the Samsung

^ https://ziketech.com/products/zikedrive-worlds-fir... - the price on these goes up and down. I got both mine for £80
[/url]

Really appreciate you responding Mike. I probably should have mentioned I am a bit of a tech luddite and this looks like me building something. Probably simple but not sure if this is what I want. I will track prices though - thanks again.

Tycho said:

I can recommend the Samsung T7 Touch. It is the same as the one you were looking at but had hardware fingerprint encryption built in. I've had mine for a long time and it has been great. It might not be as fast as a newer NVME drive but all you are doing is backing up photos and not using it to run games off so you'll just start copying and leave it to go out for a meal etc.

Thanks. I like this.

[Steve Campbell]

I know this probably isn't for the gadgets thread, but be careful you don't overthink it in terms of recording everything all the time.

Be in the moment more for your memories or the trip might become one long digital capture fest rather than actually enjoying the drive for what it is and "banking" those memories in the brain. Whose going to look at those hours of data capture anyway.

Just a thought....but this is from someone who can't stand live events where the entire population of the audience are holding up phones instead of just enjoying the moment.

Enjoy the trip, sound great.

[sgrimshaw]

eeLee said:

opendrive seems a little decayed - any people on this service and what is the impression of the speed and functionality?
can the windows app allow a drive to be mapped to this service?

Been using it for many years and it just sits there and does what I need, without fail and without complaint

I sync main working folders hourly, some others daily.

Also does regular backup tasks in addition to HDD backups.

ETA - there's a free Personal Edition so you can try it

[mikef]

Steve Campbell said:

Just a thought....but this is from someone who can't stand live events where the entire population of the audience are holding up phones instead of just enjoying the moment.

Last time I hiked up to Delicate Arch near Moab I had to wait over an hour to get any photos of the arch without people standing underneath it with selfie sticks. Selfies really are ruining a lot of sites

On the other hand, thoughtful photography can create great memories. Also driving long distances in the US with a dash cam of some sort and backing up the card every day, I have great footage of Route 66 from 30 years ago

[mattyn1]

Steve Campbell said:

I know this probably isn't for the gadgets thread, but be careful you don't overthink it in terms of recording everything all the time.

Be in the moment more for your memories or the trip might become one long digital capture fest rather than actually enjoying the drive for what it is and "banking" those memories in the brain. Whose going to look at those hours of data capture anyway.

Just a thought....but this is from someone who can't stand live events where the entire population of the audience are holding up phones instead of just enjoying the moment.

Enjoy the trip, sound great.

You make a very valid point but I am one of those odd people that find videos like this one just so therapeutic - always have one on in the home office - ideal for those long drawn out meeting s where I can kick back and watch the scenery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2DV4qX7C3k

I think that is the beauty of the 360 cameras - chuck it up in a selfie stick and rest on my shoulder, and walk about taking it all in personally - then playing with the view perspective of the captured film later. The main reason we went Insta360 X3 rather than GoPro.

mikef said:

Last time I hiked up to Delicate Arch near Moab I had to wait over an hour to get any photos of the arch without people standing underneath it with selfie sticks. Selfies really are ruining a lot of sites

On the other hand, thoughtful photography can create great memories. Also driving long distances in the US with a dash cam of some sort and backing up the card every day, I have great footage of Route 66 from 30 years ago

Yep. A dash cam will do its thing - when we do Pikes Peak/Independence Pass/Million Dollar Highway/Tioga Pass etc we will put the Insta360 onto a mount on the roof/bonnet/wing and get some differing and I hope rather cool views captured.

That's the plan anyway!!

[mikef]

mattyn1 said:

Tioga Pass

Tioga Pass in July 2000. Sorry for the video quality, it was all NTSC in those days

https://youtu.be/QkhNZbajtmI

[Tycho]

mattyn1 said:

Yep. A dash cam will do its thing - when we do Pikes Peak/Independence Pass/Million Dollar Highway/Tioga Pass etc we will put the Insta360 onto a mount on the roof/bonnet/wing and get some differing and I hope rather cool views captured.

That's the plan anyway!!

I love my Insta360. I just put it over my shoulder while walking and made it into a hyperlapse for this video