Photoclubalpha

Hi all- I'm heading to San Francisco soon, and I want a memory card back up drive, since my laptop is getting a little long in the tooth... Does any have a brand that they have used and can recommend?? Thanks in advance, John

John,

I've used the Hitachi Simple Drive USB drive for several years with no problems. DO NOT get a Western Digital MyBook. They directly solder the USB port onto the drive, and often fall over and break the port. You cannot get the data off the drive unless you buy an identical one and swap the board out.

Dusty

Thanks Dusty- That is good info on the WD.. I'm pretty clumsy, so that one is off the list now. John

Hyperdrive Colorspace. Expensive but good.

http://www.hypershop.com/HyperDrive-COLORSPACE-s/23.htm

http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?op=i ... Startat=21

I think the Epson P series is nicer. I have a little "Flashtrack", brand that does not exist anymore, that is old and slow, does not show even the A850 JPG (don't ask about RAW) because too big, but it is reliable (CF reader only) and copy EVERYTHING that the CF card have on it (some devises only copy the files it can read...)

If you don't expect the devise to be a "Multimedia Player" I think the Wolverine Picpac II (http://www.adorama.com/WV7616.html) is a good deal.

Have a nice trip!

In 2003 I bought one of these card backup drives and until 2008 I used it on trips to Japan, Thailand, Ecuador, Cambodia, Morocco, Mexico, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, France, and the Netherlands, but I don't use it anymore. These days cards are so cheap that I just carry a bunch of cards and don't need to reuse a card while traveling. For example, for a month in Vietnam last fall I carried 43gb of cards and shot craw with my A700. In the last couple of years I also carry a netbook and sometimes copy the cards to it, but the main reason is so that I can view them while traveling, not as a backup. I find a card backup drive to not be all that useful anymore.

I was in the local MicroCenter yesterday and wanted to buy another store brand CF card now that we have another 350. They no longer sell them! They still have the expensive name brand ones, but I can buy cheaper online.

Dusty

Thanks for the advice gentlemen. Henry- I may take your advice. It would certainly be the cheapest, which is very appealing. I already have 20GB worth of cards, with maybe another 16 or so may do the trick. Thanks again everybody!

Juanito200 wrote:Thanks for the advice gentlemen. Henry- I may take your advice. It would certainly be the cheapest, which is very appealing. I already have 20GB worth of cards, with maybe another 16 or so may do the trick. Thanks again everybody!

Last fall I bought a 16gb class 10 SD card for about $26. I think that now 16gb CF and SD cards can be bought for about the same.

I leave later today for a few weeks of traveling in Guatemala, Belize, and southern Mexico and I will just take enough cards for the trip.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

There's only one thing you need to watch - Mexico, for example, permits just one storage card to enter the country with your camera and also has a very strict limit on the number of electronic accessories like iPhones, netbooks, etc you can 'import'. The reason given is that you could bring in a valuable memory card and sell it. Alpha cameras with dual slots are a help, as they don't check the camera itself (assuming it can't hide extra cards) but they may check your bags or your person for extra cards.

I don't think Mexico is alone in this policy - which is not exactly rigidly enforced, we carried extra cards in odd pockets of our kit and they were not found or removed. Other countries, or individual border crossing/airports, may be more diligent.

I carry a MacBook most places, and all the images are copied on to this, and also left on the camera cards; they are then copied again to a 250GB USB portable drive, which travels in a different bag to the laptop or cameras.

David

David Kilpatrick wrote: I carry a MacBook most places, and all the images are copied on to this, and also left on the camera cards; they are then copied again to a 250GB USB portable drive, which travels in a different bag to the laptop or cameras.

David

I thought this was the real purpose of the OP: Backup.
Since I'm mostly traveling with the NEX now, I will need another Backup solution -the Flashtrax only support CF cards, I already try to make it work using SD to CF and MS to CF adapters, but o luck.

Regards

I think for now the cheapest route is a new CF card. I do think that a back up will be helpful in the future, but for now just a new card.
That is interesting to know about Mexico David. The last time I was there was back in the film days, so that wasn't an issue... Now with all the violence there now, there is no way I could get Dannelle there again.