"Proveniebam" wrote:
> "Madx" wrote:
>
> > Without having to take a laptop computer with you? I have a camcorder I
> > plan to use. Do I just buy a lot of cartridges for it? Normally I would
> > transfer what I take to the hard drive but don't want to lug a laptop with
> > me on a mediterranean cruise.
>
> With 512Mb SD Cards at $10 a pop I have a handful of them.
>
> Or consider:http://www.smartdisk.com/eWeb/smartdiskus/www/staticpages/FlashtraxXT...
The above is one brand of a class of products known as a "digital
wallet".
The one I have is the "Hyperdrive HD80"; here's a review:
And here's the manufacturer's website, which suggests that the HD80
has since been superceded by a newer model:
In simplest terms, you only have 3 basic options with digital imaging
equipment for the number of shots you can take before you get back
home to your PC:
1) Take fewer (and/or smaller) images
2) Use more memory cards (cassettes)
3) Offload your memory cards onto some other media so that you can
then use your memory cards again.
Option #2 has been mentioned here under the rationale that Flash
Memory (FM) has gotten cheap. It has indeed come way down in price,
and while that's a good thing - - plus its also the lightest,
smallest, and least power hungry - - it may not necessarily be the
cheapest way to go.
For example, with a digital SLR, these can store photos in what's
called "RAW" format in addition to JPEG, and using this on an 8MP
camera, the result is that each time you take a photo, you consume
around 15MB of storage, so you only would get 35 images per $10 512MB
card. As such, for a photographer who's shooting 300 images per day
(yes, we exist) with this dSLR, the math works out to roughly 10 of
the above sized CF cards per day, or a consumption rate of roughly
$100/day in CF cards. Multiply by the length of the vacation and it
can easily exceed $1000 that you "need" to spend in CF cards to solve
your storage problem in this fashion.
Granted, you can save some storage by culling your images each night,
but I generally find that there's usually more interesting or
important things to do while on the actual trip than that sort of
maintenance; YMMV.
In general, its probably safe to say that the more photos you're
likely to be carrying home, the less likely you are to rely on just CF
cards to do it.
This brings us to Option (3), of offloading the cards onto something.
Because 1GB of HD storage is under 5 cents, you can achieve economy of
scale, which can make it a cheaper option...if you have enough
"scale".
The hardware options here fall into several broad categories:
a) Your home PC.
This is ultimately where all your stuff ends up, and is mentioned to
be complete and pointing out of the obvious: if the photo series is
short enough, you'll simply span it with CF cards and not need any
backup alternative.
b) A Laptop PC
This has the advantage of being able to go on the road with you,
although at usually around a 7-10lb baggage handicap.
c) A portable CD/DVD burner (or commercial kiosk station)
These are smaller still. They exist both in AC-only and battery
powered models. Note that a CD burner probably won't do you a great
deal of good if your CF card is larger than 512MB, because CD's store
less than 1GB. Also be aware that because you probably won't have any
way of independently verifying that the disk burn was successful (just
that the device claimed that it was), you may be at risk of losing
your data during this backup stage.
d) A portable Hard Drive
These are about the same size as the CD/DVD burners. They exist both
in AC-only and battery powered models, as well as battery powered
models that don't have adequate power to do the job (bad!). Examples
include the two previously mentioned, the Wolverine and one made by
Epson. Some models have good data-checking which reduces the "backup
didn't take" risk; others have a color LCD screen (Epson) that lets
you see the image, thereby confirming that it transferred
successfully . BTW, there's also a few multiuse devices such as some
of the Apple iPod models (native or with a 3rd Party adaptor) - as of
last year, the iPod had an extremely low data transfer rate that makes
backups take forever ... and can exceed the device's battery life.
Overall, this should give most people a pretty good idea as to what
the best choice is for them, based on their needs. In general, if you
need tons (30+GB) of storage capacity, the IMO only way to go is with
a Hard Drive based Digital Wallet. Similarly, if you really value
your photos, you'll want to buy 2 of whichever devices, so as to
maintain data redundency in your backup system. Yes, this costs even
more, but depending on the trip, it can be cheap insurance. For
example, we did a 2 week long Tanzania Safari last year and I came
home with around 4200 digital images (4500 total); which consumed
roughly 38GB of storage space on my HD80's, and the incremental cost
of the second one was only $250 (60GB), which was less than 10% of the
cost of the camera system I was carrying.
-hh
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