Camera Backing up DSLR photos

vaibhavyagnik

vaibhavyagnik

youtube.com/vaibhavyagnik
Adept
Hello guys,

I will be on a 10 day long trip to thailand. I will be mostly shooting RAW and have 2 16GB SD cards which i dont think will be sufficient. So I need to back them up somewhere to be able to shoot next day. I dont own a laptop. So what are my options of transferring photos from DSLR to USB hard disk without a computer?
 
How much are you looking to spend incase you need to buy new hardware to take backups?
Clearly with your current resources its not possible.
Also how much you will be shooting in a day.... I have avg shot about ~450 shots each day when on trips... that way I can fill a 32GB card in about 2 days.. and this is only photos no videos...
So I carry 3 X 32gb cards and 2 X 16gb cards when I travel. The longest I have been out is for 9days. This was sufficient for me as everyday you dont shoot that much. I still had a laptop to backup coz cards can fail anytime.
Either you invest in a portable media backup device (4-5k) or couple of extra cards... (approx 1100 for a 32gb card) or rely on hotel computers / internet cafe PCs (which are highly infected) to backup your photos to a external drive every day... This is no fun to do on tours....

One cheap option is the OTG USB hubs where you can connect the USB hub to your phone. Connect the card reader and external HDD to the hub and backup the files. for this you need to invest about 1.5k and also you need to already have a ext hdd.
Some thing like this one...

In case you dont have a laptop at all this would be a good time to invest in a net book.
 
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1. The most reliable and cheapest solution
2. I make timelapses so quantity is going to be huge
3. I am going to be on a 10 day long trip
4. I have a portable hard disk
5. No laptop. Only 3 Desktops and 1 NAS (I find netbooks/laptops unreliable after 1 year)

The USB otg hub seems a good option. Only thing it requires a external 5VDC adapter. Will have to hunt for one. Then will have to do a trial
 
5vDC adapter you can find at any local electrical store... they have tons of it.
But this is going to be very damn slow.... and there is a possibility that you might end up corrupting some files also in this process....
Reason being such card readers are not the best....
Sadly... cheapest is not the most reliable and vice versa... :)
I still would trust a netbook... 10~13k would be a good investment considering the pupose you are using it for....And if you use it occasionally it will last longer... its only for backups and travel use(surfing)... batteries are also good...
Also I would advice to invest in high speed high capacity cards like the Sandisk extreme 32gb and above or the Sony 94mbps cards...
16gb will max out in only 500 shots... Also are you planning to shoot timelapses in RAW?? what equipment are you using?
 
I mount my 1100D on a tripod and connect my S3 to it via USB OTG cable and the USB male to Mini USB cable. I have DSLR controller installed on my S3, so I can just choose the interval between snaps and the number of snaps. The rest is automatic. So at the end, I get a bunch of snaps. I process 1 snap in Adobe lightroom, sync the settings to the rest and make a slideshow in lightroom using a custom preset which makes a movie at 24fps.

Even the cheapest netbook is 16K.
 
huh....
1) you need a remote timer urgently. Using a S3 as your trigger device is overkill....
2) I think you can shoot the timelapse directly in JPG instead of RAW as you will be anyways compiling a video out of it and most probably sharing that video online... so HD or FHD does not matter....
 
1. Infact its not at all overkill. I already have the S3 as my primary phone. Using it saves me the cost of buying and maintaining a remote release. With a android phone as a remote release, one gets much more flexibility than a remote release like a remote screen, ability to directly share photos if shooting in JPG, HDR and much more.
2. Shooting in RAW as all photographers would agree, gives far more editing capability than JPG. Even if i did shoot in JPG, my photoshop skills are 0. So its RAW for me.
3. RAW is not about HD or FHD. RAW and JPG both have the same resolution. RAW has much more information captured which can be later manipulated to get the desired effect which is not possible once the camera processes and compresses it to a JPG.
 
I know what RAW is technically... I am using it for years... but my point is that with the resources you have (2X16gb cards) JPG would be a better option than RAW for Timelapses... I am not talking about images....
Anyways your choice...
AFA the remote goes... whenever you shoot a timelapse you review each shot?? or you keep your phone connected to the camera till the time your timelapse is shot??
 
onlyravi said:
I know what RAW is technically... I am using it for years... but my point is that with the resources you have (2X16gb cards) JPG would be a better option than RAW for Timelapses... I am not talking about images....
Anyways your choice...
AFA the remote goes... whenever you shoot a timelapse you review each shot?? or you keep your phone connected to the camera till the time your timelapse is shot??
Click to expand...

I have to keep the phone connected till the shoot is over. I dont review each shot. In case you are wondering, phone can be used for other purposes during that time with the camera connected. the app runs in the background.
 
Another option is to get a portable wireless HDD like Seagate 1TB & transfer the photos. Cost will be on the higher side, but it would be pocket-able! Also, remember that device also needs to be charged.
 
Just curious what tripod model is this and which lenses you use for time lapses... Nothing to do with the backup issue but just OT.
 
onlyravi said:
Just curious what tripod model is this and which lenses you use for time lapses... Nothing to do with the backup issue but just OT.
Click to expand...

I use the 18-55 mm kit lens on manual focus. Tripod is simpex 333. I use a card board piece which is wedged between 2 legs as a platform for resting the mobile.
 
vaibhavyagnik said:
Hello guys,

I will be on a 10 day long trip to thailand. I will be mostly shooting RAW and have 2 16GB SD cards which i dont think will be sufficient. So I need to back them up somewhere to be able to shoot next day. I dont own a laptop. So what are my options of transferring photos from DSLR to USB hard disk without a computer?
Click to expand...

Where ever you are going I am sure you will find an shop selling SD cards. Buy few more?
 
How about raspberry pie and a Linux distro? Will just have to find a LCD or led as monitor. On return it can be repurposed to a dedicated xbmc machine

I want to have back ups so I want to transfer them
 
booo said:
how about buying a 128gig card and never worry about going out of memory.
Click to expand...

Its not about going out of memory, its about backups. I could buy multiple SD cards and would have enough storage for the whole trip. What I am worried about is one of the cards going kaput and me losing all the memories. So, backups are very important.
 
^I see your whole idea of taking backups is flawed, USB hdd is not going to cut it. its not safer than the card itself unless its an ssd. (read moving parts)
the only thing that you can do is to buy a card reader and otg cable. connect it to your phone and upload it to dropbox or something.

on the other hand, if your card has two slots, you can mirror the data.
 
booo said:
^I see your whole idea of taking backups is flawed, USB hdd is not going to cut it. its not safer than the card itself unless its an ssd. (read moving parts)
the only thing that you can do is to buy a card reader and otg cable. connect it to your phone and upload it to dropbox or something.

on the other hand, if your card has two slots, you can mirror the data.
Click to expand...

My camera does not have 2 card slots so that option is out.
I agree USB hard disks are not absolute reliable media, but hey, I would have 2 copies!! one on the SD card and other on the USB hard disk
I appreciate your idea of using cloud storage and i had though of it, but I dont know what kind of internet would be available at the hotel, and even if its reliable, uploading 16GB at a go will certainly take its own sweet time. Better to do it on local media.

Bought the amkette USB OTG hub and a 5VDC 2A power adapter as a first try. Will try it out 4-5 times to test the reliability. If found unreliable, will look for a netbook or a raspberry pie. thanks @onlyravi
 
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Had been searching for such a solution for a trip in Feb. For me, I will have access to a computer once every ~2days. So have got 3 pairs of 16gb cards (I will be mirroring).

Planning to get this in future - http://www.amazon.com/RAVPower-FileHub-Wireless-External-File-Server/dp/B00AQUMZRA
Added with couple of drives, I think it will be a good solution for backup without any need of computer/laptop.

The respberrypie plan might be good. But I wouldnt bank on it unless its tested few times (for that matter, any backup option).
 
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