Calling all Wedding and Event Photogs..

[zendianah]

I haven't posted for awhile I have been busy. My question is when you shoot a wedding do you use anything to download your cards on site? Is there anything besides a laptop? I have enough equip and cannot carry one more thing unless its portable.

Thank you in advance...

 

[K_Pugh]

There's a lot of devices dedicated for his purpose, some with screens, some without. I used to use an Archos device to transfer my CF cards over but i don't use CF now.

 

[Big Mike]

Yes, there are many 'portable storage' devices.

I don't download anything on site, I don't think I could find time to do that. Although, I know a few photographers who do.

 

[William Petruzzo]

If it's a big wedding, I'll sometimes send my assistant to unload pictures from the cards as they fill up. But, I usually find it easier to just carry tons of cards and do it when I get home.

 

[zendianah]

are they pricy? and which device is the best?

 

[zendianah]

If it's a big wedding, I'll sometimes send my assistant to unload pictures from the cards as they fill up. But, I usually find it easier to just carry tons of cards and do it when I get home.

ok.. right now i carry 4 - 4gb cards - and 3 - 2gb cards... So Im good on cards... I thought maybe as a packup in case the cards fail..

 

[Big Mike]

It would take some sort of emergency for me to off load and overwrite a card at an event. I make sure that I have plenty of card space and a handful of backup cards just in case.

Redundancy is a good idea but IMO, card failure is a lot less likely than 'portable storage device' failure. Cards are probably the safest place to have the images...but of course there is always the chance of loosing them.

 

[droyz2000]

They are not cheap. Some of the most popular are the Epson ones:
P3000 P6000.
I know a guy who uses a Wolverine version but he says it is very slow.

 

[SpeedTrap]

Something new we have started doing is using an Acer Aspire One Laptop to do this.
The laptop is one of the new netbooks. It has a 120 gig hard drive, 8.9” screen, Wireless b and g. There is no optical drive, but I can transfer everything across my network.

We have started using this on site to back up cards via a USB Card reader for compact flash, most other cards can plug right in.
You can get it with Windows XP and a 6-cell battery good for about 5 hours of use.
So far I have been very happy with this setup and the best part is it is under $400.

 

[Mike_E]

CF cards. The most reliable device for storage there is. Not fool-proof but very stable.