Backpacking Asia this summer - I'll need a portable harddrive right?

cgennoe · Apr 20, 2009

Hey

I am teaching in Korea right now, and will be backpacking for 3 months through Asia this summer. It'll be great!

I'll start with Beijing, and then join in a tour in Lhasa, Tibet which will take me to Mt. Everest and then into Nepal. I'll explore Nepal and then spend my final 6 weeks in India.

Needless to say, I'll be taking thousands of pics.
I would like to have a portable hard drive that comes with an LCD so that I can upload pics to view (and delete) and store photos safely without wasting valuable camera battery life.

What are the types of harddrives to look for? Prices, specs (weight), bang for buck are all good.
Or, if you have a link to information that would be amazing!

Thanks in advance!

Cheers, :thumbup:
Colin

btw, I'll be travelling with an EOS 30D, 17-40, 24-105, 50 1.4, 430 EX flash, polarizers, UV filters, 3 batteries, manfrotto tripod, remote switch.
and a lightweight portable hard drive.
If you have any suggestions in addition to the gear that i'm bringing I would appreciate it (lenses chosen), especially if you having backpacking/shooting experience abroad.

Big Mike · Apr 20, 2009

Portables use up a lot of power themselves. Sometimes you only have enough power to transfer your images...let alone viewing them for any length of time. Are you going to be able to recharge you batteries/devices during the trip? While we are on the optic...What about your camera batteries?

It might be better to just load up on CF cards...they are getting pretty cheap, they are very stable, they are small, they don't attract as much attention as a big screened drive/viewer.

Another option might be a pocket PC. You can get a laptop with an 8" screen, for the same price or cheaper than a good drive/viewer. Some have 100GB of memory. Not only can you view & cull & store your photos...but it's a fully functioning laptop.

epp_b · Apr 20, 2009

What about an Eee PC or similar?

bigtwinky · Apr 20, 2009

I've been toying with the same thing for a trip to Australia next year and I'm looking at those mini laptops, sometimes referred to as Netbooks.

I'm not looking for high power gaming performance or photoshop usage, mainly extra storage plus having web access. For $350 Canadian, there have some that have a 160GB hard drive, 8.9", 1.6 ghz processor, built in card readers, integrated wifi.

Battery life is low, but hey, can't get it all can ya.

blash · Apr 20, 2009

If you're going to buy a hard drive... buy 2. Always want a double backup before your pictures are safe, or else you're going to have a really, really bad day when you drop your bag and one of the hard drives in it crashes...

Garbz · Apr 21, 2009

These days abuse is not too much of an issue. The modern laptop HDD can withstand 300Gs while writing (basically what yesteryear's HDDs could stand when they were off) and 900Gs while off. Your HDD shouldn't be subjected to this kind of shock unless you drop it out of a window. Put it in a rugged case, and wrap it in something soft and no manner of bag abuse would cause it to fail.

I'd suggest a simple HDD in a USB caddy for this trip. Advantages over CF cards are storage space, and advantages over eeePC are that they consume no power beyond USB power, thus needing no power adapter, oh and they are tiny. So there's no power adapter to drag along with you. When your shooting at the end of the day grab a coffee and pay $1 to sit in an internet cafe and copy your files over. This kept me going my entire Europe / Canada trip.

howieh · Apr 21, 2009

how about gettting a small notebook and a external harddrive? if you don't mind carrying...

JerryPH · Apr 21, 2009

Garbz said:
I'd suggest a simple HDD in a USB caddy for this trip.

Now this is something that I am a total newb at. I was looking at things like Wolverines and HyperDrives and the Epson (which I find are the biggest rip-offs), but if I could get something simple that reliably transfers all m RAWs and JPGs to a USB powered HD, that sounds good.

That USB power source... comes from where, the camera? I do not think I have seen a unit that can draw power from the camera to transfer files from the camera's card to it's own drives, but it does sound interesting. Have a link to a product or a name so I could check it out or is this just a standard ordinary USB caddy that holds a small laptop HD?

cgennoe · Apr 25, 2009

Garbz, thanks for the reply. Tell me more about these HDDs. What does HDD stand for exactly? Your workflow sounded pretty good on your trip. There was no power adapter, yes? you simply plugged it in to a computer via usb connection and uploaded your files online?

Mike you raised a practical point: I know that 3 4GB CF cards would be more than enough space for the 2 months worth of shooting I'll be doing.
Deleted the obvious 'throw-aways' immediately using the camera's LCD is not ideal, but possible as I'll be carrying 3 batteries and will be able to recharge them at hostels using plug adapters.

Which leads me to another idea i've been pondering while I am trekking:
regardless of the hard storage that I choose, should I be uploading my files asap to an internet storage site, in the event something happens to my hard storage and the files get...you know..
I've heard that flickr offers unlimited storage for about $25/yr?

Thanks in advance!

I'd suggest a simple HDD in a USB caddy for this trip. Advantages over CF cards are storage space, and advantages over eeePC are that they consume no power beyond USB power, thus needing no power adapter, oh and they are tiny. So there's no power adapter to drag along with you. When your shooting at the end of the day grab a coffee and pay $1 to sit in an internet cafe and copy your files over. This kept me going my entire Europe / Canada trip.[/quote]

TUX424 · Apr 30, 2009

HDD=Hard Drive
I was thinking about the CF idea and that really sounds like the best way to it. There is so much less weigh to have to deal with, I've been seeing bulk deals of CF cards on Adorama.com. I dont know what camera you have, but my camera can't take pictures to fill up the buffer on my card. So you might be able to get away with a bunch of slower cards with large amounts of space.

blash · May 1, 2009

TUX424 said:
HDD=Hard Drive
I was thinking about the CF idea and that really sounds like the best way to it. There is so much less weigh to have to deal with, I've been seeing bulk deals of CF cards on Adorama.com. I dont know what camera you have, but my camera can't take pictures to fill up the buffer on my card. So you might be able to get away with a bunch of slower cards with large amounts of space.

Yeah, hard drives really aren't that heavy at all (by the way, HDD technically stands for Hard Disk Drive)

I used the IDE version of this a while back:

Newegg.com - macally PHRS250CC Aluminum 2.5" USB 2.0 & 1394 External Enclosure - External Enclosures

And that was pretty damn solid. 2 USB cables (1 for power 1 for data, and that's only for USB 1.1 ports really because USB 2.0 provides enough power iirc) means no AC adapter is required.

JerryPH · May 1, 2009

Yes but technically, one needs a computer to attach these portable HDDs to, because as far as I thought/knew, the camera doesn't recognize an external storage device and has no ability to transfer files to it from the camera alone.

You need either a laptop with a card reader (or attach the camera to it, which I do *not* like), or a device like the Wolverine/HyperDrive/Epson that accepts the media from the camera, reads it and copies the contents to a hard drive that is part of it's interface.

Am I missing something?

SpeedTrap · May 1, 2009

I have been using a netbook for onsite storage while traveling, you can get something like the Aspire One with the 6 cell battery that will last about 7 hours on a charge (about 4 hours when downloading) had 160 gig hard drive wi-fi and a good enough screen for a netbook.
card reader is built in for smaller cards (No CF Card Slot)
It is great becaus I can store my photos and blog about the trip whenever I can get Wi-fi. As well the larger screen is fine for deciding what to keep and what to delete, but with the 160 gig hard drive you don't have to decide.

It is compact enough to fit in most camera bags or small carrying bags and the power adapter is 120-240 Volt so as long as you have an adapter for local plugs you are all set.
It also works well as a media player for times when there is nothing to see or you just need some down time.

blash · May 1, 2009

JerryPH said:
Yes but technically, one needs a computer to attach these portable HDDs to, because as far as I thought/knew, the camera doesn't recognize an external storage device and has no ability to transfer files to it from the camera alone.

You need either a laptop with a card reader (or attach the camera to it, which I do *not* like), or a device like the Wolverine/HyperDrive/Epson that accepts the media from the camera, reads it and copies the contents to a hard drive that is part of it's interface.

Am I missing something?

If I were him, whether or not to bring a laptop wouldn't even be an issue - it would be #1 of things on my list to bring.

JerryPH · May 1, 2009

blash said:
If I were him, whether or not to bring a laptop wouldn't even be an issue - it would be #1 of things on my list to bring.

I'm a laptop carrier too and I have no issues carrying a Toshiba Satellite with a 19" screen and a 2TB WorldBook drive, but in his case, at 10,000 feet above sea level and -15C, I doubt even the battery on an EEPC would last long enough to transfer a couple 2 gig cards... and where would one even find the time/place to recharge these things? :lol: