Net book backup for safari trip

[WesternGuy]

My wife and I are off to southern Africa for a couple of weeks and some of my colleagues have suggested that I invest in a Netbook to use as backup for my CF cards after each days shoot. I think this is a good idea and am currently investigating the possibilities. I would be interested in hearing from others who may be doing similar things. Whether or not it is in Africa is not an issue, as I am looking for advice for a good Netbook to buy and some software to use for the download, particularly the software. I use Lightroom 3 at home, so I want to be able to move the images to Lightroom when I return. Any insight, advice that anyone would care to offer will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Regards,

WesternGuy

 

[Namibia]

I suggest a portable (shockproof) hard drive and a card reader. Most of our guests (I have a hotel in Southern Africa) make use of our computers to transfer their pictures. I would think that many of the establishments have this facility for their guests saving you having to worry about babysitting a netbook on your holiday. Just an alternative suggestion!!

 

[WesternGuy]

I suggest a portable (shockproof) hard drive and a card reader. Most of our guests (I have a hotel in Southern Africa) make use of our computers to transfer their pictures. I would think that many of the establishments have this facility for their guests saving you having to worry about babysitting a netbook on your holiday. Just an alternative suggestion!!

Thanks Namibia, my real concern is with the safari camps we will be travelling to. I can understand that the hotels would have computer access as most of the hotels chains in North America also have "computer" facilities available to their guests. We are headed for northern Botswana and none of the literature that I have seen on the camps we are going to indicates that they have computer facilities for guests. The idea for a netbook comes from others who have travelled in similar areas in southern Africa who also carry a netbook with them while on safari. If you have any ideas on what might be available in these remote camps, I would appreciate your insight.

Regards,

WesternGuy

 

[PASM]

In my experience, Compaq ones have good batteries but may lack a recovery partition (restore factory reset). Acer are ok and have the recovery partition, but battery life isn't good. Offered a choice, I would choose XP, rather than Win7.

For CF card-reader (USB), I use a Kodak 72-in-1.

 

[WesternGuy]

In my experience, Compaq ones have good batteries but may lack a recovery partition (restore factory reset). Acer are ok and have the recovery partition, but battery life isn't good. Offered a choice, I would choose XP, rather than Win7.

For CF card-reader (USB), I use a Kodak 72-in-1.

Thanks for sharing your insight. I have been looking at Acer, HP and Dell - still can't make up my mind, but I have a couple of more things to check on. It is difficult to find one that does not have Win 7 "Starter" edition installed - comes from factory that way - not a problem. I do have a card reader on my desktop and I will take that with me because the ones that I have been looking at are not capable of reading CF cards, only SD and SDHC. Do you have any thoughts about software to download the images - I was thinking maybe Picasa or just Windows Live photo might be sufficient for what I want, but I have no experience with either of them.

Regards,

WesternGuy

 

[PASM]

Download? How do you mean? Upload onto the web?

Do you have any thoughts about software to download the images - I was thinking maybe Picasa or just Windows Live photo might be sufficient for what I want, but I have no experience with either of them.

Regards,

WesternGuy

 

[WesternGuy]

Download? How do you mean? Upload onto the web?

Do you have any thoughts about software to download the images - I was thinking maybe Picasa or just Windows Live photo might be sufficient for what I want, but I have no experience with either of them.

Regards,

WesternGuy

I mean, uploading/downloading images from the CF cards to the hard-drive on the netbook at the end of a day's shooting. I currently use a card reader and Lightroom to download images from my camera at home, but I don't think that Lightroom will run all that well on a netbook with only 1Gb of ram, so I am looking for something else and have looked briefly at Picasa and also at Windows Live Photo Gallery and I am wondering if there is anything else that people have used in the same situation - downloading a day's worth of images from one or more CF cards to the netbook hard-drive each day. That's all. I won't worry about uploading to the web until I get home and do some editing in Lightroom.

Regards,

WesternGuy

 

[Overread]

If you're getting photos of a card just open a folder on the computer - then to go My computer and open up the card reader and copy/paste the photos yourself.


However have you considered using a Storage Viewer (eg Epson P-2000 instead of the netbook? Smaller and lighter and can also back up your data just as well as a computer. You can also get cheaper versions that are just storage devices. Certainly might be better for travel where space is important.

 

[PASM]

I just copy the folder to the desktop using Explorer. Reviewing the shots is quite quick to do with FastStone Image Viewer.

http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDownload.htm

 

[WesternGuy]

If you're getting photos of a card just open a folder on the computer - then to go My computer and open up the card reader and copy/paste the photos yourself.


However have you considered using a Storage Viewer (eg Epson P-2000 instead of the netbook? Smaller and lighter and can also back up your data just as well as a computer. You can also get cheaper versions that are just storage devices. Certainly might be better for travel where space is important.

I have considered these types of devices and, for the most part, I can get a netbook cheaper than I can buy one of these, for example, the Epson P-2000 retails for about $500 (US), whereas I can get a netbook for less than $400 (US) if I shop around a bit. Space is important, but even more important is weight, so I am not rulling out going with one of these devices. The thing about a netbook, is that it will allow access the web, where facilities exist, so this is a bit of a plus. I still have about a month to decide, which is why I posted this thread so early - helps in the planning and decision process. Thanks for making me think about this possibility again.

Regards,

WesternGuy

 

[WesternGuy]

I just copy the folder to the desktop using Explorer. Reviewing the shots is quite quick to do with FastStone Image Viewer.

Download FastStone Image Viewer

Thanks for the idea on copying to my desktop and the reference to the FastStone Viewer. I have bookmarked the sight and will definitely check it out. I am always interested to learn how others handle things like this.

Regards,

WesternGuy

 

[PASM]

I have Lightroom 3.3 but I dislike the interface and how it works. FastStone I find much quicker and less cluttered/clunky. But LR does has more editing options. For raw editing, check out Photivo. The first time I used it was challenging but it's actually logically arranged for workflow. My install crashes when I try to open my D1X NEFs (maybe my system rather than the app) but works fine with Sony ARWs. Amazing range of editing options for raw develpoment and a great auto CA correction tool.

photivo - Photo processor for RAW and Bitmap images - Google Project Hosting

 

[WesternGuy]

I have Lightroom 3.3 but I dislike the interface and how it works. FastStone I find much quicker and less cluttered/clunky. But LR does has more editing options. For raw editing, check out Photivo. The first time I used it was challenging but it's actually logically arranged for workflow. My install crashes when I try to open my D1X NEFs (maybe my system rather than the app) but works fine with Sony ARWs. Amazing range of editing options for raw develpoment and a great auto CA correction tool.

photivo - Photo processor for RAW and Bitmap images - Google Project Hosting

PASM, I also have LR 3.3 and I do like it, particularly the keywording and data asset managment end of the Library module. I have no problem with the interface. I have a number of different plug-ins and CS5, and I am suitably impressed with LR's ability to interface with these third party software apps and CS5. The Develop module in LR I also find quite good - it is really Adobe Camera Raw with a few extra bells and whistles - so no problem. I will take a look at Photivo, but one of the things that I like about LR is the fact that it is an integrated package and I don't have to worry about moving images between different apps. Thanks for the heads up.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

 

[Namibia]

You are correct - the remote camps will probably not even have electricity - never mind computers!! so sorry for misleading you - when I see southern Africa I automatically think NAMIBIA!! I think that most of the camps at least have generators or solar power for charging your batteries. I use a very nifty car charger for my camera batteries
Hahnel Innovative Accessories

 

[WesternGuy]

You are correct - the remote camps will probably not even have electricity - never mind computers!! so sorry for misleading you - when I see southern Africa I automatically think NAMIBIA!! I think that most of the camps at least have generators or solar power for charging your batteries. I use a very nifty car charger for my camera batteries
Hahnel Innovative Accessories

Namibia, I have learned that all the camps we are going to have generators that are run during the day and so I will have the opportunity to charge my camera batteries and my netbook as required. I have recently been made aware of the ASUS brand of netbooks that have a proven battery life of 7 to 10 hours, depending on what you are doing on the computer. A lot of their products have received very good reviews, so I will be looking at these. They make a 12 inch (30cm) netbook or ultra-light notebook/laptop as some call them and I will be looking into that one as well. Five weeks to go and we will be standing on terra firma in South Africa - hard to believe - I am starting to get excited - just a bit.

Regards,

WesternGuy