photo storage - overseas

benjyman345 · Sep 8, 2007

Hi,

How do you guys store your digital photos when you go overseas?

I currently have a large external harddrive to archive photos at home and was wondering if I should invest in a small pocket usb harddrive for storage of photos while overseas.

Are there any other good options to consider... which do not involve a lot of money.

thanks

Mike_E · Sep 8, 2007

If you have broadband access, why not rent space and just upload them?

If you happen to get something that some government or other doesn't like then it won't be there to get you detained either.

dmitrimarkine · Sep 9, 2007

I have Archos AV420. 20GB(around $200 on ebay). There are also bigger units. There are also enclosures which can use 2.5 or 3.5" hard drives. I know a friend who uses 750GB hard drive for this.

jstuedle · Sep 9, 2007

I use a small 80 Gig Seagate USB powered external hard drive. It's very slightly larger than a pack of playing cards, but not as thick. Fits in a shirt pocket and has been very dependable. Cost $99.00 at Walmart.

Alex_B · Sep 9, 2007

benjyman345 said:
Hi,

How do you guys store your digital photos when you go overseas?

I currently have a large external harddrive to archive photos at home and was wondering if I should invest in a small pocket usb harddrive for storage of photos while overseas.

Are there any other good options to consider... which do not involve a lot of money.

thanks

overseas means going to the US or Canada, right?

Anyway, when I travel for a week or longer without access to the internet or even a decent computer, I simply use CF cards. Even easier now since prices are going down rapidly. They are certainly more robust than harddrives and such ..

if not backpacking, i additionally have my tiny laptop with me to store images.

TCimages · Sep 9, 2007

I'm with Alex on this one. I used to use external drives and devices, but with prices so low and reliability issues (mechanical devices fail and require power), Memory cards are the way to go. You could get a couple 8 GB Sandisk Ultra II cards for just over 200. They are easy to lose tho.

Jovian · Sep 10, 2007

I was going to say that I second the external hard drive option, as that's what I would use overseas, or on any trip for that matter. But now that I start to think about it, cf cards would probably be the best way to go as everyone seems to be suggesting. It's cheap, easy, and they don't tend to crap out with a little bit of rigorous use like hard drives can tend to.

fotoflo · Sep 10, 2007

Well it really depends how long you travel for, where you go, how much you shoot, and if you shoot in raw or not.

I am at the tail end of a month long motorcycle trip across northern (wilderness) china and I have shot about 1.6 gigs a week (3 mb jpegs). I carried three (numbered) 2 gig SD cards, and i still have room for the last 4 days. Before this trip i took two weeks in shanghai and qingdao, with 4 gigs and ran out of space really fast - so i just bought another card at wallmart.

If i were to travel for months at a time or shoot raw, i would think of another solution. I would never travel with a single portable hard drive. They are fragile. You would need at least two (carried in seperate locations?) of them to ensure data security. That said, that may be better then trying to find a place to burn dvds every few days, or carrying dozens of cards.

theres my 3 cents.
fotoflo

sabbath999 · Sep 10, 2007

I use a laptop... and plenty of memory cards. I don't clean the cards off until I get back, but I load them into a laptop for safe keeping in case I do something stupid or the card breaks.

I've never had a card break, but sure have done stupid time and again.