Backing Up Photos - While on the Go - Without a Laptop

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LarryG

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Good morning. I am looking for suggestions/recommendations on how to back-up my photos while on vacation. I do not own a laptop - guess I could buy one - but I am looking for something smaller.

Thank you very much.
 
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I tried a couple of these portable backup devices and my big issue was that often it took several attempts to seat a card properly so that the connection with card and device was good. That meant some false starts.

Decided a laptop was the safest and easiest device to use. I bought the smallest I could find with the smallest SSD drive to accommodate all the images I would take whilst away. It's light and compact and has a use for other purposes. It easily fits into a travel bag that meets the cabin stowage regulations.
 
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You could try an iPad tablet, card reader and an SSD. There are other solutions, but with this one, you can easily verify the files by seeing if they are on the SSD.

Good luck,

--Ken
 
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Replytoken said:
You could try an iPad tablet, card reader and an SSD. There are other solutions, but with this one, you can easily verify the files by seeing if they are on the SSD.

Good luck,

--Ken
Click to expand...
I agree. I find the iPad as a backup works great. You can get a good look at your photos and even do some basic editing right on the iPad. Just make sure that if you shoot raw that all the raw files are on one card and not mixed with JPEG. An added bonus is that if you own a Mac you just airdrop them to the computer wirelsssly. Very quick. It’s perfect for travel and the price is right. Your not going to have the storage capacity of a SSD so that must come into play as to whether it is right for you.
 
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Several makes have portable self powered drives in their catalogues. Not sure if they support all cards though or if you can use a card reader with them.
 
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Thanks for your responses. I think that I am leaning towards getting a small laptop. Not that much bigger than some of the other devices, similar price but with a lot more functionality.

.....Larry
 
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I have looked at some of the stand alone devices that provide image backups using built in card readers but I thought the price vs the storage capacity was high and I was a little concerned about the life of such a product with changing card types.

While traveling in Europe a few years ago I did use my iPad to backup files. You can actually use the iOS Files utility to directly copy the files from the cards to the iPad without doing a photo import. I tried to get an external disk drive to attach to the iPad but I was not successful. I was using my Z6 so at the end of the day I copied the files to the iPad and then copied the files from the iPad onto inexpensive SD cards. It was defiantly not very fast!

If I have room, I prefer a small laptop. It doesn't necessarily need a large storage drive because external drives are inexpensive. It gives the advantage of performing the backup process pretty quickly as well as offering the added advantage of easy file review.
 
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Have a look at the Lacie CoPilot external hard drive.
Download the images directly from the card to the CoPilot & if you download the CoPilot app onto your phone you can review & sort the images from your phone.
I think they may have just come out with the updated version so it may allow you to do more but you’d have to check.
 
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Depending on what cards your camera takes, check out the HyperDrive ColorSpace UDMA 3 and the GNARBOX 2. I own and use the UDMA2 version of the Hyperdrive.

If I were buying a new one today, I would get the GNARBOX 2 as it can accept XQD cards via its USB-C port. It is my understanding from Sanyo that the UDMA3 cannot accept XQD cards.

If I were getting the GNARBOX2 I would likley buy their USB-3 card reader for the cards I would be using.

Both may come with different sized hard drives. You need to do some careful research before buying anything like this.

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gbodave said:
I tried a couple of these portable backup devices and my big issue was that often it took several attempts to seat a card properly so that the connection with card and device was good. That meant some false starts.

Decided a laptop was the safest and easiest device to use. I bought the smallest I could find with the smallest SSD drive to accommodate all the images I would take whilst away. It's light and compact and has a use for other purposes. It easily fits into a travel bag that meets the cabin stowage regulations.
Click to expand...
What laptop did you get Dave?
 
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Some experience with backing up using iPad:

The new (2018 or newer) iPad Pro and the 2020 iPad Air 4 come with USB-C and support most card-readers so it's easy to ingest images onto them (and they read at USB 3.0 or faster speeds).

The screens are great and using the Pencil and LR or Affinity Studio you can actually do pretty heavy editing on them (they have no problems with 80Mpx RAWs).

Unfortunately, the default Files app has a lot of bugs in it and it has a tendency to corrupt files. I have not seen this on ingest but if you try to write those images on an external exFAT or FAT32 drive, it will corrupt about 10% of them :(. That goes for most 3rd party apps I have tried (the free ones at least).
 
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Microsoft Surface Pro tablet (with removable keyboard) works as good, lightweight travel option. I pair it with a 1TB Samsung SSD.

Also runs LR Classic just fine.

Surface Pro_03-125552.jpg
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I've been very happy with my Gnarbox 2. You can connect external readers and/or external drives for more capacity. I usually take the Gnarbox and two or three 1-tb SSD drives (so tiny and light!) when traveling. You can back up to multiple drives simultaneously which is a time-saver too.
 
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I use WD Passport Wireless pro 4TB (2 of them, making redundant copies). They're large (though the 2TB are even cheaper), the batteries last a long time, they have a built-in SD port (and will take external card readers for other formats), the batteries last for 8 hours, and the embedded operating system is purpose-designed for this on task (compared to the OS of a laptop). The SSDs versions are more robust, but lots more expensive. I'm still using the spinning disc versions as in the link below. I've taken these on numerous road trips and they've faired well.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06X6H1LY6/?tag=backcogaller-20
 
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I have had only 3 corrupted images from a problem memory card in the past 18 years of heavy digital camera use. As I do not expect a memory card failure I simply carry enough capacity to cover me for a trip. If I expect to take 4,000 Raw shots I then calculate the amount of memory card capacity needed and multiply that by 1.5 and that is what I take with me.

I keep the memory cards in a waterproof case that floats and that goes into a jacket pocket or inside the backpack or a P&S camera case attached to my belt, and it never leaves my sight. Unless I am robbed and everything is taken the memory cards are safe as are my images. If I had them backed up to a laptop that would add nothing in terms of security as the laptop is the most likely item to get stolen or damaged.

If I needed 100% security it would require having Raw files copied to both cards in the camera and then having the second set carried around by another person. Not sure what I would gain in terrms of security by doing this.
 
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