Card Data Cleanup/Backup in the Field

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Tibor Hrnko

Tibor Hrnko

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Given the price of CF Express Cards as compared to the price of USB SSD disks, I wanted to have an option to copy files from cards to external disk with minimum necessary gear "in field". I have tried with the gear I always had with me - an Android phone, Z9 camera and cards in it.

  1. Option offered by Nikon - FTP and SnapBridge were both slow and unusable for quick transfer of thousands of RAW files. SnapBridge has a limit of 100 RAW files in a single batch. FTP is extremely slow for the amount of data.
  2. Using an USB hub without external power source proved to be unusable with both card reader and USB SSD disk connected. Phone could not provide enough power for card reader. My attempts ended with disconnection of the USB device when I tried to copy directly from the reader to the SSD disk.
  3. Connecting USB card reader to the phone is fine and quick, but with 800 GB of card storage in my Z9 it is not possible to copy both cards to my phone's internal storage. It is the option with minimum HW needed to copy images away from the cards (up to 200 GB of data in my case). It relies on the phone's internal battery to provide power for the reader. That may be a problem for cheaper phones with small battery.
  4. Using powered USB hub provides enough power for card reader, phone and SSD disk to work. It is in my opinion the fastest way to clean camera cards with minimal extra HW.

HW I am using:
S22 Ultra Samsung phone with 256 GB internal storage
Samsung Portable SSD T7 1TB external USB HD
SanDisk Extreme PRO CFexpress Type B USB card reader
Lenovo USB-C 7-in-1 Hub (with SD card reader and external USB C power source)
USB C power bank
CardCopy.jpg
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Notes:
  • There are quite cheap powered USB hubs available, but very few of them are capable of USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds. If your card reader and phone supports it, it is advisable to get the one, despite its higher price. Data transfer is quicker using it.
  • Test you specific phone with external storage available to you. My observations about number of external devices connected without external power source may be different for your phone
  • All the HW I have used support USB 3.2 Gen 2
  • 800 GB of card storage is about 8000 RAW files (depending on the compression used)
  • 1 TB SSD USB disk costs 20% of the 512 GB CFExpress card here.
  • This post is meant to help the reader to avoid problems I had to solve. I have tried to google it before experimenting myself, but there is not so many good sources available on the net IMO.
  • If I knew all this when I was buying my phone, I would choose the one with the biggest available internal memory :).
 
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@Tibor Hrnko this is very helpful! Trying a similar setup now but getting write speeds of 30mb/s, so that's about 40 minutes for 70gb. I think my hub is USB 3.0 though, and not 3.2. What kind of transfer speeds do you get with this setup?
 
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Glad you are reviving this thread!
I am preparing for a trip to Costa Rica and plan to use method 4.

I bought this powered USB-C hub and used it with a Lacie SSD and an ipad. Worked flawlessly. Well, for a short while. It was quite fast but I cannot tell you the exact transfer speed because out of a sudden it stopped working :cry: It seems the hub is not recognized anymore. Neither the ipad nor my Mac Studio see the SD Card nor the SSD anymore (Both work fine when directly connected to the mac, but not via the hub). So I believe the hub is broken? I have used it literally only a handful of times for testing. My trip to Costa Rica is in March so I guess I will have to buy another hub. If someone can recommend one?
 
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apb80 said:
@Tibor Hrnko this is very helpful! Trying a similar setup now but getting write speeds of 30mb/s, so that's about 40 minutes for 70gb. I think my hub is USB 3.0 though, and not 3.2. What kind of transfer speeds do you get with this setup?
Click to expand...
I will do a test with 100 GB transfer and let you know. I should manage to do it by tomorrow.
 
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I maintain two computers at home, one is a robust gaming type computer with high speed processors, RAM and graphics cards. I use a RAID 5 with that for photo storage.

I also have a Surface laptop with i7 processor. I carry three solid state external hard drives on the road with combined storage capacity way beyond anything I might shoot. Each of those drives hold from 2-4 TB each.

I use my regular USB card reader to copy the images onto the portable hard drive. I always have ac power in the evening and can copy cards into the storage drives reasonably rapidly.

I use two CF express type B cards in my Z9, one is 650 GB and the other is 165 gb. I have a couple extra cards at 165 gb each.

It is much better for me to be able to review my day's work in the evening so I typically bring both laptops but leave the RAID drive at home. I then will use Lightroom to import the photos in a separate catalog.

When I get home I can open my master catalog and import photos either from a camera card or solid state drive.

I typically use my 650 GB drive as my main card in the camera. So far, on trips that have not exceeded 4-5 days in length I have not filled that card. As a caution I will not erase a card in the field if not necessary.
 
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^^^^^^ That's what I do as far as backing the day's images. However, I use File Explorer to copy the files to folders set up by day on the external HD's. I don't bother injesting thousands of files into LR that I will soon delete. If I want to take a peak at some shots, I just use Bridge. IF I have time, I might do a bit of keywording, but I don't process files while on the road.

We have a lot of capable tools to use in whatever way suits our individual working preferences.
 
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Butlerkid said:
^^^^^^ That's what I do as far as backing the day's images. However, I use File Explorer to copy the files to folders set up by day on the external HD's. I don't bother injesting thousands of files into LR that I will soon delete. If I want to take a peak at some shots, I just use Bridge. IF I have time, I might do a bit of keywording, but I don't process files while on the road.

We have a lot of capable tools to use in whatever way suits our individual working preferences.
Click to expand...
I do essentially the same thing. I will only selectively import files into Lightroom for review in the field.
Nikon Capture also works well for reviewing images without having to import them anywhere. Nikon Capture has some features that help review camera settings including focus points.
 
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Butlerkid said:
^^^^^^ That's what I do as far as backing the day's images. However, I use File Explorer to copy the files to folders set up by day on the external HD's. I don't bother injesting thousands of files into LR that I will soon delete. If I want to take a peak at some shots, I just use Bridge. IF I have time, I might do a bit of keywording, but I don't process files while on the road.

We have a lot of capable tools to use in whatever way suits our individual working preferences.
Click to expand...
I am not planning on processing in the field in either Africa or Costa Rica based on daily shot totals…and TBH I might cull a little more aggressively when I get home before importing into LR because I can easily see myself with 2000 to 3000 shots a day…they add up fast at 15 or 20 FPS.
 
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  • I have copied 1803 .NEF files (100 GB)
    • from ProGrade Cobalt 325 GB card
    • to Samsung T7 1TB SSD HD
    • Computer used Samsung S22 Ultra
    • All USB cables supporting 10Gb/s transfer
    • Power for the hub was from PC on this attempt not from a power bank. Rest was same as on the picture above
  • Time 07 minutes 40 seconds
    • If I have not made a mistake in calculation it is cca 200 MB/s
  • I have tried as well to move 10 GB of same data using ordinary USB cables
    • Transfer time was 06 minutes 40 second
    • throughput 25 MB/s
  • I have tried the 100 GB test on my PC as well in order to test 3.0 USB ports
    • USB 3.0 PC ports
    • same cables and disks as in the first test
    • PC 128 GB memory, Intel 13900KF CPU, Z790 main board
    • Time 14 minutes 20 seconds
    • Average throughput 116 MB/s
 
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Thank you again for your research and testing. I was getting 25 mb/s with my setup, which would not be conducive for the field. I got a new hub which got me up to almost 100 mb/s, and then switching from an SD card to a CF Express card got me over 200 mb/s. I'm very glad I don't need to keep buying more memory cards or have to take a laptop with me on longer trips!
 
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apb80 said:
Thank you again for your research and testing. I was getting 25 mb/s with my setup, which would not be conducive for the field. I got a new hub which got me up to almost 100 mb/s, and then switching from an SD card to a CF Express card got me over 200 mb/s. I'm very glad I don't need to keep buying more memory cards or have to take a laptop with me on longer trips!
Click to expand...
What hub are you using?
 
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Isnt is much easier just to carry additional SD cards in the field than to carry all that x-tra stuff...? Plus just one improper eject of the card in a reader can screw up the card....:unsure:
 
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Sure if cost is no issue to you. The hub, card reader and SSD are all quite small, each one fitting in the palm of your hand. I would leave them in my room and backup each night, not carry it around in the field, although you certainly could. I would rather buy a couple 160gb cards that I can backup each day to my SSD than spend hundreds on extra cards that will just collect dust when I'm not on longer trips.
 
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