Cambodia Trip with 5DMkII - Portable storage device for RAW files?

[Mathew Wilson]

Hey guys,


Just wanted to ask for a few opinions on portable storage devices. In a few weeks im going for a trip to Cambodia, and i'll be over there for a few weeks. I'll be taking the new 5DMkII, and i currently have 2 CF cards, an 8gb and a 4gb. On an 8GB, at ISO 100, the card only hold just under 300 shots (RAW).


With the ammount of photography opportunies over there, i know for a fact i will need to either carry a heap of cards, or have some sort of storage for all these RAW files.


Any advice on what would be the best way to go? I have a laptop, but i want to travel light, plus it only holds about 40GB anyways. I know there are cheap 'netbooks', or small laptops, but i've also heard about download able hard drives and the like.


Cheers in advance!





-Mat

[EdN]

Packing around an external hard drive is probably not what you want to do if you want to travel light. It may also not be very durable if you're going rough and tumble in tropical weather areas.


I would suggest packing a lot of cards as solid state devices, they should be pretty reliable. Another option is to download your photos to your laptop then transfer them to USB drives but this is basically the same as carrying extra cards.


Burning CD's or DVD's also risks the reliablity of the medium. Either you store them carefully or you risk damaging the disks and content.

[Anthony]

If you bring a computer you can use a small external HDD like a Western Digital Passport? Physically small (.590"x4.967"x3.130" .4lbs.) andavailable from 160GB to 500GB. They are bus powered, so no need for anadditionalpower cord:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?bop=And&Submit=Property&N =2%2050001306%2040000414&PropertyCodeValue=360 %3a7801%2c360%3a7802





If not, look at these small stand alone storage devices:http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/3369/Flash_Drives_Storage_Devices_Stand_Alone_Data_Stor age.html


Finally, if you have certain iPod models, Apple sells a photo adaptor that allows you to download images directly to the iPod. Unfortunately I think it only works with JPG (not sure though).








Of course itmightbe you cheaper to just buy more cards. Adorama has the Lexar 8GB CF for free after mail in rebate.

[Tom Wertman]

Google search Hyperdrive Colorspace and check out the many models to choose from.

[Sean Setters]

I think the Hyperdrive Colorspace is what you're wanting, but take a good look at the Asus EEE PC 900HA (8.9") netbook. It's only $325 from Amazon, and you can get a 500GB HD, 2 GB RAM upgrade, and an EZ Upgrade Kit to round it off at $500. Then you could ditch your laptop altogether and have 500GBs of storage space on a very capable netbook.


In fact, that's exactly what I've done. My RAM and 500GB hard drive get here tomorrow, and the 900HA and Apricorn EZ Upgrade Kit get here on Friday. My 15.4" notebook started flaking out on me, and the reviews of this tiny PC are great (some have issues with the keyboard being so small). I'm really looking forward to having a phenomenally portable photographic review/storage platform.

[Oren]

I think the cheapest way would be what someone has already suggested here - download to your laptop and from there to a USB disk on key - they are much cheaper than CF cards.

[Tim]

Unless you got two lexar 8gb cards for 8 dollars each from B&H

[Stefan Stuart Fletcher]

Kelby praises the Epson P4000 PMP (portable media player). Not sure it will display 5D mk2 RAW files. In fact, fairly sure it won't yet. Canon's PMP might do the trick, but they're all more expensive than a netbook or cheap laptop. Netbook flash memory drives rarely stretch to more than 16 Gb, I believe.


I take my mac with me on trips. It's cumbersome and a constant source of worry, I know.


One incredibly cheap solution is to buy a camera-connect cable for your iPod (about $15), but it's horribly, horribly slow and will display only jpg's. Still, if you're not in a hurry but are on a budget...

[Mathew Wilson]

Thanks everyone for their opinions and knowledge on this topic. Everyone has excellent ideas. The HyperDrive looks excellent, but will need to do a bit more research on it, check the price (Australian Dollars) and make sure the 5Dmk2 is compatible.


The Asus EEE PC is looking like a good option, because i actually sell them at work, and buy one at cost which will be very cost efficent, and i can just use my Sandisk Extreme CF reader to backup daily.


For the trip though, i think an extra 8GB might be needed, just incase.

[Sean Setters]

I got my 900HA EEE PC on Friday and love it. The keyboard is very small and hard to get used to, but otherwise it's a fantastic machine. I upgraded mine with 2GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive, and now its runs superbly. The battery life is almost 4 hours with the screen dimmed, wireless on, with moderate to heavy use. Photoshop runs quite well on it. The only real issue I've had is that Digital Photo Professional won't run at the native 1024x600 resolution. I have to change the resolution to 1024x768 every time I want to run DPP (thus I can't view the entire desktop at one time...which means I end up scrolling more). Other than that it's a really nice piece of equipment. I highly recommend it for the photographer who values portability and decent battery life.