Backing up while on travel?

[psimon]

Taking a 2 week trip to the Hawaii and stopping on the way back at Disneyland. I am trying to decide whether to take, in addition to my camera, just my iPad or my laptop as well.

The only reason I would take a laptop would be as a backup repository for my photos along the way. Is it worth taking a laptop just for that?

Do you back up photos throughout your trip or just leave / save all of your pictures in your camera?

Thanks....

---Paul in Southern NJ

 

[hakepb]

There was a recent thread on the topic:

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3063337

Some go for laptop + external hard drive (or burn DVD) + upload (at least some of the better photos)

It's really based on the..if 1 bag is damaged/stolen or your computer crash, did you just loose your entire vacation's worth of memories?

On the other hand, no one had backups in the film days. (Other than possibly each spouse having their own camera)

 

[mamaCta]

We usually like to look through the pictures when we get home in the evenings, so I transfer to the laptop daily. I also have a networked harddrive that I can log into from anywhere, so I could transfer to that if I need to.
I also like to make sure I have at least 2 good sided SD cards so that I can swap or use one for storage.

 

[mikegood2]

There was a recent thread on the topic:

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3063337

Some go for laptop + external hard drive (or burn DVD) + upload (at least some of the better photos)

It's really based on the..if 1 bag is damaged/stolen or your computer crash, did you just loose your entire vacation's worth of memories?

On the other hand, no one had backups in the film days. (Other than possibly each spouse having their own camera)

Thanks for saving me the time finding my thread. I think that thread will answer your question.

If you do decide to bring a laptop I would also recommend bringing an portable hard drive. If you are going with anyone else you can have them take the drive back for an extra bit of protection in case you lose or damage a bad.

 

[DSLRuser]

i wouldnt call it backing up. But i do bring the laptop to transfer photos from my cards to the hard drives.

I pretty much risk it for the week that my lap top wont die before i can get the files onto my desktop at home with a full robust back up strategy in place.

 

[photo_chick]

No one had backups with film because film wasn't as easily corruptible as a hard drive. And it was also a little difficult to make a backup of unprocessed film.

 

[psimon]

If I took a laptop, I figure I have the SD card with the originals and the laptop with the copies. I wouldn't bring an additional external drive.

... but the question I have still remains....

Do I need to take the laptop at all to do any backups, and just trust my SD card?

---Paul in Southern NJ

 

[hakepb]

If I took a laptop, I figure I have the SD card with the originals and the laptop with the copies. I wouldn't bring an additional external drive.

... but the question I have still remains....

Do I need to take the laptop at all to do any backups, and just trust my SD card?

---Paul in Southern NJ

SD cards can go bad, or you accidentally delete photos, or you drop the camera in a storm sewer...

Most of the time, people do fine without a backup...but, you already own a laptop, so why not bring it and have a backup? It's a low cost vs a bad risk (the possibility of losing an entire vacation's photos ) situation.


Personally, the inconvience of carrying a laptop is much lower than the inconvience resulting when a Hawaii vacation's photos vanishing.

But my answer may not apply to everyone.

 

[mikegood2]

... but the question I have still remains....

Do I need to take the laptop at all to do any backups, and just trust my SD card?

---Paul in Southern NJ

Do you need to bring a laptop? No, but the better question is should you bring one. If you are take / fit a laptop than I would definitely bring it. Like the pervious poster stated, while unlikely, SD cards can get corrupt or lost. The extra insurance of a backup is worth it.

 

[eddy-4]

I always take a laptop with me when I go on vacation. When I went to Disney in 2010, I took my laptop and a supply of CDs. Every night I transferred my pix from my compact flash cards to my laptop and then burned back up CDs that I kept in a separate location. I'm a little paranoid.

 

[Gianna'sPapa]

Do I need to take the laptop at all to do any backups, and just trust my SD card?

---Paul in Southern NJ

The issue is, how many pictures are you going to take? A SD card only has a finite memory limitation. I have been known to bring home 6,000 images from a 9 day WDW visit. I also like to review my images to ascertain their quality just in case something is out of focus that won't show up on the camera screen. If you are going to take a lot of images and want to review them, then yes you will have to bring a device to do that. I bring two portable hard drives and back them up nightly. Then clear my cards for the next day.

 

[psimon]

I do have the iPad Camera Connection Kit. I also have Box, Dropbox and other similar accounts.

Anyone know of a way to use the Connection kit with an iPad to transfer photos through the iPad up to Box or any of the others? Box alone gives me 50Gb of space... enough to cover the trip.

Obviously I would use WiFi for this as opposed to 3G service, but everywhere I am booked has free WiFi so that won't be an issue.

All thoughts greatly appreciated...

---Paul in Southern NJ

 

[wbeem]

There are devices that do this for you. You just plug in your card and it backs it up to an internal hard drive. Search Google for "CF card backup device" or something similar.

 

[hakepb]

I do have the iPad Camera Connection Kit. I also have Box, Dropbox and other similar accounts.

Anyone know of a way to use the Connection kit with an iPad to transfer photos through the iPad up to Box or any of the others? Box alone gives me 50Gb of space... enough to cover the trip.

Obviously I would use WiFi for this as opposed to 3G service, but everywhere I am booked has free WiFi so that won't be an issue.

All thoughts greatly appreciated...

---Paul in Southern NJ

Cloud backup is a great option if your wifi cooperates. At home it seems large Box uploads can take hours on my lowly DSL (for 300mb or so) which means I have to disable the screen lock. Most free wifi is not faster.

Here's one article about importing pictures with the CCK.
http://www.macworld.com/article/2010727/the-ultimate-iphoto-workflow.html
I would try it out, if you can open the new album, you should have a Box option.