portable memory storage

goodday people
personally i take my laptop i have just bought a 100gig hd (portabale) and will be downloading direct to the portable hd all photos and music all hopefully to be kept safe

steve

If you asking about digital still cameras, why not just a couple of decent sized memory cards?

I take the laptop and burn the photos to either CD or DVD, and if away for a long time, I then mail them back home to myself when I have a couple of full discs. I also have a portable HDD and can copy them to that if I wish.

There are many options, its just a matter of finding one that suits you and how much money you want to throw At the solution.

I brought the wife an iaudio x5 mp3 player.
It has a 30gig mini hard drive and I can connect the camera directly to upload the photo's.
She gets the mp3 player, and I get to avoid lugging the laptop around!

Sav.

I take two 500 mb memory cards and my old steam driven laptop . I think it is a real plus to be able to check the photos out on a laptop screen . Last year in the Pilbarra , I uploaded a heap off my camera to have a look at . Glad I did because the auto focus was not working correctly and I would have done the whole trip without knowing . After seeing this I changed to manual focus and had good photos for the rest of the trip .
Cheers ,
Willie

Several 1GB CF cards. I shoot camera raw so need big cards, and transfer to the laptop. Burn onto disk when sitting the campfire -usually early morning while everyone else is still in their swags.

Yes, I (used to) just download the images to the laptop to free up the SD card.

Now I have multiple options.

I have 1x 512mb, 2x 64mb and 1x 32mb SD cards.

The 32mb card came with my Canon Powershot S65 compact digital camera.
Then I bought a 64mb card to allow greater storage.
Then I forgot I had bought the 64mb card and bought another one.
Then I upgraded my laptop to a jobbie that included a DVD burner, so I could "burn" the images to CD if I was getting short of room.
Now, I have bought a Canon EOS 300D and a 512mb SD card, with one of the 64mb cards as a backup. (Was irresistible in the duty free shop over Christmas)
I justified it because I could use the same lenses from my Canon EOS 3000 35mm camera on the digital one.

Everyone follow???
Hmm, I've lost me!!!

Now, to answer your question sensibly, IMO memory cards are relatively cheap, so you should plan to have at least one spare if the original becomes full at an inopportune time.

Assuming you have access to a PC or laptop, the next best, cheap and practical option is a USB memory stick, or drive, preferably about 1gb. This is basically a "shock proof" hard drive and can be used on any PC with a USB port and will show up as a removable drive which you can simply copy and paste to in Windows Explorer, or My Computer. This can then be taken to the chemist, or photographic shop and plugged directly into their "photo producing machines".

iPod.

Hi there,

I use 6x1-GB CF cards and transfer daily onto my laptop and like a previous poster work with RAW files off my EOS 20Ds.

I can drive the laptop off the inverter and recharge camera batteries et al and it works a treat.

I carry a pack of DVDs and backup regularly - every few days.

the iRiver is quite a nice solution too, but for me, the power of Photoshop CS2 in the outback leaves them all for dead ;-)

Ciao for now
Andrew

I go with Andrew here.

Laptop, 1G cards and I also back up on an Ipod.

It is just too hard to do the trip over if it all falls over.

I think Andrew uses one of my Dual Battery Systems.

Regards Derek

If I'm travelling (backpacking) and don't have my laptop, I carry a PD70X.

It's essentially a laptop HDD in a case incorporating a CF card reader.

https://www.jaldigital.com.au//catalog/default.php?cPath=27_100&osCsid=ca3d04d281bea403de086fcf7265033d

You can basically choose the HDD capacity that you want which can be easily exchanged for a different capacity HDD later on down the track.

I have a 5MP camera and use a 1gig card. That allows me about 400 full res jpegs or about 90 raw images. I only use raw for stuff I deem important. I use full res jpeg for everything else.
I carry my laptop (only when I can of course. Not when hiking) and download to that every day (more than once if necessary). I then burn the images to CD (two copies). I keep one copy and mail the other one to my parents or inlaws. This allows them to see how our trip is progressing as well as having an off site backup.

My biggest fear is not the hardware playing up but the photos being stolen (stolen camera, laptop, car etc). Mailing the CDs safeguards that as well as hardware failure.

For my last camera I had a 256mb card and 2x 128mb cards. I liked being able to leave full cards behind when I went out just in case. However I take so many photos that doing that meant I ran out of card space quickly. I feel a big card is fine for me. I've never had a card play up on me though. I might get another just in case.

Does anyone else feel annoyed that camera companies put ridiculously small cards in their cameras as standard? It would seem that they all come with either 16mb or 32mb when new. I would prefer they just didn't include one at all and save us the money since the first thing you do is buy a bigger card.

You are better off with multiple smaller Cards.

If you have everything on a 2gig card and it dies, you lose it, it gets damaged, your screwed.

if you have 4x 512s you can send them by post home, they are there waiting for u.

I have used smartdisk in our Fuji without issue.

Running 1 gig and 2 gig LEXAR CF's at moment in the canon, got off ebay, you wont beat their prices.

i plug a card reader into my iRiver PMP120 and load pics onto it's 20gig hard drive. only prob as the ipod has is you can't view your pics like on a laptop. i can watch movies on it on those rainy days though. you need some kind of 240ac power supply to recharge battery. can only get car charger from america. 40 gig units are available aswell (PMP140).

Laptop and CD Writer to backup your photos, works out cheaper compared to
buying heaps of memory cards (Assuming laptop got CDRW)

Dear Maplenomads,

I purchased an Xs Drive Pro some time ago. Basically it is the size of a camera itself and contains a laptop hard drive (30 gig in my case but will accept anything), and a rechareable battery. It has a screen, (but not for viewing photos) and a number of slots on the side which accept about every type of memory card that you can think of. We purchased it for overseas travel, but now use it everytime we travel. Just a matter of turning it on, inserting the memory card and pressing the copy button. I'll see if I can get this link to work rive</a

It's small and useful for heaps of other things as well. A laptop is good, but sometimes it's just too much to lug this along as well.

Cheers

Steve

X Drive

Second try

Cheers

Steve

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions, much appreciated. Will go away and have a big think before our trip to WA.