Travelling with a digital camera

**dmdigital** · 12th July 2011, 08:04 PM

I thought I'd post this up after a few discussions I've had over the last week or so. I'm also going on holidays soon, including travelling overseas for part of it. Of course I'll be taking my cameras and lots of pictures and I don't want to loose any.

There's a lot of variations to what I'm going to write here and I'm sure others will add their advice. I'm not going to go in to details of post processing or cataloguing this is just about the backing up the images you shoot.

This is what I do when travelling...

I have several CF and now some SD cards. I keep the CF cards in two small Pelican 0940 cases and I have to get another Pelican 0910 case for SD cards.

The used cards I place in the case with the brand label up, the cards containing images I place with the brand label down. Each evening I transfer all images taken during the day on to my MacBook Pro. I create a folder for each card and label it CFmmdd_nnn (eg. CF0712_001, SD cards will start SD). Even if the cards in the cameras only have a few images I take these out and copy them to their own folders on the MacBook.

Once I am happy that I successfully transferred all the cards to the MacBook I then attach two portable USB drives. I now copy the folders created today on to both USB hard drives.

Again when I am happy that everything is where it should be I format each card in the camera and place it (label up) in its case.

I don't delete the folders off the MacBook until I need to. I also don't carry both USB drives in the same bag or with the MacBook.

A few other rules I follow:
* Always format the cards in the camera. Don't just erase (delete all) the images using the camera.
* Never completely fill a card with images. My rule of thumb is to swap the card if it gets to within 90% of the potential capacity suggested by the camera. I often put a new card in for a new location.
* Never shoot too many images on a card. I use 16GB CF cards rather than 32GB or 64GB. For SD I've 8GB cards. I shoot RAW so the file size is in the 15-20MB range.
* Don't delete the images you have copied to the USB drives. If the image was so bad when you took it you have probably deleted it from the camera. Anyway you will also be doing this when you catalogue the images.

**Bushie** · 12th July 2011, 08:33 PM

Pretty much what I did on my last trip, except I don't format the SD cards until I need to. (usually when I only have 2 spare cards) mine are mostly 4gig cards

Martyn

**Chucaro** · 12th July 2011, 08:41 PM

Good plan my sugestion is do not keep the 2 external drivers with your laptop or camera just in case that if you lost/stolen the camera bag or the laptop you still have the data.
Do not delete the data on the laptop until you have the USB drivers in a safe place.
I transfered image from the laptop to the WD driver, deleted the images from the HDD in the laptop and then i droped the WD driver loosing all the data

**sniegy** · 12th July 2011, 08:42 PM

Oh Derek,
It's just more things to think of, I thought I nearly had it all summed up...ahhhhhhh

**dmdigital** · 12th July 2011, 08:58 PM

Sorry Pete, I've had this discussion with a few people recently.

Originally Posted by Chucaro

Good plan my sugestion is do not keep the 2 external drivers with your laptop or camera just in case that if you lost/stolen the camera bag or the laptop you still have the data.
Do not delete the data on the laptop until you have the USB drivers in a safe place.
I transfered image from the laptop to the WD driver, deleted the images from the HDD in the laptop and then i droped the WD driver loosing all the data

Correct, drives should never be carried together. Also If you want to get extra careful use a 3rd drive and post it home.

**p38arover** · 13th July 2011, 07:44 AM

I'm off to the US for a month in August. As well as copying the pics to my netbook, I was planning to upload, if possible, my pics to my NAS storage device which is attached to my router (never turned off).

I wonder if one should also upload to something like Picasa (probably not practical if shooting RAW).

**Chucaro** · 13th July 2011, 07:53 AM

In my case uploading 300 or more nef images of 55 mb each is out of question plus if the images get corrupted then you lost the lot. Just get a 500mb WD Passport USB HDD for about $80 and you will be better of.

**p38arover** · 13th July 2011, 08:05 AM

I've only got a 6 Megapixel camera and I don't shoot much RAW. I'll take my portable HDD as well, although, to be honest, it wouldn't worry me that much if I lost the pics - I'm not a good photographer.

d@rk51d3 · 13th July 2011, 08:46 AM

Boss just came back from a 6 week jaunt in Tibet. took about a dozen shots before her battery ran flat. No worries, she bought a new battery before she left. Popped it in......... Nothing. Stuck it on the charger....... Nothing. Wouldn't charge, wouldn't turn on.

She returns 6 weeks later, cursing her 12mp camera with 32x optical and whatever digital zoom, gps, etc. that couldn't take any photos on her big trip.

She damn near hit the roof when I opened the battery cover, flipped the battery around and turned on the camera.

LOL!

**dmdigital** · 13th July 2011, 05:07 PM

Originally Posted by Chucaro

In my case uploading 300 or more nef images of 55 mb each is out of question plus if the images get corrupted then you lost the lot. Just get a 500mb WD Passport USB HDD for about $80 and you will be better of.

55MB each

What format NEF do you shoot?
My D3s files are about 15MB and that is 14-bit lossless NEF. If I shoot 14-bit uncompressed they are still only about 25MB and Large TIFF are 30MB. I haven't seen or read anything that hasn't suggested using 14-Bit Lossless RAW as being an issue on the D3s. This may be different on the D300s though.

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