Backcountry digital storage/media handling ... Doug?

[IPT]

So I find myself (happy days ) a few times a year in the wilds away from power. I have on more than one occasion lugged my laptop with me to offload images, but I am tired of lugging it around. On a wildness trip, like to Churchill for the Polar Bears, Florida for birds, or McNeil for costal brown bears I take thousands of images. Even with 60GB's of cards I can need more space.

I have entertained the idea of getting a mutilmedia unit to download too. Like the Epson P-6000. I've seen people recommend just buying more CF cards. They propose that it is a little cheeper, lighter, less prone to failure, and has no need for power.

What are you guys doing? Doug, what are the big boys you run with doing? (even with Landscape stuff there must some days of frenzy where you wish you had more space on the cards!).

 

[BlueCorn]

Honestly, other than one airshow a year, I never fill a card. I'm a pretty deliberate shooter so I can get through an entire workshop (5 days) on a 4gb card.

From a backcountry perspective, I'd just carry extra cards.

 

[Misled]

Like Doug, I hardly ever fill a card though I have four, eight gig cards in my bag. The question I have to ask though is how many batteries do you carry??? I have three in the bag and never got past draining two, but I've never come close to 60 gigs.

 

[IPT]

I have 2 batteries for the 1Ds ... that'll get me over 3000 images. Sometimes, like Churchill, I might be able to get to power to recharge the batteries for the camera. Still, flying in small planes to get to remote places limits the weight you can bring. The laptop is a liability in that sense, plus it's sheer size when you're trying to pack small and light.

Yeah, when I do Landscape stuff it's not an issue. Shooting wildlife it's an entirely different process. With animals turning this way and that, blinking, trying to catch the perfect moment as two animals spar, or maintaining focus and compositions of birds in flight you can rip thru an 8GB CF in no time. I try not to "chimp" while I am out there because I have missed many a perfect moment while I was looking downward editing to free up space on a card!

 

[returnofsid]

I've found that my battery life lasts much longer than my memory capacity...lol. The other day, over a 2 day period, I shot 18 gigs of RAW images and used about 1/2 the charge of 1 battery. About 30% of the shots were done with my 430ex ii flash. When traveling, I carry my laptop and a card reader. If I were shooting back country, or somewhere where I was really concerned about memory capacity, I think I'd be a lot more discriminate, in my shooting. I have 2X8 gig and 1X4 gig CF cards. Currently I only have 1 battery, so a second battery is high up on my purchase list. I've recently started shooting everything in RAW, on my Canon 7D. I'm able to get about 350 images, on an 8gig CF card.

 

[Recty]

http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/computers/wolverine_flashpac.html

http://www.amazon.com/Flashpoint-Portable-Picture-Backup-Interface/dp/B002RGNT8U/ref=pd_sim_sbs_e_6

 

[BlueCorn]

I've never lost an image due to a bad card. If had a few go South but software has always saved the images. If I were to use one of those portable units, I wouldn't feel safe unless I had two of them.

 

[IPT]

yeah, I hear very few stories about CF card failures. Usually when a file gets corrupt it turns out to be someone opening the card door or doing something while the info is being written to the card.

Thanks for the links. Much cheeper than that Epson. Though the trade off is the battery time. That is the issue I used to have with the CD writter I had. Funny that not any of my cards would even fit on a CD now. My my how far digital tech has come.

 

[Recty]

I've never lost an image due to a bad card. If had a few go South but software has always saved the images. If I were to use one of those portable units, I wouldn't feel safe unless I had two of them.

And from the brief reading I did, it doesnt just copy the images off your CF, it moves them off... so if you wanted to use two of them you'd definitely want to figure out a way to copy and not do a move.