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SD card backup without laptop

MCAsan

MCAsan

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 9, 2012
4,587
442
Atlanta
Those that are using cameras with SD cards, and trying not to carry a laptop in the field,....how are you backing up your SD cards? I fully realize you can lock a SD card and move on to the next card in the field and hope you don't lose the card(s). But that is not part of this topic. Just talking about making a copy of the photos on the SD cards that you can bring back and import into your desktop Mac (or PC).

Has anyone tried the WD My Passport Wireless product? Looks like you can get it with a 2TB drive and set it up to either copy the files off the SD cards or move them off the cards. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1330

I have seen SD card readers with integrated card reads over at B&H. But they are mostly in the $600-$1000 price range. With the My Passport Wireless I should be able to copy the images and then put into my iPad to see the images. Just wondering if anyone has done similar.
 
I carry a shed load of sd cards.

I then have a USB to go cable £5 and a usb card reader £7 that allows me to access the sd cards from my android tablet and phone.

Obviously only jpgs... I shoot jpg+raw.

As for backups, I am not backing them up until back at computer but keep them in a plastic box that my last batch of business cards arrived in...to protect them until near a computer.

Maybe you could MacGyver it? Get a raspberry pi and a USB hard drive for it, then connect to it wirelessly on the go using it as a headless nas and ad-hoc wifi mode?? Less elegant than the wd solution but infinitely more flexible...

I can feel a project coming...
 
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MCAsan said:
Those that are using cameras with SD cards, and trying not to carry a laptop in the field,....how are you backing up your SD cards? I fully realize you can lock a SD card and move on to the next card in the field and hope you don't lose the card(s). But that is not part of this topic. Just talking about making a copy of the photos on the SD cards that you can bring back and import into your desktop Mac (or PC).

Has anyone tried the WD My Passport Wireless product? Looks like you can get it with a 2TB drive and set it up to either copy the files off the SD cards or move them off the cards. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1330

I have seen SD card readers with integrated card reads over at B&H. But they are mostly in the $600-$1000 price range. With the My Passport Wireless I should be able to copy the images and then put into my iPad to see the images. Just wondering if anyone has done similar.
Click to expand...
Both my cameras have duel SD cards, so even if one fails I'm good. I never delete the cards until I have them on my Mac.
I think at this stage buying more cards is the easiest solution.
If you backed up your cards to one drive in the field and it failed or got stolen you've had it.
 
Maybe I misread it, but I don't think the issue is running out of storage or wanting to erase and reuse the cards. Rather, I think MCAsan is looking for an in-the-field backup solution that is not laptop-dependent. Dual-card is very helpful if you have it, but not all cameras do.
 
MCH-1138 said:
Maybe I misread it, but I don't think the issue is running out of storage or wanting to erase and reuse the cards. Rather, I think MCAsan is looking for an in-the-field backup solution that is not laptop-dependent. Dual-card is very helpful if you have it, but not all cameras do.
Click to expand...
Yep... Hence MacGyver time... raspberry Pi3 headless nas mobile
 
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MCH-1138 said:
Apologies, I misread then -- I was hungry and thought you mentioned raspberry pie. Raspberry pi is out of my league...
Click to expand...

That's cool... raspberry Pi is a way cool little device. Gen 3 has built in WiFi and Bluetooth... and has enough oomph to be useful now.
 
Another route is to use the iPad with a file manager app plus a USB 3 hub to connect a card read and an external drive. Will look at that option.
 
I got frustrated with my iPad and got a good deal on an Android tablet with a microSD slot. Now I just use a cardreader to send the images to the tablet and then to that microSD. It also does OTG so I can move files the other direction. Especially nice if you have big RAW files since wifi solutions are slow.
 
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MCAsan said:
Those that are using cameras with SD cards, and trying not to carry a laptop in the field,....how are you backing up your SD cards? I fully realize you can lock a SD card and move on to the next card in the field and hope you don't lose the card(s). But that is not part of this topic. Just talking about making a copy of the photos on the SD cards that you can bring back and import into your desktop Mac (or PC).

Has anyone tried the WD My Passport Wireless product? Looks like you can get it with a 2TB drive and set it up to either copy the files off the SD cards or move them off the cards. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1330

I have seen SD card readers with integrated card reads over at B&H. But they are mostly in the $600-$1000 price range. With the My Passport Wireless I should be able to copy the images and then put into my iPad to see the images. Just wondering if anyone has done similar.
Click to expand...
I wonder if you could link something like an Eyefi card and directly link it to that WD Passport you posted, but you might in an intermediary device for some reason... It might be worth a look.
 
Hi there
A lot will depend on how large your files are,
With my compact camera, (Nikon AW 100), I can load images very easy using the iPad Camera Connection Kit no problems at all
The tried my D4s and the iPad crashed sometimes, I guess the files were too large even though I still had plenty room left on the iPad (RAW files I guess?)
My main reason was to just view images on the road as I always keep the images on the card
In the end, just got a MBP and just back up to a WD 2 TB portable drive and still keep the images on the cards
The cost/MB now days is cheap enough to just carry a hat full of hards

I do like the idea of the WD SD card option, even then, I would retain the images on the card until they are backed up

You would have to way up the cost,
IMHO, just buy more cards
......Gary
 
Why not use your 128gb iPhone? I use an iPad mini but essentially the same routine. Then lock the cards and put them away. Quicker than wireless.

I've tried a host of SD card replicators and storage gadgets. The most reliable, quickest and easiest to use have been iOS based devices. Have not tried Android. Assume the same as iOS. Just need the CCK which now works with the iPhone.

Re files too large: I used to shoot a D800, now shoot Fuji XTrans. No issues and those are both large files. I'm not sure there's many larger until you go uncompressed or medium format.
 
Either the wife or I can easily fill a 128GB card in a day of wildlife shooting. No IOS device has enough internal storage for multiple days of serious shooting. I will be trying the use of the new Lighting to USB 3 Camera Adapter cable to hook up to a Belkin power hub. I can connect a Lexar UHS-II U3 card reader to one port and my Samsung SSD to another. Using iPad Air 2 or even the new small iPad Pro I can use a file manager app on the iPad to copy from the card to the SSD at USB 2 speeds. For USB 3 speeds you have to have the large iPad Pro.
 
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It is all too easy to do if you are out dawn to dusk shooting wildlife. Granted the keepers are a low percentage. But you need to store them in the field until you get them to a large screen for culling and then editing.
 
Why not just bring lots of SD media with you? It's certainly cheap enough. 128 GB Sandisk Extreme 90/MBs is $55 (and if you can live w/ 40/MBs its $39) at B&H. Unless I'm shooting for clients I leave as much gear as I can at home. I carry the cards in a weatherproof case (SD x12) - cards that are blank are face up and cards that are full up go face down.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1047735-REG/ruggard_mch_sd12b_hard_memory_card_case.html

I usually carry 1 for CF and one for SD - it's great for keeping track of your media in the field:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/824787-REG/ruggard_mct_sd8bl_memory_card_case_for.html
 
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Understood. But the topic is SD backup. Not just carrying lots of SD storage with no backup. I will not take a 2-3 week trip to Alaska, Africa or other expensive destination without planning image backup. I am just trying to avoid the size and weight ( and future cost of replacements) of a a Macbook.
 
MCAsan said:
Understood. But the topic is SD backup. Not just carrying lots of SD storage with no backup. I will not take a 2-3 week trip to Alaska, Africa or other expensive destination without planning image backup. I am just trying to avoid the size and weight ( and future cost of replacements) of a a Macbook.
Click to expand...

I'm shooting to both SD and CF cards so there is my backup plan. You are shooting cameras with only a single card slot? I see this 2TB storage unit at B&H:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1191268-REG/sanho_shdcsudma32tb_2tb_colorspace_udma_3.html

FWIW, upgraded my 4 year old 2.5 lbs Macbook Air with 1TB SSD for under $600 - considering the above weighs in at 1.3 LBS a 1 pound weight savings is hardly worth considering for something you'll be leaving at your base camp anyway, not to mention the added benefit a Macbook provides. With a macbook you can upload your edits and have backups in triplicate off site so even if a lion or polar bear gets you, we'll at least know you were there. Sorry - I guess I'm arguing against SD backup w/o a laptop -just my 2 cents.
 
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Understood. For me the key is going to one Mac, an iMac on the desktop. An iMac gives me far more processing resources (CPU, GPU, and 5K monitor) compared to the cost of a top of the line Macbook Pro with a 27" 4K monitor.

In the field, I only want an iPad with external drives as needed to backup my SD cards. The most I need to do with images in the field is to cull them. When I get home all the keepers will go into LR.
 
I hear ya. I wasn't aware of the rechargeable card slot backup drives so good to know there are options out there. Adobe does allow you to run 2 instances of LR on 2 computers btw- so you should be able to edit in LR on the laptop and ingest into the iMac w/o messing up your library, but that's a workflow thing and not for everybody. I find that the Air is just ridiculously light and convenient w/the SD slot and now with the cheaper internal SSD it makes for a very portable storage/tool.
 
MCAsan said:
Understood. For me the key is going to one Mac, an iMac on the desktop. An iMac gives me far more processing resources (CPU, GPU, and 5K monitor) compared to the cost of a top of the line Macbook Pro with a 27" 4K monitor.

In the field, I only want an iPad with external drives as needed to backup my SD cards. The most I need to do with images in the field is to cull them. When I get home all the keepers will go into LR.
Click to expand...

Did you ever come up with a solution for this? I'm interested since it is similar to what I want to do as well.
 
I see you mentioned the B&H devices being too costly in the $600-1K range. There's the Sanho HyperDrive ColorSpace UDMA 3 (without hard drive) at $249 and you can virtually put any 2.5" SATA drive in there. 2TB drives can be had for under $100, so that's something to consider.
 
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