Solution to back up SD (SDHC) memory cards on the road without a laptop?

[SoybeanStasher]

I'm traveling to Vietnam for 3 weeks. I'll be bringing my HF100 along, which of course uses SDHC memory cards. I figure I'll shoot maybe 1-2 hours a day, which means up to 40 hours of footage, or 320 GB of video. You can always edit stuff out, but I'd like to get as much footage as possible, especially of my parents explaining stuff, since they won't be around forever and they actually lived through the war and whatnot.

I'd really prefer not to bring my laptop to Vietnam for multiple reasons (weight, potential damage, theft, etc.). I also would like to avoid having to buy 20 16 GB SD cards. Is there a device that offloads the data from SD cards onto a hard drive? I've found a device that works with the iPod (iWay) but doesn't support the larger SDHC format (I don't think so, anyway).

Barring that, any other thoughts on SD cards and long travel (other than berating me for not getting a MiniDV camera )?

 

[SoybeanStasher]

Apparently my Google skills are craptacular, but luckily my friend knew what to search for. The PicPac does the trick and the Hyperdrive is even better, since you can throw in any drive you want.

 

[Courtaj]

Any chance you could report back to let us know how you get on with (either one of) these? I'd be interested to hear how these devices handle the complex AVCHD folder structure written to the cards. How are they going to copy the folders over intact but not write over the previous batch of DCIM / MISC / PRIVATE folders? I have a hunch that this is going to be the straw that breaks it with these things. Love to be wrong though.

Andrew.

 

[SoybeanStasher]

I'll definitely report back, but my understanding is that both of these devices create a new directory every time you back up a card. Something along the lines of CARD01, CARD02, etc.

Hyperdrive's support site (which is surprisingly comprehensive) indicates that the contents of a card are copied over indiscriminately (i.e., even though these are designed with photographers in mind, they'll work fine with the contents of a video recording). Therefore the entire contents of a card will be dumped into its own directory. I would imagine that if after backing up a card you immediately hit the button to back it up again, it would create a whole new directory once more.