# Getting photos home from overseas



## Jim Saunders (Jul 26, 2014)

I have a plan coming together for a 50+ day trip to Europe. Any real-world experience on getting 16GB across the pond daily in a reliable manner? 

My initial conditions are no wish to use an online storage medium and no wish to keep the only copies with me physically. Also if I can leave my laptop at home and run on my Asus tablet so much the better; I intend to carry what I need rather than drag literal baggage all over. Finally this is quite likely a once in a lifetime trip, two years worth of vacation time, etc etc so I won't complain about spending a little.

My plan is to write to both cards (in a 1Dx), save everything on a pair of TB-class external drives and then mail USB sticks home separately more or less daily. 16GB thumbies appear to be affordable on the basis of one pair per day, and I can sell most of them when I get home anyway.

I'm all ears - the flight doesn't leave any time soon.

Jim


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## Stu_bert (Jul 26, 2014)

if you want to avoid your laptop, you could consider a pair of hyperdrives for copying from your memory cards to the sata drives. I've not used the latest generation, but have used them where a laptop is not practical. 

I'm not clear however on why you want to get the data home each day if you have 2 copies with you? Are you concerned over theft or something?

And is the use of cloud storage a no-no based on access to wifi during your trip or concerns over security?


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## Vossie (Jul 26, 2014)

Seems like a very cumbersome approach. You seem to be very afraid of loosing files. Do you have a particular bad experience that you are this cautious? 

If you plan to shoot 16 Gb per day, then anything that has to go though the internet is out of scope. WiFi in hotels its typically not capable of uploading that amount of data in 1 night.


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## Northstar (Jul 26, 2014)

Jim Saunders said:


> I have a plan coming together for a 50+ day trip to Europe. Any real-world experience on getting 16GB across the pond daily in a reliable manner?
> 
> My initial conditions are no wish to use an online storage medium and no wish to keep the only copies with me physically. Also if I can leave my laptop at home and run on my Asus tablet so much the better; I intend to carry what I need rather than drag literal baggage all over. Finally this is quite likely a once in a lifetime trip, two years worth of vacation time, etc etc so I won't complain about spending a little.
> 
> ...



Jim...sounds like a great trip, have fun!! London was my favorite spot on a trip to Europe many years ago. 

Your plan looks pretty good....but it might be more work than is needed?

As an alternative, I know you wrote that you weren't interested in cloud storage, but have you tried it? It's so simple and inexpensive, and is such a great way to backup important photos.

I've been using Flickr and Zenfolio to share/backup my most treasured photos. (Thinking about signing up for crashplan)

If I was in your shoes, I would take time to look through my photos each day on my laptop to narrow (cull) the keepers down to my best 20-40 shots, and then upload just those to Zenfolio...done.

By the end of your trip, you'll have 1,500+ of your best photos stored to both your laptop and online, and all your photos stored on one ext HD.

Good luck, and I'm looking forward to seeing some of your photos!

North


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## sanj (Jul 26, 2014)

Hi Jim.

Not saying bad things do not happen but I have travelled for last 15 years to many places: including Europe and other far more edgy places than any part of Europe. I empty my cards at night to my laptop and back that folder on a portable HD.
I keep the HD in a different bag than the laptop and also at times in the hotel locker. 

On return, after transferring the data on to my Drobo system I delete the laptop and HD for further work.

God has been kind and I have not had a single problem. Of course I buy the best HD to back up the photos.

You could just send back a 1 TB portable HD back home via courier when (if) it gets full and get another 1 TB portable to finish the trip. 

Good luck with your trip. I would not be so worried.


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## climber (Jul 26, 2014)

Jim, have you already planned the trip? Where do you want to go? Just curious...


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## lion rock (Jul 26, 2014)

+1 on Hyperdrives.
The Hyperdrive is equipped with battery for portable use and comes with different formats of memory card slots, of course, CF and SD formats. And it can display the image (not in high resolution) being transferred, though, it slows down quite a bit, not to mention the battery is discharged faster.
Get a pair of Hyperdrive shells and purchase four 1tB reliable bare drives to fit in the shells (you'll need to bring the supplied screwdriver for the installation). Write to both sets so you have duplicates. When the first drives are full, use your 2nd HDDs to continue. You have back ups that way, and storage space, too.
-r


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## Vivid Color (Jul 26, 2014)

Hi Jim, 

As others have said, it would be helpful to know a bit more about your trip. 

That said, you mentioned mailing thumb drives on daily basis. Unless you will be staying in hotels that could take care of this for you, I'm concerned that you could use a lot of your valuable vacation time trying to find a post office and then standing in line waiting to mail your items. Even if you have some sort prepaid mailers you could drop somewhere, you still have to find the drop off places. 

One of my questions I have is whether you really plan to shoot 16 GB of images each day. Even shooting RAW plus full JPEG means over 400 images per day– at least that's what it comes out to on my Canon 6D. Your answer to this may help us better tailor a solution to your question. 

Vivid


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## neuroanatomist (Jul 26, 2014)

16 GB per day is ~700+ images shooting RAW on the 1D X. If you are awake for 16 hrs per day, that's 960 minutes. If you actually plan to average a picture every 82 seconds, I strongly recommend that you take some time to see the sights of Europe without your view being constrained by a viewfinder.


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## Orangutan (Jul 26, 2014)

Vivid Color said:


> Unless you will be staying in hotels that could take care of this for you, I'm concerned that you could use a lot of your valuable vacation time trying to find a post office and then standing in line waiting to mail your items.


+1



neuroanatomist said:


> I strongly recommend that you take some time to see the sights of Europe without your view being constrained by a viewfinder.


+1

Is this your first trip to Europe? First trip overseas? If so, I'd say don't do a 50-day trip, do a 14-day trip this year, and another one next year, etc. It would be a shame to get 10-days into your trip and find that you don't really like being away from home that long, or that you misjudged your interests or stamina, etc. Traveling well is a learned skill-set.


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## neuroanatomist (Jul 26, 2014)

Orangutan said:


> If so, I'd say don't do a 50-day trip, do a 14-day trip this year, and another one next year...



I dislike short trips, and to me 14 days is short. Our international trips are generally a month or so. Figure you lose a day (or more) on either end for travel, and if going to "Europe" or "East Africa" you lose up to a day traveling between locations. That 14 day trip becomes more like a 9-10 day trip...like I said, short. Obviously it's a personal choice, but IMO you miss a lot if your itinerary includes too many places. When we went to East Africa for a month, subtracting a week of travel (16 hrs flying time each way, plus intercountry flights) gave us a week on Zanzibar, a week in northern Tanzania (Arusha/Serengeti/Ngorongoro/Olduvai), and a week in Rwanda. That was about the minimum time to really appreciate each location, IMO.


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## dgatwood (Jul 26, 2014)

neuroanatomist said:


> 16 GB per day is ~700+ images shooting RAW on the 1D X. If you are awake for 16 hrs per day, that's 960 minutes. If you actually plan to average a picture every 82 seconds, I strongly recommend that you take some time to see the sights of Europe without your view being constrained by a viewfinder.



*shrugs*

That's also about what I average when I'm traveling, unless I'm either somewhere with little to see or I'm somewhere that I've been many times before. It quite frequently involves periods of "Ooh, I'm at the top of [insert random building]. Let me take a thousand photos from this vantage point," interspersed with periods of much lower shooting density.


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## Vivid Color (Jul 26, 2014)

neuroanatomist said:


> 16 GB per day is ~700+ images shooting RAW on the 1D X. If you are awake for 16 hrs per day, that's 960 minutes. If you actually plan to average a picture every 82 seconds, I strongly recommend that you take some time to see the sights of Europe without your view being constrained by a viewfinder.



+1. This is what I was trying to get at but more precise and better said.


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## Orangutan (Jul 26, 2014)

neuroanatomist said:


> Orangutan said:
> 
> 
> > If so, I'd say don't do a 50-day trip, do a 14-day trip this year, and another one next year...
> ...



If I had the time and money that's probably what I'd do for much the same reasons you mentioned. On the other hand, there are people I know who start getting very homesick after 10 days. That's why I wrote that if this was his first trip to Europe or first international trip he should consider making it shorter, and also why I say traveling well is a learned skill-set. Each person travels differently, and each couple or group is a set of compromises and enhancements for the experience. For any first time traveler, I suggest a shorter trip. If it flew by too quickly, then go longer next time.


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## Vivid Color (Jul 26, 2014)

If what you are shooting isn't moving, then one can certainly take many many shots of the same thing, but what is the result? A ton of shots to go through at the end. All of which probably look pretty much exactly the same. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean to you have to. I grew up in the film era when one took way fewer shots because the price of developing and printing film was so expensive. Also, my Honeywell Pentax SLR was fully manual except for a built in light meter, which also slowed things down. I take way more photos now since I've gone digital, but in many ways, I still approach a shot like I'm shooting with film. YMMV, but I'd rather have a few well composed and exposed shots of something and spend the rest of my time just experiencing and taking in the scene or interacting with the friends I'm with, etc. Of course, this all changes if what you are shooting is moving and it's your only opportunity to get the shot. 

My point of the above is think about what you will likely be shooting and have an estimate of how many shots you will likely take. (I admit, this can be done more easily for some trips than others.) You may find that you will need far fewer cards and storage than your original post proposes. Also, keep in mind that electrical outlets in European hotels aren't as plentiful as they are in U.S. hotels and can sometimes be, from an American perspective, in odd locations. So, in addition to the various plug adapters you'll need to bring, I'd encourage you to bring some extension cords with multiple outlets into which you can plug all your various devices.


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## tolusina (Jul 26, 2014)

Jim Saunders said:


> ......... run on my Asus tablet.......


Does your ASUS have removable storage?


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## neuroanatomist (Jul 26, 2014)

Vivid Color said:


> If what you are shooting isn't moving, then one can certainly take many many shots of the same thing, but what is the result? A ton of shots to go through at the end. All of which probably look pretty much exactly the same. ...I'd rather have a few well composed and exposed shots of something and spend the rest of my time just experiencing and taking in the scene or interacting with the friends I'm with, etc.



Nailed it. 

Even with people as subjects, a short burst is usually sufficient. Taking pics of your kids while traveling can be a bit more challenging and could mean more shots, but there it's even more important to put the camera down and enjoy time and place with them, IMO.


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## JPAZ (Jul 26, 2014)

If you are really worried, shoot to two cards and back up to a portable HDD each night (while sleeping). In the worst case scenario, you'll lose some photos (theft, fire, etc.) but have a wonderful trip. Don't stress over it.


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## Jim Saunders (Jul 26, 2014)

I appreciate the many replies. To get a thorny issue out of the way first, where I travel and for how long is my business.

Now then, Neuro's math is of course spot-on but consider shooting video (perhaps with a GoPro as well for the walking parts) and the data load grows quickly. Planning for that much data is planning conservatively, I don't suggest that every day will make for full cards. Some days will be so of course, some will be train rides all over the place - you should see how much coverage Eurail has!

I have been to Europe before, but it was with work and I had only film point & shoots to work with; this time I mean to get it right.

In the meantime the staff work continues; it isn't planning the invasion of Europe... Well I guess it is. Anyway I'll have a look at that Hyperdrive mentioned, anything which simplifies my life gives me more time to look out the window and enjoy myself.

Jim


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## sagittariansrock (Jul 26, 2014)

Jim Saunders said:


> I appreciate the many replies. To get a thorny issue out of the way first, where I travel and for how long is my business.
> 
> Now then, Neuro's math is of course spot-on but consider shooting video (perhaps with a GoPro as well for the walking parts) and the data load grows quickly. Planning for that much data is planning conservatively, I don't suggest that every day will make for full cards. Some days will be so of course, some will be train rides all over the place - you should see how much coverage Eurail has!
> 
> ...



Get it right, and please share with us. Looking forward to it.


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## LJ3Jim (Jul 26, 2014)

Hi, Jim. I actually support your original proposal. I've taken a couple of photo-heavy trips. Online storage solutions for that much data are not viable from hotels. My primary storage was a small laptop plus a USB hard drive. The laptop and USB hard drive both contained all the data. I always kept the USB hard drive with me; the laptop stayed with the luggage. Using two hard drives allows you to skip the laptop as long as your tablet can do the data transfer for you. So far, I've always arrived home with both copies of my data intact. However, your "insurance" of sending home USB thumb drives is an easy way of generating a third copy of the data. I honestly can't think of a better way of ensuring that you arrive home with at least one copy of all of your data. That said, you'll probably arrive home with all three copies. 

Have a great trip!

Regards, Jim


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## canonistic (Jul 26, 2014)

my workflow goes like this: i travel with a macbook air and an external hard drive.
i shoot to two cards at once in the camera and consider one to be "primary". I NEVER erase a card until it is copied and the files exist in two other locations.
At the end of the day i ingest the primary card to the hard drive and erase the backup card. When the primary card is full, i store it and put a fresh card in its place. The primary card and external drive are never kept in the same suitcase or backpack. Occasionally i upload my favorite shots to dropbox as time allows.

i have had cards fail, but i haven't lost an image yet with this flow.

i like very fast cards but they are expensive, you can buy a lot of high capacity cards for a trip if you sacrifice speed, and usually they work okay on vacation.

i think mailing images home daily would be overkill, however if its practical that would be the ultimate backup.


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## Don Haines (Jul 26, 2014)

Last month I went on a 12 day trip....I shot 295GB of data... that comes to an average of 24.6GB per day. When the O.P. states 16GB per day, I have no problems believing it.

I was travelling in a truck so there were no weight or volume restrictions. I brought along a laptop and stored the data on it's hard drive and for backup, onto a portable hard drive. If I was restricted for weight or volume, I would have brought along a pair of hyperdrives.

You are looking at 16GB per day for 50 days.... that's 800GB. Personally, I multiply estimates by a factor of 2 for a good safety margin. I would look at the bare hyperdrive (http://www.hypershop.com/HyperDrive/HDU2-000.html) and get a 2TB drive to mount in it. that should give you a safety factor of 2.5X


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## Vossie (Jul 26, 2014)

Jim Saunders said:


> To get a thorny issue out of the way first, where I travel and for how long is my business.



Wow that was friendly. I think the background of people asking was (in part) to estimate if there were particular safety risks. (Although, living in Europe, I do not think that this is a major concern in most of Europe.)

In June I had my 2 week vacation and have shot about 250 Gb. Over half of that was in timelapses (shot in RAW); so the amount of data of 16Gb/day is not surprising. 

I used an image tank in the past, but with the current price of memory cards, I do not think it is cost effective. Investing in an additional camera to the 1DX that is light and easy to take with you when going ot for dinner may give you more joy.


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## Orangutan (Jul 27, 2014)

Jim Saunders said:


> To get a thorny issue out of the way first, where I travel and for how long is my business.



Nothing thorny about it, you're absolutely right. I just thought I'd throw out something you might not have considered.

Enjoy your trip, and I hope it's not the only time you're able to travel to Europe.


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## Jim Saunders (Jul 27, 2014)

Orangutan said:


> Nothing thorny about it, you're absolutely right. I just thought I'd throw out something you might not have considered.
> 
> Enjoy your trip, and I hope it's not the only time you're able to travel to Europe.



It wasn't your input which sat wrong  It is being patronized which does, and I think that is a pretty universal reaction.

In any case I have some new ideas to consider, and I appreciate them.

Jim


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## Orangutan (Jul 27, 2014)

Jim Saunders said:


> Orangutan said:
> 
> 
> > Nothing thorny about it, you're absolutely right. I just thought I'd throw out something you might not have considered.
> ...



I apologize if I sounded patronizing, I didn't intend to.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Jul 27, 2014)

Jim Saunders said:


> I have a plan coming together for a 50+ day trip to Europe. Any real-world experience on getting 16GB across the pond daily in a reliable manner?
> 
> My initial conditions are no wish to use an online storage medium and no wish to keep the only copies with me physically. Also if I can leave my laptop at home and run on my Asus tablet so much the better; I intend to carry what I need rather than drag literal baggage all over. Finally this is quite likely a once in a lifetime trip, two years worth of vacation time, etc etc so I won't complain about spending a little.
> 
> ...



Jim, my thought is that you are going to need 100 16 GB thumb drives, they are not huge, but why not get some 64GB thumb drives, you can then send home 3-6 days worth of shooting at a time. Save on postage as well.

25 of the 64 GB drives would cost about $750, while 100 of the same brand 16 GB Drives runs about $900. 

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Frustration-Free-Packaging--SDCZ36-016G-AFFP/dp/B007JR5368/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1406425965&sr=1-1&keywords=thumb+drives

I'm sure that you can get less expensive ones, or a deal on a large quantity, but there will be a difference in cost as well as how many you need to carry. You might be able to sell 64GB drives for more as well.


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## Jim Saunders (Jul 27, 2014)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Jim, my thought is that you are going to need 100 16 GB thumb drives, they are not huge, but why not get some 64GB thumb drives, you can then send home 3-6 days worth of shooting at a time. Save on postage as well.
> 
> 25 of the 64 GB drives would cost about $750, while 100 of the same brand 16 GB Drives runs about $900.
> 
> ...



Considering the notable point raised earlier that getting to a post office daily might eat up a lot of time (if they aren't convenient to train stations etc.) this is worth investigating. 

I don't mind the postage - potentially a variety of interesting stamps when I get home - but the adventure of finding a post office could well turn into a chore pretty quickly.

Jim


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## Orangutan (Jul 27, 2014)

Jim Saunders said:


> Considering the notable point raised earlier that getting to a post office daily might eat up a lot of time (if they aren't convenient to train stations etc.) this is worth investigating.
> 
> I don't mind the postage - potentially a variety of interesting stamps when I get home - but the adventure of finding a post office could well turn into a chore pretty quickly.
> 
> Jim



Depending on your plans, you may be able to locate post offices in advance, and work that into your schedule.


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## Don Haines (Jul 27, 2014)

Orangutan said:


> Jim Saunders said:
> 
> 
> > Considering the notable point raised earlier that getting to a post office daily might eat up a lot of time (if they aren't convenient to train stations etc.) this is worth investigating.
> ...


You can courier things from just about any major hotel that you are staying at and a great number of them can mail things for you as well. A lot of people send postcards from hotels and the system is in place (usually) to mail stuff out.


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## Jim Saunders (Jul 27, 2014)

Don Haines said:


> Orangutan said:
> 
> 
> > Depending on your plans, you may be able to locate post offices in advance, and work that into your schedule.
> ...



I don't plan to hotel it every night, but I'll keep both of these in mind. I do like it when a plan starts to congeal!

Jim


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## 278204 (Jul 27, 2014)

I'm on an 8-month trip (sadly nearing the end) with a 5d2, shooting only stills. I use a Nexus 7 tablet to copy stuff around. It has 300+ ppi so I also use it to filter out the gunk every evening, which greatly reduces the space requirements - batting average is about 20 keepers / day. I shoot raw+jpeg, putting the raws on a 128gb usb and the jpegs on a 32gb usb. I carry each usb in different bags. Looks like they won't fill up by the end of the trip.


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## Hillsilly (Jul 27, 2014)

Bad things do happen, so its good that you're giving this serious thought. My approach is to take a small external Hard Drive, and back up to that regularly from a laptop. I keep the Hard Drive in my hire car, wife's purse, nappy change bag etc so that we're less likely to lose both the laptop and hard drive at the same time.


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## Valvebounce (Aug 31, 2014)

Hi Jim. 
I hope this reaches you before you leave, Vivid is absolutely correct, take at least 1 lead with at lest 3ft cord and 4 outlets, 1 Universal European adaptor per lead. I won't comment on backup devices as I have no experience. I will comment on hotel / guesthouse internet access in England, it varies immensely across the country, cities tend to be much better connected than rural areas, and there are still large areas of the country where the "broadband" is slower than dial up internet used to be in the city! Less than 2 mbit/s!!

If you happen to be coming to the Isle of Wight at all pm me if you want a guide for the day or just pointers on where to go. 

Cheers, Graham. 



Vivid Color said:


> Also, keep in mind that electrical outlets in European hotels aren't as plentiful as they are in U.S. hotels and can sometimes be, from an American perspective, in odd locations. So, in addition to the various plug adapters you'll need to bring, I'd encourage you to bring some extension cords with multiple outlets into which you can plug all your various devices.


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## Jim Saunders (Aug 31, 2014)

Valvebounce said:


> Hi Jim.
> I hope this reaches you before you leave, Vivid is absolutely correct, take at least 1 lead with at lest 3ft cord and 4 outlets, 1 Universal European adaptor per lead. I won't comment on backup devices as I have no experience. I will comment on hotel / guesthouse internet access in England, it varies immensely across the country, cities tend to be much better connected than rural areas, and there are still large areas of the country where the "broadband" is slower than dial up internet used to be in the city! Less than 2 mbit/s!!
> 
> If you happen to be coming to the Isle of Wight at all pm me if you want a guide for the day or just pointers on where to go.
> ...



I'll keep all of that in mind!

Jim


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## wickidwombat (Sep 1, 2014)

external SSD usb 3 drive just dump everything to that.... 

Done.

i've been travelling for the last 15 months flying 10 to 15 planes a month cars trains buses... well not many buses actually

I have a 512GB SSD usb3 I work off. back up to a Drobo mini with 4 x 1.5 TB in a raid 6 array with a 64GB SSD as its speed booster.

so far so good

Macbook Pro is also all SSD

i don't even know anyone that even comes close to travelling as much as i do and so far my system works ok for me so for your uses just dumping everything to the external SSD will work fine, i would skip the HDD though


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## Hannes (Sep 2, 2014)

Why would he need a post office every day? Surely you stick the stamps and customs declaration on the padded envelope and drop in a mailbox? You can't really send that many packets through tracked mail. The other obvious option is to burn DVDs with the photos. Sure you may need to do four a day but they are cheaper than thumb drives and probably at less risk of getting crushed. It also means you can pick up spindles of DVD-rs in whichever country you are in, most places will have them readily available in supermarkets, electronic stores etc. If you want to be extra safe buy a couple of laptop hard drives and an external drive enclosure and send a drive home using tracked mail every two weeks or something in addition to thumb drives.


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## YuengLinger (Sep 2, 2014)

After all that shooting, are you going to be too tired at the end of the day to use DPP to scan through your harvest and winnow out the chaff? Wouldn't that cut down significantly, perhaps 25% or more?

Doesn't seem too practical without a laptop, and if you have that, you have at least 1TB of internal, plus you can have a 2TB external. Now, except for theft or other calamities, you have standard coverage. 

If you also back up on a daily basis to something like a Corsair Flash Voyager Slider 128GB USB 3.0, you could mail it when full (once a week or so?) back home. That would mean only six or seven trips to the post office (where you do get to mix with the locals, at least).

Jim, I'm glad you posed this question. It's an important one, and I'm also glad so many good suggestions are being posted. When our new daughter gets a little older, say about two years old, we do plan to go back to China for a long visit, and I'll be in some very remote areas. I'll be facing much of what you will be, but for some stretches without the benefit of reliable post offices.


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## tomscott (Sep 2, 2014)

I would buy a group of cards as example 4x32gb fast CF cards and 8x32gb SD cards (because they are half the price). Use the 4 CF cards with 4 SD cards to write raw to both for stage one redundancy. Keep the SD card and store in a waterproof shock proof wallet and store in separate bag. Unload CF card while on the road moving between places to save travel time, with method explained below, format the CF card now you have two copies of your images and place back in camera with the second 32gb SD card and repeat. that gives you 128gb or 6400 images. SD and CF cards are so easy to get hold of can buy them anywhere in the UK like america and aren't too expensive if you need more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u6IvnnTq_c

Buy an iPad mini or retina

Battery powered 1-2tb HDD (most are wireless too) they also have a usb cable so you can use a split cable USB to power
http://www.ebuyer.com/644845-1-5tb-samsung-wireless-mobile-media-device-hx-mtd15eq 

or buy an external battery charge pack to power standard HDD from or use a wall plug USB 
http://www.amazon.com/RAVPower-Lightning-Thunderbolt-Incredible-connectors/dp/B00EHEEFWY

3rd party lightning CF/SD card reader with combined USB slot
http://www.macfixit.com.au/lightning-camera-connection-kit-cf.html

iFile software and move pictures from memory card to HDD with ifile as a back up. Or if your iPad is big enough copy to iPad first then copy over and go through your images.

You can then view and edit images using iPhoto, photoshop touch or other App to edit the odd file on the fly to share.

Another way is to use the Hyperdrive as an external HDD but they are expensive £250 just for the enclosure without the drive when you can buy a card reader, 1tb wireless battery powered drive for less than £130 which does the same thing. The hyperdrive may be quicker to read tho.

I am going traveling to south america for 2 months and then California for 2 months. I have a 11" macbook air but with the charger weighs 1.5kg. The iPad mini retina weighs 331g, even with the macbook air I would take an external HDD and a battery pack to charge my iPhone while on the road so weight saving of one KG.

You can also put your films/tv shows or what ever else on the HDD and use it for media consumption during down time. The iPad is useful as you can look at your images at a decent size and save a few over to edit if you want to share with friends and family, also useful for web browsing and trip planning.


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## plam_1980 (Sep 2, 2014)

My question to all of you who say that shoot 16-24GB per day: do you even have the time and nerves to go through all those photos more than once when you go back home?


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## tomscott (Sep 2, 2014)

TBH its probably panic shooting, shoot mediocre images but document where you went instead of taking pictures of things you find interesting. But its hard while traveling not to want to document everything. I would say 16gb a day is overkill tho, 700 images is a lot.

But each to their own.


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## LDS (Sep 2, 2014)

Jim Saunders said:


> I don't mind the postage - potentially a variety of interesting stamps when I get home - but the adventure of finding a post office could well turn into a chore pretty quickly.


In some countries, even in Europe, mailing an USB stick without using some special expensive services or a courier, it's the best way to 'lose' them. Post offices may not be open all day or weekends.

A local 4G SIM can be fast, but 4G may not be available everywhere, and usually there are monthly or daily limits far below 16GB.


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## Jim Saunders (Sep 3, 2014)

It occurred to me to try copying files from the CF slot to the SD slot on my card reader, with it plugged into my tablet; it is fairly slow but it works. 25 Mb cr2 files take about five seconds each, but it runs unattended. I'll have to shop a bit for SD cards (the full size ones might be cheaper, here's hoping) but it appears this particular question is answered. I appreciate all the useful feedback, perhaps this thread will amount to a handy guide to someone else in similar circumstances. 

Jim


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## YuengLinger (Sep 7, 2014)

LDS said:


> Jim Saunders said:
> 
> 
> > I don't mind the postage - potentially a variety of interesting stamps when I get home - but the adventure of finding a post office could well turn into a chore pretty quickly.
> ...



How many USB sticks have you lost? Which countries? Are the mail clerks just lying in wait for them?


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## Jim Saunders (Sep 7, 2014)

I tried copying the take from a trip to the zoo with my tablet as described in my last; it does work but three images in total became corrupted. I might get a 5D3 anyway, and if I can copy its SD cards to one of those WD portable drives I saw on Petapixel the other day then I might be better off. :-\

Jim


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