Options for storing, backing up and managing photos for a big trip

[MarkVS]

We have a 4 month trip coming up and been trying solutions for backing up, and managing photos in preparation for the trip......unsuccessfully...so after some help/guidance.

Aim...using as match of the h/ware that we have
To backup
To manage
Photos on a trip on an ongoing basis.

We are an apple family so IPhoto's will be the tool of choice...

We have iPads, iPhones, DSLR, smaller camera, and of course, the IPads/phones cameras as well.

Looking for a way to backup the photos from the various camera types, and also put them onto one platform so they can be viewed, deleted and commented on.

Don't want to go out and buy any major hardware (e.g. Laptop) unless I have to.

Any help appreciated.

MarkVS

[McGirr]

Mark, we will have the iPad Air plus laptop and portable hard drive.

Also taking the drone and will back the video and pics onto the laptop.

Then back them all up on flicker when we get back.

We find it best to do all the editing etc once the trip is over.

Mark

[MarkVS]

Mark, we will have the iPad Air plus laptop and portable hard drive.

Also taking the drone and will back the video and pics onto the laptop.

Then back them all up on flicker when we get back.

We find it best to do all the editing etc once the trip is over.

Mark

Thanks Mark...I'm trying to avoid buying a laptop......

[suby]

Thanks Mark...I'm trying to avoid buying a laptop......

When we do trips, I usually take a laptop just because it the easiest thing to round up photos from many devices. It's still a pain and still takes a lot of time.

We usually post to blog with selected photos, and sort photos by region or location on the laptop and have phones, small zoom camera, micro 4/3ds camera, small waterproof video camera etc. And backup from the laptop to external hard disk that is stored in the trailer, with laptop stored in the vehicle. Having 2 copies is a good idea.

Because of all the devices, I need to use, USB cables for phones, and or SD or micro SD cards for other devices. I have found this to be the best method, though still a chore with lots of manual handling.  Finding a better solution would be great, but I don't know of one.

Having everything using a central wifi storage perhaps is what's needed?  Not all of my devices have wifi though.

Cheers,

[Symon]

I recently bought one of these things - https://www.wdc.com/products/portable-storage/my-passport-wireless-pro.html mostly because it has the SD card reader so it will automatically download what is on the card and back it up.  This makes things easier for the DSLR's.  You can also connect to it via wi-fi and do the backup that way as well.

The key thing is to backup your backup.  I carry at least two (sometimes three) portable hard drives and make a copy of the master drive.  Portable hard drives are unreliable so don't put all your stuff on just one.

A laptop gives you a lot more flexibility with this, even a cheap one will make life a lot easier.

[MarkVS]

I recently bought one of these things - https://www.wdc.com/products/portable-storage/my-passport-wireless-pro.html mostly because it has the SD card reader so it will automatically download what is on the card and back it up.  This makes things easier for the DSLR's.  You can also connect to it via wi-fi and do the backup that way as well.

The key thing is to backup your backup.  I carry at least two (sometimes three) portable hard drives and make a copy of the master drive.  Portable hard drives are unreliable so don't put all your stuff on just one.

A laptop gives you a lot more flexibility with this, even a cheap one will make life a lot easier.

Symon,
Thanks...... that looks interesting..... I've had a look through the Specs.....

so basically, that will allow me to have a external hard dive connection to my iPad (via the wireless connection)..... so I can back all of the photos from the devices to the drive, and then access the photos on the drive via the wireless connection, from the iPad, to sort, edit, import etc....

And the photos are backed up as well....

Interesting.....

Thanks

[noel_w]

I recently bought one of these things - https://www.wdc.com/products/portable-storage/my-passport-wireless-pro.html mostly because it has the SD card reader so it will automatically download what is on the card and back it up.  This makes things easier for the DSLR's.  You can also connect to it via wi-fi and do the backup that way as well.

The key thing is to backup your backup.  I carry at least two (sometimes three) portable hard drives and make a copy of the master drive.  Portable hard drives are unreliable so don't put all your stuff on just one.

A laptop gives you a lot more flexibility with this, even a cheap one will make life a lot easier.

I have one as well. Works like a bought one.
My DSLR has dual SD cards and writes the same file to both cards. I just take one out at the end of the day and insert it into the drive and "voila" done. You can set the drive to automatically copy the files to a folder on the drive. This way I have 3 copies of the same photo until I get home and copy to my server.
The device will also function as a power bank as well to keep your phone charged.
Is also a media server so can stream movies over wifi to attached devices. (Have yet to try this function)
Handy little device if a little expensive though. I bought a 3TB version

[MarkVS]

I have one as well. Works like a bought one.
My DSLR has dual SD cards and writes the same file to both cards. I just take one out at the end of the day and insert it into the drive and "voila" done. You can set the drive to automatically copy the files to a folder on the drive. This way I have 3 copies of the same photo until I get home and copy to my server.
The device will also function as a power bank as well to keep your phone charged.
Is also a media server so can stream movies over wifi to attached devices. (Have yet to try this function)
Handy little device if a little expensive though. I bought a 3TB version

Noel,
Have you tried to use any Apple devices (e.g..Ipad) with it, and 'manage' the photos on the drive or have you only used it as a backup device ?

[noel_w]

Sorry Mark I am an anti Apple person. Android and PC only. I have to deal with the fruity people on a corporate level and it sent me bonkers so avoid the fruit at all costs now.
I only use it to backup my SD card

[MarkVS]

Sorry Mark I am an anti Apple person. Android and PC only. I have to deal with the fruity people on a corporate level and it sent me bonkers so avoid the fruit at all costs now.
I only use it to backup my SD card

forgiven

[Symon]

I do have one of these as well which is used exclusively for work, so I can't comment on how it works with crApple devices, but it seems to get a good writeup from these guys - http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/reviews/entry/seagate-wireless-plus-external-hard-drive/

[trinityalyce]

We have a 4 month trip coming up and been trying solutions for backing up, and managing photos in preparation for the trip......unsuccessfully...so after some help/guidance.

Aim...using as match of the h/ware that we have
To backup
To manage
Photos on a trip on an ongoing basis.

We are an apple family so IPhoto's will be the tool of choice...

We have iPads, iPhones, DSLR, smaller camera, and of course, the IPads/phones cameras as well.

Looking for a way to backup the photos from the various camera types, and also put them onto one platform so they can be viewed, deleted and commented on.

Don't want to go out and buy any major hardware (e.g. Laptop) unless I have to.

Any help appreciated.

MarkVS

OK, given what you already have and your preference for iPhotos, which I understand... here's my 2c worth of what I'd do.

Lightning to SD Card Reader: https://www.apple.com/au/shop/product/MJYT2AM/A/lightning-to-sd-card-camera-reader

I haven't used one but did consider getting one to transfer drone photos etc. They don't seem to get wonderful reviews and based on reviews don't work with all folder/naming structures that cameras automatically produce.


Wireless SD cards (or other formats): http://www.toshiba-memory.com/cms/en/products/wireless-sd-cards/FlashAir/index.html

I've used a FlashAir card in my old digital camera because I needed to be able to transfer images between the camera and iPad/phone on the road. It worked really well, to be honest. I don't know if ALL cameras will be compatible with these cards, but hey, it could be worth investigating further. I think there's another/other brands of wireless cards out there, but FlashAir is the option I went for years ago when I had the old camera.

As far as backing up... personally I just bought more space for my iCloud account. Its pretty cheap on a pay-per-month plan for 50+ GB of storage which is plenty for my needs.

Long term when we're on the road I am going to buy a MacBook, but that's more to do with options for editing photos than it is about storage. I'll probably take an external HD of some kind with me then, because I don't 100% trust technology not to fail on me.

[Myst]

I use one of these, makes it very easy to download images and video to wirelessly or via the SD Card.

https://www.camerahouse.com.au/western-digital-my-passport-wireless-pro-4tb

[rossm]

Gee, some of  this sounds very technical.

I use an iPad and try to make sure I find 10 minutes  every day or so to transfer images from the camera. Easy to do at beer o'clock I find.  Otherwise it gets out of control with dozens ( and maybe dozens more) of images.

Then I have a quick look and cull any obvious duds or duplicates. Sometimes it amazes me how many time I pressed the shutter standing in the same place.

It is easy then to  send emails or post to social media or wherever. If your ipad  is set up to do it and you have Internet access the  images go to the cloud.

I know people hate apple and the cloud but by  the time I get home I have all the images on the card in the camera (sometimes I cull them as well)  and a set on the iPad and in the cloud.

I guess it depends what you are going to do with them. If it is for some sort of commercial use then you may need more technology but for friends and family what I have is fine.

[Symon]

Gee, some of  this sounds very technical.

I use an iPad and try to make sure I find 10 minutes  every day or so to transfer images from the camera. Easy to do at beer o'clock I find.  Otherwise it gets out of control with dozens ( and maybe dozens more) of images.

Then I have a quick look and cull any obvious duds or duplicates. Sometimes it amazes me how many time I pressed the shutter standing in the same place.

It is easy then to  send emails or post to social media or wherever. If your ipad  is set up to do it and you have Internet access the  images go to the cloud.

I know people hate apple and the cloud but by  the time I get home I have all the images on the card in the camera (sometimes I cull them as well)  and a set on the iPad and in the cloud.

I guess it depends what you are going to do with them. If it is for some sort of commercial use then you may need more technology but for friends and family what I have is fine.

That will work well if you have the internet available.  Most of the time when camping I am well out of mobile phone range, cloud backup just isn't practical for many people for that sole reason.

Also if you are a bit more enthusiastic about your photography (doesn't have to be for commercial use) then you will be shooting RAW, so each image will be 15MB+ in size, that easily adds up to be multiple GB worth of photos per day which is way more than you want to be uploading through a 4G data plan.  This is before we even start to talk about video footage.

On my last Cape trip we had over 250GB worth of photos and video after 10 days...

[GrantR]

I recently went with the Seagate wireless plus drive. The kids and wife can each stream different movies on their iPads from the drive at the same time and I use it to save my GoPro and drone footage. Seagate recently released a version with microsd slot for quick uploading from your card. Other features like it automatically syncing with cloud services mean my important files are sent to the cloud as soon as the drive is back within my home internet range. The drive broadcasts its own media server for easy viewing of content

[rossm]

That will work well if you have the internet available.  Most of the time when camping I am well out of mobile phone range, cloud backup just isn't practical for many people for that sole reason.

Also if you are a bit more enthusiastic about your photography (doesn't have to be for commercial use) then you will be shooting RAW, so each image will be 15MB+ in size, that easily adds up to be multiple GB worth of photos per day which is way more than you want to be uploading through a 4G data plan.  This is before we even start to talk about video footage.

On my last Cape trip we had over 250GB worth of photos and video after 10 days...

Silly me. I made the mistake of thinking the OP was going on holiday, not making a six-part doco fort the Discovery Channel.

[noel_w]

Silly me. I made the mistake of thinking the OP was going on holiday, not making a six-part doco fort the Discovery Channel.

"We have a 4 month trip coming up and been trying solutions for backing up, and managing photos in preparation for the trip......unsuccessfully...so after some help/guidance."

These guys are going away for 4 months so in essence a family with lots of devices, cameras etc could amass almost as much data as a six part doco. Any half decent camera will take photos with a large file size and if I know these guys they may be away from internet coverage as well.
A family trip such as this is a huge investment in vehicles, fuel, accommodation and other things so your memories and how to store snapshots of these memories are priceless.
Some of these backup devices are a pittance compared to the pain of losing your images.
I work in IT so my motto is Backup, Backup, Backup and just in case....   Back it up again.
I hate trying to recover peoples photos off a single faulty SD card. Believe me I have done it numerous times.

[Symon]

Silly me. I made the mistake of thinking the OP was going on holiday, not making a six-part doco fort the Discovery Channel.

The OP is going on holiday, a long one, and if you read the OP's post you will see they will be out of phone range for days at a time.  Cloud backup is just not going to cut it.

[doctorflat]

For those using the apple devices, the older style (non lightning) devices have an apple adaptor for plugging the camera directly into phone, iPad, iPod.  Need a device with lots of RAM to fill.  Keep all images on the cameras card to ensure a backup. Buy a few cards before the trip. 


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