These were big years ago; but nowadays unless you’re shooting 10’s of 1000s of images, SD cards are cheap enough surely.
That P3000 above contained 40gb of memory and a second hand one will cost the best part of £100.
For that money you can get ridiculous amounts of SS storage.
If you're paranoid like me, you want backup copies ASAP... That's more challenging.These were big years ago; but nowadays unless you’re shooting 10’s of 1000s of images, SD cards are chhese were big years ago; but nowadays unless you’re shooting 10’s of 1000s of images, SD cards are cheap enough surely
The modern solution for me is using a smart phone with good storage in it, an iPhone 15 pro can power a CFExpress reader over USB-C as an example. Most of us carry one now and it’s always with us so makes a lot of sense, some Android devices can take a 1TB micro SD card and you have a high-res screen for viewing too, win win!
OP. How would you power the hard drive? Presumably a power bank?
The devices made with backing up pictures in mind have their own battery.
I still have one in my bedside drawer, a Nexto Di, but it’s well over ten years old and for CF cards
Agreed.I come at this from a different angle, more akin to @hunnymonster. I used to work in IT, and we worked on the principle that if data was not in three places (one physically separated) it wasn't safe.
This!If you're paranoid like me, you want backup copies ASAP... That's more challenging.
.......
Thanks all, it seems that there are a lot of individual use cases and people deal with it differently.
I do have an iPad pro and while not ideal to transfer to the iPad and then to the cloud or a hard drive, it does seem the easiest.
Some of the very fast SD cards are quite pricey so taking enough to not run out seems like an expensive option.
This!
I spend time wild camping in the African bush - hot (50°C+ at times), extremely dusty, bumpy/non existent roads and other than the vehicle battery and a little solar, precious little electricity.
It's a harsh environment and having things backed up gives peace of mind.
I (sort of) do this - one card Raw, the other jpg.More cards and save everything to both cards in the camera, then use a laptop/netbook to back up too SSD when the opportunity arises.
I looked at this a few moths back, and every alternative had an issue, the common one is speed. And they don't use much less power than a small netbook.
But your camera (D60?) doesn't need the fastest most expensive cards, the camera writes at 5MB/s and even the cheapest modern card is 20x faster than your camera, and modest sized cards (by todays standards) will hold thousands of images.Thanks all, it seems that there are a lot of individual use cases and people deal with it differently.
I do have an iPad pro and while not ideal to transfer to the iPad and then to the cloud or a hard drive, it does seem the easiest.
Some of the very fast SD cards are quite pricey so taking enough to not run out seems like an expensive option.
Or just use the iPad? Bigger screen to check images etc.This is something I was looking into. Yes the price of SD cards has come down to dirt cheap - trouble is that you can still loose a card. I currently don't own a laptop - buying an iPad seemed to make sense when I bought that - so have no means of backup whilst away from home.
In an ideal world I'd like a basic device that could transfer memory card to USB storage using a phone to check images. In reality I'm looking for a cheap laptop.
...an old iPad and even with the crud removed has very limited memory.Or just use the iPad? Bigger screen to check images etc.
I do the same by copying to two cards except one a a huge capacity card that stays in the camera. The other is removed from the camera and put in a different place (bag). If you take both out of the camera and put them in the same place you don’t necessarily have two copies as they can be lost at the same time.Might not be applicable to the OP's situation, but my camera (Nikon Z5) has 2 SD slots. I have it set to write the same raw file to both cards, and when they are full replace them in (labelled) pairs.
Western Digital had something like this a few years ago. Was an SD card reader and an external storage all in one and could back up the contents from SD card reader to the hard drive with a touch of a button. I don't think they do it anymore as I can't find it on their website at all.Hi All,
Is there a product on the market that allows you to insert a memory card and with the press of a button upload that to a hard drive? So it removes the need for a laptop in the field ?
Thanks,
Adam
Western Digital had something like this a few years ago. Was an SD card reader and an external storage all in one and could back up the contents from SD card reader to the hard drive with a touch of a button. I don't think they do it anymore as I can't find it on their website at all.
Nowadays, if you have a USB-C phone, just connect an external reader and back-up to phone, that's what I would do. Then back up those photos onto an external storage device from phone.
Found it;
![]()
WD My Passport Wireless SSD External Hard Drive with SD Card Reader | Western Digital
The My Passport™ Wireless SSD is an all in one portable drive that helps preserve photos and videos captured on your cameras and drones. The one-touch copy button lets you back up photos and videos with the built-in SD™ card reader or the integrated USB port without a laptop or software.www.westerndigital.com