Travel and data

[hispid]

I'm going into the Borneo rain forest for 10 days and I'm not sure if I'm going to have access to a computer. I mostly shoot macro of insects and average about 4-5 shots per subject in RAW using a Canon EOS 800D. I have a 128gb micro SD card which according to an online calculator will hold about 1778 shots and I have a 64gb micro SD as back up. Does this sound sufficient? It's a once in a lifetime trip and I'm a bit paranoid. Any other general advice? Thanks in advance.

[Geoff79]

I was just on a 20 day holiday and I had 2 x 64gb and a 32gb card and I take a hell of a lot of photos, and I left a 64gb card completely untouched. So I think you’re more than covered.

My one massive tip is don’t let the dud shots accumulate and waste valuable space. At the end of the day before you retire for the evening, or even if you find yourself inside with half an hour to kill, go through the day’s shots and delete the obvious duds, or double ups if you shoot bursts of photos.

On holidays I shoot with reckless abandon because more often than not it is a once in a lifetime opportunity. So I shoot lots, but the end of day review is vital, imo.

[swifty]

If it's once in a lifetime, I'd aim for more redundancy. Memory cards are relatively cheap compared to potential loss of opportunity. I'm not saying what you have is not enough because I won't know how much you plan to shoot, but I'm just saying you should plan to have more than what you think is enough.

Will you be in the forest the entire time and where is your set-off/return points.
If it's a city like Kuching, you can still pick up more memory as and when required but personally, I'd just take enough to begin with.

I don't mean to contradict Geoff since I also normally do what he suggests (delete unwanted images in-camera) but this issue recently came up with the one-slot controversy on the new mirrorless cameras. And the discussions I've read are that two usual points of card failure results from physical damage taking the cards in and out, and corruption of memory from deleting in-camera or removing cards when it is still being written. I've never had a card failure but some advice that was given was to leave images on the cards as is and do your culling after transfer to your computer. Then format the card in its entirety for the next shoot. Anyways, I still have a habit of deleting non-keepers immediately cos the habit's hard to shake.

[ameerat42]

I'm -ing about just having a single copy of your shots on a card - and only a couple of cards, with the
potential of losing heaps. - Just panicking, that's all!

[hispid]

Thanks Geoff. very good advice. I think I have sufficient space and I'm really hoping I'll be able to use the computers at the Field Studies site but I can't rely on it.

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Interesting points Swifty. Only once have I deleted obvious bad shots using the app on my phone that wi-fis to the camera and some of the pictures had small areas of corruption. I put it down to the computer going through an update while I was downloading the images and indeed when I re-downloaded them the corruption was gone. This has me a bit concerned now about deleting as I go.

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me too ameerat!

[Brian500au]

Based on experience of my own travels I would suggest you buy another 6 or so smaller cards. I would personally swap out my card every night in case you get a card failure. It only happens once in a blue moon but unfortunately when traveling you do come across some weird colored moons. If you follow this advice the worse you will lose in case of failure is only one day of photos - alternatively you could lose a whole trips worth if you just use the one card (the card could fail on the last day). The more photos I have on a card the more nervous I become.

I have traveled a lot so I can tell you there is nothing more disappointing than having camera or card failure. Last time I was in Borneo I slipped and my camera went for a swim in a river - lucky I had a back up so it was not a total disaster. I have experienced card failure where the day's shoot was not recoverable - very disappointing.

Unfortunately card prices in Australia are a rip off so you are better to buy online if you can. Format and thoroughly test each card before you leave - and I personally have a labelled box for used and unused cards so I don't get them mixed up.

You don't say if you will be photographing orangutans, but if you are then be warned the max FL lens they will allow in the sanctuaries is 400mm (150 - 600 is not allowed). I also highly recommend to go to the sanctuaries to photograph the proboscis and sliver leaf monkeys as they are unique to that part of the world.

Just my 2c worth of advice.

[Tannin]

There are many perfectly practical ways to make copies of your cards in the field, some of them requiring only a very small device. Just for example, see here: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/S...9/N/4000227848

As Kel says, there is no reason at all not to have several different flash cards, and every reason why you should.

It is taking a while as I gradually transition all my gear, but I am well on the way to having dual slots in all my cameras. That way, even if I have a card fail during a day, I still have the pictures. (The worst is that I lose either all the raws or all the JPGs, never both.) (Unless I drop the whole camera off the boat, of course!) In my book, dual card slots is just a basic requirement for any new camera these days.

But whatever you do, have multiple copies - at very least, take and use plenty of spare cards.

[hispid]

Thanks for the excellent advice Brian. The trip is with the Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre in Brunei. I think there’s little chance of seeing orangutans but will probably see Proboscis Monkeys on the trip up river to the field site in Ulu Temburong NP.
My telephoto lens is pretty weak sauce, just the one that comes in the two lens canon EOS deal ten years ago, 55-250. My main interest is macro but I’m not going to pass up on birds and monkeys and snakes and lizards and whatever else presents.
I like the idea of ten or so smaller cards but now I’m wondering how cheaply I can get a back-up EOS body. Thanks again.

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Thanks Tony! That’s just what I was looking for. I knew something like it had to exist.

[nardes]

I have used an iPad with the Apple SD Card Reader to download photos from my 5D Mk IV to my iPad (256GB storage).

I copied (in-camera) all the Raw files from the CF Card to the SD card and then used the Apple SD Card Reader to upload the Raw Files onto the iPad. You get to see the photos on the much larger iPad screen which is quite convenient.

This way, I have 3 copies: the original Raws on the CF Card, the Raw copies on the SD Card and the CR2 Files on the iPad.

As I already had the iPad, this particular route was a no brainer, except for charging the iPad in the field from a 12V SLA battery via a 12VDC to USB 5V adapter.

https://www.apple.com/au/shop/produc...-camera-reader

"With the Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader, it’s easy to download photos and videos from your digital camera to your iPad or iPhone so you can view them on the gorgeous Retina display and share them with family and friends.

After you insert the SD card into the reader, your iPad or iPhone automatically opens the Photos app, which organises your photos into Moments, Collections and Years. And when you use iCloud Photo Library, all your full-resolution photos and videos are stored safely in iCloud and automatically added to the Photos app on all your devices. With iCloud Photo Sharing, you can share your photos and videos with just the people you choose.

The Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader supports standard photo formats, including JPEG and RAW, along with SD and HD video formats, including H.264 and MPEG-4. It supports data transfer at up to USB 3 speeds on the 12.9-inch and 10.5-inch iPad Pro, and up to USB 2 speeds on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro and all other iPad and iPhone models."

The above italic stuff was copied from the Apple blurb.

Cheers

Dennis

[hispid]

Hmmm I was thinking about something like this Dennis. I can actually download photos onto my iPad by wifi. That might be a good backup so even if everything goes wrong there’s jpegs on my iPad.

[nardes]

I find the download speed with the Apple SD Card Reader a little slow (several minutes), so I'm not too sure how WiFi speeds compare?

Although the Raw CR2s are downloaded, the full screen views on the iPad are JPGs.

As I mentioned, this works for me for casual use on camping trips as we already have the iPad, so no need to invest in other storage media.

Cheers

Dennis

[swifty]

I find the download speed with the Apple SD Card Reader a little slow (several minutes), so I'm not too sure how WiFi speeds compare?

Although the Raw CR2s are downloaded, the full screen views on the iPad are JPGs.

As I mentioned, this works for me for casual use on camping trips as we already have the iPad, so no need to invest in other storage media.

Cheers

Dennis

I've been toying with the idea of buying an ipad for travel use (both editing and backup) but some of their file handling quirks have so far prevented me from jumping in.
Anyways, there's an Apple event tomorrow with the possibility of new ipad pros with USB-C connections so let's see how things pan out.

[Geoff79]

I'm -ing about just having a single copy of your shots on a card - and only a couple of cards, with the
potential of losing heaps. - Just panicking, that's all!

Some interesting stuff and future tips to come out of this thread.

I guess ideally if you can bring a laptop and external drive along you’d want to be uploading all your photos each night, as well as keeping the involved SD card. Not always possible/practical, but probably ideal if possible.

Anyway, regarding Am’s post and without exception, my concern every single time I travel, it’s always going to be a gamble one way or another. Any one of a million things could happen to you or your equipment and I guess there is an element of hoping for the best.

In my recent trip I had my wide angle lens jam up on me twice, ruining one of my most opportune photographic moments... even if I did scrape together some results. But most disappointingly, our underwater camera inexplicably died on the second day which rendered us unable to get decent photos when we later on went swimming with whale sharks, as well as my wife going diving with thresher sharks. Two massive shames. In hindsight we should have taken my parents-in-law’s underwater camera as a back up, but who’d have forecast our bad luck?

Anyway, great tips to make sure you have as many bases covered as possible.

[Glenda]

I agree with Brian - lots of smaller cards rather than one very large one. On lots of OS trips I have relied solely on the memory cards - a bit of a worry but so far haven't had a problem. I tend to use 8 and 16 gb cards and have a card holder in which I store the used ones upside down and unused front up so I don't get them confused. For a once in a lifetime trip I think relying on the one card would create way too much anxiety. It would be devastating to take nearly 2000 shots and lose the lot.

Whatever you decide hope you have an amazing trip and come back with lots of successful shots to share.

[arthurking83]

.... using a Canon EOS 800D. I have a 128gb micro SD card which according to an online calculator will hold about 1778 shots and I have a 64gb micro SD as back up. Does this sound sufficient? It's a once in a lifetime trip and I'm a bit paranoid. Any other general advice? Thanks in advance.

Canon 800D and you have micro SD cards?
Are you using a micro SD to SD adapter?
Or is the micro part of the SD card just a mistaken reflex action? 800D uses standard SD card format.

Anyhow, if you are using micro SD, my first general bit of advice is to leave them at home and get full sized SD cards.
micro SD cards are the easiest things in the whole of 'techworldom' to lose(I've lost one completely in my study!)
Have no idea where it flung itself too, but was not found(not for lack of trying) due to their miniscule size.
I have quite a few mSD cards for various devices(ie. kids phones, my phone, tablet, etc). And I reckon I've 'lost' each one of them at least once. Little tackers are just too damned hard to find, and too easy to lose.
(actually I lied, I've fully and totally lost 2 mSD cards, I just remembered the silliness of my last lost one!)

So, if you're using micros, then the most likely data loss in your travels will be, not from file corruption or card damage, but more than likely card loss.

So I'd recommend, just like everyone else, get more cards, proper full sized SD. I've never found brands to be more reliable than others .. some may argue that they had best reliability from this brand or that(and Sandisk will come up as 'the most reliable') but most of my card failures have been these same Sandisk branded ones.
I have mixes of crappy cheapo A-Data to Patriots, and never found any one brand to be more reliable than another. (in fact Patriots are my preferred, but harder to find).

Anyhow, 64 or 128G cards are about ideal in terms of price/size/performance.
Get a storage wallet type safekeep for them, and keep them altogether.

I doubt that using your phone is an ideal method to store files. iOS devices have limited storage and rely on clouds, Android allows the use of external cards, but micro SD only(see above re losing mSD cards tho).

So best option is either a portable computer of some kind with storage space, but this then becomes a liability in terms of mobility.

A few years ago, I went for a PC tablet(10") storage solution, so that I could use my preferred software to cull(instead of backup) images.
I had it in mind to allocate at least 150-ish Gigabytes of it's SSD space for the purpose of storing raw files that were to be kept.
Did it a few times, but I don't travel like most folks .... via air to other countries, etc. All my travel is via car to any location here in Aus, so absolute portability was never essential(for me).

If you're the type to want to post images up immediately, then I see the need for a solution where you can transfer to a mobile/connected device, otherwise best storage option is to leave all images on SD cards in a safe container, and guard that container with your life!

Personally I wouldn't worry about 'backups' so much. How many corrupted images have you had from you 800D? if you have, then (OK) you'd want to worry about 'backups'

Cards issues usually arise from insertion/removal, and filling to the brim.
So, I'd reckon that you use the cards in a manner where you use them once, leave at least 5-10 images per card towards the end of their storage space, store them in this card container, read them when you get home, or minimally if you have the ability too during your time there.
The only 'downside' to this method is that when you get home, you'll have a deck of SD cards that you may never use again, but that's a small price to pay.

You could allow some money for a portable device that backs up your cards to a hard drive(usually SSD nowadays), where you insert the card into it's reader, and transfer to it's hard drive.
eg. Colorspace's UDMA Hyperdrive type device. There are other brands too. BUT!!! they are expensive for the casual, not very common user.
For a pro that travels all the time, eg. wildlife tog that regularly shoots in harsh locations .. such devices make sense.
So allowing for approx $350-400 for such a device, kind'a makes no sense to the casual shooter. That money is better spent on more appropriate gear(like nearly 100 x SD cards! ) .. or whatever.

[hispid]

Thank you for all that excellent advice and info. Yes I decided this morning I'm too casual a user to warrant buying one of those drive devices. I pretty much can't get standard SD cards most places now, they all seem to be micros with an adapter which is what I generally use. I now have 9 cards of various gb sizes from 8-128 so that's one for every field day of the trip. Thanks again for the useful and considered reply.

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Thank Glenda

[arthurking83]

.... I pretty much can't get standard SD cards most places now, they all seem to be micros with an adapter which is what I generally use. I now have 9 cards of various gb sizes from 8-128 so that's one for every field day of the trip. ....

Ah! OK.

If each mSD card has it's own adapter, then it's akin to each one being a separate SD card.
I had thoughts of you moving each mSD card to a single adapter, which multiplies the chances of losing any one mSD card.

I'd just go with what you have then.
If you don't have a nice sturdy high visibility case for storing them, that's about the only thing I'd recommend you try to source.
Don't rely on the small plastic cases that they are packed in as secure storage.

FWIW: I have a camera backpack for most of my gear, and it has zip up pockets for storing stuff .. like memory cards.
I put all my cards(mainly CF) in ziplock sandwhich bags inside those zipped up backpack pockets.

This way when I do reach for another card, I don't accidentally flip out a card stored in those plastic package cases.

so each card is in those small plastic cases, all stored inside a ziplock sandwhich bag, stored in the zip up mesh pocket in the backpack.
Has served me perfectly for 10+ years.

My main concern back then was simply dust getting into the card pins, hence why the sandwhich bag.


And as a side note,
if you ever do want to transfer any images(even raw) to a device for viewing or safe keeping.
Any Android type device(eg. phone/tablet)... most have the ability to insert a mSD card.
if the images are raw, there are good free apps to view those raw files.
You can quickly convert to jpg with that program(it uses the embedded jpg in the raw) and you can share the converted jpg.

If you also then want to store to an external backup location(eg. an external SSD type device which can be had fairly cheaply) you can get these OTG adapters to allow the Android device to transfer to the external storage.

7" Android tablet of cryptic branding could easily be had for less than $100, and the cable for about $5 or so.

The way I rationalise those two devices(Android tablet and ext storage drive) is that they both have other usefulness. tablet as my primary mapping/GPS device on my travels(plus quick'neasy plaything) and external hard drive ... well who doesn't need external hard drives!

[gcflora]

Personally I'd take some packets of dehydrating granules (I don't know the technical name) as well. Take extra. On my first trip to PNG my camera malfunctioned from what I assume was humidity (especially as a result of taking the camera from the hot & humid outside into cooler areas; the camera didn't get wet from rain or anything -- well, no more than at home anyway lol -- so I blame humidity). Second trip I made sure my camera bag was packed full of the dehydrating thingies.

[hispid]

Excellent idea

[Steve Axford]

I'm maybe off to Borneo too, early next year. Mine would be a professional gig, so laptops and TBs of storage and everything copied to two devices, but I appreciate your dilemma. I would suggest that you may take many more shots than you anticipate, in which case it would be wise to invest in a couple of extra cards. Deleting the bad ones on the go is not a great idea as it A) takes time that could be better used and B) is dangerous in that you may delete something that you didn't mean to.
Insects should be great over there.
Guard those cards carefully as losing a card is more likely than one breaking.