Without a laptop it gets really difficult. Just getting a $250 netbook and then a cheap portable HD and card reader would be the best option. Sounds like you have a netbook. They are so small I'd find a way to bring it.
Otherwise the ColorSpace UDMA is the best option. You can buy the casing only and put your own drive in for much cheaper than the ones that include drives.
And just huck that Android tablet in the trashbin where it belongs.......
arbitrage wrote:
And just huck that Android tablet in the trashbin where it belongs.......
:-D Perhaps you're too used to that point-of-service payment terminal that Apple calls iPad? On an Android tablet you have access to the file system, so copying files is trivial, as it should be. Oh, and Android tablets tend to come with a usual assortment of ports, too...
KaaX wrote:
:-D Perhaps you're too used to that point-of-service payment terminal that Apple calls iPad? On an Android tablet you have access to the file system, so copying files is trivial, as it should be. Oh, and Android tablets tend to come with a usual assortment of ports, too...
Yeah, I know but I love giving Apple my money because I need to support my stock/retirement!!
KaaX wrote:
:-D Perhaps you're too used to that point-of-service payment terminal that Apple calls iPad? On an Android tablet you have access to the file system, so copying files is trivial, as it should be. Oh, and Android tablets tend to come with a usual assortment of ports, too...
Without a small laptop, this gets complicated and/or expensive fast. When you look at the prices of those little stand-alone backup drives the cost of an inexpensive laptop starts to look less onerous - especially when the laptop lets you do additional things that the external backup device doesn't... like send and receive email, quickly edit and upload some of your photographs, etc.
I have found that when people say that they want to "backup" their photos while traveling that they may mean different things. Some mean that they want to offload photographs from their card so they can erase the card and make more photographs. If that is the case, just carry more cards! They are small and inexpensive - less expensive than the backup drives. This won't give you a true backup, but it would let you avoid the external device if you are willing to work without backup.
If you want a real backup, the multiple card solution won't generally provide it - unless you come up with a way to copy from one card to another - but then you still need additional external gear to do the copy! One more secure option is to a) have enough cards that you don't have to erase and reuse them, and b) use some sort of external backup drive or a laptop. However, now you are unavoidably dealing with extra equipment and extra cost, though many of us think that the security of having multiple copies of your work is worth it.
Another option to think about... If you don't carry a laptop, perhaps either someone else will or you may have access to a laptop or other computer from time to time while traveling. If so, you could bring along a high capacity and inexpensive external USB drive and a USB card reader (or just the camera to computer USB cable) and periodically make a backup to the external hard drive when you do have access to a computer.
Another possibility might be one of the small number of (typically quite expensive) cameras that have dual card slots. In many cases these can write your photographs to both cards.
What about using a tablet? My experience is limited to the first version of the iPad. It works, but it isn't really fast and the storage is somewhat limited since iPads don't have more than 64GB of memory (much taken by iPad apps and files) and some have as little as 16GB. I can't speak for Android and other devices.
