Archive 2012 · PSD that can backup to another external HD?

DLCPhoto
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p.1 #1 · PSD that can backup to another external HD?

I usually take my Laptop with me for photo travel, along with a USB powered external HD for duplicate backup. I'm heading to Africa in a few weeks, and am wanting to travel as light as possible. I'm thus considering leaving the laptop home and getting a PSD.

It would need to be around 500gb, and reasonably fast. Ideally, I would be able to plug in my new Seagate USB 3.0 usb-powered 500gb expansion external HD, and copy/sync to it, for duplicate copies.

So far I'm not finding anything that will meet my needs. I just chatted with the Hyperdrive ColorSpace UDMA2 people, which otherwise looks good, but currently will not transfer to another HD (they said it will with a proprietary adapter, but not until after Nov.).

The Epson P7000 is quite pricey and only 160gb.

Does anybody know of a device that will be solid, dependable, with the functionality I'm looking for?

Thanks!

Oct 02, 2012 at 08:49 PM

sjms
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p.1 #2 · PSD that can backup to another external HD?

PSD's are becoming few and far between. my colorspace is/was (no longer made) capable of doing what you asked with an additional component. they are out of favor now.

the Nexto (some of them) has the ability but they got a little out of control on price and ability. it is also a little long on the tooth in design.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=nexto&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=

Oct 04, 2012 at 08:18 AM

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p.1 #3 · PSD that can backup to another external HD?

sjms wrote:
PSD's are becoming few and far between. my colorspace is/was (no longer made) capable of doing what you asked with an additional component. they are out of favor now.

the Nexto (some of them) has the ability but they got a little out of control on price and ability. it is also a little long on the tooth in design.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=nexto&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=

Thanks for the reply. Yes, the Nexto 2730 is one of the units I have been looking at, but the reliability is problematic according to some of the reviews.

I have found an interesting one, made by Digital Foci, the "Picture Porter":

http://www.digitalfoci.com/picture_porter.html

This one definitely does have USB Host capability, and I'm waiting for a response for their Tech Support to confirm if it will work with my External HD. A bit more reasonably priced (around $340) for the 500gb Version.

And yes, this seems to be a fading market, for reasons I can't quite understand. One would think this is a solid niche for a well-designed product, for people wanting to travel as light as possible, and not carry laptops, netbooks, etc.

Anybody here with any experience with the Digital Foci unit?

Thanks.

Oct 04, 2012 at 10:23 AM

EB-1
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p.1 #4 · PSD that can backup to another external HD?

My old Nexto 2700s from 2008 and the somewhat newer (but still old) Colorspace UDMA also have OTG. Neither will power a portable drive, but that is simple with an AC adapter. However, if you want two copies for safety, it is simpler to use two PSDs and transfer each pair of cards in parallel, switching cards after the first copy.

Unfortunately the PSD market is just to small to support development of advanced devices now that memroy cards are so inexpensive and capacious. Additionally the better cameras (and even some of the cheap ones) have two memory slots for in-camera backups.

EBH

Edited on Oct 04, 2012 at 06:46 PM · View previous versions

Oct 04, 2012 at 06:36 PM

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p.1 #5 · PSD that can backup to another external HD?

Thanks for the reply.

I'm starting to take a different approach here: I'm leaning toward getting the Asus Infinity Tablet with the Keyboard Dock. Between the MicroSD slot on the Tablet, and the SD slot on the Dock, I can have 64gb or more storage (in addition to the 32gb onboard the Tablet).

And it appears I could plug in my External HD to the USB port on the Dock, and copy files for my second backup.

I've even found an Android App (Photo Mate Professional) that will allow me to view (even edit) my .CR2 files on the Tablet.

This could be a fairly lightweight way of meeting my needs, and have the Tablet to use when I'm not traveling (something I was thinking about before this all started). If I went with the PSD's, they'd just sit there except when I travel, which seems like a waste of $$ to some degree.

Oct 04, 2012 at 06:44 PM

EB-1
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p.1 #6 · PSD that can backup to another external HD?

You need the check the transfer speed and battery life. If the hardwawre does not support DMA, most likely it will be too slow and/or suck too much juice to be very practical.

EBH

Oct 04, 2012 at 06:47 PM

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p.1 #7 · PSD that can backup to another external HD?

Yes - these are some of my concerns. I'm considering just buying it at Best Buy and trying it out. If it works well enough, I'm good to go, if not I'll return it.

I do have a fast USB Card Reader which flies with my Laptop - will be interested to see how it works with this gear.

When connected to the Dock, it can be plugged into AC so battery life shouldn't be an issue. I won't be using this while I'm out shooting, but when I'm back at home base. Also, the Tablet/Dock combination is rated at 14 hours of normal usage. How that would translate to copying files to/from the card and Hard Drive, I don't know but will find out.

Oct 04, 2012 at 06:53 PM

Alan321
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p.1 #8 · PSD that can backup to another external HD?

I think the photo storage devices were being rendered redundant by rapid changes in card specs (SDHC, SDXC, UDMA, etc) that made the inbuilt card reader a limitation rather than a help.

Epson units are very slow at transfers and I see no evidence that they do any form of copy verification at all. Think 7-10 MB/sec.

I use two hyperdrives (both now redundant) for separate backups with verification of each card and then re-use the card. Backup speeds vary with the level of verification and the PSD model. Typically 7-25 MB/sec. I keep the hyperdrives in separate bags while travelling so that loss of one bag does not lose all of my images. Having a viewer on both hyperdrives provides another measure of confirmation that at least part of the image file has copied properly (enough to see the preview). A drive without a screen will not offer that. Battery life is a limiting factor - only a few 16GB cards with my hyperdrives and barely one with my early Epson P4000.

Given how many hyperdrive models have vanished without trace and how few firmware updates have been released in recent years I would ignore any promises they make about future accessories until you see them actually available.

- Alan

Oct 14, 2012 at 08:01 AM

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p.1 #9 · PSD that can backup to another external HD?

Thanks for the reply and report, Alan.

The PSD's seem to be a vanishing breed, and I agree that promised updates aren't worth much of anything.

I have ended up going the Asus Tablet route, and I'm pretty impressed so far. I bought the 32gb Tablet, and the Keyboard Dock, and have 64gb of Class 10 cards in each, for a total of 128gb of storage, in addition to whatever remains of the internal storage after installing apps, music, movies, etc.

It is fully compatible both with my Lexar UDMA USB CF/SD card reader, and my Seagate USB 3.0 500gb external HD (although it obviously doesn't get USB 3.0 speeds or connectivity).

I did a brief "trial run" over the week-end, shooting at grandkids' football and soccer games. I didn't time it exactly, but using the Card reader, I transferred in almost 6gb of files in somewhere between 8 and 10 minutes. I copied them to the external HD in around the same or less time.

I'm using the RawDroid app now, which provides very fast full screen preview and zoom, to view and cull images. Photo Mate Professional seems just a tad slower, although it does provide some editing capabilities (although not quite functional enough to be truly useful just yet). I've been in touch with the author of RawDroid, and he has plans to add both tethering and editing, and I think this will happen.

But the bottom line is that this 2.5 pound laptop replacement is going to work just fine to copy files to, duplicating to my external HD, and a reasonably efficient way to view and cull files.

Plus, I can watch HD quality movies on its gorgeous display while traveling (found a way to create reasonable size files from my DVD and BluRays and copy them to the tablet), listen to music, play games, read books, etc. And when I have WiFi access, I can Skype or text for free with Google Voice, to keep in touch with family when out of the country.

With the PSD alone, the item would gather dust when I'm not out traveling and shooting.

So, for my purposes, this works out extremely well.

Oct 14, 2012 at 08:30 AM


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