Backing Up Your Photos Whilst On Holiday

OceanTragic

I'm interested to know what methods people use to back up their photos whilst on holiday.

I'm slightly paranoid about losing photos whilst on holiday; I don't care too much about the camera!

The last time I went to India in 1997 I took slides but now it's all digital so the possibilities for backups are there, but which one to choose and which ones are available?

I'm thinking about:
1. Taking my iRiver PMP-120 and backing up from the camera to it, via USB, but it's only USB1.1 (when working as a host) and transferring RAW files would be horrid
2. Taking the iRiver and trying to get a hotel/cybercafe to allow me to copy via USB2 to the computer, then to the iRiver (which works at USB2 as a mass-storage device)
3. Getting a cybercafe/photostore to create DVD backups of full cards?
4. Getting some medication to stop me worrying about losing my photos, after all I did no backups the last time I went there.

hellogoodbye

option # 4

Like you I was also paranoid and was thinking about backing up my photos by storing to USB or DVD but then I met a 2 other travellers who had tried doing that but then found out that they had in fact lost all their photos. They think it might've been some sort of bug or virus on one of the computers they were trying to use. I'm not at all technologically savvy enough to even guess what it could have happened or if their photos were salvageable but that scared me into not doing anything except guarding my memory cards like they were gold.

Ignite

If by any chance you have access to the internet, you can easily back up your pics/videos online. It only takes a few minutes and its definitely going to be on the hosting site after your holiday. Try Photobucket. Its not like flickr, because the pics you upload on photobucket aren't made public(atleast to my knowledge.)

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Shiver me Timbers

I save my photos on my iPod, I just copy the photos directly to it using this.

Just to make sure, I also copy them to DVD.

OceanTragic

Great idea but I've only got a Nano and it don't work on them

LOL, it ain't just me that's paranoid then

OceanTragic

I thought about uploading them to a private area of my own web site, but even using broadband the uploads of 11Mb files is going to be slow...unless my hotels have T1's

Shiver me Timbers

Not at all, I've lost loads of great photos over the years through various froms of carrlessness/stupidity - the thing I regret the most is losing the vast majority of my Andaman's photos.

I was looking through them on my camera when I was in Varanasi, planning on heading to the internet cafe to save them. Somehow, while I was flicking through them, I managed to press the 'erase all?' and 'are you sure?' commands without realising what I was doing.

After that, I'm espeicially paranoid, to the point that I barely trust myself with them.

Ignite

You could still upload them to your Nano. You would just drag the pics from your PC and drop them into the Nano (essentially making the ipod a flash memory drive.) You wouldn't be able to view the pics on the nano, but you can easily plug your nano into any pc and view them on the pc.

robotvoice

You are on the right track of thinking here.(doubting the internet option, that is) Reliable, speedy internet is rare if it exists at all in India (keep in mind my cultural bias, from the silicon valley). You would spend your entire vacation time uploading, so I'm not sure when you would have time to actually take the pics!

go with a portable storage device, or if you want to go big, a portable hardrive. p.s. these items can likely be found cheaper in your home country than in India, if UK prices are like US

Haylo

I hate the idea of losing my photos, I keep them on the original memory cards and at the first opportunity I back them up onto a tiny 8GB memory stick. Both of these are stored in tiny waterproof ziploc bags. For further protection, I never carry both my cards and my memory stick in the same bag or leave them in the same place.

Admittedly this sounds paranoid stuff, but I have data other than photos which is important to me and I'm in the habit of protecting it. In England, I back up my PC to a hard drive which I store away from home, which most people seem to think is going way too far!

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vandy

There are many,many Photo developing shops in the major cities,
ie, Kodak and Fuji.

When I use up my card space, I go to one of these shops which will put your pics on a disc for about 50rps per disc.Just make sure they show you the pics on the disc before clearing the
memory card.

It's also advisable to have a few memory cards for your trip.
Some cards allow up to 150+ pics.

Rgds

vandy

zoltan

Hi,

From a fellow paranoid photographer (I too would rather lose the camera than the photos), I took the option of purchasing a vosonic unit for baking up my photos.

It's certainly not cheap but then the thought of losing photos is (to me), catastrophic.

On the last journey, I took 38,500 photos (8 weeks). I couldn't possibly back all of these up at cyber cafes nor could I carry enough cards with me.

And, if you're shooting raw, then you want to have a large storage capacity available to you.

This time around, to be doubly sure, I've got a 2nd vosonic unit. If one breaks down for any reason, I have the other one as a fail-safe. Mind you, if both go out, then I'm well and truly scr*wed.

Cheers
Zoltan

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OceanTragic

Wow that does look nice but a don't think my price of paranoia is quite up there with yours, but then again neither are my photos.
I'd love to get the opportunity to take this one, how high are my chances during 7 safaris in Ranthambhore in April?

But you're only sharing 102, how did you manage to whittle them down?
38,500 in RAW+JPG means I'd need 0.5Tb backup storage
But luckily I'm only going for 3,5 weeks so I won't need so much

I think your price of paranoia is going up as I write

OceanTragic

I'm going to Delhi, Agra, Jaipur which I guess are 'major'.
But what about places like Jodhpur, Udaipur, Sawai Madhopur, Alwar?

This sounds good. I guess I could get two done, carry one with me and send the other home - all for £1.50 plus postage[/quote]

I guess it's a good idea to protect them all first but I'm hoping to take enough cards with me to not have to delete them
I'm taking 4Gb cards which will hold about 200pics in RAW+JPG

Let's hope I don't take as many shots as Zoltan otherwise I'd need 193 cards

OceanTragic

Whilst my deepest regret is not going to the Andamans in 1996 after seeing your photo.

Perhaps you should take a leaf out of my book and change your name to 'PhotoTragic'?

(I wish I hadn't suggested this: maybe I'll need to change mine to PhotoTragic if I lose all my photos from my trip )