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Your On-Location Backup Choices
August 13th, 2008Long-time readers know (and love?) my paranoia. This paranoia is nowhere more evident than when I travel on assignment. I have this weird need to keep my image files safe. This means a laptop with redundant external drives. But what if my laptop dies? Well I have a back-up bootable drive if it’s a simple harddrive issue, but if it’s more than that, I have to rely on a different solution. Carry two laptops? I could, and some do. But I’m already packed to the gills.
There are some excellent options out there in self-contained hard-drives that will download and, in most cases, preview your images for you.
For the last two years my Hyperdrive HD-80 has been a faithful companion, has never failed, and was always there when I needed it. It has an 80gb hard-drive, which now is too small for my needs. So I’ve recently upgraded, and that journey forced me to consider my options.
( The above photos are not meant for comparisons so don’t look, for example, at the screens and think that the JOBO has the biggest screen - in fact, the Epson screen is 4″, the Hyperdrive is 3.2″, the Jobo LCD is 3.7″ - I just put the pics in and scaled’em so they fit. Now you know.)
The industry leader, at one point, was the Epson P-2000 and all the subsequent numeric incarnations. Their latest, the Epson P-7000, has a capacity of 160GB. I had trouble with my Epson P-4000, so it’s left a funny taste in my mouth. That said, I know there are many photographers out there who love them to the point of neurosis. My primary hesitation is the price. At $800 it’s alot of sheckels to part with. But the display is undeniably gorgeous. It gets a 10 for being sexy, but it comes at a price.
The one I’ve most liked in my hands is the Jobo Giga Vu Extreme or Evolution. They just seem right. Matt Brandon uses one and I love the look and feel. It functions as it ought to so I can’t contribute more on that front, but the armour on it is nice. Screen is great. They max out at 120GB, nearly $700.
I finally settled on another Hyperdrive after playing with Gary S. Chapman’s. He also made me buy an 85/1.2L - he’s a bad influence. The Hyperdrive Colorspace O is available up to 500GB. The 250GB version is $457 at B&H. Nice screen, great capacity. The interface is a little odd, but totally workable. Overall it’s not as sexy, and far be it from me to settle for the less-than-sexy option, but in terms of bang for buck, this one has it in spades. It’s fast, too. And it comes with card-recovery functionality. When mine arrives, I’ll review it.
These aren’t the only three, they just seem to be the only ones seriously considered as contenders. I bought a no-name digital card wallet last year as a “just in case” purchase. It wouldn’t download a single 8GB card on one battery charge, so I’m sticking with the ones I know. Regardless which of the reliable options you get, the convenience and piece of mind they offer is worth paying for.
love my hyperdrive… thanks for posting that you use it. I like the fact that it’s flexible - I can put in a spare hard drive and it works fine, unlike the other models you mentioned above.
even though epson and jobo offer more functionalities, i rarely use the hyperdrive to browse my images. I usually just use it to backup photos and I also use it to transfer my photos to my laptop since it’s faster than my card reader
Hey…you are a bad influence too. I spent a bunch of bucks on more Thinktank gear after meeting you and now I want that Polaroid Pogo thingy, new camera straps and a G9. Thanks!
And still, any harddrive is a machanical device and will, eventually, fail. It’s just the nature of the beast.
For failsafe backup, I love my old RoadStor. Pop in a card and blank CD, push the button and everything is burned right on the spot. It’s a little slow and has no screen but it’s also battery powered, small enough to carry nearly anywhere, and gives me peace of mind.
Shooting with SD cards gives me some more options. I have an Archos 605 media player, and its add-on battery dock it gives USB host capability, which allows me to use my SD-reader thumbdrive. This isn’t as straight forward as the options you’ve presented, but it’s significantly cheaper ($450 will cover the 160GB model and the external battery dock), and it has a great screen and solid media playback too. Works for me.
I have a Hyperdrive Colorspace O and think it’s great. I love that it reads vitually any kind of photo disk and that it works like an external hard drive to my laptop.
You’re right, it’s not too sexy and the buttons are a little clunky but it’s a real workhorse. I’ve taken it with me on several trips and couldn’t be more pleased.
I have the GigaVu and have been very dissapointed with it. Battery life is terrible (about 15-18GB) The auto switch off timer works differently between copying cards and viewing images, the screen stays on, sucking up battery life while downloading cards.
I ended up sticking it in a drawer and picking up an Epson P3000, which I’ve put a 120GB Hdd into. It’s brilliant. Nearly flawless in operation. And I still have my Hyperdrive with a 250GB drive in it as a second backup if I’m not taking a laptop with me.
Gordon
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