[CeeDee]

Staff note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means Pentax Forums may earn a small commission if a visitor clicks through and makes a purchase. If you would like to support the forum directly, you may also make a donation here.

---

Any recommendations for storage media when in field? My K20 and I are going to Tanzania in April, and looking for portable media storage. Hope to download cards daily and re-use, rather than take so many cards.

[boriscleto]

Photo Safe or Picture Porter

[Kerrowdown]

Here are a few thoughts for you, as SD cards are now available in large sizes (8, 16 & 32 GB) and are relatively cheap, I would take a good few handfuls of these. They are small, easy to carry and with a good brand like the SanDisk Extreme III, are very reliable.

A trip to Tanzania with removable storage media may give voltage compatibility issues for either running or charging and also questionable clean enough supplies i.e. no voltage spikes. That is of course assuming that mains power is available to you, maybe not the case if you’re out in the bush on safari.

If a card goes missing i.e. lost, confiscated or stolen, you don't lose everything.

Enjoy your trip.

[CeeDee]

Thanks for the tips. More cards may be the best option. Any thoughts on the Epson P6000?

[Bactman]

I had a Wolverine 80gb media storage unit when I went to Istanbul and the damn thing bonked on me the first day I was using it. I brought my laptop and an external harddrive just in case so I didn't have any space constraints the rest of the trip. So ... maybe have a backup plan in case something goes wrong (malfunction, stolen, runs out of juice, etc.).

[Ben_Edict]

I use Hyperdrives and have been doing so for the last five years or so. Currently it is a Hyperdrive Color Space O. Reason? Because they are very reliable, as I always employ the write verify (switcheable). So I know for sure that files have been copied correctly. Then they are fast! The fastest transfer rate of all available portable storage devices. They have a good preview screen, supporting also Pentax RAW formats and the manufacturer has good support (I bought from HyperShop - The Official Online Store for HyperMac + HyperDrive). I also have the external battery pack, to extend off-line live.

Obviously verifying will increase the copy time by about the factor of three and it will shorten battery life proportionally. If you trust the device, you can speed up things and copy more gigs per battery charge.

Oh, as an added bonus the Hyperdrive also verifies card integrity and warns about card-related problems and lastly it also recognizes counterfeit memory cards (at least those, falsely pretending to be SanDisks). I am extremely happy with that device.

Ben

[fractal]

Don't be tempted by very cheap/generic branded SD cards.. they will fail.

The 8gb Sandisk Extreme III card I purchased came with a high speed reader.

8GB Extreme III SDHC Memory Card w/Reader - PCWorld Pricing

[Ben_Edict]

A word on keeping the images on memory cards. That's ofcourse also a good choice - but not on its own. I always leave images on the cards after copying to the Hyperdrive, until I have the chance to make a second copy on my laptop. Only when I have two copies, I am going to reuse the cards.

Ben

[bymy141]

I'd take a netbook or a small size notebook with me, including a small USB external drive. That's stuff you can also use for other purposes.
If you go to Tanzania, you definitely want to shoot some video as well, so you'd need many Gb's storage.

Some other tips:
+ The biggest problem in some area's is electricity. It depends where you go.
Either the generator is off at night or worse, in smaller camps you only have daytime solar power. You may want to consider bringing more than usual batteries and/or a charger that is fast.

+ Another problem can be dust (season and location dependent), bring a rocket blower.

+ When shooting wildlife out of a safari vehicle with long lenses, a bean bag for stabilization can be very handy.

Have a good trip.

[paulelescoces]

Hi there, very interested in your post as I will also be travelling to tanzania in Mid June... (serengeti, ngorongoro, tarangire, manyara, arusha, zanzibar... typical northern safari circuit with stopoff in zanzibar)

On the storage issue... while I dont currently have a netbook I was thinking of picking one up prior to my trip, last year I was for a few weeks in Argentina... while i have 5 8gb Sandisk Extreme 3s I was quite uncomfortable that I did not have any backup.

[flyer]

I take along a portable DVD burner. It's compact, inexpensive and it does the job.

[jots]

you can read about my experience in my article in "Accessories and Memory Articles".

"Excellent field SD backup solution"

[GerryL]

I use this one and it works well.
They use to get sold on ebay for around $60
There isn't too much of them going around anymore and that may have cause the higher price.
Amazon.com: Panasonic VW-PT2 40GB Hard Drive for HDC-SD1 and HDC-SD5 High Definition Camcorders: Camera & Photo
Panasonic VW-PT2 40GB Hard Drive SD card media storage - eBay (item 290390581686 end time Mar-12-10 16:55:42 PST)

Here's the discussion here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/camera-studio-accessories/78440-panasonic...ard-drive.html
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/field-accessories/68465-downloading-digit...-computer.html

[AlexanderMayorov]

during my trip to Central Asia I took with me Seagate Expansion Portable Drive 500GB. Everything was ok. Even at - 22 C everything was ok. For wedding shots I take 2 backups, one on Extrernal drive and 1 on laptop.

[Entropy]

during my trip to Central Asia I took with me Seagate Expansion Portable Drive 500GB. Everything was ok. Even at - 22 C everything was ok. For wedding shots I take 2 backups, one on Extrernal drive and 1 on laptop.

I'm assuming based on the question asked that the user did not have a laptop, but personally, my reccommendation would be to purchase a netbook. They're fairly durable, not large, and reasonably cheap.