Camera Labs

I have read on several posts about members wanting to backup their memory cards while away on holiday or just travelling around.

I have done a lot of "Googling" about various devices that can copy the contents of your memory cards onto portable media. And to be honest none of them have very good write ups, they use a lot of battery power and are slow, a lot of them are also completely unreliable.

I just wanted to share the way I do it. It's cheap, reliable and can hold upto 160GB of data. And the best thing is it will fit in your shirt pocket.

I often leave the UK during winter time, sometimes for two months so you can imagine the ammount of memory cards that would be needed for that length of time.

I can easily go through a 16GB card in a couple of days, especially using RAW. I like to travel fairly light and don't want to carry around laptops or anything bulky.

Enter my 160GB iPod Classic.
I have it enabled as a Disk and copy all of my cards onto it while I am away.

Having it enabled this way you don't need iTunes to organise it. Just "Plug and Play". Along with a USB cable and card reader it's all you need.

Just plug it into a USB port and it appears in "My Computer" as a removable drive. While it's plugged in to the USB port it's using the PC power so it doesn't use the iPod battery power.

I have been to a lot of remote places and can always find a computer I can plug into.
There are always Internet cafes and even hotel foyers where you can plug in. I find people very willing and helpful.
Now I wouldn't travel without it.

Hope it helps.

I use my ipod classic for the same when I'm travelling, I love it.

Also useful for any portable device is Portable Apps (http://www.portableapps.com)

I posted a bit about it on my blog http://ianganderton.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/top-tip-1-portable-apps-on-your-ipod-camera-phone-or-memory-stick/

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Canon EOS 550D (with Magic Lantern)
18mm - 135mm Kit Lens, 50mm f1.8, Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM
430EX II Flash with Phottix Strato Wireless Tigger Set
Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 with 496 Ball Head. Gorilla Pod SLR
Canon Powershot A720IS with CHDK and intervalometer script. Pentax Optio W90

My Blog - http://www.ianganderton.wordpress.com

Good tip - another option is to go into a cyber-cafe and burn images onto a CD or DVD, although these can obviously fill up quick with today's files. Good for sending the backup home though in case you lose your gear en-route...

Along that line, if you have access to a computer, Western Digital makes incredibly small, USB-powered external hard drives. My WD My Passport 1TB drive is about the size of my smartphone, and you'd have a tough time filling that drive up on any trip.

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Body: Canon Rebel XS, Canon EOS 7D
Lenses: Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4.0 OS HSM DC Macro, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS II, Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II, Canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 USM, Canon EF 85mm f1.8 II USM