Camera Labs

I know someone who shot over 5000 pics on a four week holiday
Let's assume you want to store RAW plus some decent jpg version of each photo. This will make it 15-20MB per pic, for simplicity and taking Megapixel-madness into account let as calculate with 20MB per pic.
That makes 100 gigabyte
You know what I'm aiming at?
1. Even with the latest and greatest 16GB SD-HC mem card, you need more to take with you. At a price of 75 EUR per 8GB SD-HC card, that would be an invest of 900 EUR, if you want everything in cards. I would shudder at the though of loosing one of those tiny little chips...
2. So take an external 2.5" harddisk of at least 120GB or better 160GB, which is currently the biggest capacity with 2.5" and sells around 100 EUR. But you need a computer to transfer the content of the mem-card to the harddisk!
3. Take an external hard disk with integrated card reader like the Jobo Giga One. But: I was not lucky to find one that reads the latest SD-HC cards and the 120Gig version is at 200EUR. that is quite a hefty premium over the version without integrated card-reader
4. On your home-computer invest in a 500GB disk. They are around 100 EUR as of writing and invest another 100 EUR to make your backups on (see Gordons article)

Feel free to comments on your experiences with external harddisks (with or without integrated card-readers)!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Hi Thomas, you're right, the size of RAW files, especially with an accompanying JPEG can seriously chew through your storage space.

But do you always shoot in RAW plus JPEG mode? For storage reasons, I only shoot in RAW when I see a composition that I really like, or anticipate trouble with (say, tricky white balance or exposure issues).

RAW can be invaluable for these shots, but I also take a lot of snaps where I don't think it's necessary. Then again I've heard some photographers saying that not recording the RAW file is a bit like throwing away the negative and only keeping the postacrd print... It'd certainly be nice to have RAW files for all my shots, but the storage would be almost incomprehensible! I also know several pros who never shoot RAW because the in-camera JPEGs are simply good enough for the client's requirements.

It'd be interesting to hear what other people think and how they use RAW...

In the meantime Thomas, can the Jobo Giga One actually copy the contents of a memory card onto the hard disk without the need for an attached laptop / PC? That's what would be really useful!

Gordon

Re Jobo: Yes it can copy the cards' content onto the built in hard drive without a laptop. There is at least one other manufacturer that offers something similar...

Re RAW: Since I first saw what's "behind" a RAW-pic, I never shoot without RAW. It gives me the peace of mind, because I almost never have to bother about white-balance, over- or under-exposure any more! The dynamic headroom (in lights and in the shadows) and the postprocessing capabilities of RAW convinced me! Since than I admit to only save the additional jpeg in "normal" quality, which with my D80 means half the hor/ver resolution (1936x1296, fitting the new wide-screen LCDs at 1920x1200 beautifully) and a compression to around 700kB (fast uploading tp flickr). If I want a higher resolution/quality jpeg, I can easily create a better one from the RAW.

So, yes, I'm cheating a bit with my calculations, because I only need around 11MB per pic, but I've heard that other cameras produce bigger RAWs than the D80!?

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

just a silly question here..
does anyone know where i can upload photos for free and use it as an Internet album? so i can share some work i did with other people. thanks
sorry if i posted in wrong place.

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Olympus E-510
Olympus 14-42
Sigma "Bigma" 50-500

www.flickr.com takes 200 photos for free. If you load more, the latest ones are "muted" so to speak.: They are not deleted, but you can only see/show them, when you already have linked to them (like in a blog).
If you want to upgrade, it's 25$ per year (pro account). Them you get unlimited storage and some more options to structure your sets.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Hi Johnny Boy, see you are in the UK try www.fotopic.net I use this site to upload photos and it is free but you are limited to the amount that you can upload but I think it is more than flickr, of course if you pay to upload then you get more.

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Roy
EOS 350D, 40D + BG-E2N, EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM, 430 EX Speedlite




My Fotopic

Google picasa is a service that gives you 1GB of free space. I don't know if you share the 1GB with the other services like gmail, or if it's dedicated.

I always run my photos through the computer since I'm addicted to photoshop/gimp to edit the best (or worst) of my photos. Since I use laptop my preference is a good external harddrive, and the important photos will be backed up on webhotel and google as well.

RAW I only use at certain occasions when I know I need to do a lot of editing, I rarely use it these days since my favorite is tilt/shift emulation, and for that you don't really need the headroom of RAW.[/url]

thanks very much, i have just register on it

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Olympus E-510
Olympus 14-42
Sigma "Bigma" 50-500