Your going to Antarctica for 2 months...

[soboyle]

and you will be living at McMurdo science station, and making field trips for 3-10 days at a time, staying in tents and huts. You'll be moving around a lot, traveling via snowmobiles and helicopters. Once in the field you will set up your tent and do day hikes and photography from there. At the end of each day you will need to download photos in your tent or hut, and backup your images.
You obviously need to keep your computer and backup solution light weight and portable.
What would you choose?
Macbook Air 11 (2.38 lbs), or Macbook Pro 13 Retina (3.48 lbs)?
SSD backup HD? Backup to Flash drives?
Or direct download to a HD without computer, and save the SD cards as additional redundancy? Once back at McMurdo them bring into Lightroom for review.
Cost is a consideration, but so is having a reliable backup scheme.

[michael_mutmansky]

I think the answer really depends on how many images you will need to do, and how big the files are.

My wife was in Antarctica for two months this past winter, but was on an icebreaker, so no concerns about being away from the computers for too long. She is also not a photographer, but she did take a lot of images and stored the files on the laptop with an external HD as the backup.  Once there and confirmed, she deleted the cards and reused them.

For 3-10 days, I would probably plan on a single computer in the field, and enough cards for the entire time (in the field).  Then, back at McMurdo, an external HD box with a normal HD in it. If you don't think you will have the room on the computer for the full trip, you'll need a second external HD as a backup. Do not do a RAID box!  Do two separate HDs in two separate enclosures, and make sure you get reliable products with good shock resistance.

Do you need the computer for other purposes?  That may affect the answer.

I would choose the computer based more on whichever one was most likely to survive (in a ruggedized case like a Pelican, of course).  That does support going for SSD in the machine.

---Michael

[soboyle]

thanks Michael,
I will be doing quick reviews of images in the field, but not much editing.
It's hard to say how many shots per day, I'm not usually heavy on the trigger.
But lets say about 400 shots or one 16 gig card per day average. Some days will be more for sure, but others less. Longest field trip will be 10 days in the McMurdo Dry Valleys.
So 160 gigs. I plan on bringing 1 TB external drives, so will have ample extra room in case.
I'm leaning toward the Macbook Air 11 because of it's size and weight. A solid little computer. I had one 4 years ago and liked it for writing on. Not a power house for sure, but I think OK for field image review. I'd prefer to have the power of the macbook pro 13 retina in case I get into more editing that I expect. I'm a windows user too an don't have anything against a PC laptop, but similar speced ssd pc's seem priced similar to the macs.
Cost is an issue for me. the NSF is paying for the trip, but I have to cover everything else, and even the four hundred dollars between the 11 air and the 13 pro retina is significant.

[Alan Klein]

Don't forget to take a warm coat and your boots.

[jnewell]

Will you be trying to edit the photos there, or is the computer only to facilitate backup and file management?  I have owned three MBAs (1x 13" and 2x 11") and haven't found them suitable for PP.

Are environmental factors (temps, especially) going to be a factor while the equipment is operating?  I don't know whether SSDs or HDDs are more cold-tolerarant, either while operating or while not operating - might be worth looking into.  In the absence of additional facts, I would lean toward one (or much better, a second, redundant) USB 3 HDD.

In any event, I would definitely save the cards for the additional redundancy.  Compared to your other costs, extra cards are cheap.

We are all jealous and wish you the best!

and you will be living at McMurdo science station, and making field trips for 3-10 days at a time, staying in tents and huts. You'll be moving around a lot, traveling via snowmobiles and helicopters. Once in the field you will set up your tent and do day hikes and photography from there. At the end of each day you will need to download photos in your tent or hut, and backup your images.
You obviously need to keep your computer and backup solution light weight and portable.
What would you choose?
Macbook Air 11 (2.38 lbs), or Macbook Pro 13 Retina (3.48 lbs)?
SSD backup HD? Backup to Flash drives?
Or direct download to a HD without computer, and save the SD cards as additional redundancy? Once back at McMurdo them bring into Lightroom for review.
Cost is a consideration, but so is having a reliable backup scheme.

[soboyle]

Thanks. I will be doing some editing there, and possibly printing proofs on an Epson printer they have at Crary Lab. I will be posting to various social media, so I think my needs are tending toward a macbook pro 13r or PC equiv. The weight restrictions for traveling to McMurdo are pretty tight, 85 lbs total weight of everything I am taking, cameras, clothing, luggage, tripods etc. But the extra lb (and $$!!) for the Pro seems to be worth it.
I think I will be using external USB3 hard drives for backup. Even 1 TB drives are reasonably priced now, so bringing 3-4 isn't a problem. I've been in touch with several photographers who have spent time there, one who is a mountaineer on Mt. Erebus for weeks at a time, and they don't use any special equipment, backing up to standard external HD's. Batteries can be recharged at the field camp huts, and there is usually space to work in the huts rather than hunched in a tent.

[mcbroomf]

The only problem/risk of using a computer and external drives for backup is if the computer dies or is damaged, then you have no way to backup your cards.  For up to a week I'd be OK doing that with 4x64GB cards, but longer I'd add in one of the hard drives with direct card transfer like the Hyperdrive, or perhaps a really small Netbook for transfer.  There may be other newer options these days.

[soboyle]

Agreed, and I have been looking into options for direct download of images without a computer. Western Digital makes a 1 TB My Passport Wireless drive which looks good, it allows direct download of images from SD cards, is USB 3, and has other features. Something like this will be going with me for times when the computer is either inconvenient, or if there is a computer failure. Back at McMurdo I will have access to a computer, allowing me to transfer and backup images if my computer dies.

[Ellis Vener]

"Your going to Antarctica for 2 months."

I am? We are?