Nexto ND2730 & Sanho Colorspace

[CanardAviator]

Does anyone have experience using either of these in field flash card backup devices?  If so, how long do the batteries last and which ones can take replacement batteries in the field versus having to be charged?

Thanks

[stever]

the battery can be changed in the Colorspace, but i don't know if there is an external charger available for it.  two little screws must be removed to open the case and get at it.  it does not take non-rechargeable batteries

i don't know how long the battery lasts as i carry it as a backup for my computer which has yet to fail.  like anything else, if you just turn it on for backup the battery will last, but if you're using the display for review, the combination of hard drive and display is a pretty heavy drain

if you decide to buy a Colorspace, buy it without the hard drive and get a hard drive from Amazon, etc. and save $100 or so. installing the drive is trivial

[CanardAviator]

Thanks, Steve, your feedback is much appreciated.  Special thanks on the tip about the hard drive as a separate buy.

[nairb]

There appears to be a new version/model of the hyperdrive coming soon

http://photorumors.com/2012/08/07/hyperdrive-album-2-coming-soon/

I've been using the hyperdrive SPACE with the monochrome lcd since 2007 for back up in the field. Has worked flawlessly with excellent battery life.

[CanardAviator]

That is really good to know.

The other idea I had was to load both an SD and a CF in the camera and have the camera record the same image to both cards.  Have you had any experience with this?  Does it slow down the record rate or lower the burst speed? 

Two cards recording each image would seem a simple way to insure an immediate backup.  Does your experience teach any limitations to this?

Thanks

[nairb]

Yes, I do this regularly with my d3 and d300s. Might be the best option for short term back up.

 The rate at which the buffer clears would be limited by the slower of the two cards. In this case probably the SD (unless I suppose you were using an older, slower cf and a new fast SD). It won't slow down the frame rate though until the buffer is full. With slower cards the buffer will just fill up sooner. I've never had a problem with the buffer filling though. Just one time when I did many repeated short bursts of 2-3 shots as a row of hockey players were skating toward me and I was trying to get individual shots of everyone on the team. So a good set of maybe 16-20 bursts. Pretty rare to be doing this though unless you're shooting sports all the time maybe.

I initially got the hyperdrive for a month long canoe trip where it was used to store ~6000 images. I took a risk then though as it was my only copy of the images. I'd format and reuse the memory cards after transferring them to the hyperdrive. Just didn't have the budget at the time for either two hyper drives or many cf cards. I kept it and the cameras charged with solar panels. This worked for three long trips in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

[stever]

which camera - the 5D3 is seriously slowed by writing to the SDHC and in general SDHC write speeds are much lower than the fast CF cards.