Transferring files from camera to hard drive without laptop.

[John R]

Looking to buy external USB 3 drive to backup files directly from camera to said hard drive when travelling without using laptop. Does anyone know if it is possible to do this? And how does one confirm that the files have been successfully transferred if not using a laptop?

JR

[Joe Towner]

Try these threads:

https://forum2.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=99264.msg812123
https://forum2.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=123246.msg1027517
https://forum2.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=125130.msg1047545

Things like Gnarbox or HyperDrive ColorSpace work well.  If the camera has 2 slots, consider what adding flash media and doing the copy there costs.  Technically you can't plug a drive directly into a camera as neither device is a 'host'.

-Joe

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/buying-guide/guide-portable-hard-drives-travel-photographer

[John R]

Okay, thanks for the links guys.

JR

[stever]

Forr many years i used a hyperdrive as backup in case something happened to my laptop - fortunately it never did as the backup procedure is a bit fussy (particularly if you wanted to make a further backup from the hyperdrive), but so far as I could tell, reliable.  These days 500gb is a bit slim, so i got a 4tb WD mypasssport wireless pro (not SSD).  It's a bit heavy (1#), and the wireless manual is somewhat impenetrable, but the backup from USB port or SD card is fairly straightforward and should be reliable.  Given that CF and SD cards are cheap enough so you don't have to reuse them on a trip or project, I think the WD will do the job.  Whenever possible I still want my laptop.

[stever]

I was unaware of the new hyperdrive.  looks like a more useful interface than the WD, but not a very good value proposition.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I was unaware of the new hyperdrive.  looks like a more useful interface than the WD, but not a very good value proposition.

Not the cheapest solution indeed, but I've been using my Hyperdrive (an even older model than the current "Colorspace") for many many years. You can buy one without Harddisk, and fit a disk with enough capacity (or lower price) yourself. Just make sure the drive is thin enough to fit in the casing.

I also have several "Passport drives" for backup and transfer with a USB connenction, and they work fine, but I have not tried the wireless version so I can't comment on that aspect.

Cheers,
Bart

[bassman51]

I use the WD My Passport Wireless Pro while traveling, and it’s more reliable and stable than the Hyperdrive ever was.  You can set it to automatically start an incremental copy from an SD card inserted in the slot.  You can also write to both the SD card or the USB port, making further copies possible for the truly paranoid.   I haven’t needed this for backup, but did use it to export to a USB stick for transferring to another user (I could have just plugged the Passport into his PC as well).

It also allows you to save files to the Passport, SD card or USB device from your iPad. I use this after editing on the iPad while traveling. 

[John R]

I use the WD My Passport Wireless Pro while traveling, and it’s more reliable and stable than the Hyperdrive ever was.  You can set it to automatically start an incremental copy from an SD card inserted in the slot.  You can also write to both the SD card or the USB port, making further copies possible for the truly paranoid.   I haven’t needed this for backup, but did use it to export to a USB stick for transferring to another user (I could have just plugged the Passport into his PC as well).

It also allows you to save files to the Passport, SD card or USB device from your iPad. I use this after editing on the iPad while traveling.

If you don't have computer to verify how do you know the WD My Passport Wireless Pro did a successful backup of the card?

JR

[PeterAit]

WD makes a great product, the Passport Wireless Pro. It has a 4 GB hard disk (I think, but a pretty big disk). Once it is set up, all you do at the end of the day is take the SD card out of your camera, put it in the Passport slot, and it will automatically back up all the new files. You can just go to dinner and let it work. Then, if you have a problem with the SD cards, you connect the unit to your computer, via wifi or a cable, and there are your photo files.

[Dan Wells]

And watch out for XQD cards... Every one of these things I've seen was designed years ago, and has no provision for newer media types. As an owner of a very space-hungry Z7, that's a major disadvantage. Nikon's already all-in on XQD (Z6, Z7 and most D5s are XQD only, D850 and D500 are XQD-preferred), the new Panasonics are XQD-preferred, and I suspect Sony will move over to XQD or CFExpress (same size and connector as XQD, but requires new firmware) with their next model. Both Nikon and Panasonic will soon support CFExpress.

[bassman51]

If you don't have computer to verify how do you know the WD My Passport Wireless Pro did a successful backup of the card?

JR

There’s a tablet/phone app that lets you access the Passport over WiFi. You can view directories and folders, copy to and from the iPad, send to cloud systems such as Dropbox, etc.