From card to storage without computer

[Rob C]

I have a still functioning Nikon D200. My later, much-loved D700 is now an ornament I keep in the fantasy that one day, it can be repaired.

My question is this: rather than carry around a pile of cards and keeping them full of images until I get back to my desktop computer and download them, is there any way that cards can be emptied into an external hard drive in the absence of a computer?

The camera has a USB socket; I use a separate Sandisk card reader to empty the cards to the computer. I vaguely remember reading about some such in-the-field storage device about sixteen years ago, which is probably when I bought the camera. No, I no longer own a laptop and don’t intend going there again; my iPad is too convenient. (It only has a single socket for charging and using earphones.)

Thanks for any info on this.

[Ray]

Wow! I think it's time for you to buy a new camera, Rob. The Nikon D200 is a 10mp DX camera released about 19 years ago. I searched the internet for information on the maximum card capacity the D200 can handle, and it appears to be just 8 GB, according to the following article.
https://www.nikonimgsupport.com/na/NSG_article?articleNo=000051983&configured=1&lang=en_SG

My Nikon Z50 is 20mp and can handle SD cards to a maximum of 512GB. When I bought the camera over 4 years ago, I used a 256GB Sandisk Extreme Pro card which still has 97GB of capacity left after 4 years of use.

SD cards are continually coming down in price. The next SD card I'll buy, probably in a year's time, will be a 512GB card. 

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Gee, Rob… you sound like a sport shooter, shooting at 10 frames per second for the whole match… or a landscape photographer, camping in the wild for weeks 😉

[Rob C]

Wow! I think it's time for you to buy a new camera, Rob. The Nikon D200 is a 10mp DX camera released about 19 years ago. I searched the internet for information on the maximum card capacity the D200 can handle, and it appears to be just 8 GB, according to the following article.
https://www.nikonimgsupport.com/na/NSG_article?articleNo=000051983&configured=1&lang=en_SG

My Nikon Z50 is 20mp and can handle SD cards to a maximum of 512GB. When I bought the camera over 4 years ago, I used a 256GB Sandisk Extreme Pro card which still has 97GB of capacity left after 4 years of use.

SD cards are continually coming down in price. The next SD card I'll buy, probably in a year's time, will be a 512GB card. 

Ray, I know perfectly well the size of my D200 files.

1. I have no intention of printing again, and when I did print A3+ prints, the output from both the D200 and D700 was perfectly good. The very last thing I can imagine needing at 87 is another friggin’ camera! Even when I was in business and could buy anything photographic that I wanted, I never bought Leica because the system wasn’t best suited to my work, and Leicas were always a bit behind Nikon in those days - not much seems to have changed. So, gear junkie I am not, and never was.

2. For use on my website, the iPhone is also good enough as makes no difference; the only thing lacking with mine is a reasonably long lens - circa 105mm equivalent. As for the two Nikons: on the website as in print, their output looks the same. Actually, I prefer the look of my stuff to the over-sharp look of contemporary machines. I can make what I have look sharper if I want, but the thing is, I don’t want.

3. More cards isn’t a route I’d want to follow. I guess there isn’t a product, then, that does what I was wondering.

Oh well, it doesn’t really matter very much, anyway, but thanks for the response.

Ciao -

[degrub]

Rob,

Here is the only thing i found at B&H (US)

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1790744-REG/clouzen_cl_tn0015_2tb_tainer_portable_all_in_one_backup.html/overview

outrageously expensive.

[Rob C]

Rob,

Here is the only thing i found at B&H (US)

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1790744-REG/clouzen_cl_tn0015_2tb_tainer_portable_all_in_one_backup.html/overview

outrageously expensive.

Thanks for that, degrub, it’s exactly what I was wondering about. It seemed that a need for such a device was bound to have been met by now, even though I’d never come across it yet. One good thing: my memory of old info still functions!

As you say, very expensive, but then I suppose that the intended market can well afford it. Unfortunately, it appears I’m no longer that market, but for anybody doing what I was once doing, it seems to be a very convenient way to work. Though film cassettes were handy enough to carry on gigs, I always found that things got mixed up after a day or two, and I ended up with an unidentifiable pile of the things.

Kodak used to offer a 24hr turnaround pro service, and in the end, once they had processed my Kodachromes, they were all mixed up anyway, and impossible to identify via the film sleeves. Notes and memory were really all I could go by… digital offers a better means of identification via information on the file, making it more certain what was what.

Thanks again for your research.

Ciao -

[PeterAit]

Western Digital offers - or used to at least - a portable hard disk with an SD slot. We carried it around New Zealand and Australia. Stick an SD card in the slot and any new photos are copied to the HD automatically. We did not need to call on it, but it was a comfort to have.

[Rob C]

Western Digital offers - or used to at least - a portable hard disk with an SD slot. We carried it around New Zealand and Australia. Stick an SD card in the slot and any new photos are copied to the HD automatically. We did not need to call on it, but it was a comfort to have.

Thanks, Peter. I shall look into that as an option.

Rob.

[Joe Towner]

Sanho HyperDrive ColorSpace

iPad works as well, can directly import cards to the internal storage.  https://support.apple.com/en-us/118280

[Rob C]

Sanho HyperDrive ColorSpace

iPad works as well, can directly import cards to the internal storage.  https://support.apple.com/en-us/118280

Thanks, Joe. An iPad solution sounds good; it would be nice to get some extra usage out of the thing.

Rob -

[BobShaw]

I used to use a HyperDrive ColorSpace unit for this years ago around 2009 but the problem is that eventually they don't read newer raw files. These days it is easy for me to carry enough cards for a couple of weeks or if longer I just take a Macbook Air and then I can transfer to a TB portable drive and back it up. The MBA is useful for other things as well, much more useful than an iPad. USB is a master - slave system. You can't connect two peripherals together, you need a computer of some some and a peripheral.

[langier]

When I was still shooting SD and CF cards, I used a pair of Hyperdrive Colorspace portable drives and card readers. Despite the 500GB drive limitation and 32GB card constraints, it worked great during its time. With a single charge, I could download maybe 6-10 cards per charge. You may be lucky and find these available on-line. I used these up to just a few years ago on both my FX and m43 cameras.

The cards have evolved to new technologies and are much larger, faster and reliable today but back-up is still needed in the field and travel if more than just a few days Although I used the Hyperdrives and an iPad for several years during travel, both are now gathering dust due to the march of technology.

Unless I'm going to need to contact the world along the way, I simply shoot large cards and worry about downloading when I get home, just like the days of film. When I travel, I've got to drag along my MacBook and card reader but seldom download more than every-other-day at best. Less time on the overhead, more time enjoying the travel and making new images.

Since many of the newer cameras are dual-card, maybe the solution is to mirror your cards as back-up in the field. Probably more practical and easier than taking the time to track down a back-up system and taking time in the field to do your back-ups.