How can I backup my RAW photos while travelling without Internet access?

Question

This question seems similar to this one, but my needs are different :

• I shoot in RAW exclusively
• I'm looking for a 100% offline solution: while traveling, Internet won't be accessible
• the "laptop" solution is too heavy for me: I'm looking for a lightweight solution
• the simplest, the better: one device to rule them all

EDIT: I'm using good old Compact Flash cards (yes, the bigger ones), so I need a device that can read it. If it can read from other cards, this question might be interesting for more people than myself - that's the whole purpose of the website.

Asked by Jean-Philippe Caruana

Answer

If I'm feeling paranoid about backing up, I use a Nexto DI, which can backup a card directly to its own internal drive.

It reads CF/SD/SDHC, doubles as a USB2/external SATA drive, and is much faster than most of the other similar products I could find. (There are a bunch of similar products available, but this one had the best reviews at the time, about 6 months ago.)

Answered by Matt Bishop

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How can I optimise the lifetime of a Nikon speedlight?

Question

I have an SB-800. It's the newest Nikon strobe that will work with my F5. My F5 will probably outlast me (it probably has another 100,000 shutter actuations in it and I use less than 10 rolls a year, but I likely won't live another 278 years...).

What is my optimal strategy for making sure the SB-800 lives as long as possible?

Certainly storage advice suggests that if you don't use your speedlight much, you should take it out of storage every month or three, put batteries in and fire it a couple of times. But, my interpretation of this advice is that not to use the flash at all will shorten its life. I understand that. But what if I can choose to use the flash regularly, or not? Let's say I have two SB-800 stobes, A and B, and I store A in this way, taking it out and firing it monthly. Strobe B, on the other hand, I use every day or two (and carry with me).

Barring accidental damage, which strobe is likely to last longest, A or B? Why?

My question is essentially motivated by the fact that I could keep using my SB-800, or buy an SB-910 and mostly use that (effectively reserving the SB-800 for use with the F5).

Asked by James Youngman

Answer

Depends if you need CLS or not. (Don't even know if the F5 has CLS).

I'd keep the SB-800, and use it until it dies. The Strobist folks snap up all the good used Nikon strobes, but they are still tons cheaper than the SB-910 (and the Canon equivalent).

I consider strobes to be like tires on my car. Good to have good ones, but they are normal wear items, don't expect it to last decades.

That said, I have a 1970s vintage Vivitar 285 that still works, and it works fine on my Nikon F. But its voltage is too high for modern digital cameras.

Answered by Pat Farrell

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What file system are memory cards formatted with?

Question

Is there an industry standard file system cards are formatted with (when you first get them, and/or after a camera formats them)? Fat32, FAT16?

Asked by Freddy

Answer

They're formatted with FAT16 or FAT32 (FAT32 is required for card sizes >2GB), and have a fairly specific (though simple) directory structure something like this:

ROOT --- DCIM -+- ###ABCDE
               |
               +- ###ABCDE
               |
               ...

### is from 100-999, and need not be consecutive. ABCDE is free text.

This structure won't be recreated if you format on a computer, but an in-camera format will usually construct it (or it will be built as required on a blank card).

There are similar standards for file names, and it's all specced out in detail by the Design Rule for Camera File System, which you can read in full here (PDF):
http://www.jeita.or.jp/cgi-bin/standard_e/pdfpage.cgi?jk_n=51

Answered by ex-ms

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What is the maximum CF card size for a FujiFilm FinePix S1?

Question

My fiance just got a free FujiFilm FinePix S1. An old camera, I know, but also perfect for helping her learn the basics behind photography.

Anyway, we aren't experts on storage at all. We can see that for SmartMedia cards, the max is 64MB. Does anyone know the maximum for the CompactFlash cards? Does CompactFlash work like that, with the memory limits, the way that SD kind of works? Would a 4GB (or larger) Type I card from BestBuy work? Or does the operating system have a size limit?

Any information at all about this specific camera or CompactFlash in general will be greatly appreciated.

Answer

The file system for the camera (given the era, the cards available at the time and their price) is probably FAT (FAT16). There's no indication anywhere that the camera is capable of using FAT32. If that's the case, you won't be able to use cards bigger than 2GB, and may find that only 1GB is addressable.

While they're not nearly as commonly available as cards weighing in at 4GB and up, you can still find 1GB and 2GB cards at very reasonable prices (under $20). Don't worry about the speed ratings -- all of the currently-available cards will read and write faster than the cards of c. 2000 (except the microdrive, which was really rather snappy).

Unfortunately, Fuji's two non-JPEG formats are TIFF, so you won't be able to get very many shots on a card unless you use JPEG, and there is no RAW format. JPEG Fine should be good enough for most purposes, though, and the bit-depth limitation might actually help to learn about exposure, white balance, etc.

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What solution should I use for cataloging photos for private sharing?

Question

I'm seeking a solution for cataloging many thousands of images. Each photo will be tagged and categorized to become searchable by a small group of private people. I've considered any combination with Lightroom, a custom Wordpress theme, and a private Flickr gallery. Does any one have any additional suggestions?

Answer

Picasa Web Albums work best. It meets the following of your requirements:

• You can catalog a large number of photos (you may need to purchase additional storage from Google based on image resolution, but its relatively cheap)

• You can tag individuals and add categories.

• You can customize your privacy settings and sharing options.

• It's really easy to set-up, use and share.

I have experimented with SlideShowPro, Flickr and Facebook but found Picasa the best option for private sharing.

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What kind of containers are effective for ~20 year storage?

Question

Occasionally, I print large photos (20x30). What kind of container should I use if I want them to last approximately 20 years?

Note: Assume I am not concerned about fire.

Answer

Archival cardboard storage boxes ought to do the trick. They may be difficult to find in your size at a photo store (even B&H only has them up to 20x24-1/2"), but you should be able to get them at any large artists' materials shop (perhaps as a special order) or online through a museum supplier. If worse comes to worst, you can construct the boxes from thick (at least 4-ply) archival mounting board and metal box corners.

You'll also need archival low-abrasion separation sheets (like glassene, but acid-free) between the prints. A double layer of separators -- a slick sheet on the print surface, and a more absorbant, thicker paper between the slick sheet and the back of the next print -- would be better.

The cardboard and the thicker separation sheets will moderate humidity. The box will keep out the light. Using archival materials means you won't have to worry about acid damage from the container or any outgassing that may negatively affect the paper, coatings or pigments. That about covers the requirements -- and your prints should last significantly longer than twenty years under those conditions.

Both plastic and metal containers can be problematic. Some plastics are safe, but it's hard to find safe containers in the size you need, and next to impossible to build 'em if you can't buy 'em. Metals can corrode silently. They may be useful as outer containers for protection from physical damage, but you should still be using cardboard inner containers to prevent direct contact with the metal.

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What's a good strategy for choosing which photos to keep?

Question

Since moving from a 6 megapixel DSLR to a 12.5 megapixel micro-four-thirds, the much bigger file sizes (especially shooting RAW) mean that I can't be so open about keeping everything I shoot.

I only have a 640GB primary drive for all my video and stills, and a 640GB backup drive - and they are getting fuller every day.

But going through photos and deleting bad ones can be a tedious process. I've slowly been going through old photos and pressing delete if they are obviously out of focus or have too much motion blur. But it still leaves a lot of photos that just seem uninspiring, or where I have a lot of photos that are very similar, taking up space. I'm too worried to delete them since they're actually usable, and I may find a use in future.

• What is a good process for choosing what to delete and what to keep?

• At what stage of the process do think it's best to do it?

Answer

I don't know if this is a great system, but here's what I do:

1. After the shoot/session is done I immediately sort through every frame I took looking for the 'keepers.' I do it this way because for me it is easier to choose to keep the great shots than it is to delete the borderline shots... That may just be me. :-)
2. Next I sort through every frame I didn't put in the 'keepers' pile and look for anything that is bad enough to just trash immediately- usually there are a few out-of-focus or technically flawed photos that I didn't delete 'on-the-fly' which get taken out back behind the barn and put out of my misery.
3. I then look through the 'Keepers' and see if there are any 'holes' in the shoot that I will need to fill with the shots that weren't good enough to make my 'keepers' pile, but weren't bad enough to trash... Call it my 'marginal' pile if you will. If there are holes to be filled I then pick the 'best of the worst' to fill in those holes.
4. I post-process all the 'Keepers.' If it's a personal session I post 'em, if it's a professional session I work with the client further from there to close the contract. For client contracts this is it. I keep both the 'keepers' and the 'marginal' shots forever and get ingested into my backup solution (which is an entirely different process).
5. After some time has passed (I usually do this every month for any personal work that happened 3 months prior in order to allow myself a bit of perspective) I re-examine the 'marginal' pile to see if time has changed my initial impressions of those photographs... Usually there are a few in the 'marginal' pile that I like enough to keep. The rest are shown no mercy and get to go to the round file from there.

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Is blu-ray a good long term storage option for photos?

Question

I am wondering if long term storage on blu-ray discs is a good idea or not for photos. Do professional shops that want long term storage use magnetic drives or blu-ray discs? Is there a reason not to use blu-ray discs for photography? Would accessing photos off of a blu-ray disc be faster or the same(i.e. slow) as a DVD? Is this question and its answers identical if I was asking about DVDs?

Answer

The simple fact of the matter is that we don't know how good writable Blu-Ray discs are yet -- there isn't sufficient data to say whether or not they'll stand the test of time. Accelerated aging tests can only get you so far. They certainly make a degree of practical sense in terms of cost, shipping, and so forth, but as a long-term solution, right now, you would have to be willing to engage in a rigorous program of periodic disc duplication in order to stave off any potential "bit rot". At least until the medium is proven, or its archival qualities are properly understood. (And I's stick to single-layer, since clouding -- obstructing the deeper layer -- is one of the more probable failure modes.)

Of course, the same can be said for any digital storage medium. Magnetic domains aren't forever either, so periodic rewriting is essential. Then there's always the question of long-term readability -- there was a time when ZIP disks and magneto-optical storage sounded like a good idea, but now we have the problem of sourcing readers for those disks. How long will it be before it becomes the next best thing to impossible to find an interface for an EIDE/PATA hard drive? SCSI? When will SATA be superceded? Or USB? Even file formats change over time, so there's no real guarantee than twenty years down the road your files will still be readable (this will be less of a problem for well-entrenched formats like JPEG or TIFF than with any proprietary format, but you never know).

The advantage to magnetic storage is that the storage capacity of individual drives is much larger than optical disks, so when you need to re-archive (and you will need to) there's a lot less donkey work involved in the process. I'd much rather swap 1TB hard drives than 25GB optical discs any day.

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How can I backup my photos while travelling?

Question

I'm going travelling around the world for a year in September and am already panicking about how best to send my photos home while in various countries.

Requirements:

• I only need to backup JPEG files (I don't shoot RAW bu that's another thread ;) )
• I need to be able to upload in a web-based manner (I will be using internet cafes and so can't assume I can use FTP etc)
• I need plenty of space, preferably unlimited (I racked up about 200GB last year)
• I need to store the full image (no lossy compression is acceptable!)

Options I can think of:

• Burning and posting DVDs (can I trust these in the post and not to get corrupt? it may be better than waiting for upload speed though...)
• Flickr (I have a pro account but not sure how hard it'll be to get the photos back down again. Will I even be able to get the original snaps?)
• Setting up a server at a friend's house and hosting some kind of file server with a web-app front end

What have other people done or does anyone else have a better idea?

-Matt

Answer

Depends on how much you value your shots. Last year my wife and I took a 5 month photographic trip and we took:

• 1 Laptop: We had Lightroom to download and do a basic selection every night (out of focus pictures don't need to take any disk space!). Photoshop to do some basic retouches if we wanted to publish them on Flickr, etc. And a large enough HD to store the whole trip.

• 6 4GB memory cards: we numbered them and made sure to rotate them correctly so we kept the pictures in there the longest possible time as backup. We rather use more cards with less GB to diversify risk. If you are in the middle of nowhere and your only 16 GB card breaks you are SOL.

• 2 300GB USB HD: once the pictures were classified on the laptop we backed them up to one drive and mirrored on the other.

Online storage is not practical when you are travelling because of the time it takes to upload the amount of data you will generate. This way we felt very confident that we weren't going to lose any data, at any given time pictures were stored in up to 4 different places at the same time.

And to send home, select up to 5 pictures of each escapade and post them on Flickr. Selection is key.

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Suggestions for shared cross-platform photo management?

Question

I have a Mac, my wife has a Win7 machine. Currently I take all of our photos and put them into iPhoto. There's about 35K images in there now. The problem is that they are all accessible only from my Mac and she has to wait for me to put the images on there, etc.

I'm willing to switch away from iPhoto. I know there are some tools that are cross platform (Lightroom, Picasa), but are there any that support a shared library? I can share a volume out via NFS or CIFS that we could both mount, but I want to avoid problems of (potentially) both of us hitting the image database at the same time.

Answer

The issue you are going to face is similar to any database-based solution: the issue is ownership over a file and if two systems are trying to change a file at the same time. This can often corrupt a database for systems that are not designed with this concurrency in mind, and most systems are not designed with this in mind. As mentioned above, there are some higher end solutions that are designed with this in mind, but they are expensive and typically designed with an agency in mind.

Assuming you do not wish to purchase an agency solution, Lightroom would do fine, if you did not wish to share the database and each others edits. In this case, you would simply share an external drive with the photos themselves, but each keep your own catalog of edits local to your system. I am not sure if Aperture works this way or not, others can perhaps chime in.

The only alternative to get something close to this function with Lightroom, is for you to share the hard drive of photos as above, but then, use the export/import catalog function of Lightroom to "share' the catalog between machines. So, have your wife export a catalog of images she has edited, and then you import them into your catalog...and so on. Not especially simple, but it will work, as long as you can put up with it.

Of course, if you can get by without sharing edits, then simply put all your images on a network accessible drive, point each copy of Lightroom at this shared drive and edit away. One note: when your wife adds images, they will not automatically be added to your catalog, but you can easily solve this by right clicking on the shared drive link in the Library view, and select 'Synchronize Folder" which will add any new images to your local catalog.

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How do you store your equipment?

Question

As my photographic equipment is getting bigger (new lenses, new addons, new bodies) I think I need a better storing solution. Currently I just keep all my stuff in a desk drawer.

How do you store your cameras and lenses? Just to clarify, I don't mean storing it for a long time, I mean when you just stop using the camera for the day (or week).

Bags? Boxes? Bigger desk drawers?

Answer

Personally I have two bags that I keep all of my gear in(sans tripods/lighting). One large lowepro backpack and the lowepro passport sling. I have my sling bag ready to go with a body and 2-3 lenses with batteries, cards, and a flash. This is my versatile kit that I can grab and be covered for any fun family outing, or non paid gig quickly and not worry about what I do or don't have. If it is a bigger assignment or location shoot I'll grab my bigger backpack filled with the rest of my lenses, flash accessories, and other odds and ends. It also stores my on location laptop for transferring photos and checking image focus on site.

My gear either has to fit in my two backpacks, into the category of tripods or light stands, or I don't need it. I try to keep my extra camera gear that isn't needed at a shoot to a minimum. I have one small box that I keep old bodies in for sentimental value, but other then that, the rest of it gets sold before it is ready to be retired to a shelf or box beyond my 2 main gear bags.

You might be saying, yea but I have a ton of stuff and two bags isn't going to do it with my ever expanding collection. Take a look at this two video set of what professional wedding photographer Henry Chen takes on a 3 week trip to China. He goes into in depth detail about every piece of equipment, and you can see how he can fit it all into two bags and literally have everything you would need.

Henry Chen - What's In My Bag 1 & 2

If you are serious about equipment protection, since that was one of the tags you used in the question, I would recommend checking out Pellican cases. You can run them over with Humvee's or throw them in a river and not have any problems.

Your question seems to allude to the fact that you are looking for a piece of furniture or a fixture in your house to store your gear in. For me at least, I do very little photography at my house, so I want my gear in bags ready to go as soon as I see an opportunity. It is for that reason that I try to limit the amount of gear I own to what can fit into two portable bags. It keeps me in the field and not at home trying to organize and store it all.

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