Backup Photos during the Camino

[ricardo.ha77]

I love photography and I'm planning to take plenty of photos while I walk the Camino (CF). Since accidents happen I don't trust on having a single copy of my photos (SD card in my camera) and I would like to backup them regularly. I would need around 50 GB.
These are the options I've been thinking on so far:
- Portable HD with SD-card reader (Western Digital has a model with SD card reader - 1TB, 150 EUR). What I don't like of this option, apart from spending money, is carrying extra weight...
- Online backup (E.g. Microsoft OneDrive). What I don't like of this option is that I depend on the availability of computers (I don't want to carry any laptop or tablet with me). Is easy to find a computer in the albergues?
Do you have any experience / advice? Maybe a better option?
Thanks in advance!!
Cheers!
Ricardo

 

[trecile]

I can only remember one albergue that had a computer available for pilgrims to use.

 

[HaraldS]

You could use one (or multiple) 64GB USB drive(s) which you carry with you. In every town and even in some villages there are internet cafes where you can do backups from your SD card onto these drives. Cost ist around €20 for each drive, weight is negligible.

Better don't rely on functioning, available or fast computers in albuerges. Their number is indeed growing, but you'd be on the safe side not to rely on that.

Harald

 

[Telelama]

Hi ricardo.ha77, I understand the concern. This may not fit your circumstances (might help others though), but I bluetoothed my images directly from the camera to my tablet to make a second copy at the end of the day. Obviously heavily dependent upon having a camera with bluetooth and carrying a tablet too (which I note you did not want to do). I also bluetoothed them to my wife's phone, thus creating a third copy in case of theft of either my camera and/or backpack with tablet.

 

[MichaelC]

I don't recall seeing computers much, but wireless is pretty common. I backed up photos online (iCloud), which wasn't a perfect system. If you're camera has bluetooth / wireless abilities then this would work.

 

[C clearly]

In every town and even in some villages there are internet cafes where you can do backups from your SD card

I am not so sure this is true. However, you could possibly find a camera or electronics shop in major towns where you could pay to have the photos transferred. You can expect to find wifi every day, but the speed may be inadequate for online backup

 

[Purky]

Eyefi Mobi Pro makes 16 or 32GB SDHC memory cards with Wifi built in. This means that you can automatically back-up your photo's to your smartphone (or laptop/tablet) on the go. It uses an existing wireless network or makes its own private connection.
Or it might be even more simple: do you have a camera with dual card slots?

 

[Northern Laurie]

I love photography and I'm planning to take plenty of photos while I walk the Camino (CF). Since accidents happen I don't trust on having a single copy of my photos (SD card in my camera) and I would like to backup them regularly. I would need around 50 GB.
These are the options I've been thinking on so far:
- Portable HD with SD-card reader (Western Digital has a model with SD card reader - 1TB, 150 EUR). What I don't like of this option, apart from spending money, is carrying extra weight...
- Online backup (E.g. Microsoft OneDrive). What I don't like of this option is that I depend on the availability of computers (I don't want to carry any laptop or tablet with me). Is easy to find a computer in the albergues?
Do you have any experience / advice? Maybe a better option?
Thanks in advance!!
Cheers!
Ricardo

Hi Ricardo, If you haven't checked out B&H photo/video for options, I'd do some research there, whether or not you purchase from them: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Stand-Alone-Data-Storage/ci/3369/N/4000227848

Check reviews for the reliability of portable HDs. They are still really susceptible to damage from dropping and jostling. If you are really, really concerned about backup, you would probably want to back up your hard drive periodically too (say every couple of days).

Online back up will depend a lot on the file size and number of files you are uploading. You will create difficulties for fellow pilgrims if it takes an hour to transfer all your files and no one can use the computer while you are doing it. Not to mention missing out on a communal glass of wine, dinner, or some other randomly occurring fun activity while waiting for files to transfer. Definitely want to try out this process at home to get a sense of how long it might take.

I ended up mailing my DSLR because it was too heavy (along with all the other bricabrac that goes along with a DSLR), and used my iPhone camera. Emotionally it was a tough call. Physically, it was the right one.

I had to rethink how to frame photos as well as lighting conditions, but it ended up working extremely well. I could take a lot of photos, store on my phone, check in with family and friends via social media, and do an automatic backup to iCloud whenever I had WiFi access. The images are good quality, but I couldn't shoot RAW, and the image size isn't as large so I can't print large scale prints.

WiFi was readily available (at least every second day), although not universally available.

On the Norte, I don't remember seeing a lot of computers in albergues - but I wasn't looking either. I wouldn't count on access.

Finally, as a gentle, quiet suggestion, consider whether taking a lot of pictures is the right idea. I don't know anything about how you approach photography, but I can say I learned much more, and observed and appreciated much more of my Camino experience by sitting down and (badly) sketching what I saw or writing out what I observed/smelled/heard/felt. That approach meant I had a very rich, creative experience and was very present for the moment. Taking a picture and carefully composing the image, thinking about lighting was a different experience, rich in a different way. Taking a snapshot that didn't require a tonne of thought generally detracted from me really being present in the moment.

 

[ricardo.ha77]

Thank you all for your quick replies! You have given me very good ideas and I think I found a quick, cheap and effective solution.
- Definitively I don't want that backing up my photos results in wasting time that put me away from enjoying this experience (@Northern Laurie, thanks for your wise advise), so looking for cloud storage and wifi access is discarded. Also I want to avoid adding any significant weight, so I don't want to take with me tablets or external drives.
- I liked @HaraldS' suggestion of using USB drive's. They are pretty light and inexpensive.
- Then I found out that my mobile phone suports OTG, so I can connect this (http://www.mediamarkt.nl/nl/product/_hama-usb-2-0-hub-kaartlezer-1331155.html) to my phone. Then insert the SD card and a USB stick and copy from one to the other. This should do the trick!

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

In theory this should work. Have two USB 64 GB flash drives, an Android phone with 2 to 3 GB of free storage, a USB card reader and a USB OTG ( on the go) connection to the phone. The OTG device effectively turns your phone into a master and the flash drives into slaves and your phone will have external storage. Something similar can be done with an iPhone but I'm not up on the details.

Looks like you want to transfer 2 GB a day. Copy to the phone with the card reader on the OTG and then replace that with a flash drive and copy from the phone to that. Do it again with the other flash drive and then delete the day's pictures from the phone. You could use SD cards instead but the flash drives are less likely to break or get lost. Keep one with the camera and the other with your passport and bank cards.

Edit: So I see that while I wrote you did too and you beat me.

 

[mvanert]

I love photography and I'm planning to take plenty of photos while I walk the Camino (CF). Since accidents happen I don't trust on having a single copy of my photos (SD card in my camera) and I would like to backup them regularly. I would need around 50 GB.
These are the options I've been thinking on so far:
- Portable HD with SD-card reader (Western Digital has a model with SD card reader - 1TB, 150 EUR). What I don't like of this option, apart from spending money, is carrying extra weight...
- Online backup (E.g. Microsoft OneDrive). What I don't like of this option is that I depend on the availability of computers (I don't want to carry any laptop or tablet with me). Is easy to find a computer in the albergues?
Do you have any experience / advice? Maybe a better option?
Thanks in advance!!
Cheers!
Ricardo

On my first camino I found several places with computers, however, all of them were 1. Slow 2. Virus infected 3. In Spanish (great for Spaniards). I am a 'computer guy' and twice the hospitaros asked me to fix their computers - I begged off. My point is do not even think about trusting these computers with your files! Bite the bullet and bring a tablet or MacBook Air 11", something really small and light or don't bring anything at all and use the 'cloud' to upload your photos as you take them. Both IOS and Android systems offer this capability with several different types of programs.

 

[Sixwheeler]

Like Telelama I WiFi from my camera to my smartphone (2nd copy) then upload to my Dropbox (3rd copy). This works well for me as I can also edit pox on my phone to put into my blog. Of course it depends on having a camera with WiFi.
Ultreïa