Backing up digital images

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Scuba_Jim_2000 - 05 Jul 2004 20:43 GMT

Hi,
Can anybody help me with the following scenario:

I am going on a diving holiday abroad and plan to take photos
underwater. I shall be using an Olympus mju 300 and a PT-016 housing.

My concern is that if the housing leaks I will not only lose the
camera but also the memory card that is in the camera. I could have a
card for land and a card for diving, but that would of course mean
that I would lose all of the dive photos.

I would therefore like to be able to back-up all images (including the
diving ones) prior to each dive. However I would rather not take a
laptop or PDA to store the images.

The best idea that I can think of is to use a memory card reader such
as the Fuji N073050A DPCR1 along with 1 large card (512Mb) and 1
smaller card (128Mb), in the following manner

1. Take photos on the smaller card
2. Put the large card in the camera
3. Use the card reader to read from the small card to the camera (i.e.
onto the large card)

Two questions:

1. Would the above work, and are there any big problems with it?
2. Can anybody think of a better idea?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Jim

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chris French - 05 Jul 2004 21:48 GMT

>The best idea that I can think of is to use a memory card reader such
>as the Fuji N073050A DPCR1 along with 1 large card (512Mb) and 1
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>3. Use the card reader to read from the small card to the camera (i.e.
>onto the large card)

>1. Would the above work, and are there any big problems with it?

AIUI, no it won't work, how will you tell the camera to read the images
from the card in the card reader, they don't have the facility. (you can
copy images onto the card when connected to the computer, buy that si
because the computer is doing it.

>2. Can anybody think of a better idea?

Either get one of the hard disk storage devices available (been plenty
of discussion on those recently). Which is probably the same problem for
you as a PDA.

Easiest maybe be to buy a few smaller capacity memory cards and use one
for each dive or two. Note that the housing leaky doesn't necessarily
mean the card is knackered as well.

I dropped my last digicam in the sea, the camera is dead, but the
Smartmedia card was fine.

Signature

Chris French

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Jon C - 06 Jul 2004 02:12 GMT

> Hi,
> Can anybody help me with the following scenario:
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
>
> 1. Would the above work, and are there any big problems with it?

It will not work. Both the camera and the card reader are USB slave
devices. They require a USB master, such as a laptop, in order to funtion
via USB.

> 2. Can anybody think of a better idea?

Yes. If your dive photos are that important, use as many flash cards as you
will have dives. 128MB flash cards are more than large enough and are only
about $20 each, and 64MB cards are as little as $17.

Or, you could just bring a laptop and two flash cards. Unload your pics at
the end of each day.

Or, you could put a leak detector in the housing, and put a lift bag in your
pocket. If your camera starts to leak, the detector will flash, and you can
send it up on the bag.

Or, you could take care of your housing and just not worry about.

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edwin - 06 Jul 2004 08:29 GMT

will not work for the reasons already mentioned..

couple of options:

1) portable harddisk with integrated cardreader. I have one of 20 Gb's
plenty of room and works perfect. Simple one-button operation
2) same thing but burns your files onto CD-Rom. No experience with it,
but it looks nice because you could even create extra disks to be more sure
3) option 1 is also available from several manufacturers with build in
display, you can use it to have a look at your images and verify that
they are really copied. Con: most expensive option.

If you take a look at B&H, I think they have them all on their site.

Edwin

>>Hi,
>>Can anybody help me with the following scenario:
[quoted text clipped - 42 lines]
>
> Or, you could take care of your housing and just not worry about.

Reply to this Message

Michael Meissner - 06 Jul 2004 15:00 GMT

> > Hi,
> > Can anybody help me with the following scenario:
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> devices. They require a USB master, such as a laptop, in order to funtion
> via USB.

I believe Belkin and others now make a device in the $70 range that you plug in
two USB mass storage devices and it will copy everything from A->B. I don't
have a link handy, but at least one of the devices had support for PTP cameras
and CD/DVD burners (though you would probably need power for this). There are
various self contained disk drive & CD burners units that copy from media
cards. I happen to have the low-end x-drive II from Vosonic that I bought
without a disk and added a used 6 gig drive.

Signature

Michael Meissner
email: mrmnews@the-meissners.org
http://www.the-meissners.org

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???`??k?z????`? - 06 Jul 2004 09:14 GMT

go to a camera shop (if available) and ask them to burn a cd for you.

--
???`??k?z????`?

> Hi,
> Can anybody help me with the following scenario:
[quoted text clipped - 29 lines]
> Cheers,
> Jim

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Jason O'Rourke - 06 Jul 2004 10:20 GMT

>I would therefore like to be able to back-up all images (including the
>diving ones) prior to each dive. However I would rather not take a
>laptop or PDA to store the images.

Lose the dislike for the digital wallet. They're small, light, work well,
and cost under $200 with a 20gig drive (cheaper if you have an old notebook
drive available).

For a data point of interest - I get just under 2 dives on a battery with the
Canon S400 and roughly fill a 256M card in that time frame. I don't like to
open it on the boat, so that's the dive day.

Figure on how many dive days you want to take the camera along and plan your
storage requirements accordingly. And of course remember you'll be using it
on land as well, though probably not nearly as much.

Signature

Jason O'Rourke www.jor.com

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Vinnie - 06 Jul 2004 20:04 GMT

> Lose the dislike for the digital wallet. They're small, light, work well,
> and cost under $200 with a 20gig drive (cheaper if you have an old notebook
> drive available).

Agreed.

Your best choices are - either a digital wallet (these range from the
Vosonic hard drive + card reader to the Flashtrax, which includes a
viewer, organizer and MP3 player).

Easy to charge, easy to use and don't take up too much space...

> For a data point of interest - I get just under 2 dives on a battery with the
> Canon S400 and roughly fill a 256M card in that time frame. I don't like to
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> storage requirements accordingly. And of course remember you'll be using it
> on land as well, though probably not nearly as much.

I use a 30 gig unit with my Canon 10D, whose RAW files are around 6MB
per image. Seeing as how your camera puts our RAW files that are in
the 700-800kb range, the 20 gig hard drive ought to last you for
pretty much any normal dive trip, regardless of how much you shoot -
even if you see George Irvine dressed up in a PADI SEAL Team uniform
and wearing double wings, I doubt you'll fill up that HD.

To the OP: I'd be keen on hearing about your experience with this
camera. I use the Olympus C3000Z with the PT-007S housing, and to be
honest, I am quite frustrated by the lack of a real wide angle or true
macro. I am thinking of a housing for one of my SLRs for next year...

Reply to this Message

Matthew Endo - 06 Jul 2004 23:28 GMT

> To the OP: I'd be keen on hearing about your experience with this
> camera. I use the Olympus C3000Z with the PT-007S housing, and to be
> honest, I am quite frustrated by the lack of a real wide angle or true
> macro. I am thinking of a housing for one of my SLRs for next year...

Have you looked into Inon (or Olympus, Sea and Sea) Wide Angle lens and
Inon Dome Port? Or the Close Up lens?

Signature

Matt
matt@gol.com

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