Do you take a laptop for day by day memory card dumps?

[bride03]

I was wondering how you manage your DSLR shots each day. Do you dump at the end of each day? Do you leave the laptop at home and just risk any problems that may arise? Are there any rituals you do (like using one memory card per day, etc to prevent problems?

On my last trip (for the first time) my memory card somehow got corrupted in my Sony mirrorless. I lost a handful of great shots from a surprise character meet and greet. It ruined me...now I'm constantly worried I'll be shooting away all day and the shots will be gone!

 

[mom2rtk]

I don't like messing with a laptop on vacation. I have enough 32 GB cards to just put a fresh one in every morning. I really try to avoid handling and changing cards out in the parks if possible.

My ritual is that I keep 2 small memory card wallets attached to my backpack by a lanyard rope (long enough I can take them out but also tuck them into a zippered compartment). That's so I can't accidentally drop the wallets. One is for empty cards, one is for full cards. I reformat the cards before any trip and take a photo of a paper with my name, email address and cell phone number in case of loss.

One corrupted memory card is one too many. Ugh! Sorry you had that happen. One of my greatest fears!

 

[fdefulvio]

I stopped needing a laptop once I got cameras with built in WiFi. First was a compact camera, and I recently upgraded my SLR. My iPhone (64GB) and iPad (128GB) have plenty of storage to transfer files to. I then upload to the "cloud" (Dropbox, Amazon Photos, iCloud...).

I keep all my photos on my memory card to upload to my Mac once I get back home. I usually shoot Jpeg+Raw, but 64GB SD cards, which I have several of, have plenty of space.

 

[klmall]

While I carry enough memory cards to not reuse a card during a trip I do also carry my lightweight Asus laptop. I shoot in Raw so the cards can fill fairly quickly. Phone pictures and memory cards are downloaded daily and everyone in the family uses this laptop at times so it is handy. On the plane or car ride home I start reviewing pictures and importing into Lightroom if time permits. If our travel time is too short for intensive LR work we just enjoy viewing the pics.

 

[xlxo]

I'm old school and will bring a laptop when travelling. But unlike the past... my travel laptop is now smaller with a multi hour battery. It's a Dell 13" ultrabook. It's so small and thin, it fits inside one of those underseat bags. I now leave my gamer rigs at home.

 

[OKW Lover]

I was wondering how you manage your DSLR shots each day. Do you dump at the end of each day?

That's exactly what I do. Then, I upload this pictures to a photo site (like Flickr) so if something happens to the files on the laptop I've still git the image.

 

[bob100]

That's exactly what I do. Then, I upload this pictures to a photo site (like Flickr) so if something happens to the files on the laptop I've still git the image.

I've also uploaded selected pics to Flickr while on vacation and transfer the raw files to a laptop for backup
www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless

 

[boBQuincy]

I use multiple SD cards and always keep them with me (4 usually is enough for a trip). For our next trip I am planning to try a WD Passport Wireless drive with a small tablet, the Passport has a SD slot and can copy the files without going through the tablet.

 

[Skywise]

I live life dangerously. I got a 128gb card a couple of years back and use that exclusively - Have yet to have filled it up on a trip and I download once I'm back and reformat the card before the next trip using the camera's built in USB cable so the card never leaves the camera.
I still carry a pair of my old 64gb cards with me in my camera bag just in case (and could fall back to if I got something really important) but I haven't needed to yet.

 

[msummers]

After loosing all of the photos from a non-Disney related photography trip many years ago, I implemented a robust backup system. Every night, photos get transferred to the laptop and then backed up onto a pair of external hard drives. Then the cards get formatted for the next day. One of those externals then stays in my camera bag so all 3 are never in the same place.

 

[xlxo]

I used to carry multiple media cards.... then I noticed they missing and I'm juggling through it. 32 or 64 gb cards in my cameras to minimize the fuss.

 

[StarGirl11]

I carry around a 32 GB plus some smaller cards for days where I'm going all out on photos and it gets me mostly through the day. I try to remember to upload to my computer a few days after the event (since my biggest camera use is horse racing) and then later to my external so it's not taking up computer hard drive space but sometimes I forget (I stumbled upon five year old photos that still hadn't been uploaded while prepping for my most recent trip to the track).

 

[Gianna'sPapa]

I backup the images to my laptop and a portable hard drive each night. I always have the images stored in at least two locations before re-formatting the cards.

 

[matthew_hull]

This describes my workflow, as well.

Now that Disney provides free Wi-Fi in the parks, has anyone set up a live feed of their photos to an FTP site (or similar)?

I live life dangerously. I got a 128gb card a couple of years back and use that exclusively - Have yet to have filled it up on a trip and I download once I'm back and reformat the card before the next trip using the camera's built in USB cable so the card never leaves the camera.
I still carry a pair of my old 64gb cards with me in my camera bag just in case (and could fall back to if I got something really important) but I haven't needed to yet.

 

[sharona]

When I had an iPad I did bring that and would download my pics to that at the end of the day - because it was easy and I wanted a better look at the photos, not as any fail-safe for keeping the data. The camera gear weighs enough, I'm not lugging a laptop too!

I have a dozen 32GB SD cards. My 7100 holds 2 and I use the card in slot #2 as back up to #1 in case anything happens to card #1. When those cards are full, I swap them out for 2 more. I've never run out of space even with 10 days in Hawaii... I keep them straight as to pairs and what is on them by storing them in sets in small plastic "snack" bags which I use a Sharpie to write date/time/place on the outside. The SD cards go in the safe with my other valuables and they are in my carry-on when we fly home. Everything gets downloaded to my pc when I get home. After editing/culling, all the keepers get saved to an external drive and to my Cloud drive - then I delete the non keepers from PS and reformat the cards for next time.

I just bought the Fuji XT2 and one of the reasons I chose that one over the XT20 was the 2nd SD slot. I got burned once when I had a Nikon 5100 where all of my pics on a SD card got corrupted when I downloaded. I was able to salvage a few using the ScanDisk website software download but it was time consuming and only partially successful.

 

[HBaney84]

I'm glad I did a search before posting my own question... of the exact same thing. "Do I bring my laptop to upload the photos daily". It sounds like there is no right or wrong answer, I just need to figure out what trust the most in doing... If I'm taking the kids tablets, I didn't know if I wanted to take a laptop too... maybe I'll just invest in some new memory cards as some of mine are older....



Although (editted to add....) If I take my laptop, I could always get my older kids to share their cameras with me, and download their pictures too.... since they live in another state and I'm sure won't want to e-mail them all to me later... Dilemmas dilemmas

 

[traylorc]

While I do have a sufficient supply of 32 gb cards that I could use throughout my trip...I also bring my Surface Pro with me and two external hard drives. I am a firm believer in having a back up plan for your back up plan. If you are fortunate...there are handful of once in a life time shots that you get while at WDW. I would kick myself, if I lost those pictures because I lost a memory card or a memory card became corrupted. At the end of the day...it's not a matter of when you will lose a memory card or when a card may become corrupted...it's a matter of when. Before I reformat a memory card...there are a copy of those files on my Surface Pro, and copies on my two external drives.

Does that sound absolutely paranoid and somewhat crazy???

You betcha...

 

[maccagerl]

I just bring my iPad and export photos from my card to the iPad. When I get home I transfer them all to my laptop and external drive.

 

[xlxo]

I now leave my 15" gaming rig at home... a 13" ultrabook does travel with me. So much thinner in my carry-on.