How do I store movie files from SD cards without a laptop whilst on the move?

[KTM Deano]

Need some advice please. Im going away in a couple of weeks on my motorbike to Eastern Europe with a GoPro camera so I’ll be shooting footage each day.

I’ll be only taking a couple of micro sd cards but they’ll fill up pretty quick I’m guessing so will need the footage taking off at the end of each day so that I can wipe each card ready for the next days shooting.

My problem is this. I’ll not be taking my laptop so can’t take the footage off the cards and put them / store them on there. So what are my options?

[Filmick]

You'll need to buy a device that has a hard drive with built in card reader e.g:



An alternative is to take an android type tablet device with an external card slot (ipads don't) or just take lots & lots of cards.

[Bernard Smith]

For the amount of faffing I'd just find room for a laptop; I've done a lot of this stuff and I've tried most other things.

There are harddrives that will auto download the video files direct from cards but I can't find any links; know I read about them somewhere if you want to hunt them down.

I know uploading onto any form of 'cloud' or home based system you can access while on the road (like I have) is definitely out for video files as the speeds are ridiculously slow for large files across WIFI. Even a hard wired system is slow so forget wifi as a method.

Not sure what to suggest but take a laptop (thumbs)

[heavy]

hello I had exactly the same problem las year , 2 of us 4 cameras, so I bought a second hand netbook 80 euros basically mini computer, 250 gig hard disc download all cards end of each day, remember to make new file for each day or it gets confusing, unit has wifi so great on campsites, you can email and Skype and all that stuff, quite happily fits in tank bag good battery life , mines an acer,

never looked back,
regards heavy

[Earwig]

.....so I bought a second hand netbook.....

Might be worth you having a look http://www.ruggedcomputing.co.uk/depart ... n_ther_own_/

or maybe

http://www.premiergent.co.uk/pages/note ... hbooks.asp

(thumbs)

[AndyB]

You'll need to buy a device that has a hard drive with built in card reader e.g:



An alternative is to take an android type tablet device with an external card slot (ipads don't) or just take lots & lots of cards.

I like that. I don't really want to cart a laptop around with me but something like that would probably encourage me to spend more time filming my ridiculous escapades because I could just move the contents of the SD cards over while I sat in the pub in the evening.

[TomBoyNI]

Panasonic Toughnooks were excellent but the £200 you are spending here is in no way value. The spec of the machines is horrendous and your sd cards are probably larger in storage size that the hdds in these.

As has already been suggested a netbook is a good option and you will pick one up for £100 easily. Bring an external hard drive so you store as much as you want. £50 for 1TB.

Just put it in a good rugged case and take care of it when using it. To be even more secure consider an ssd external hard drive. They are more expensive but the lack of any moving parts means the potential for damage due to vibration is pretty negligible.

[hotbulb]

Or, given the price of memory cards these days, could you not just buy half a dozen (or more) cards? Not likely to get damaged in transit, or nicked!

[Milo Tighfield]

I use a Go Pro camera and IPad. You just connect the camera to the Ipad and download and it will ask if you want the card clearing once downloaded. You will need a little connection cable that can be purchased on fleabuy for few quid. (thumbs)

[TomBoyNI]

How long are you going away for and what size cards are you taking?

Don't forget batteries as well. GoPro batteries are maybe only worth 60-90 mins. You can get 3rd part batteries and chargers made by Wasabi. They are quite decent.

Anyway if you are planning on lots of filming you will need good storage. An iPad etc won't cut it as you'll then be limited to 128Gb at the very most, depending on the iPad of course. Same for any tablet whether it be iOS, android or windows.

It all depends on how much filming you plan on what will work for you. Lots of filming and you'll need a big hard drive like attached to a netbook or one of those standalone units which look to be a decent job (thumbs)