Suitable storage for photo backup

[Drifter]

Hi, I'm thinking about buying an iPad 2 to take on a trip. Among other things I'd want to use it to store photos I'll be taking with a digital camera. I gather I can buy an Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit and use that to read the SD card from my camera.

It's important to me to have a backup of the photos. At first I was thinking of bringing an external 500GB USB drive to back up to. However, the small Transcend drive that I have needs to be plugged in to two USB ports at once to supply the power it needs -- so I gather that rules it out for the iPad.

Is there a reasonable-priced storage device in the 64GB size range or larger that will work with the iPad 2 that I'd be able to back up photos or other files to? It would need to be something attachable to the iPad via a hardware connection, not network-connected.

 

[j1999t]

HyperDrive iPad Hard Drive

costly, but has memory card readers...

 

[SaberOne]

iTunes is the most sanitary medium for backing up your pad. I suppose cost is relevant to peace of mind and reliability. There are other options but that's my primary method along with DropBox.

 

[Drifter]

Thanks. The Hyperdrives look nice, but spendy for what I had in mind -- don't need anything with a display.

Re iTunes, I'd use that at home, but I'm talking about doing backups on a trip when I won't be carrying other devices except my iPad and a camera.

There aren't any relatively high-capacity thumb drives that can work with an iPad?

 

[avwh]

I took a Wolverine PSD as my backup when I went to Africa several years ago - less pricey than a Hyperdrive, I believe.

Thumbdrives won't work b/c the iPad has no USB port.

Another option is to just take more memory cards as backup, since they've gotten cheaper all the time.

 

[Drifter]

Yes, one option that had occurred to me was to take some higher-capacity SD cards to use as a backup. Is there anything I should know about what will and won't work with an iPad? I'd hate to buy a really high-capacity SD card and then find that it won't fly with the iPad.

 

[avwh]

Yes, one option that had occurred to me was to take some higher-capacity SD cards to use as a backup. Is there anything I should know about what will and won't work with an iPad? I'd hate to buy a really high-capacity SD card and then find that it won't fly with the iPad.

I have the connector kit, but my main cameras use CF cards, so I haven't tried SD cards with my iPad yet - and I don't have any high-capacity SD cards b/c only my point-and-shoot uses them.

 

[K1W1]

If you are shooting in jpeg copy them to the iPad then upload them to Flickr. If you are shooting in RAW your options are very limited with the iPad.

 

[K1W1]

Yes, one option that had occurred to me was to take some higher-capacity SD cards to use as a backup. Is there anything I should know about what will and won't work with an iPad? I'd hate to buy a really high-capacity SD card and then find that it won't fly with the iPad.

Think it through.
Ipads come in 16, 32 and 64GB sizes. You loose space for the OS and Apps.
If you have a 64GB SD card that's full the contents won't actually fit onto ANY iPad regardless of the model.

 

[avwh]

If you are shooting in jpeg copy them to the iPad then upload them to Flickr. If you are shooting in RAW your options are very limited with the iPad.

There's an iPad app for the "front-end" editing of RAW files (sorting, re-naming, rating, etc.) that synchs with Lightroom, called Photosmith. It's pretty new, and I haven't used it yet, but it's one of the reasons I finally got an iPad2, since I shoot in RAW.

 

[K1W1]

Yes that is correct which is why I said limited with RAW.
The issue with Photosmith of course is that you have to have Lightroom and as far as I know Photosmith does not offer any editing ability for the photos it simply allows images to be tagged and sorted then uploaded to LR for actual editing.
NIK software also have a product called Snapseed that supports editing of RAW files on the iPad.

 

[Swati.Siddharth]

A less expensive option to the hyperdrive with display is one that is iPad compatible but has no built in display. Though I agree it does not come cheap! The non iPad compatible Hyperdrive colourspace udma is interesting as it offers a back up to another drive without a computer - if I have understood correctly! But then using a hyperdrive completely eliminates the need for the iPad so far as just back up is concerned ... I am considering this option - a huperdrive usma and a hyperdrive compatible with ipad2 but without a display. These two together will be an expensive investment, but if i can restrict usage for exactly the same purpose that you talk of here ... I do not want to carry the laptop into the bush! Now I can probably leave the iPad behind too if I don't want to surf the pictures on safari!

The app photosmith sounds interesting. Have you used it extensively?