Backup photos to the cloud while traveling?
I'm going to travel around China for 3 weeks and I'm thinking how to backup my photo to the cloud (any storage provider is ok) taken with my old Canon 500D. Since I love to take time lapse, I will take several GBs of RAW file per day.
I don't want to bring my laptop with me, I don't have a tablet and I would like not to make my Android smartphone as bridge between the WiFi SD card and the cloud (by "bridge" I mean that I find inefficient that a picture is transfered from the SD card to the smartphone and from the smartphone to the cloud), but only as "controller" if necessary between the WiFi SD card and the cloud.
A perfect solution would be to control the WiFi SD card through the smartphone and say "upload everything stored to the cloud" (not passing through me, and not selecting each photo one by one). Since the big amount of data, this process will be done on a Wi-Fi network (otherwise I will run out data in few days) during night while I sleep (since it will takes several hours to upload the pic to the cloud).
Do you know any device/strategy to do what I described above?
I've read this answer which propose Eye-Fi, is it a valid solution for this problem? I never had one of these cards.
Best Answer
Edit: The below solution is not uploading for cloud, but making multiple copies of photos while traveling. Reason being internet connection, data limits, power availability etc..
I solved this dilemma few months ago, of making multiple backups of photos while traveling, by buying a Western Digital My Passport Wireless hard drive. Some features:
- Comes in 1Tb & 2 Tb versions.
- Has a SD Card Slot.
- All automated SD Card copy operation. No need of any phone, laptop, tablet etc.
- Can be configured via WiFi from phone.
- Has internal battery.
- No wires required, except for charging cable (USB 3.0)
- Can be connected to computers with USB 3.0 cable as normal external hard drive.
- All wireless access can be protected with stron WiFi password.
The way it works, is you buy the hard drive. Connect to your laptop, install the software. Then configure the drive to auto copy/cut every SD card you insert.
Now you could go out and shoot photos, videos, anything. Anytime you insert an SD Card, it will automatically save it in a dated folder without any further action from you, and all backups will be incremental. It means if you shoot 200 photos on day 1, and copy, next day you shoot 30 photos, and again put the card in drive, it will not re-copy yesterday's photos, only new 30 photos. Dont delete the photos from SD Card, so that now you have two copies of each photo, one on hard drive, one on card. Works as multiple backups.
Obviously because it is a hard disk, and has moving internal parts, you need to be careful as you will be with any hard disk.
It has two multicolour led status lights, showing battery level, current operation, wifi status etc and you sure need the manual handy to decode what those light colour means.
Battery life is good, as I fully charged it before trip, then copied all my four cameras one time daily, and was charging it only like twice a week. Ofcourse it will copy all SD card content; photos or otherwise.
Its android and iphone app lets you change settings, preview the photos, download, and other file managing operations.
Disclaimer: I have no official connection with WD, except just as a happy buyer/user from last few months.
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Quick Answer about "Backup photos to the cloud while traveling?"
Can I backup photos while Travelling without a computer?
For Android smartphone and tablet users, you can make use of an On The Go also known as OTG Cable to connect your camera or memory card reader to your Android device. Once connected, you can backup your photo and video while traveling without having to use a computer.How do I backup my pictures without a computer?
You can also get apps to automatically sort and store your photos as you transfer them. Alternatively, Android users can get an OTG (On-The-Go) cable that you can plug into any Android phone or tablet that has an OTG (or micro USB) port. This allows you to plug in your card reader and access the SD card.How do I backup my photos to the cloud?
Go to the Photos app, select a picture or video, tap the Send icon, and select Save to Files > iCloud Drive > Save, which will send the image to the Files app.How do you travel with photos?
General Travel Photography Tips for BeginnersHow to Backup Your Photos While Travelling
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Answer 2
I agree with the comments that backup to the cloud in China will be problematic. Backing up GBs per day will be unrealistic. If you don't wish to take a laptop with you, I'd suggest buying a memory card backup device.
Nextodi make multiple models of backup/storage devices such as this one on Amazon which is battery powered, has video preview, and contains 500GB of storage. Alternative models back up to USB drives.
Searching online for "portable photo storage" produces many similar devices from multiple manufacturers.
I would suggest asking on photo.SE as this has been asked previously over there:
Answer 3
The easiest solution is to simply take several SD cards on the trip. Assuming you will take 10GB of pictures per day for 3 weeks, you will need 210GB of storage. This can be easily covered by taking four 64GB SD cards. This is what professional photographers do since no hard drive can compare in terms of reliability to a simple SD card.
A single 64GB SD card is around 20$, so it shouldn't be expensive compared to the overall cost of traveling to China.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Pixabay, Helena Lopes, Pixabay, Mo Ismail