How do I back up photos if I don't take a laptop?
 

I almost hesitate to ask this question as the answer is probably obvious but it has escaped me so far. In the past, we have carried a laptop when traveling and would remove the SD card from the camera each evening, put it in the SD slot on the laptop, and download our photos as a backup. We do not plan to carry a laptop on our trip to Italy but will take a Kindle Fire HD and maybe an iPad, neither of which have slots for an SD card or even a USB port. I had thought there might be some sort of external memory device with an SD card slot but the only ones I have seen are bulky and cost several hundred dollars. The card readers appear to require a connection to a device with a USB port to download the photos. We currently use a Canon Powershot SX20IS but may upgrade to a Nikon Coolpix L830 or Canon Powershot SX510 HS, which has WiFi capabilities.

I am pretty tech challenged, so any assistance will be greatly appreciated. I live in fear of losing my camera and all of my photos if I don't have a way of backing them up while traveling.

Thanks as always.

Get a connection kit for the Ipad.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD...AOS-US-KWG-PLA

https://discussions.apple.com/message/20908442#20908442

As Kybourbon said, there's a simple connector for the ipad which will accept your SD card. I used one on my last two trips and it works flawlessly.

You could get an eye-fi card. You set it up online and then when it is near a device it will upload your photos to the website. You would then have to move them to a different site (depending on how many pictures you take) or pay for a subscription that I think will allow you to have more storage space on the site.

I used the iPad connector kit on our last trip and had no problems with it at all. Each night I uploaded that day's photos to the iPad.

Another thing that is pretty common is to use a new SD card for each day since they're fairly inexpensive. Keep the SD cards for the "used" days someplace secure - perhaps with your documents - so that should you lose your camera or if there's a problem with only one day's photos, you still have all of your other days on separate SD cards.

I have an iPad3 with the older 32 pin connector, not the iPad4 with the small 8 pin connector. Is there a connector/software with which I can do the same thing described above with my machine, including syncing so I can move the pictures to my PC?

In order to directly upload SD card content, the host device must be able to do USB hosting.
All PCs can do this and so are the iPads.
Off the shelf Android devices cannot, but there is a cheap app called "Media Importer" that can upload an SD card with few more dollars worth of hardware.
Kindle, on the other hand, has no known solution. Amazon chose not to make the "Media Importer" available in their app market.

Your best bet is an iPad, iPhone, non-Amazon branded Android tablet or a phone, or even an Windows 8.1 tablet with a micro SD slot. I don't use full size SD cards anymore. I use microSD cards in a digital camera with an SD adapter.

I have a canon camera with WiFi. It requires an Android app <u>Canon CameraWindow</u> to connect to the Camera. This is another app Amazon is not providing to the Kindle users. Before going the WiFi route, make sure there is a way to connect to your device. You are more likely to be successful with an iPad or a real Android.

The cheapest option is to just take more cards with you. When one is nearly full remove it, lock it, and put in a new card.
Don't use 16gb cards for that option though. 4 is plenty big enough. Cards don't cost much and are easy to carry.
Locking the card ensures you don't accidentally wipe it.

You can get wifi-type memory cards even if your camera itself is not a wifi device, and this would allow you to send pics to say a phone or Kindle. (I have a Toshiba Flash Air SD card in my Olympus PEN that purportedly can do this). However I will add the caveat that they can sometimes be a bit tricky to set up initially.

The link for the kit I gave earlier is for the 4th gen Ipad. This is the one for earlier Ipads. This version has two connectors, one for your camera or one phone an sd card.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC...AOS-US-KWG-PLA

I have the connector that kybourbon mentioned above (the one with the camera icon on it). I used it to put pictures on my iPod for storage when I didn't have a laptop. It worked great.

Thanks to all for the info here...am considering traveling with ipad...not real tech savvy and have never wanted the burden of laptop. Also have always been concerned about losing those one in a lifetime photos and had no way to do back up download and now that little device with ipad will be just perfect. Again..thanks.

Thank you very much Kybourbon. Exactly the information I needed.

BTW, Kybourbon, I just ordered one of those connector/readers on eBay that works with Ipad 1, 2, and 3 for $3.95, with free shipping.

Problem solved!

one potential issue with the ipad...it does have a limited amount of memory, so its not necessarily an ideal backup device. I mean the biggest iPad only has 64 gig (and you might have less), and you probably have 64 gig or so for your camera. Depending on the camera, it may fill up the space relatively quickly.

I imagine you don't shoot raw...if you did, you would be certain to fill up the ipad in no time.

I usually pick and choose, and download a few of my pictures to the ipad. So I won't possibly lose them all. And after that I just don't worry about it that much. The odds of losing the photos are slim (I've never lost one...you;d have to lose the camera, lose the memory card, or fry the memory card. None of these things are particularly likely if you are careful) and even if something happens, you still have the memories!

and finally, make sure you test the download before you leave. I have had issues with some cameras when directly connected. Less trouble with the card reader attachment.

china good point...however the risk of losing a camera of having it stolen is pretty real these days so backup sounds good to me...at least some photos. I have known people that have come home with nothing after having lost or had their camera stolen.

Thanks to everyone for your time and attention to my question. I have begun researching the options and will need to spend more time doing that before making a decision. I am glad that there are options for using the Kindle Fire HD as well as the iPad. Obviously, buying more SD cards would be the easiest solution for a non-techie but I am intrigued by the other possibilities.

My iPad (given to me for work purposes but I'm allowed to use it for personal use as well) only has 16 gigs (as does my husband's Kindle Fire HD) so I am concerned that neither would hold all of the photos I will probably take - probably 2000-3000 based on past experience. I assume that I could transfer them to the iPad or Kindle, send them off to Dropbox, Shutterfly, etc., and then delete them from the device. Has anyone done this?

After I posted, I also wondered if I could put the SD card in a card reader, go to an Internet cafe, plug the reader into a computer, and send the photos directly off to Dropbox, etc, since I wouldn't be downloading them to the computer. Does this sound workable?

We did lose a camera toward the end of a trip to Disneyland when our children were small and it broke my heart to lose those precious photos. We bought a throwaway camera and retook some of the same shots, but it wasn't the same. Having the photos is very important to me because they are what elicit memories I might not otherwise recall.

It is not necessary to keep all your backed up phone in your iPad. If WiFi bandwidth allows, I also backup pictures into my Google Drive. It does not reduced the resolution. When you upload .jpg files to a cloud storage, not all the sites keep the original resolution. Be sure to check if the site stores the data as is and can be downloaded back intact. I usually need to upload 300MB/day and the WiFi needs to be fast to complete upload overnight. I would not automatically delete .jpg files. Internet cafes may not be located at convenient locations, so try hard to be able to do this from your room. Hotels might have a pc or two for guests' use.

If you shoot only JPEG (not RAW), for a 12MP camera, your filesize is probably about 4MB per image. Shoot 4,000 photos and you have 16GB. So a single 32GB card could hold them all.

If you get the card reader, why not buy two 32GB cards? Keep in one in the camera and use the other as a backup. Copy your daily pictures from the original card to the iPad, then copy them back to the other SDHC card. Then erase the from the iPad so you don't run out of room.

32GB SDHC cards are super cheap anymore. Just make sure your camera can handle the card you buy. There are also SDXC (larger capacities). SDXC uses the exFat format; make sure the iPad can read that (and that your camera can) if you go with one.

>>>After I posted, I also wondered if I could put the SD card in a card reader, go to an Internet cafe,<<<

Back in the 90's, internet cafes were readily available in Italy. Even in early 2000's they were still everywhere. These days they are going the way of the payphone. You will still find a few (you might need your passport to use one). You might have better luck with your hotel if you are staying in one that caters to business travelers. They often have a business center.