external hard drive for P4P ??

[Meta4]

Yes, this thing about swapping cards has been around since the first DSLR's and there is one school that says to swap out the card every flight or, in the case of a DSLR, every hundred or so images. This concept SEEMS to make sense, but in 15+ years this has never been a problem for me. Bear in mind that every time you swap out the card you run the risk of damaging or losing it -- this is a major fear of mine when out in the field and less of a concern at home.

I'd guess that the risk of a card malfunctioning is so close to zero that it's not worth worrying about.
I wouldn't worry about having a whole day's work on a card in my SLR.
But it doesn't fly to places where recovery isn't an option.

So, there are trade-offs to the swap the card theory and as for me I use top quality cards, always format the card when I put it back in the drone, and use care when removing and inserting the cards. What would be nice is a dual card system like many DSLR's have and being able to write all files to both would lessen that risk.

Dual cards is still putting all your eggs in the one flying basket.
Unless you only fly in your back yard, the risk of flying with precious images must be 1000 times the risk of a potential card malfunction.

A 100Mbps camera is eating data at the rate of nearly 45GB/hour. You do the math!

My calculations say that's about 45GB for three flights.
Which is about 30GB more than I'd be prepared to lose in one flight.
Maybe it's related to what I shoot and the effort that goes into it?

Here's an interesting story to show what I'm getting at ....
My inspire currently sits in 30' of water off star island in Miami.

 

[Raptorman0909]

Yeah, salt water plays hard and always wins.

Three flights is about 45GB give or take and on most days I seldom fly more than four times or about 60GB. If I had issues with cards dying on me I guess I'd be more tempted to swap them but since that isn't the case and no ones paying me I don't feel any great need to do the card swap dance. OTH, if I was being paid AND flying over salt water where you could lose everything on the card then perhaps I'd swap every flight even though I know that might actually increase the chance somethings is lost. Again, the upside to not swapping is reduced chance of something bad happening with the consequent risk of losing everything if it does. Swapping every flight will tend to increase the risk of a failure but limit the amount that's lost when it does.

I do have pro grade DSLR's (Nikon D800E's) with dual cards, but, once again, I use one card and don't swap. At the end of the day I pull the card, download the images and/or video, and then make redundant copies to my externals. Typically, though, I don't make three copies everyday but instead copy the card to mu laptop and the Samsung SSD and then make the additional copies every second or third day to limit how much time I spend doing the HD swap thing.


Brian

 

[gingerbloke]

.......a bunch of BS that we don't even really need to know about. Don't understand why I A hobbyist need to know the markings on an airport landing field, when I'm not even allowed within 5 miles of it. Oh well got to do what I got to do.

Part of the real purpose for regulation is to put up barriers for others?

 

[noimage]

This is exactly what you need for what you’re asking. It’s self powered, water/weather proof, and you can even edit your footage on it using an app on your phone, all in the field.
GNARBOX - Backup, edit and share HD footage, laptop free.

 

[Raptorman0909]

This is exactly what you need for what you’re asking. It’s self powered, water/weather proof, and you can even edit your footage on it using an app on your phone, all in the field.
GNARBOX - Backup, edit and share HD footage, laptop free.

The Samsung SSD I use in the field writes data at more like 300MB/sec and my card reader will transfer from the Sandisk uSD card at about 95MB/sec. Also, the Gnarbox is a 128GB device whereas my SSD is 512GB so depending on what your storage needs are the 128GB may well be sufficient or, in my case, I could fill it in less than a day if I started with an empty one.

The speed of my external HD's is about 90GB/sec when writing data from my PC.

What I tend to do is copy the files from the SD or uSD card onto the SSD main drive in my laptop, then copy them to the external SSD at about 300MB/sec. Every other day or so I then make additional backups to the external HD's, but because they are slower it takes longer. The speeds quoted for the Gnarbox are not all that impressive -- nice idea but needs more work.


Brian

 

[noimage]

I agree the Samsung is a great option. You mentioned card reader, laptop, other items that is more to carry into the field. I was just mentioning an all in one solution that does everything he wanted in a single rechargeable device that is made for rough outdoor use.

 

[African wildlife]

We thought long and hard about this important subject.

Meta4 makes an excellent “What if...?” point. We carry 2 x 64GB micro SD cards as well as the original 16GB one. But we download everything ASAP, usually after a morning’s flying and again if we fly in the evening.

The WD 4TB MyPassport Wireless Pro seemed ideal. Until you read the countless reviews of it malfunctioning or packing up completely. The concept is ideal for photographers in the field, but the execution was dreadful from such a top company. In the future, WD will hopefully get the problems corrected, but meanwhile that “ideal” option had to be ruled out.

Instead, we use two “normal” portable hard drives - a Seagate and Toshiba, both with good track records for reliability - making two copies of everything. The chances of both failing together are slim. Using two from the same company (and possibly the same manufacturing batch) would increase risk. A laptop provides the intermediary, as well as providing a great viewing screen. All of this data is eventually backed up even more securely back home.

Whether you’re a professional or serious amateur, caution is essential. “Be prepared” not only works, it’s underestimated as a practical key factor for success.

 

[Raptorman0909]

I agree the Samsung is a great option. You mentioned card reader, laptop, other items that is more to carry into the field. I was just mentioning an all in one solution that does everything he wanted in a single rechargeable device that is made for rough outdoor use.

Well I should explain that I don't hike with my laptop and card reader when travelling and instead use it at the end of the day when I get back to the hotel so it's not like I lug them with me away from my car. That's one of the reasons for the 128GB uSD card I have in the drone as it can handle my longest day without needing to be swapped.

I've only hiked away from my car with the drone once and that was only about half a mile -- though it was kind of rough ground so it took about 30 minutes each way. There was one location I wanted to fly that kind of required hiking to a hillside overlooking the area. This is the video of that flight -- an area known as the Toadstool Hoodoos.

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Brian

 

[Speedmeister]

My ipad 10.5 has 512GB of storage. I have 128GB sd card and the stock 16GB as backup. I use an apple sd card reader to transfer files on the field. SD cards are small. I dropped my 128GB on a grassy field while I was setting up. It took me 30 minutes to find it.

 

[Mike Stefansen]

would you have a model number for that

This is the one I have. You can insert the SD card and configure it to copy or move the card into a specified folder on the drive. This one has a WiFi server so you can connect with your phone, tab or pc on the spot remotely. Great device.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01F5LVTO4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Mike

 

[DOC 1500]

Yep, ordered that one two days ago looks like a good product.

 

[KevMo Photog]

What in the beJesus are you guys taking pictures of? Oh, trees and buildings and grass? Oh OK. Yeah those are getting scarce.

You must shoot any video dude! LOL

 

[Chuck1906]

do any of you guys use a hard drive to upload your videos and photos?
can you hook up an external hard drive directly to the aircraft or the RC to upload photos?
if you're out in the field doing work how would you transfer the photos from the aircraft to a hard drive?

Using my DJI Crystal Sky Monitor I can copy content from one SD card to another SD Card. I believe I can save content to the monitor as well but haven’t tried that yet.

 

[WBN3]

Here's an interesting story to show what I'm getting at ....
My inspire currently sits in 30' of water off star island in Miami.

I know this is off-topic, but I had to register with the Inspire forum just to see the pictures in that thread... crazy stuff. I looked but couldn't find any posts of the crash video or recovery. Doesn't look like the guy has been online in a while.

 

[Mix_]

are there any external hard drives that you can insert a MicroSD right into.
I have an iPad 2017 what would work with that?

Hi!

The Lightning to SD card adapter (Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader) plus micro SD to SD adapter (cheap SD card like thing, where You put in the micro SD from the bird, sometimes comes with microSD) will do the thing for iPad.
But I’m using that setup only when far away from home for longer time because of limited memory amount in iPad (I use 9,7” iPad pro with 128 GB mem). Or, if I really want to see the footage/photos right away to correct some settings etc.

Mikus

 

[John Locke]

Using my DJI Crystal Sky Monitor I can copy content from one SD card to another SD Card. I believe I can save content to the monitor as well but haven’t tried that yet.

There's not much memory in Crystal Sky to store content. I'm not sure you'll accomplish much doing that. I think storing in the other SD slot is the best option.