Photography, as a hobby in particular, takes on a different tone when the photographer is travelling.  Most studio equipment stays at home.  One looks for alternatives to one’s heaviest tripod, and thinks twice about the size of one’s camera bag and the equipment therein.  Mirrorless camera systems are becoming increasingly popular and every effort is made to make one’s gear light and nimble.

Today I want to address the problem of backup storage for one’s images while travelling.  Losing once-in-a-lifetime shots is something no one wants to risk.  How to do this without carrying along a laptop computer was somewhat of a challenge in the past.  I want to make a suggestion that allows for the laptop to stay at home, while offering just as much or more backup storage potential.

In a past Tips & Tricks, I suggested using a portable hard drive called the WD My Passport Wireless.  Today’s suggestion is similar; but smaller, lighter, and less expensive.  It requires that you are using an SD (or variation) memory card in your camera, that you have a smartphone or tablet with you, and that you have at least a large-capacity memory stick (or sticks).  What connects all these together is a small, light hub device with proper ports, an internal rechargeable battery, and internal wifi capability.  There are two locally available hubs of this nature:  Kingston MobileLite Wireless, and RavPower FileHub.  The Kingston device is roughly $40 Canadian at most local computer stores.  The RavPower is about $45 Canadian at amazon.ca.

On my last trip to Australia I used the Kingston device to link a 128 Gig memory stick to my 32 Gig SD cards and the free software on my Ipad to view and drag images from one to the other.  If your needs go beyond the 128 Gigs, you can use more memory sticks or plug in a usb external drive up to 2 Terabytes in size.

There  are other functions, such as streaming videos from the attached memory devices to your smartphone/tablet, charging your depleted phone, or using the wifi to route internet access to up to 5 devices; but the backup function makes this a welcome device for photographers on its own.

Happy travelling.