JPEG as a travel alternative

[pwp]

The Nexto HDD enclosure I mentioned is such a device. The problem is that it's internal battery is worthless and cannot be replaced/upgraded. That means that I have to plug it into my MacBook Air with its USB cable to get power as well as to view the files on it. This rapidly degrades the MacBook's battery.

Nexto are OK but it's true, the battery life is not strong to say the least...even with the accessory cigar shaped external battery booster.

King of the tree in these types of devices is the Sanho Colorspace UDMA-II.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=sanho+colorspace+UDMA&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=

Battery life is simply awesome. Download speed is brisk. Do your own web search and read lots of positives.

OP...don't Q&A with this question too much....shoot RAW. That shot of a lifetime may be five minutes away & you don't want your camera set to JPEG.

-PW

[bholliman]

I think you will regret ending up with a marginal picture of a unique experience or environment if you limit yourself to JPG.  I'd find a way to shoot RAW.  Storage is relatively cheap these days.

[Don Haines]

For travel, I would set it to RAW+JPG. That way you get the quality of RAW when you get home, but the convenience of JPG when traveling.

For storage, take a peek at the Hyperdrive units.... Battery powered hard drive....and if you get the unit with no hard drive and put a SolidState hard drive in, you get even better battery life.... Charge it with USB every so often and away you go

[alexanderferdinand]

Or take a smaller body than the 5d and shoot raw.
Or leave the grip at home.
I absolutely dont want to miss the possibility of pp.
Neither Canon or my beloved RX100.

[miah]

hgraf Thanks for your input. I've heard and read competing information with regards to drive speed. It seems a friend showed me some tests where the power draw of a 7200 vs 5400 RPM HDD was disproportionately small compared to the additional speed of delivery. I don't claim to know that much about it, but the article he showed me seemed to make sense. My objective is to speed the entire through-put, not because I'm impatient, but because every second the computer is on the battery is going south. There are times when I must make one charge last a week or more with daily use.

shashinkaman Yes, it's true: I'm an amateur photographer. So, what's your point? As I said, I travel alone and on foot or by motorcycle, so every cubic centimeter and every gram of weight matter a lot. And as for quantity of shots taken, I certainly take a lot more than I ultimately keep. Sorting, storing and processing the keepers is why I have to carry a computer and hard drives when in the field, since my excursions are typically multiple months at a time.

pwp Thanks for the heads-up on the Sanho device; it's nice to hear you and Don Haines have had good luck with them. I'll take a closer look online as my Nexto battery now lasts maybe 5 minutes and cannot be replaced (in my model).

I also appreciate everyone's kick in the butt to stick with RAW. I guess I was just hoping for an easy way out...

[MrFotoFool]

Well I will be the one to go against the grain.  I shoot JPEG only almost all the time.  After doing it that way for a couple years, everyone said I was crazy so I tried JPEG plus RAW for about six months.  The alleged advantages of RAW were virtually nonexistent IMO.  I went back because RAW for me is a waste of time and storage space.  I only went digital three years ago and before that I was shooting slide film, which has a narrower latitude than even my current JPEG's (on a 5D2).  So two plus decades of shooting slide film taught me how to get exposures spot on and for me I don't need RAW.

Even when I look at examples online, where they show a side by side of a RAW and JPEG, most of them look virtually identical and they are trying to tell me how much better the RAW looks but honestly I do not see it.  The advantages to RAW may be there, but they are blown completely out of proportion.

[alexanderferdinand]

Another idea:
I don't travel with a notebook, I look at my "harvest" at home.
In other words: what about leaving the notebook at home and carry some more CF and/or SD cards?
Mail and social contacts every smartphone could do.

[ajfotofilmagem]

Well I will be the one to go against the grain.  I shoot JPEG only almost all the time.  After doing it that way for a couple years, everyone said I was crazy so I tried JPEG plus RAW for about six months.  The alleged advantages of RAW were virtually nonexistent IMO.  I went back because RAW for me is a waste of time and storage space.  I only went digital three years ago and before that I was shooting slide film, which has a narrower latitude than even my current JPEG's (on a 5D2).  So two plus decades of shooting slide film taught me how to get exposures spot on and for me I don't need RAW.

Even when I look at examples online, where they show a side by side of a RAW and JPEG, most of them look virtually identical and they are trying to tell me how much better the RAW looks but honestly I do not see it.  The advantages to RAW may be there, but they are blown completely out of proportion.

I agree. Not every photographer needs to always use RAW. Especially on a long journey, which may result in 50,000 images. Imagine when he gets home and look at your computer full of tens of thousands of RAW to process ... For this type of situation, JPEG is more quiet and less tiring.

[captainkanji]

I always shoot RAW+Jpeg.  RAW for archival and the jpegs are for those time when I need to share photos right away.  Most of the time, the jpegs just go into the trash.  I shot a convention once and got lazy and used the jpegs instead of processing the RAWs.  I don't know what I was thinking.  There isn't a camera in existence that can process files better than I can and I'm a noob.  I don't care if it takes me a week to process them, the flexibility of the RAW lets poor photographers, like myself, recover from mistakes in exposure and WB.  I process each file individually instead of syncing in order to practice my LR skills.  It can be a pain though :p  I just don't see the value in spending $2000 for a camera body and then shooting in less than the highest setting.

[Don Haines]

I always shoot RAW+Jpeg.  RAW for archival and the jpegs are for those time when I need to share photos right away.  Most of the time, the jpegs just go into the trash.  I shot a convention once and got lazy and used the jpegs instead of processing the RAWs.  I don't know what I was thinking.  There isn't a camera in existence that can process files better than I can and I'm a noob.  I don't care if it takes me a week to process them, the flexibility of the RAW lets poor photographers, like myself, recover from mistakes in exposure and WB.  I process each file individually instead of syncing in order to practice my LR skills.  It can be a pain though :p  I just don't see the value in spending $2000 for a camera body and then shooting in less than the highest setting.

The number of times that I have shot with the wrong white balance is embarrassing.... I go inside, change it, come back out, and forget to change it back.... RAW to the rescue!!!

My jpg files are more for indexing than anything else, I leave them at small... just enough to give me a thumbnail and if I want to use the photo, I process the RAW.

[miah]

Another idea:
I don't travel with a notebook, I look at my "harvest" at home.
In other words: what about leaving the notebook at home and carry some more CF and/or SD cards?
Mail and social contacts every smartphone could do.

On shorter trips I do just that, but when I'm out for months I need the notebook (an exceedingly diminutive 11-inch MacBook Air) to write and post to the web. I don't carry any sort of phone. Carrying extra CF cards is a good idea, for it would allow me to keep the computer/HDD turned off for a longer period of time. Thanks.

[Rienzphotoz]

It's always nice to read about the (luxury) problems amateur photographers have 

First of all, talking about "weight and bulk" when you are referring to an eos-5d mark III and two not-heavy-at-all zoom lenses!?    ::)Jeezzzzz

And secondly, how many pictures do you take on average per day when traveling 32.000!?!? 

Just download the 'catch of the day' while taking a shower before going to dinner on a 2,5 inch (500-750GB) HD connected to your old and ever so slow Mac and be done with it  ::)Jeeeeezzz

It is always amusing to read about unhelpful amateur responses (like yours) to genuine advice people, like the OP, are seeking.

[tpatana]

The advantages to RAW may be there, but they are blown completely out of proportion.

That one I do agree completely.

For me the big item is increased DR. The other advantages are minor, but I don't mind having them too.

And with computer speed and storing capacity increasing so fast, I find it easy to stay on RAW myself. For some people, I'm sure JPG is just fine.

[Rienzphotoz]

Another idea:
what about leaving the notebook at home and carry some more CF and/or SD cards?

Carrying extra CF cards is a good idea, for it would allow me to keep the computer/HDD turned off for a longer period of time. Thanks.

If the card speed is not that important, you could invest in several 32GB CF (and/or SDHC) cards ... the 40MB/s (and below) cards are quite reasonably priced ... my primary cards are a set of 64GB CF (145MB/s) & SDHC (90MB/s) cards, but I keep several older/slower cards in case I run out of space during long vacations when I don't want to carry my laptop. But if I were in your shoes, I'd just shoot JPEGs

[Sporgon]

The advantages to RAW may be there, but they are blown completely out of proportion.

That one I do agree completely.

For me the big item is increased DR.

This doesn't have to be the case. When shooting joeys you are left with processed information, so beware of the 'picture style' settings, especially contrast. IMO Canon still set the default contrast too high. 'Neutral' and 'Faithful' have a straighter response curve to the other styles, but even within these you will need to reduce contrast setting in light with high contrast. If you are careful with this you won't loose latitude. Also watch out in DPP applying the picture style to the converted raw. It is on by default and hidden away to turn it off.