How awesome would it be if you could use the USB C port for backups with a USB stick or hard drive?

Felix

Greetings from Germany
Nov 9, 2021
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You could do that with the 1Ds III. It really didn't work well and wasn't practical, also the attached drive becomes a liability.
In 2007? Wow! Nowadays with USB C and fast storage I would find it interesting, especially since the FTP connection to my NAS is significantly slower and may use up data volume
 
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Felix

Greetings from Germany
Nov 9, 2021
40
18
I’m just happy I can use it for charging the battery. Means I don’t have to bring the R3 double battery charger, or any dedicated charger since I can just use the AC adapter for my MacBook Pro.
This is a great feature on the go! I think it's a pity, at least with the R5/6, that you can no longer charge the batteries in the batter grip yourself like you can with the R and you always have to let the charge run through the camera. I also always take the power plug from my 16" MBP, how many watts do you actually need at least to charge it? I'm considering buying a smaller charger for on the go. Especially if I only have the ipad pro with me…
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
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Aug 16, 2012
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This is a great feature on the go! I think it's a pity, at least with the R5/6, that you can no longer charge the batteries in the batter grip yourself like you can with the R and you always have to let the charge run through the camera. I also always take the power plug from my 16" MBP, how many watts do you actually need at least to charge it? I'm considering buying a smaller charger for on the go. Especially if I only have the ipad pro with me…
If you are taking your iPad Pro with you, you can download to that and transfer from there to an SSD.
 
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Felix

Greetings from Germany
Nov 9, 2021
40
18
If you are taking your iPad Pro with you, you can download to that and transfer from there to an SSD.
I don't like the solution because I always need a USB C hub for SSD and SD card. Most of the time I only use the upload to my Synology NAS with the DS files app, but I also find the solution unsatisfactory. There are hard drives like the LaCie BOSS, but I find the solution at >500€ too expensive. Of course I can also use the FTP upload, but this is too slow for me when I'm on the go directly from the camera. Plug and play with an ssd from the camera with around 250mb/s would be perfect. It is just a simple software feature and would not require any additional hardware (in camera).
 
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Jul 21, 2010
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It is just a simple software feature and would not require any additional hardware (in camera).
Are you sure about that? I believe there are different USB-C control chips for data, power, or data + power. Certainly there are different cable standards, because the charge cable that comes with Macs doesn’t carry data.

If a power-only controller is a lower cost component (and it probably is), it’s likely that’s what Canon uses in these cameras.
 
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Felix

Greetings from Germany
Nov 9, 2021
40
18
Are you sure about that? I believe there are different USB-C control chips for data, power, or data + power. Certainly there are different cable standards, because the charge cable that comes with Macs doesn’t carry data.

If a power-only controller is a lower cost component (and it probably is), it’s likely that’s what Canon uses in these cameras.
As a computer science student with dangerous half-knowledge, I would only see the problem with different file systems. The USB C ports on all EOS R System cameras support internal card sharing. To transfer a few photos, I usually plug the USB C cable directly into the camera without removing the SD card. You can also connect the camera to the computer via USB C and use it as a webcam for zoom (EOS Webcam Utility).

The 2 meter cable from my 16" MBP also supports data transfer to my SSD. The only problem with the USB C cables is that you can't tell straight away whether it's USB 2.0 or USB 3.x or USB 4
 
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Jul 21, 2010
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As a computer science student with dangerous half-knowledge, I would only see the problem with different file systems. The USB C ports on all EOS R System cameras support internal card sharing. To transfer a few photos, I usually plug the USB C cable directly into the camera without removing the SD card. You can also connect the camera to the computer via USB C and use it as a webcam for zoom (EOS Webcam Utility).

The 2 meter cable from my 16" MBP also supports data transfer to my SSD. The only problem with the USB C cables is that you can't tell straight away whether it's USB 2.0 or USB 3.x or USB 4
Thanks, makes sense.

I did misspeak about the Apple charge cable – it does support data (at relatively low speeds) but not video.
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
CR Pro
Aug 16, 2012
12,342
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I don't like the solution because I always need a USB C hub for SSD and SD card. Most of the time I only use the upload to my Synology NAS with the DS files app, but I also find the solution unsatisfactory. There are hard drives like the LaCie BOSS, but I find the solution at >500€ too expensive. Of course I can also use the FTP upload, but this is too slow for me when I'm on the go directly from the camera. Plug and play with an ssd from the camera with around 250mb/s would be perfect. It is just a simple software feature and would not require any additional hardware (in camera).
You are a computer science student so you will know a lot more than me. This is how it works for me on the iPad without using a USB-C hub but just the camera , its cable and an SSD drive.
1. Connect the R-series camera to the iPad with the Canon-provided USB-C cable.
2. Download to Photos.
3. Share the photos to a folder in Files.
4. Plug in SSD to iPad with the USB-C cable
5. Select folder in Files and Move to SSD.
Either keep or delete images from iPad.

I agree that plugging in the SSD directly to the camera would be better. But, a small iPad that you have anyway is useful,
 
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Felix

Greetings from Germany
Nov 9, 2021
40
18
You are a computer science student so you will know a lot more than me. This is how it works for me on the iPad without using a USB-C hub but just the camera , its cable and an SSD drive.
1. Connect the R-series camera to the iPad with the Canon-provided USB-C cable.
2. Download to Photos.
3. Share the photos to a folder in Files.
4. Plug in SSD to iPad with the USB-C cable
5. Select folder in Files and Move to SSD.
Either keep or delete images from iPad.

I agree that plugging in the SSD directly to the camera would be better. But, a small iPad that you have anyway is useful,
Yes but I only have 128GB of which I only have 18GB available so anything else would be cumbersome :)
 
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As a computer science student with dangerous half-knowledge, I would only see the problem with different file systems. The USB C ports on all EOS R System cameras support internal card sharing. To transfer a few photos, I usually plug the USB C cable directly into the camera without removing the SD card. You can also connect the camera to the computer via USB C and use it as a webcam for zoom
Unfortunately, the USB-C port of the R3 does not support USB On-The-Go (USB-OTG), a standard that is merely 20 years old, but as far as I can tell mostly used in phones.

It's been a long while since I looked into USB Host & Peripheral design, but at least at that time, you needed some hardware support to do OTG.
 
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Felix

Greetings from Germany
Nov 9, 2021
40
18
Unfortunately, the USB-C port of the R3 does not support USB On-The-Go (USB-OTG), a standard that is merely 20 years old, but as far as I can tell mostly used in phones.

It's been a long while since I looked into USB Host & Peripheral design, but at least at that time, you needed some hardware support to do OTG.
GnarBox and LaCie BOSS is too expensive for only 500GB
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
CR Pro
Aug 16, 2012
12,342
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Wait a minute, how is that possible? Buying a cheap large (slow) SD card would also be an option as a backup on the go
Dead easy: Go to the blue menu (the play sign one, 3rd along), page 1 bottom Copy Image. It will give the instructions for copy from card 1 to card 2.
Glad the the suggestion was helpful.

I had thought over all of these possibilities before the trip of a lifetime to the Galapagos. It was lucky I did have a back-up as my laptop failed to recognise my camera or card reader. But, I had taken an iPad and downloaded to that and was able to connect my iPad to my MacBook.
 
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Felix

Greetings from Germany
Nov 9, 2021
40
18
Dead easy: Go to the blue menu (the play sign one, 3rd along), page 1 bottom Copy Image. It will give the instructions for copy from card 1 to card 2.
Glad the the suggestion was helpful.

I had thought over all of these possibilities before the trip of a lifetime to the Galapagos. It was lucky I did have a back-up as my laptop failed to recognise my camera or card reader. But, I had taken an iPad and downloaded to that and was able to connect my iPad to my MacBook.
Thank you very much! I've never used the blue play menu. I have now ordered a (cheap) SanDisk Extreme PRO 512 GB memory card 170 mb/s, UHS-1 and then used it for backups and leave the card at the hotel in case my camera should be stolen or something else.
 
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