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I know that you say that you don't want to take a laptop. But if you would be carrying a tablet and and hard drive anyhow then you might just as well take an 11 inch Macbook Air. It's going to be a much less squirly solution and it will be slim and light enough such that it will probably end up taking up less room slipped in your carry-on bag. And an extra USB3 drive will fit in your shirt pocket.

Plus you can also use it to run Lightroom or Photo Mechanic if you suddenly find that you need to keyword and upload something along the way.

ETA: and when you have finished with it in a couple of years the Macbook will have retained much more of its value than anything else you could get.

Totally agree.

If you really wan't a tablet, you could use a Surface Pro. It has USB ports etc. and is under the hood actually a laptop (just without the keyboard)

If you really wan't a tablet, you could use a Surface Pro. It has USB ports etc. and is under the hood actually a laptop (just without the keyboard)

It might be a great product but the Surface Pro has failed in the market. On the up side you can now get one much cheaper than previously because Microsoft have slashed the price. On the down side it will quickly lose any resale value.

In 2 years time you will almost certainly be able to trade in your MacBook Air for more than half what it costs you to buy it tomorrow. That has certainly been the pattern on eBay over the past decade.

Android is great too but the devices also quickly lose their resale value.

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netbooks : yeah, i see new ones for less than 300$ and they beat tables hands down in any department in my opinion, they're a pc, you can do everything, but the keyboards are way too small for me.

looked at thumb drives before but I must have missed the one I'm seeing now, 128gb for $50.  Four of those might work.

Thumb drives typically have incredibly slow data transfer rates. Be sure to test it for practicality first - see how long it takes you to copy a typical day's worth of pictures to one.

Don't forget to report back with your solution and on how it goes

i find it too dangerous to back up photos while on the road, so i tend to sit on the side of the road - otherwise you get that 'run down' feeling and get 'tired' easily

i am on the road a lot, six months or more per year and what works best for me is a net book and one external hard drive, that way i have two back ups.

This is a cheap device but I'm not sure if it would be good for transferring raw files from a card to a USB stick?
http://www.ravpower.com/ravpower-rp-wd01-filehub-3000mah-power-bank.html

Edit:  Found a review of the Verbatim 98243 MediaShare Wireless.  Looks like the same product and looks like it can be used to transfer raw files from an SD card to a USB stick.

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Quote from: sharpshot on October 05, 2013, 02:11

This is a cheap device but I'm not sure if it would be good for transferring raw files from a card to a USB stick?
http://www.ravpower.com/ravpower-rp-wd01-filehub-3000mah-power-bank.html

Edit:  Found a review of the Verbatim 98243 MediaShare Wireless.  Looks like the same product and looks like it can be used to transfer raw files from an SD card to a USB stick.

I've seen the wireless hard drives but there isn't much information on how they will work for my purposes.  Most people use them to stream movies or music and not for downloading data, I've seen people say you really need to hook it up to a computer to move data onto it.  Since they are powered I wonder if they will work connected to a tablet that normally wouldn't be able to power a hd?

I saw in the reviews that some people were using it to transfer files.  One said in the field but that should be quite similar to on the road
Here's the quote
"I need to be able to back up critical data 'in the field' where there may be no power or mobile signal. It could be many files of typically 25 - 30 Mb at a pop. This does it !"
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Verbatim-98243-MediaShare-Wireless/dp/B00CZ0P0PS
Those file sizes seem similar to raw file sizes.  I ordered one but it will take about a week to get it.  I'll report here if it works.

Why not just carry a lot of SD cards? They are pretty cheap these days.

This is going to sound odd, but a friend does this. (I can't because at the races I might shoot a few cards full a day)

Buy numerous cheap SD cards and don't transfer anything, just take the full cards home.

Done and it's cheaper than you think. Don't need a tablet or laptop and it's light and small.

8GB cards, $1 a Gigabyte, how's that for cheap? You run out? You buy another card... This is the ultimate cheap way to carry your photos. No batteries, no computer, nothing, and pretty darn secure.

SanDisk 16 GB Class 4 SDHC $11 !

What he does is even stranger. Copies the files to hard drive and files the original cards. I'm still using CF memory so it's a bit more expensive and I run 500 and up GB a year in photos, no video, just still pictures. But if I had all cameras that used SD, I'd start buying cheap 16GB cards and stop using electronic or hard drive as primary backup. Original cards as backup, electronic as working files.

Why not just carry a lot of SD cards? They are pretty cheap these days.

Yup, that's the way I see it now.

ps I have an ASUS netbook for travel, built in card reader. Portable USB hard drive. I'm considering next trip, no hard drive, just buy a card wallet.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on October 08, 2013, 12:41

This is going to sound odd, but a friend does this. (I can't because at the races I might shoot a few cards full a day)

Buy numerous cheap SD cards and don't transfer anything, just take the full cards home.

Done and it's cheaper than you think. Don't need a tablet or laptop and it's light and small.

8GB cards, $1 a Gigabyte, how's that for cheap? You run out? You buy another card... This is the ultimate cheap way to carry your photos. No batteries, no computer, nothing, and pretty darn secure.

SanDisk 16 GB Class 4 SDHC $11 !

What he does is even stranger. Copies the files to hard drive and files the original cards. I'm still using CF memory so it's a bit more expensive and I run 500 and up GB a year in photos, no video, just still pictures. But if I had all cameras that used SD, I'd start buying cheap 16GB cards and stop using electronic or hard drive as primary backup. Original cards as backup, electronic as working files.

Quote from: Freedom on October 05, 2013, 13:52

Why not just carry a lot of SD cards? They are pretty cheap these days.

Yup, that's the way I see it now.

ps I have an ASUS netbook for travel, built in card reader. Portable USB hard drive. I'm considering next trip, no hard drive, just buy a card wallet.

SD cards still need to be backed up so I'd still need a tablet or laptop.  Costs for 1TB worth of SD cards would be around $750 compared to $100 for 2 500gb hard drives.  For $100 I would only be able to back up 64gb with SD cards.  Also carrying 30 SD cards doesn't seem very practical either.

Why ask the question when you already know the answer? Every suggestion, by well-meaning contributors, you have immediately dismissed. Were you expecting a new technology to be invented especially for your particular needs or what?