Travel: Houston we have multiple problems

[dancebert]

Between flying, mountaineering and software development I've developed the habit of having a Plan B if the failure of Plan A had substantial consequences. Here are my Plan Bs, what are yours?

I'm in the fourth week of a 6 week trip. In the last 3 days:
- Dropped my EM10. it kept working but the battery can not be removed. Plan B is *arrgh* my cellphone.
- Netbook battery or charger is dead. Plan B was download all travel notes and docs to phone from cloud storage. Can't open big PDFs, otherwise nothing lost.
- Before netbook lost charge, tried to upload to cloud the 3-star raws. Believe it or not, the external hard drive was dead. Plan B is once home, remove HD from netbook, upload to PC.

I'll be in a larger town this afternoon. No camera repair shops but I should be able to get a new netbook charger if needed.

For future trips I need some new Plan Bs. I'll bring my P&S and SD cards for an additional back up of my favorites.

 

[Jfrader]

My camera plan B is my PM2, which usually stays in a side pocket of my backpack. If the M5 goes down, I still have a body that can use all the lenses.

My netbook has never gone down (fingers crossed) but I take a tiny portable HDD and back up all images to it every night. That way, if the n/b dies, I still have them. As for chargers, I seem to lose them a lot, at least the cords. My Kindle cord has gone missing several times but I have identified which Apple cord will fit it and can usually find a shop. I usually have 2 chargers as well since the after-market batteries come with a small, cordless charger that I like a lot better than the corded one Olympus provides. As for failed batteries and cards, I take 3 batteries for each camera on international trips and a minimum of 10x cards. If all else fails, I can use the cards themselves for back up.

 

[ijm5012]

I would definitely recommend getting some kinda of small, capable P&S just because IQ will be far superior to cell phone pics. A few worth candidates would be:

• Canon S110 or S120.
• Canon G15 or G16. Same sensor as S110/120, but brighter aperture lens and telephoto end can help with low light IQ
• Canon G7X / Sony RX100 Mk.III. 1" P&S cameras. The Canon has better range, while the Sony delivers slightly better IQ.

 

[TwoWheels]

I would suggest a GM1 as a backup body. It's as small or smaller than the P&S candidates (smaller than my G15) but still allows you to use any lenses you have along for your EM10. It also has better image quality (low light, high contrast, etc.) than the smaller sensor cameras.

 

[Deleted member 20897]

I'd get a used EM5 or another EM10 as a backup. I don't worry too much about copying images off memory cards, just have plenty of them. If I do want to share, I can always use my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.

 

[tkbslc]

What do you mean you can't remove the battery? Is the door stuck? The battery jammed? Battery swollen? What exactly is the issue.

 

[tyrphoto]

I always carry multiple cameras with my on a daily basis. Not necessarily as backup cameras but I prefer shooting with multiple cameras with different focal lengths. It's faster and easier but also each camera has it's pros and cons. Worst case scenario, if all my cameras failed would be my iPhone 6+, which I'd have no problems shooting with and sometimes I actually choose to shoot with it regardless.

When I travel, I have either my MacBook Air and/or iPad with me to dump photos on. Also, although I carry my chargers and multiple batteries with me on trips, I also have 2 USB battery bricks (10kmAh & 15kmAh) that can charge my iPad, iPhone or my Fuji X100T if need be.

My advice would be to always have a second body, even if it's a small fixed lens compact. Accidents, camera failures, theft, etc... happens. Be prepared.

 

[budeny]

I always print out my travel plans, guides, itineraries, etc.
GM1 is great as backup body - small, versatile, and quite cheap after GM5 release.
Stocking up on SD cards is still cheaper than any standalone storage solutions.

 

[Holoholo55]

On backup: I don't want to take a laptop on travel with me, usually only take my iPad mini. However, I've tried a couple of times to use a Kingston Mobilelite Wireless for backup. That device enables you to copy files from an SD card to a USB drive. It works great at home. But, when trying to use it on a couple of trips, I can't get it to work consistently. Can make it work at one hotel, but not another. Dunno whether it's WiFi interference or what, but at some point, I just can't get it to copy files consistently enough to depend on it. After a while I just give up. In the end, it pays to take enough extra memory cards and guard them like the family jewels.

If there was a SD card reader/Lightning/USB pass through device that would plug in to my iPad and mediate the copying of files from an SD card to a USB flash drive, that would be perfect. I've had it with trying to mediate file transfers via WiFi. Yes, I could transfer files from my EM1 to my iPad with WiFi, but still need more space to back them up than my iPad can provide. And, backing them up to the cloud is not a good solution. WiFi is just too spotty and way too slow most of the time. :-(

 

[dancebert]

What do you mean you can't remove the battery? Is the door stuck? The battery jammed? Battery swollen? What exactly is the issue.

The camera body is deformed. Seems the no longer parallel sides of the compartment have a firm friction grip on the battery, but I can't tell because the spring loaded latch that holds the battery in is now immovable, at least by my hand strength.

 

[Jfrader]

Can you borrow a pair of needle nosed pliers?

On second thought, if the camera is still in warranty, that might not be such a good idea.

 

[brettmaxwell]

If there was a SD card reader/Lightning/USB pass through device that would plug in to my iPad and mediate the copying of files from an SD card to a USB flash drive, that would be perfect. I've had it with trying to mediate file transfers via WiFi. Yes, I could transfer files from my EM1 to my iPad with WiFi, but still need more space to back them up than my iPad can provide. And, backing them up to the cloud is not a good solution. WiFi is just too spotty and way too slow most of the time. :-(

This drive: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1330
You can dump your SD card with the built in slot, and navigate the photos with phone or tablet using wifi. Best of both worlds, and $200 really isn't bad for a 2TB drive with all those features.

 

[budeny]

You can get some Android tablet for under $100 with dual USB/microUSB and transfer files from SD to thumbdrive.

 

[ac12]

EM1 is my primary travel camera.
I've been contemplating as my 2nd/backup: another EM1, EM10 (smaller and lighter), or a P&S.
One problem is the better P&S are as expensive as an EM10.

 

[Holoholo55]

This drive: My Passport Wireless Pro - Portable Hard Drive | Western Digital (WD)
You can dump your SD card with the built in slot, and navigate the photos with phone or tablet using wifi. Best of both worlds, and $200 really isn't bad for a 2TB drive with all those features.

Thanks, I bought one a while ago when Amazon had a sale on the 2 Tb version. So far (not yet travel tested), it works well. Far better than earlier approaches I tried. The main thing is that transfers from the SD card to the drive do not need to be mediated by an app that depended on WiFi communication. To me, that was the main weakness of the other system I tried.

 

[Holoholo55]

EM1 is my primary travel camera.
I've been contemplating as my 2nd/backup: another EM1, EM10 (smaller and lighter), or a P&S.
One problem is the better P&S are as expensive as an EM10.

You can get a used EM1 pretty cheaply nowadays. One advantage - it would use the same battery as your present EM1. OTOH, the EM10 II can be obtained inexpensively and would be a nice, smaller 2nd body, but it has a different battery.