Today’s Question: This is a question concerning backup while traveling. My camera has two card slots. I’m going on a 2-week trip without a computer and no access to the internet. Besides having the same photos written to both cards, I’m thinking about buying a WD My Passport Wireless Pro for backup. What do you think?
Tim’s Quick Answer: I would recommend taking a look at the GNARBOX 2.0 SSD rugged backup drive (https://bhpho.to/2IjMQOD). This drive enables you do copy photos directly from an SD memory card, offers excellent performance in part because it is an SSD drive rather than a traditional hard drive, and is water, dust, and shock resistant.
More Detail: While the WD My Passport Wireless (https://bhpho.to/3leisDE) provides a possible solution for downloading photos without a computer, I’ve seen an increasing number of negative reviews indicating problems with this device. The primary advantage of the My Passport Wireless over the GNARBOX recommended above is that the My Passport is considerably less expensive.
To be fair, since this device will be used to create a third copy of your photos in addition to the two copies on the cards in the camera, one could argue that you could compromise on the reliability of the hard drive. However, my feeling is that it is best to not compromise when it comes to backing up your photos.
In particular, I feel it is important to have an additional backup when you’re otherwise only using two cards in the camera for both primary and backup storage. If something were to happen to the camera, for example, you could lose all copies of your photos. Therefore, and additional separate backup device makes sense. And when traveling without a computer, that means a storage device that you can download photos to directly without the need for a computer.
The GNARBOX device is not inexpensive, though that is in large part due to employing SSD storage. There are options for 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB, with the 1TB model selling for about US$900. However, the combination of features makes this a storage option that I think is perfectly suited to traveling with a camera but without a computer.
You can learn more about the GNARBOX here: