No matter how careful you are in your career if you shoot long enough eventually you will experience the cold sweat and fear of losing images on a compact flash card. Anytime you go through that it should cause you to immediately examine your workflow for holes that could allow for the loss of your digital images.
Such a thing happened to me a few weeks ago. Luckily everything worked out in the end but those are some scary moments when you are trying to figure out where all of those precious images could be.
At our studio we are as careful as possible with any card that goes through a camera. We have a strict order to how cards are prepared for sessions, used, stored, downloaded, and backed-up following a shoot. No system is perfect, however, and requires constant re-evaluation to make sure it's effective in protecting your digital assets.
In our particular workflow I recognized a need to have a copy of our cards made on-site immediately following a session. That's where the latest device to enter our workflow came in: the Nexto DI eXtreme card backup device.
The very same day we hard our own little scare I jumped online and 2-day aired this puppy. We've been using it religiously the last several weeks and have it permanently cemented in our shooting routine.
At it's core the Nexto is basically a card reader connected to a portable laptop hard drive. It's only purpose is to make identical copies of cards as they leave the camera and store them on the hard drive. That way before we even leave our shoot we have 2 copies of our files. It allows for very quick transfer of RAW files from our cameras, and our video guys are even using it to backup the video files from their 5D Mark II and 7D cameras along with the audio files from field audio recorders. Besides copying the files blindly, the unit also checks the integrity of the files and notifies you immediately if a file is faulty or damaged. I can't imagine having better insurance than to know everything is copacetic before leaving a big shoot. If you know something is wrong before you leave, at least you have an opportunity to salvage the shoot.
If you're not afraid to live a little dangerously, I recommend buying the cheapest model available with the 250GB capacity hard drive. You can easily replace the hard drive yourself, but you will void the warranty as soon as you remove the stickers to get to the screws. The manufacturer doesn't even offer a 750GB option, but I was able to add a drive of that size myself for only $120. That should allow us to backup around 6 weeks of sessions before clearing the older sessions off for additional space. During the editing process in our workflow at any given time we have at least 3 copies of the original image files for safe-keeping. During the first week following a shoot we will have 5 copies of the image files. I know it seems a bit paranoid, but our livelihood depends on the images we capture so you can never be too safe. Here's the breakdown of the locations:
1.) Original card from camera - after a non-wedding session the cards sit unused for around 2 or 3 days before being reinserted into the lineup for formatting and reuse.
2.) As soon as the card is removed from the camera it goes into the Nexto to create a duplicate of the card
3.) After returning to the studio each photographer downloads the card onto their laptop for editing. Using Adobe Bridge or Lightroom to import the files, it simultaneously writes a copy to an external hard drive dedicated to card backups. Each photographer has their own hard drive that is used only for this purpose.
4.) Each machine uses the built-in Time Machine backup feature of Mac OS X to create another backup of the images.
All of the information you might be looking for is available here on the manufacturers website.
I'm not going to do a full breakdown and review of this thing, but I will hit the highlights. I'm a working professional in a busy studio and this is what matters to me:
- It has one button and is idiot-proof so that anyone in the studio can instantly pick it up and know how to use it. It has a setting for Autocopy, so all you have to do is put the card in, turn on the device, and it will automatically backup the card and alert you when it's completed successfully and warn you of any problems.
- I've run dozens and dozens of cards through it and have not had a single error.
- It has a rechargeable high-capactiy lithium ion battery. We leave it on the charger before leaving for a session and it has never even shown a drop from full charge in use yet. I copied roughly 40GB of files from a wedding Saturday and it still showed full bars on the power meter.
- It's fast. It's even faster than downloading straight to my MacBook Pro with a Lexar card reader.
- It just works. Plain and simple.
Here's my 2 cents. This thing sells for $267 from B&H. If it stops you from screwing up JUST ONE CARD in the course of a year's shooting it's MORE than paid for itself. Can you imagine telling a bride you accidentally lost or formatted a card from her wedding? I can't. This thing can't guarantee you'll never screw up but I'm definitely going to sleep better knowing I've always got an extra copy of my images.
