I wanted to see if there is a cheap storage for SDHC cards I can use as a backup and storage? (under $200?). Wolverine? Jobo? Any first hand tests please.Thanks.
Nexto (seen here:Nexto DI | Nexto Video Storage Device (250GB) | NESV-ND27252554 (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/592215-REG/Nexto_DI_NESV_ND27252554_Nexto_Video_Storage_Device.html) ) is just too much.

get an extra firewire or USB2 drive and when you offload your video to your computer, drag and drop the same files to your extra $150 1 Terrabyte firewire drive and call it good.

That being said....

I was rereading Highdef magazine at today that HBO is moving from 35mm aquisition to 16mm aquisition, convert to HD, then edit, then ouput the final back to 16mm film for safety since they do not trust digital masters for long term storage. The biggest risk to HBO is that film is more stable and reliable for long term than any digital media. Hard drives and tape age and are more likely to be damaged or destroyed by cosmic rays and such, let alone that the hardware to access the info may not even be available in 10 or 20 years. So that being said, pick up 1 or better yet 2 firewire drives and when you offload to your editing station, do it a 2nd & 3rd time to several other drives. Your odds of keeping your footage for 5 years increases... If it's REALLY important footage, move a drive from the office to the house. I've known $200,000 drives to go up in smoke in a 5 drive RAID electrical fire. Saw that last year. Business insurance generally doesn't cover anything more than the hardware replacement. He was lucky.. $10,000 recovery charge from a company on the east coast got him 95% of his data back.... it also took a month or so....

So yes, everyone should have a good backup to a backup plan.. and preferably not in the same location.

Alex, laptop at 14 000 feet is not an option. With the camera, tripod, sound gear and climbing gear (plus food and fuel for 3 days) carrying 15" MacBook is not really what I want to do. Hence my question which of the small devices would work.

Pelican makes a nice storage device. It is water tight and small. Holds 8 cards. Should let the cards make it back in one piece. I hope that is what you mean by storage. I have one of the Pelican cases and it is about the size of my hand.

Calvin, what I mean by storage is a HDD-like device. Photographers use them for years to upload photos onto these drives and then they are transferred onto a computer when possible. A lot of companies make them: Wolverine, Jobo and such. There is a unit made by Nexto (Nexto DI | Nexto Video Storage Device (250GB) | NESV-ND27252554 (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/592215-REG/Nexto_DI_NESV_ND27252554_Nexto_Video_Storage_Device.html)), but it costs too much. Nexto is a backup for SxS XDCAM. I am recording in .mov, but i wanted to see if anyone managed to back up cards in the field using one of those gizmos. Their advantage is, that they weigh only a few ounces.

Alex, laptop at 14 000 feet is not an option. With the camera, tripod, sound gear and climbing gear (plus food and fuel for 3 days) carrying 15" MacBook is not really what I want to do. Hence my question which of the small devices would work.

ahhh.... I see... never mind... I'll troll for a while and see if I come up with something.

well there is this from BH at $99. you probably saw it.. it's smaller 80gig but does SD-HC cards

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/367690-REG/Wolverine_7080_80GB_FlashPac_7000_7_in_1.html

Yes, I saw this one. I wanted to see if it will transfer .mov onto it. Most of them will download jpeg and RAW, but not sure on .mov video files. I guess I'll just have to buy 10 hours worth of SDHC cards, as it will be almost the same cost at the end.

probably safer and more reliable anyway.

Yes, I saw this one. I wanted to see if it will transfer .mov onto it. Most of them will download jpeg and RAW, but not sure on .mov video files. I guess I'll just have to buy 10 hours worth of SDHC cards, as it will be almost the same cost at the end.

Robert,

I now understand your inquiry on the other thread. I would strongly recommend buying more SDHC cards then you think you are going to need. At about US $30 for the 16 Gig Transcend Class 6 cards, you can always return any that are unopened/unused.

During my 4 week project in Africa, I had access to my MacBook Pro everyday and took along eight 500 GB WD Passport USB powered drives (filled 3 and then backed everything up on another 3 before erasing any cards), and I can tell you that I was glad I had all those SDHC cards available when I was busy shooting non-stop and didn't have time to download anything for a couple of days.

And the only reason one of my cards failed was that I forgot it was in my pocket when I went swimming in a chlorinated pool.

And the only reason one of my cards failed was that I forgot it was in my pocket when I went swimming in a chlorinated pool.

One of the problems we never faced when shooting 3/4" U-Matic...

I too support the "more cards the better" philosophy. Even if you do get something to offload cards to, I wouldn't shoot over "shot" cards, at least until you get back to base and back everything up to hard drive in the edit bay.