Canon 30D ordered - need a little advice

[AZLarryB]

Well, my wife is getting me a 30D for Christmas. As a background. I've used Canon film SLR's for the past 25 years - AE-1 and then A2E (a camera I love). I have 2 Olympus digital cameras - D600-L and C3030. I chose the 30D over the XTi because (1) I prefer the familiar body size of the 30D and (2) I prefer the magnesium body of the 30D. My film SLRs have travelled to the bottom of the Grand Canyon countless times, spent a week on the carrier USS Constellation, been to the Great Wall, and many other rugged places, and they've proved to be equally rugged bodies.

I need some advice on a couple of things for the 30D.

For my A2E I have the vertical grip attachment and the 60-T3 remote shutter release. Although the VG makes for a large heavy body, I like being able to turn the camera from horizontal to vertical shooting and still use the same hand position for the controls. I use the remote release when shooting tripod shots. Also, when I get my film processed I order the 'photo CD" option, so thats effectively my way of 'digitally storing' my pics.

I'm guessing I'll eventully want the 30D equivalent of the grip (now called a battery grip) and the N3 remote release. Do any of you Canon digital shooters out there use either of these accesories? Any feedback?

Do most people transfer pics straight from the camera or use a CF reader? I think the 30D is USB1 and I figure I can get a USB2 CF reader. ?????

Here's the options I have for storing my 30D photos:

• local hard drive (250GB0
• new external hard drive (160GB)
• Dual layer DVD burner
• CD/DVD burner

I'm thinking about dedicating the external 160GB hard drive to photo only storage. I'm a little nervous about this option because I had a local hard drive crash last year and lost some of my Olymous photos. Any feedback?

A lot of people put their pics out there online - something I haven't spent too much time researching. Where to start on this?

I usually lurk in the digicam posts, so I know there are some pretty knowledgable Canon digital people here in NAM... So any advice on my questions in this post would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Larry

[jwardell]

Congrats on the 30D and welcome to digital...you won't regret it!

The storage factor is probably the biggest adjustment, and it helps if you think it through and adopt a system before you put your eggs in the wrong basket.

Websites disappear, hard drives die, etc; the best advice is to store them in at least two places (and perhaps physically as well in case of fire). It's nice not to have boxes of film and prints to physically take up space, but don't be lazy and store them on your hard drive, only to lose your photos when it dies in a few years.
Personally I have a large external drive where I keep my photos and other media (music etc). I also have a real web host for my web pages with enough space to echo my entire library (surprisingly less than $5 a month) which I upload to whenever I take (or to be more accurate, edit) new photos. Not only does this serve as a second location for backup, but I can access my library from anywhere. (see joshwardell.com/pics)
Additionally once every several months I back up my whole photo library onto a DVD.
I reserve the photo hosting service as more of a place to put my better or more interesting shots. I like Flickr because it's not just a place for storage, but brings in the community aspect with comments and exploring and just does a great job. Though I pay for a pro account I only upload a few photos a month (just my better ones) so I probably could get away with a free one.

I don't have a battery grip but I think you have your own reasoning to get one already.
The remote release is something I always need for taking long exposure shots and don't want to move the camera or wait for the timer. The only downside is the D30 uses the N3 type which for some reason charges an arm and a leg for ($70-100). The Rebels use the other type which, despite being the same thing with a different connector, costs only $15-25. And now that you mention it I still have my N3 release, forgot to sell that with my D60...

[speednut]

Vertical grip and shutter release cable are great accessories and are critical to me, so even though you seem already convinced. Haven't used the Canon models, so I'll keep quiet and let others pipe in.

Skip loading images from your camera directly to your computer. Pick up a $10 12in1 card reader and save yourself time and camera batteries. No name brands have worked fine for me and friends (they all use the same chipsets).

Yup, drives will fail and you're right to be thinking about this now. Personally, cards get dumped into my laptop, sorted, then dumped onto a NAS 4 drive RAID device. The NAS has had drive failures and when it does, it sends me an email and text page as to which drive has issues, then powers itself down. I've survived several drive failures successfully this way. This is however overkill for most. I just make the most out of my geekyness.

I also periodically backup my images folder on the NAS to an external hard drive via robocopy mirror option which is very fast. The external hard drive then gets locked up into my safe. Other options for off site storage is a safe deposit box or simply a locked drawer in your office at work or even a buddy's house. I shoot primarily RAW photos, so online options are not able to support me at a reasonable price (I'm currently at ~180GB).

Another great option you mentioned is to archive off site using DVD media. However, I've actually had media fail on me before, so you may want to consider some of the gold DVD media which has much better guarantees on longevity. (Delkin, Kodak, and Memorex)

In a nutshell, as jwardell said, have at least two good places where your images are stored and you'll be set.

Enjoy your new camera and please show us your photos.

[chows4us]

I agree with the others. We have so many photos ...

I actually went back into all the photo ablums and scanned in the best just to get rid of a ton of books only to find I still have a ton of books!

I agree, use a card reader.

I too bought an external drive. However, I got so many photos, some irreplacable scans of old B&W photos, that organizing them is a nightmare. So I bought Adobe Ablum just to have a way to bring up subsets of what I want to see. For example, I got scans and pics of old cars or old vacations. So if I want to see my 1980 Mustang, I can just click on 1980 mustang an all those Mustang pics are shown. Pretty cool. Took DAYs, litterally days to tag all those pics.

Backup is on DVD but all my wife pics she also burns to CD, then I move them over to the external hard drive and backed up again.

However, I got to do another baseline burn on DVD using the files themselves rather than through Adobe.

I would have to say organizing the pictures are the hardest thing of all.

Best of luck!