#PORTABLE HARD DRIVE FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS FULL#
#PORTABLE HARD DRIVE FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS PORTABLE#

This makes HDDs much more fragile, but it doesn’t mean SSDs are infallible – I’ve experienced SSD failures myself.

Hard disks have a fragile spinning disk platter in them and other moving mechanical parts, whereas solid state drives are essentially just chips and circuit boards. It’s actually cheaper than many standard non-rugged drive solutions. This drive has military-grade shock resistance and a drive suspension system, as well as using the latest USB-C interface. The Transcend StoreJet MC25 1TB is currently available for $62 from B&H Photo. That’s a $35 difference in price, and the LaCie drive actually has the much newer USB-C connection type which will be more practical in the long run.Ī $35 step up in price to better protect 2 terabytes of photos?! Yeah, you bet I’m going to take that every time! A trip to my local Chinese takeout would cost me more than $35, so this is definitely a cost that can be factored into people’s budgets if they plan their photo storage costs out correctly.Įxample 3.

#PORTABLE HARD DRIVE FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS PORTABLE#

A portable 2TB LaCie Rugged USB-C drive is currently selling for $110 at B&H Photo. A portable 2TB Seagate USB drive is currently selling for $75 at B&H Photo. Most would find they can fit twice that number of photos.Įxample 2. Based on average file size of 35mb, which is actually very generous. That’s only a $24 difference!įor an additional $24, you can give yourself some extra protection for about 25,000 photos. A rugged portable 1TB 7200rpm G-Technology USB-3 drive is selling for $89. A portable 1TB 7200rpm G-Technology USB3 drive is selling for $65 form B&H at the moment. So, remember, it’s the differential we’re interested in.Įxample 1. These prices are correct at the time of publishing, but depending on when you’re reading this they might not be. The differential hasn’t changed all that much over the years, but drive pricing itself has. What I want you to focus on here is the price difference, not the actual price. To demonstrate this I thought we should look at some example pricing that was gathered at the time of writing this article. With a few exceptions these can be a little more expensive than basic portable drives, but that doesn’t mean they are unattainable – far from it. SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD – Highly Recommended If you don’t have time to read the in-depth guide then these links might save you some time. I didn’t choose these products blindly, so if it made it as far as being included in this gear guide at all then it has already shown some merit. This table shows you the list of products that I’m going to be reviewing further in this guide. The new USB-C version comes with both USB-C and USB-A cables so it’ll work with old and new laptops. I have been using LaCie’s Rugged drives professionally for over a decade and never had a single failure. If you’re in a hurry and need a quick solution, you can’t go wrong with the LaCie Rugged USB-C drive. There’s really no excuse not to be giving your photos more protection! In a Hurry? In fact, if budget is a huge concern to you, there’s a couple of rugged drives in this guide that are no more expensive than most standard drives. One of these drives can store hundreds of thousands of photos but the additional cost to move up to a rugged drive like these one, from a more standard one, is usually only a tiny fraction of the cost of your camera. Rugged drives are always a little bit more expensive than regular drives, but to me the small added cost is well worth it when you consider both the cost of the equipment you are shooting with, and also the value of the images that the drive will be storing. ( read about my current photography backup routine here) That choice to go with a rugged style of drive back then was a very conscious decision, and it’s one I have never looked back from. When I first started taking photography more seriously back in the early 2000s, my very first portable hard drive was a LaCie Rugged drive. In this article I’m going to explain why I think all photographers should be using rugged drives when they travel, discussing the choice between SSD and HDD and making my recommendations for the best rugged hard drives on the market for photographers in 2018… so far. Most major drive manufacturers offer some type of ruggedized drive and some, like LaCie and G-Technology, offer a huge range of them.

#PORTABLE HARD DRIVE FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS FULL#

A “rugged” drive is one that has been designed to withstand bumps and drops, as well as offering at least some protection from water, whether it be basic splash resistance or full on submersion.

Portable hard drive for photographers