13 inch Mac Book Air question

[Patsy]

My hobby of the day is photography and editing. I've tried a lot but am currently using ACDSee 14 and Elements 10. We're finally traveling and although I don't need a laptop since I use my IPad I'm thinking of getting the Mac Book air just so I can load my favorite editing programs and be able to play while on vacation. As I understand it the 13 inch is the only Air book to have a card slot.

Is there something about this that doesn't make sense?

[Yves Lombard]

The 13" have a SD card slot, quick and easy. But both (11",13") have a USB 2 port, you can buy a cheap R150 card reader to download your photos or just plug in your usb cable direct from the camera.

[Roberto]

Personally I wouldn't use the MBA 13" for editing as its a tad small. For downloading and viewing as a mobile storage device, yes. I use the Acer Aspire 1 13" for this. Could never edit with it.

[Leo Theron]

Patsy

MBA, iPAD or whatever you will use for storage on your trip…

What about the backup of the once in a lifetime images? What is your plan?

- You will download onto the iPAD/MBA

- You format the cards, continue shooting.

- Where is the backup? What is the plan? How foolproof is it.

What happens if your iPAD is dropped - splintered into pieces? Stolen? Spare cards go missing?

You have to think about additional storage, safeguarding, backup, etc, etc, etc. and formulated a robust plan. This is your once in a lifetime trip to the wild place we call home.

[Roberto]

Sorry, the Aspire 1's are between 9 and 11".

[Patsy]

Leo I wasn't planning on reformatting. I have 8 GB/day, a new card everyday. So that is two copies, IPad/MBA and cards.

In two weeks I'm taking the whole shebang with me for a two week tour of Europe. This will be my test drive and I'll have a little better feel for how it all works. What do you suggest?

[Leo Theron]

Leo I wasn't planning on reformatting. I have 8 GB/day, a new card everyday. So that is two copies, IPad/MBA and cards.

In two weeks I'm taking the whole shebang with me for a two week tour of Europe. This will be my test drive and I'll have a little better feel for how it all works. What do you suggest?

Patsy,

The trick is to know WHAT you are going to do, ie how will you use, that shebang that you will shlep with you. That you need to sort out before you get onto the aircraft.



FOR EXAMPLE:

Assumption: You will carry a SD card per day (NUMBERED - 10 May, 11 May, 12… etc), portable HDD and the MBA

Every evening BEFORE bed:

- Copy everything to MBA and portable hard disk. Before you unplug the HDD, check everything has been copied, dismount the SD card and HDD.

- Put NUMBERED SD card in CardSafe™ and store at different place than MBA and portable HDD. (Diffferent place… Travel companion?)

- Do not edit, fool around, remove, clear, trash ANY image on the HDD.

- Clean camera (Microfibre Cloth) and lenses (Lenspen)

- Fit new SD card to camera - making sure that it is working.

- Swop batteries and charge the battery straight out of camera.

Pack bags for the next day.

MBA AND iPAD?

[Henk Coetzee]

When I download images while travelling, if there's any particular image that I absolutely do not want to lose, it goes onto Dropbox as well as all the backup options I carry around with me.

[Leo Theron]

When I download images while travelling, if there's any particular image that I absolutely do not want to lose, it goes onto Dropbox as well as all the backup options I carry around with me.

As quite a new DROPBOXer, that is a very good plan. Especially travelling in Europe - you can find a fast WiFi connection for free (or very little money) virtually everywhere.

[Anonymous]

My hobby of the day is photography and editing. I've tried a lot but am currently using ACDSee 14 and Elements 10. We're finally traveling and although I don't need a laptop since I use my IPad I'm thinking of getting the Mac Book air just so I can load my favorite editing programs and be able to play while on vacation. As I understand it the 13 inch is the only Air book to have a card slot.

Is there something about this that doesn't make sense?

Personally I'd probably leave the laptop at home and just rely on the iPad for light editing during the holiday as long as your iPad has the storage capacity and you have enough SD cards for your trip. Plus you can email pics straight from the device via the 3 or 4g network - but save yourself the hassle and cost and buy a local SIM card if you're travelling abroad!

For cloud backup the obvious answer is Apples own iCloud which will upload your images in the background when you have a wifi connection. Then there are third party solutions such as Dropbox and the recently introduced iPad app for Skydrive. Google is promising an app for iOS for their newly launched Google Drive but when it comes to Google and iOS integration IBIWISI.

There are tons of awesome editing apps for the iPad, my favourites being Filterstorm Pro and iPhoto but you might enjoy Photoshop Touch.

[Patsy]

All good thoughts and I've decided to pass on the MBA and no Leo, not both, I knew I couldn't add more weight to my camera bag for my Africa trip. I was defiantly only taking my iPad which has become like a child's ga ga blanket to me.

I recently put Filterstorm on my IPad and have enjoyed Snapseed so I'll play with those while I'm in Europe and Africa.

Leo I've put thought on my routine but these are helpful suggestions. I'll assign Caroline the task of checking out the HDD's.

As always I do appreciate your time....I read through these replies several times.

[Henk Coetzee]

Personally I'd probably leave the laptop at home and just rely on the iPad for light editing during the holiday as long as your iPad has the storage capacity and you have enough SD cards for your trip.

This is sound advice. In February I was on a business trip with an 18-hour layover in Istanbul. To allow for this I had to carry a larger backpack than I would have chosen with less space for photo gear, simply to fit in my laptop and its power supply, power cable etc. This added weight and bulk. The serious processing gets done after the trip, at home in a properly colour managed environment.