Is there SDHC Card Reader I can use in the field w/o a computer?

[AF ONE HUNDRED PDX]

Hi,
I'm going on tour with a band next month and will be filming a lot of footage. I'm guessing I will fill up my SD cards pretty quickly.

Does anyone know of a way to transfer the files on the card to something other than a computer. Such as a harddrive with an SD reader? I know i've seen these before.

Thanks!

[RGBaker]

This is the device I intend to get:
http://www.hypershop.com/HyperDrive-...-UDMA-s/64.htm
There are other brands available, but this has a track record, has easily swapped internal drives & can also back-up to an attached USB drive for a real belt & suspenders experience -- I like to keep two complete copies of shot material carried by two different people, which is to say I generally fear the worst ...

Cheers,
GB

[Barry_Green]

Nexto makes a few of these type of devices as well. Making simultaneous copies to an internal and external drive is sweet for peace of mind and redundancy.

[Hywel]

Every time I looked into this sort of thing, I always came back with "a cheap laptop" or "buy more SD cards" as the best solution.

There's not many things can beat a laptop with a honking big hard drive and a built in SD card reader as a backup/viewing platform. Extra ultra-portable storage comes in terabyte chunks with external USB drives (which come in tiny ultra-portable sizes like WD Passport which are powered direct from USB so no power brick). I use two of those for data redundancy and they cost very little.

And if there really isn't room for even a small laptop in your kit bag, I'd seriously look into a stack of SD cards. They don't cost much these days, I have 6 x 16 GB Sandisks which usually last me a week's shoot.

In my opinion these hard drive readers give at best a marginal saving in cost, weight and space, and are usually much less expandable than a laptop.

Cheers, Hywel

[RGBaker]

The Hyperdrive drive will easily fit into the hotel room safe ... and having multiple SD cards will not offer the safety of redundancy. Seriously, if you are doing pro work on the road, you have to practice safe storage, IMHO. For the record, the Hyperdrive is something like US $300 for 120GB of storage and easily upgraded. But to each his own ...

Cheers,
GB

[Phenixone]

NextoDI is great! The Nexto video pro (NVS2500 and others) are amazing. Really practical and safe. It checks the drive at cluster level to make sure no writing error will happen. Very safe.

[Shooter]

http://www.nextodi.com/product/NVS2500_en.html

[NoahK]

+1 for the Nexto- saw one in Japan and was a sweet piece of kit.

Noah

[Barry_Green]

The Nextos do seem sweet, but the price of that Hyperdrive is unbeatable. I wanted a Nexto 2525, which would do CF from a Red or 5D, P2, SDHC/SDXC, and SxS -- but it's $2500+. The Hyperdrive can't play back clips or handle P2/SxS, but for just CF or SD, it's only $300 (with a 120GB drive included!) Seems like an ideal companion for an AVCHD shooter. Especially because it employs CRC error checking during the copy, and can do simultaneous backup to two drives.