Uploading pictures to Google Drive with SD cards - Internet access?

Internet cafes are getting very scarce these days, and don't always allow memory cards to be used on their computers for fear of viruses being planted. A 128GB SD card costs about $50 and can hold over 16000 jpg photos. A lot lighter than a laptop:)

For me the bigger the gigs on a SD card scares me. I took 3, 16 gig cards and only used 1. I tend to shoot in .jpg, as I don't do a ton of editing. If he is shooting in RAW he may need more cards. The smaller ones are not terribly expensive. I take more smaller cards as I am super paranoid about something happening to the card. I have heard horror stories about cards becoming corrupt, and my pictures are much too precious to me to take that chance. Also if you camera does get stolen, you are only missing a few pictures vs a ton of pictures. (I had my camera stolen back in the 90s and granted it was film, but I was only out 24 pictures. )

Now if you want to download every night, which I do, I use my iPad. But I don't reuse the SD cards afterwards. Again, it is me being paranoid.

Just my two cents

I agree that having 2 SD cards is by far the best option. No need to worry about dragging a laptop or finding an internet cafe. Just keep the extra SD card safe in its plastic container - they hold so much on them these days that it's hard to really use two of them (but good to have 2 just in case). No need to be paranoid. Just as an example, I accidentally erased two thousand photos while I was in Turkey on my last day because I was really tired and thumbed through the menus too fast and pushed the wrong button. I was devastated that night but, once home, I was able to take that card into a professional photo/camera store and get everything recovered. I was really lucky that everything wasn't wiped clean and they could recover the pics somehow. I wouldn't "count on" this being 100% effective but apparently there are things that can be done if you did a type of "soft" accidental erase versus a "hard" erase.

I have several SD cards but typically I reuse just one after I upload the pics. In the past, I've ran into the situation of running out of space on a card which I solved by deleting some existing photos and/or changing the megapixel quality to a lower, but still perfectly acceptable range one so that more pics can fit. I don't upload pics while traveling, I wait until I get back.

If you don't want to bring a laptop, get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digital-Companion-Expanded-MLWG2/dp/B00KU2E9IW

It's a really cool little device that I used on my 18 day trip. It enables you to view and move media files around with no computer or Internet connection required. I typically did my backups and file transfers on the train. Works with USB sticks, SD cards, or, if you have a lot of large files (like GoPro footage) it even connects to any portable USB-powered hard drive.

Best of all, it lets you offload photos from your camera, tablet or smartphone without needing to connect to the cloud. It's all controlled with a free app. So it essentially enables virtually unlimited storage of iPhone photos, which is handy if you get that annoying message that there's no more space on your phone when you're not connected to the cloud and you want to still take more photos.

Plus, it functions as a battery backup for your phone, a wireless hotspot for multiple devices when you do have an internet connection, and can even stream media to multiple devices (nice if several people all want to watch movies that you have downloaded and stored on HD or SD card.)

Not bad for $30! Edit: (oops, it was only $30 when I bought one last year, but just checked that link and it's $50)

I feel like I know technology, and then something like this pops up. Hubestur, what is it? An external HD? I've never seen such a thing, but it looks like it may do the trick.

I forgot to ask, how do you then transfer the pictures off the SD card to Google Drive? Via the app on the phone?

Yeah, it's a bit counter-intuitive, and took me a bit to wrap my head around it, but stay with me. It's essentially a wireless hub. It has a battery, a slot for an SD card and a port that you can plug in any USB device (thumb drives, solid state hard drives).

It connects to your iphone wirelessly with an app. Once connected, you use the app to see the files on your plugged in media and on your phone, and move stuff between them. So no computer required.

What I did was use a small solid state hard drive that's powered by the USB port (no other power required) as my backup drive. When I wanted to move files from an SD card or free up space from my phone, I plugged in the hard drive, inserted an SD card in the slot and fired up the app on my phone. Then I simply moved files to where I wanted them.

It was a great way to take huge GoPro files off of an SD card or to move batches of photos off of my phone to free up more space (which I always seem to be battling!) when I wasn't able to connect to the cloud.

Not sure how use this to transfer files to google drive. Let me check...

We also used it more than once as a back-up battery (my son's iphone seemed to always be low on battery power, because he never charged it overnight). It can fully charge two iPhones on one charge. It's also a wi-fi hub, so you can connect it to the internet through a wi-fi signal, and then multiple people can access the internet through one connection. Handy for places like hotels that dispense wi-fi access with an eye dropper.

The one thing I didn't use was its streaming capabilities. If you have movies, it can stream them to your phone or tablet. In fact, multiple people can stream different movies at the same time.

Does it work with Android? I have a Samsung Galaxy S6.

From the Amazon page:

• Extend your storage up to 2TB using USB flash drives, SD cards, or microSD cards
• 4640 mAh battery allows you to charge your smartphone up to 2X
• Stream movies, listen to music, and view different photos on multiple mobile devices simultaneously
• Backup photos and videos from your camera roll to free up space
• Read SD cards and USB flash drives from your mobile device or your PC
• Create a Wi-Fi hotspot from a wired Internet connection
• Free Google Play, iOS and Kindle Apps available

If you don't want to buy one huge SD card, you can also buy a lot of lower-capacity ones. The 16 GB ones seem to be about $7-12 a piece on Amazon (depending on speed), and you can shop the various online retailers and stores for these to see who might have a sale (B&H, NewEgg, TigerDirect, Best Buy, etc). Since the SD cards are so small, even bringing 6 of these wouldn't take up a lot of space.