A lot of you are already using hard drives for long term data (image) storage.  Let's look at some of the costs and how to save some cash.  After all, spending money on storage isn't sexy.

An external hard drive (enclosure) is a container for a bare (or internal) hard drive that uses a "bridge chip" to allow conversion from the native drive format (currently SATA) to Firewire 400, 800 or USB.  In addition to paying for the storage on the drive, you are also buying the design, marketing, packaging, shipping, metal or plastic shell, power supply and often an assortment of clutter cables.

1. Huge Instant Preview

Having your image almost instantly appear as a 16x20" preview on a 30" monitor is infinitely more satisfying than a 2" or 3" preview on the back of the camera.

2. True Feedback on Focus, Exposure, and Color

Cameras have gotten much better at allowing us to review our images on the fly, but nothing compares to working with the final image in Photoshop, seconds after shooting.  Its almost like working with a final print.

3. Faster Shooting Speed and More Storage

In some situations, shooting tethered allows you to shoot just a little bit faster than shooting to card, as well as eliminating the need to swap those cards all the time.

4. Instant Backups

As a company we have made backups a priority, and you can too.  Once the image its received on the computer it can be instantly backed up in as many places as you would like. Shooting tethered is often times far safer than waiting until to end of the shoot to download and back everything up.

5. Instant Processing

Images can be retouched or delivered to the client immediately after shooting. No more having to wait while each card downloads and gets ingested.

A friend of mine recently had two daisy chained LaCie hard drives fail on him.  Unfortunately, one was backing up the other.  He bought a new LaCie and plugged it in and copied a recent job that he was prepping for delivery over to the new drive.  Then his computer gave up the ghost and shut down for good.  He bought a new computer, plugged in the hard drives and hoped for the best - but none of them would mount - including his brand new LaCie.  Before shelling out a couple of thousand bucks for hard drive recovery, he brought the drives to the Image Mechanics bat cave studio for us to take a crack at.

I was leery at first, to trust the soft sided Tenba Roadshow computer and monitor cases.  We had been using an anvil style case from Jan-Al for Image Mechanics out of town capture jobs.  There is no question that the gear is protected in a hard sided enclosure.  It's designed for a G5 computer with a 23" Cinema display with a small compartment for a few accessories.  A pop up luggage handle and skate type wheels make the old Jan-Al easy to maneuver once you get it rolling.  Lifting it however, is a two person job and because it weighs just under 100 lbs fully loaded, the airlines say it is "their discretion" if it makes it onto the plane.  Another downside to this type of case is that once you arrive at your destination, you have to find a van cab because it won't fit into a regular taxi.  That is the biggest reason we started using the Roadshow cases for air travel.  The computer and monitor are in separate soft sided cases that can fit into most cabs.