The importance of having back-up equipment...


Agetan

Senior Member
Dec 31, 2004
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Hello all,

I thought I would share my recent experiences and why backup equipment is so important for a working professional and why cost must be factor in.

I have 4 mishaps in 2-3 months alone....

1. During a newborn session and one of the elder sibling decided to throw basket ball around and my DSLR end up on the floor away from me and the lens just don't work properly.

2. One my my DSLR has done about 200k on the shutter, Shutter has been replaced after 150k but the next thing that goes was the "mirror", I was in a shoot and the mirror just fell off.. think the glue that hold the mirror in-place give way.

3. One of my crew accidentally deleted some images from the primary storage.

4. One of my Macbook Pro just died on me...


Anyway.... in any case, the mishap is unavoidable in my opinion but I always insist on having the backup equipment with me so there isn't much interuption.

There are a few issues here to consider...

1. The time factor... I do mostly portrait, I have contract in place to offer re-shoot if the equipment fail to work, but it is the time that we can't afford.

2. Client's preception... this is very important as your reputation is at stake if your equipment fail to operate and what your client would think about that?

3. Lost of revenue... instead of spending time booking another assignment, you will have to spend time re-do what you have done partly.

4. There are things under very tight schedules, so having a downtime might cause lost of business.

I generally would keep 2 DSLR of the same grade and important focal lenght that I use when I am out shooting and having additional back-up will reduce the issues that I have mentioned....

It is expensive but nonetheless very important to have those, just in case something happen.

For those who doesn't have a backup equipment, or have been putting it off and hoping this wont happen to them might want to re-check their finance to do this...

If you have factor in your backup equipment, a sudden mishap don't throw your finance around and cause you lost of revenue.

As far as business goes, the less downtime, the better... Don't take chances...

Give it a thought guys....

I am sure everyone has their own experiences about different type of mishap when they are in the market long enough.... perhaps, please share them so it benefit others who reads this.

Regards,

Hart
 

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True. Thanks for sharing.
 

Hi Hart

Failures: Its not a question of "if", its a question of "when"! Thus being prepared allows you to continue and deliver the project on time, rather than all the disadvantages (and stress) that you mentioned.

-- marios

Hello all,

I thought I would share my recent experiences and why backup equipment is so important for a working professional and why cost must be factor in.

I have 4 mishaps in 2-3 months alone....

1. During a newborn session and one of the elder sibling decided to throw basket ball around and my DSLR end up on the floor away from me and the lens just don't work properly.

2. One my my DSLR has done about 200k on the shutter, Shutter has been replaced after 150k but the next thing that goes was the "mirror", I was in a shoot and the mirror just fell off.. think the glue that hold the mirror in-place give way.

3. One of my crew accidentally deleted some images from the primary storage.

4. One of my Macbook Pro just died on me...


Anyway.... in any case, the mishap is unavoidable in my opinion but I always insist on having the backup equipment with me so there isn't much interuption.

There are a few issues here to consider...

1. The time factor... I do mostly portrait, I have contract in place to offer re-shoot if the equipment fail to work, but it is the time that we can't afford.

2. Client's preception... this is very important as your reputation is at stake if your equipment fail to operate and what your client would think about that?

3. Lost of revenue... instead of spending time booking another assignment, you will have to spend time re-do what you have done partly.

4. There are things under very tight schedules, so having a downtime might cause lost of business.

I generally would keep 2 DSLR of the same grade and important focal lenght that I use when I am out shooting and having additional back-up will reduce the issues that I have mentioned....

It is expensive but nonetheless very important to have those, just in case something happen.

For those who doesn't have a backup equipment, or have been putting it off and hoping this wont happen to them might want to re-check their finance to do this...

If you have factor in your backup equipment, a sudden mishap don't throw your finance around and cause you lost of revenue.

As far as business goes, the less downtime, the better... Don't take chances...

Give it a thought guys....

I am sure everyone has their own experiences about different type of mishap when they are in the market long enough.... perhaps, please share them so it benefit others who reads this.

Regards,

Hart
 

I generally would keep 2 DSLR of the same grade and important focal lenght that I use when I am out shooting and having additional back-up will reduce the issues that I have mentioned....

Thanks for the advise!

by the way, you mentioned same grade, are u referring to the same cam model? and important focal length, what do you mean?
 

Back-up equipment is important. If your camera has 2 type of memory cards slots, best to use both. I have once, my CF card was totally corrupted and had a shock of my life when the deadline for the slide show was 4 hrs. I managed to recover 90% of the photos just in time.

Anyway, to prevent such thing happening is to keep changing your card on different sessions of the day.
 

I have backup for the primary storage. 500GB USB 2.5" external drive. Workflow is copy to PC first, then copy to USB. As long as there is another copy esp using USB, it is very safe and fast to re-edit if there is a need. No need to RAID or anything.

Backup to the main PC, a bit difficult due to space for many of us. But if really needed I can use my mum's PC at another place.
 

thanks for sharing . . . :)

i have the experience of my hard disk crashed twice and all my data are lost . . . :cry:

i know the important of backup, learn in a hard way . . . . :cool:
 

I have backup for the primary storage. 500GB USB 2.5" external drive. Workflow is copy to PC first, then copy to USB. As long as there is another copy esp using USB, it is very safe and fast to re-edit if there is a need. No need to RAID or anything.

Backup to the main PC, a bit difficult due to space for many of us. But if really needed I can use my mum's PC at another place.

Actually raid is not 100%. I ever had experience when both harddisks fail in RAID. Best to use enterprise disk, better in quality. Brands doesnt really counts in 3.5"
 

Thanks for the advise!

by the way, you mentioned same grade, are u referring to the same cam model? and important focal length, what do you mean?

Meaning, if I use a900 I should have a900 + a900 or a850 for backup. When I shoot mostly with 1 camera. If I shoot with 2 cameras, I tend to have 3rd one as backup.

I shoot mainly 50mm f1.4 so I will have 2 of those. But of course, you could use other lenses if in emergency.

Hope that explains.

Regards,

Hart
 

Actually raid is not 100%. I ever had experience when both harddisks fail in RAID. Best to use enterprise disk, better in quality. Brands doesnt really counts in 3.5"

Perhaps raid 5 is safer?

Yes, anything can happen so it is a matter of charging enough and put in place a workflow that you are comfortable with.

Regards,

Hart
 

Hi Hart

Failures: Its not a question of "if", its a question of "when"! Thus being prepared allows you to continue and deliver the project on time, rather than all the disadvantages (and stress) that you mentioned.

-- marios

Yes, it is when...

The purpose of this post is to get people understand the importance of backup.

Regards,

Hart
 

Meaning, if I use a900 I should have a900 + a900 or a850 for backup. When I shoot mostly with 1 camera. If I shoot with 2 cameras, I tend to have 3rd one as backup.

I shoot mainly 50mm f1.4 so I will have 2 of those. But of course, you could use other lenses if in emergency.

Hope that explains.

Regards,

Hart

thanks for the explaination :)
 

let me guess... 5d mk1:D
 

Every thing needs a backup, even batteries and memory cards. Anything that is electronic can fail when you least expect.
 

Yes, it is when...

The purpose of this post is to get people understand the importance of backup.

Regards,

Hart

I have followed the advice given by another pro on this forum. 2 pro bodies, one fitted with one set of lenses, the other one with another set of lenses (both fitted with identical flash units). Switching from the 28-70 to the 80-200 takes almost no time. One set goes, just continue with the other one.

However, the problem that I find with this set up, is that the assistant has to stay with the 2 bags full of gear during shooting, the 2 bags weight a ton, and still, there's no way round it if things go wrong with both sets of CF cards after the event/shooting (even when set in the cameras as RAID 1) - I guess one could download the photos on location rather than afterwards, but you can't rewind an event as you could a portrait session or interior shoot.

The benefit, since both cameras are shooting RAID 1, it is unlikely that both will fail so you are effectively counting on 1 CF card to be alive out of 4. :)

-- marios
 

Actually raid is not 100%. I ever had experience when both harddisks fail in RAID. Best to use enterprise disk, better in quality. Brands doesnt really counts in 3.5"

No worries, actually I part-time professionally in the IT industry now, 12 years in this line liao. :bsmilie: (IT sux btw)

RAID controller up the lorry also like that. Goner. For Enterprises and farms that's why they have been load-balancing and clustering for so long with backups in a remote location.
For home use, that's why we need 2 PCs/notebook, then USB additionally as a mirror. Just swap around. Cannot be both PC and USB disk spoil, usually that means home fire (bigger things to worry about then).
 

The benefit, since both cameras are shooting RAID 1, it is unlikely that both will fail so you are effectively counting on 1 CF card to be alive out of 4. :)

Don't get too drunk. Some PG left the bag in a cab, could not get it back even with a cash reward. ;p

Always do equipment check. In a hurry to leave a venue (most do), you could very well leave 1 camera on the stage and pack up only 2 in the bag. Do not leave the camera on the reception table and go to the toilet.
You could very well leave a body in the cab, if you hurry to leave the venue as you have booked a cab, thus could not pack. This is especially so for those having many consecutive shoots and want to reach home the earliest possible time to bathe/eat cup noodles and then sleep. If you drive, then no worries.
 

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Don't get too drunk. Some PG left the bag in a cab, could not get it back even with a cash reward. ;p

Always do equipment check. In a hurry to leave a venue (most do), you could very well leave 1 camera on the stage and pack up only 2 in the bag. Do not leave the camera on the reception table and go to the toilet.
You could very well leave a body in the cab, if you hurry to leave the venue as you have booked a cab, thus could not pack. This is especially so for those having many consecutive shoots and want to reach home the earliest possible time to bathe/eat cup noodles and then sleep. If you drive, then no worries.
I feel this is sound advice even for those of us who drive actually. Before rushing out of a venue one must make sure he packs his cameras and back-up cameras!

-- marios