Tape Vs Solid State Vs Hardrive as Acquisition Formats

Sony have the XDCAM HD Professional Optical Disc that you could dump your material to and if in the field make two copies and post one home.

It all costs money though and more $$$ than tapes.

I would never trust a hard drive to dump stuff too in the field, as it's a mechanical/magnetic/electronic device.

Hard knock/bump, moisture, power spike, magnetic filed, mechanical failure, failed circuit component all could knock it out.

Let's not forget solid state (flash based) HDD's that have started to roll out. While the largest currently, I think, is only 64GB, I won't be surprised if they eventually hit 100GB+ sizes needed for data storage and get competitive with disk HDD's in GB/$ terms.

http://www.samsung.com/us/business/semicon...o?news_id=807.0

They would be better but I would still worry that they may get zapped by something. Always remember my electronic organizer... one day I pulled it out of a draw and for no reason all data lost.

They would be better but I would still worry that they may get zapped by something.

Wags, just be on your best behavior in public and don't instigate the local law enforcement into tasering you...