On demand back up for 1 slot. Blog 8/8/21

Pistnbroke

Can somebody translate into English the Nikon version?

Synology NAS. File Station ....a what ?
SnapBridge APP, Synology DS file App ..... and that too along with all the other techno crap.
Maybe if the diagram had been clear/in focus it would have helped.

PS all my cameras have two slots. ( thank god)

Ton14

Two card slots works fine, no need for a NAS, but you can do more and use a cloud service, which many do these days. You can also buy a NAS as your cloud server at home, avoid a monthly or yearly fee and manage everything yourself.

You can reach your Synology NAS with several APP's provided for free by Synology. DS File is one of them (I don't use it).

You can use the NAS as a backup system, but more powerful, use it as your own cloud in the same way as a paid cloud system from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, other providers etc.).

Snapbridge App is of course the Nikon App to connect the camera with your mobile phone or tablet with Bluetooth or WiFi, where you transfer the photos direct from the camera to that device, the moment you take the photo. I have a 512gb card in my phone, which is the second card slot for me.
You then have the option to transfer your photos from your mobile to your Synology NAS at home, with the app "Synology photos".

Snapbridge is available for more then 2 years now and it works fine at the moment.

It is a one time setup for everything.

Last month, Synology introduced the application "Synology photos", a complete system for all your photos, similar to Google photos.
Depending on how you currently have your workflow, you may or may not use this. I use a very small part of it, because there is no need to change my workflow.

The advantage of having your own server as a cloud at home is that it is a one-off investment. Synology provides long term support and updates. I started in 2012 and replaced my NAS with a faster system in 2018. My NAS from 2012 still works fine as a 2nd automated backup.

Next to a system for your photos your NAS is:
- A multimedia hub, photos, videos and music.
- Backup system for everything, desktop backup, file server.
- Access and sync your files seamlessly
- Seamless integration with your mobile devices
- Security, password manager, secure signin for 2 factor authenication.
and more.

Price example for a good system at the moment:
Synology DS220+ € 320.- for 2 drives ex-drives.
Synology DS220+ with 2 x 4TB is about € 570.-
Compare this with a 8TB yearly paid cloud service.
I have a 16TB RAID system, when a drive fails I switch it with a new drive that is all I have to do.

Another example.
Synology DS920+ € 540.- for 4 drives.
This is excluding the drives and good for a small business with 200 connections..

OK, if you are completely new, you need help to setup your NAS for the first time, there are a lot of tutorials on youtube.

Pistnbroke

As they say Ton14 ...Clear as mud.
However, what is clear is that it is expensive to use this option ..better to sell the 1 slotter and trade for a 2 slot model.

mhedges

Agree. It seems like a lot of trouble.

Meanwhile (anecdotally) a lot of the folks buying the Z6II/Z7IIs aren't using the dual slots for redundancy. They are just using the SD because they don't want to pay for CFe/XQD cards.

PB_PM

Seems a little over the top for personal photos, for work sure, but doesn't take the place of an off site backup, so it's not the end of the road anyway.

Ton14

Yes, over the top for personal use, but photography is only one use for a NAS, an external backup is fine and easier for photos.

Pistnbroke

NAS I googled it ..Network Attached Storage Device ..now the mud is a little more like soup.
Quote " using the SD because they don't want to pay for CFe/XQD cards."
Doesn't that tell you that the camera and/or the cards are overpriced ?

photobunny

Pistnbroke said:

NAS I googled it ..Network Attached Storage Device ..now the mud is a little more like soup.
Quote " using the SD because they don't want to pay for CFe/XQD cards."
Doesn't that tell you that the camera and/or the cards are overpriced ?

Kinda tells me they are a bit daft. UHS-I cards are very slow but cheep, though you cripple the camera, risk write failure, and make your imports much slower. UHS-II cards are slow and much slower than XQD and CF Express. With UHS-II you can get 300 MB/s write 128 GB for the same price as a 1440 MB/s CF Express card of the same capacity.
I think people just see the GB on the card and ignore all the other characteristics. I certainly don't use SD as a backup, a backup should be on something reliable.

mhedges

photobunny said:

Kinda tells me they are a bit daft. UHS-I cards are very slow but cheep, though you cripple the camera, risk write failure, and make your imports much slower. UHS-II cards are slow and much slower than XQD and CF Express. With UHS-II you can get 300 MB/s write 128 GB for the same price as a 1440 MB/s CF Express card of the same capacity.
I think people just see the GB on the card and ignore all the other characteristics. I certainly don't use SD as a backup, a backup should be on something reliable.

Agree. SD had it's day but with higher MP and more FPS something faster is needed. Also something more physically robust.

PB_PM

Ton14 said:

Yes, over the top for personal use, but photography is only one use for a NAS, an external backup is fine and easier for photos.

Unless you have multiple computers, 2+, or need to work on your files remotely, a NAS isn’t really needed. DAS (Directly Attached Storage for the computer speak illiterate) is more than enough, and a more cost effective, solution. Unless you buy a $400+ NAS you’ll likely find it very slow, and has less useful software. A cheap NAS is fine for sharing jpegs, text files, and mp3s, but it wouldn’t use one for RAW files.

Personally I use DAS and a reputable cloud storage provider, rather than a NAS.

WestEndFoto

Depends how much data you have, how important it is to you and how convenient you want it to be. I have a Synology NAS with 8 8tb drives in it and have used more than 75% of the capacity. I have a second NAS with two sets of identical hard drives - one in a bank deposit box. Not cheap, but backing up this amount on a cloud service would be thousands of dollars per month - so cost affective and affective given that it is convenient and my important data is backed up multiple ways, including offsite.

There was no other way to do it that would not have turned into an onerous weekly process.

Ton14

Last month, Synology released a major upgrade for the system (DSM 7), making it much faster. The security has also been thoroughly improved.

Apart from being used as a cloud, the device can be used for many other things, email server, web site hosting, backups, file sharing, streaming content, surveillance station etc. etc. and you have everything in your own hands.

As @WestEndFoto wrote, external solutions are much more expensive.

But as @PB_PM mentioned, a NAS isn't needed if you don't have multiple computers and even if you have, a SSD drive is small, fast, portable and easy. Direct Attached Storage (DAS) works fine for photos. I use it for extra backup with the software SyncBackPro.

mhedges

Interesting turn in this thread. I have finally filled the 2 TB drive I was using (plus external 2 TB drives for backup) and now am trying to figure out some way to go forward and be able to still have backup without too much hassle.

WestEndFoto

Ton14, I use Synchback Pro too.

Ton14

Fun @WestEndFoto.

@mhedges SyncBackPro works fine, but you have to read the help files, because there are so many ways to make automated backups and SyncBackPro can do everything you want. You only have to set it up once. but you have to decide what kind of backup you want.

There is also a free version, which does the basic stuff just fine, so you can test it to see if you like it. You can then always upgrade to the Pro version ($54.95 I saw).

PS. I still use a couple of old drives with it for monthly backups.