Advice on portable hard drive for camera, but without computer

[nectarine]

Mr. Nectarine and I are off on a big trip in the new year and have a couple of cameras between us plus a GoPro. Now we take a LOT of photos but it's getting expensive buying plenty of memory cards. I was looking to see if we could dowload the shots from each card onto a portable device for storage, empty the card and reuse.

Searching for something like this (which must exist) has me baffled. The portable hard drive need to be connected to a computer (which we won't take) in order to transfer the files from camera to hard drive. But what I want is to just be able to put the card into a portable device, press 'transfer' and put it over. The device might need to be connected to a plug but I don't want to have to lug a laptop around.

The other alternative, someone suggested, is uploading to the cloud but we may be in areas without network access or wifi.

Normally I'm technically savvy but I'm baffled and, with Amazon's Black Friday offers coming up, I'd like to grab a bargain.

Help please, all advice welcome. Thanks in advance.

[CSV]

It seems this would work - I think you need an external drive as well

lots of suggestions here - most involve a notebook and hard drive [:(]

[Quillan]

This is the type of  thing your looking for.

NEXTO DI ND2901 1TB Portable Memory Card Backup Storage

We are in the realms of 'professional' equipment and it is not cheap. You can pay over £1,000 for this type of device although this particular version is well priced at £270 for 1tb of storage. It is completely stand alone and does not require a computer.

[AnOther]

Similar but much cheaper.

[url]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ex-Pro%C2%AE-Picture-Drive-EX205K-Storage-Silver/dp/B005R1738Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1416942793&sr=8-2&keywords=nexto+di[/url]

[Quillan]

Does not work with Windows 7 and 8 according to the reviews. old disk format not recognised. The 1tb disk is around half the price of all the others and the battery does not last very long. Amazon also sell the one I found and it got 5 stars but then it costs more. One thing that would concern me if I were buying one would be it ruggedness specially if I were away for a long time. Copy speed would also be an issue.

[AnOther]

It would help nectrine if you told us what you WILL have available as opposed to what you won't, a tablet or iPad for instance ?

BTW at a sensible but still respectable 1600x1200 a 32gb card will hold 1000 pictures anyway, it's tempting to use the highest resolution your camera will manage but there is no real advantage to taking pictures which are bigger than the screen you can display them on or printer you can print them with.

You may find that you don't really need any additional storage [;-)]

[grumpyaudeman]

At around £10 each a few 32gb cards will be the best option

[CSV]

[quote user="AnOther"]It would help nectrine if you told us what you WILL have available as opposed to what you won't, a tablet or iPad for instance ?

BTW at a sensible but still respectable 1600x1200 a 32gb card will hold 1000 pictures anyway, it's tempting to use the highest resolution your camera will manage but there is no real advantage to taking pictures which are bigger than the screen you can display them on or printer you can print them with.

You may find that you don't really need any additional storage [;-)]

[/quote]

Also, some cameras can download straight to a USB drive

Will you be shooting in RAW?

Response to above; if you shoot at the maximum resolution , you can crop the result, gaining an extra "zoom" in the process [:)]