Man does this subject bring up memories to me. It never ceases to amaze me when I look at what we have now compared to what it was like when I was a kid. In the late 40’s we did not have electricity on our farm at first. But even then the radio was a fairly big part of our entertainment especially on Saturday’s. That was the time for “Hockey Night in Canada” with Foster Hewitt. Dad hated to miss that so he’d drive the old Ford up to the kitchen window and run 2 wires from the old radio to its battery. Stoke the old wood stove up, make some popcorn and relax.
Finally about 1950 we were able to afford getting power in and the mighty radio became our main entertainment at night. Fibber McGee and Molly, Amos and Andy, the Lone Ranger and of course “The Shadow” were some of show I remember listening too sitting at the kitchen table (always in the kitchen as in the winter twas the only room with heat).
In the mid to late 50’s our neighbour (bout a mile and an arf away) purchased himself a new radio and graciously gave me his old one which included the ability to receive short-wave stations. This opened a whole new world to me as I was able to tune into places that were all over the world. I and some of my friends would spend literally hours trying to record and map as many places as we could. During this period my most liked station was the Armed Forces Radio as it broadcast every baseball game of the Dodgers of LA to your troops overseas. So during that period I listened to every one of Sandy Koufax outings and wins, of which there were many. I guess you could say he was my “hero” at that time of my life.
On the farm we didn’t have any TV until 1963. In fact we didn’t have any telephone til the previous year. I still remember that all broadcasting from the local station shut down at midnight and restarted the next morn at 7, and we had a grand total of 1 Channel. The rest of the time you could watch the good old “test pattern”. I think now that we have probably 200 channels that there’s less content than we had back then.
I only had about 1 year of home TV before I was off and running, working on the road as a surveyor. Never went back but for short visits til my parents passed away.
But as I look back at those early years I have no regrets. We did it all as a family, I, my parents and my siblings. To sit around the kitchen table with all of them listening to whatever are memories I will always treasure.
So, again thanks for bringing the subject up, it is appreciated. And surely I will be checking out the website you have mentioned.

LittleRed (Ron)

If you are enjoying the use of this oldtimer why repair it when you can purchase another T1i body on line for less than $100 USD to replace it. In fact there are a few listed on eBay for far less at about $60. I don’t think there are very many repair shops can match that. Heck, even B&H have them listed in their used department at about $190. Or bite the bullet and purchase a newer model such as the T7i with all its bells and whistles, l know from my experience you won’t be disappointed.

LittleRed (Ron)

Again I thank all for their input and suggestions to my query. Appreciated all the ideas etc posted. However like I said before the prices you’ve thrown at me are unavailable to me as they are American while I’m not. Basically I have to add between 50% to 60% to your prices to get the same item. Probably could get a better price at Costco but the closest one is a 8 to 9 hours drive away and I don’t/wont have a membership.
Anyways I have opted for a wee bit of each type for this round looking at more purchases of what we feel is the best in the future. I stopped by Best Buy this PM and picked up 1 Samsung 1TB SSD ($220 + 13% tax) and 2 2TB WD My Passport HD ($80 ea + 13% tax) hopefully to fit my wife and my requirements for the near future. Time will tell.
Again, much thanks for all whom took the time to answer my query. Was greatly appreciated.

LittleRed (Ron)

That’s one item we have plenty of. I have 3 laptops still operating all with drives, one CD only and 2 DVD. My wife also has an external DVD for her Apple. Because of that it will be a bit quicker the transfer from disc’s to HD by using 2 or 3 to do to do the job.

LittleRed (Red)

Thanks for the site. This is one I surely will look at.

LittleRed (Ron)

I think this is one of the main reasons we have opted to go the card route. These is a very small chance of these going bad on you if you handle them correctly. Also your pictures are dispersed among many so even if you do lose or break one it means not all is lost. We usually use one card for each venue we visit which in some cases means one per day. Cards may be almost empty at times when this is done but to our minds is the safest way to proceed. Means between the 2 of us we carry a mass of cards, mostly 8GB/16GB with a few 32’s and 64’s thrown in. In my main SD card case I usually carry 25 cards with additional ones back in my room in my suitcase. Also I think my wife has just as many as I. That way we do not carry much in the way of backup drives on our trips. All these pics are retained on these card til we get home and then they are transferred to other media. These pics will remain ON THE CARDS until we leave on our next trip at which time a check is made the pics are safely put away. Then all the cards that were used are re-formatted in camera ready for the next visit somewhere in our great countries. This has worked well in the many years that we have went the digital route and is one we intend to continue.

LittleRed (Ron)

Probably too many. She is an avid user of the “burst” method, I think called pray and spray especially with BIF’s. Standing near her sometimes it sounds like she is operating a machine gun of sorts. Takes a helluva lot of pics and every one has to be looked at. Possibly only one of the burst is a keeper with the rest are discards but she still retains all to be checked back home when she has more time. In the past she has some fantastic pics that were missed at first glance in the field that were marked as a discard. Thusly on a 4 week trip and by birding practically every day it Tis not hard rack up 15,000 pics. We do it all the time.

LittleRed (Ron)

First, thanks to all who have provided input to my query. But one tidbit that I failed to provide (dumd blogger am I) is that I do not live in the USofA thus all these great prices you list are unavailable. It would be great to be able to purchase a 2T SSD drive for $250 but alas it will cost me $400 to do it here in Canada from a reliable dealer. I know I can still purchase one from your country from say B&H but with the exchange rate between us would basically mean still a high price. Means a drive worth $250 USD would cost approximately $340 CD, plus sales tax at the border for a total of near $400 CD. Thusly will be biting the bullet and purchase it here in the great white north. Since our town has minimal venues available for equipment like this I guess it will be off to Best Buy for me. I think that I will opt to try both systems by purchasing a bit of each and see which performs the best for both of us. So, again thanks to all for your assistance.

LittleRed (Ron)

We have been using the card method for storing our pics on the road ever since we went digital with never any problems. Never had one fail. We usually carry at least 20 cards to use with the biggest being 32. If the used cards are properly stored there should never be a problem. Can’t say the same about both a laptop with its HD or a portable HD as I’ve had both of these items crash while in the field with no warning. I think I’ll stick with my “solid state” SD cards.

LittleRed (Ron)

Sounds like a super set up you have. However with us we do not have a Desktop, only our laptops. The one we did have went belly up and we don’t intend on replacing it at this time. That is why we are looking only at portable drives.

LittleRed (Ron)

Yes, we usually carry 2 laptops with us, she her Apple and I my Dell. But due to the high number of pics we take we don’t have much time to do anything with them. We do download a few on the fly but most are retained on our cards til we get back to our homebase and then downloaded. In past a lot were burnt onto CD/DVD’s but that method is now outdated since most new pewter’s don’t have the ability to use them ( like my wife’s Apple). Since my pewter still has a DVD drive one of my first jobs in the new year will to transfer all of them onto the new hard drives (whopee 🤯

LittleRed (Ron)

This drive will be used just for storing images before and after she does her PP. while travelling we usually retain the images on our SD cards. Most of them will be transferred once we get home.

LittleRed (Ron)

Christmas is acoming and my better half is looking for a copla of these drives for her pics. As wildlife photographers we tend to accumulate a large quantity on our sorties into great outdoors, especially her. She tends to shoot 2 or 3 more than I. In fact on our latest trip to the western Wildlife Refuges she came home with over 15,000 snaps!!
So could youse fine ladies and gentlemen give me some suggestions on what are the better ones. I contemplated on going with external ssd’s but to me the prices are a wee bit too much. The average price of over $200 for a 1T and close to $400 for a 2T is a bit much. Especially when you can get a regular 5T for less than $200. Hell, for the price of 1 1T WD Passport @ $250 (on sale for $230) I can buy 2 or 3 regular drives of the same size.
She’s at present a Mac Lady running about a 3 years old one so something good with this system would be necessary.
So I’d appreciate some ideas on some reliable suggestions.
Thanking you

LittleRed (Ron)

Got our first real dump of that white crap the other day and figured it was time 🤬 to put on the winter tires

LittleRed (Ron)

There is actually guite a few places in Florida where these birds can be found. Anywhere there is an ample supply of apple snails there is usually some of these bids. I’ve obtained pretty good results in three different places - Loxahatchee NWR near Miami, Harn’s Marsh near Lehigh Acres and Mitch Grissom Wetlands (formerly Viera Wetlands) near Brevard. There are probably others that I haven’t been to. But since you “home-base” is mid-Florida on the west coast Harn’s would be worth a try. We usually stayed at Fort Myers and the drive out to the Marsh was about 20 minutes or so. Best of luck with your endeavour.

LittleRed (Ron)

PS - try and catch them hunting as they will hover making a BIF at whole lot easier