Why I like sidecar files
I don’t like one of the big advantages of DNG–carrying the XMP metadata in the DNG file rather than as a "sidecar" .xmp file that sits alongside the CR2 (or NEF or TIFF or JPEG or whatever format you work with).
I don’t deny that it is more robust: no problems when copying files from one place to the other and no need to keep filenames in sync between the image file and the metadata sidecar file.
Except it’s frustrating when backing up files because any change to the metadata means the whole big DNG file changes. And on my 5D MkII, those files are between 20 and 28 megabytes. It takes a lot more time every time I run my backup scripts to copy a 25MB file than it does to just copy updated XMP files that are a few kilobytes.
Those of you used to Unix machines will tell me that I just need a tool with a better file copying protocol–I should use something like rsync that copies only the parts of the file that differ rather than the whole file. And there is something to that.
But robocopy now ships with the operating system in Vista and beyond. And SyncToy is a lot easier to set up than getting an installation of rsync running for those who don’t like the command line. I used to love rsync on Unix machines but now I know robocopy like the back of my hand.
It’s just a minor annoyance and one I won’t have to worry about for much longer now that Lightroom supports the 5D MkII natively and I am back to CR2 and XMP files.
Congrads on getting the 5D MKII. i got mine a few days ago and man, its an impressive camera. I agree totally with your point about the side cars. i backup my files to Amazon S3, and even though Jungle Disk (which is what i use for copying files to and from Amazon) has their plus service (which is meant to do something simular to RSync and only copy the changes) i seem to always be uploading the full DNG each time…
I do my offsite backups with sneaker net (or bicycle net, I guess): I copy the files off my Windows Home Server to an external USB drive about once a week and keep that at work. I’m going to have to get another drive pretty soon at the rate I am eating disk space with the 5D MkII files (and especially if I do much with video). I look forward to seeing some pictures from your 5D MkII soon.
Most of my photos are uploaded to either Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lsmartman/) or SmugMug (http://tiernanotoole.smugmug.com). only managed to upload some photos i have taken so far, but this will change over the next while.