BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: Tips on Organizing Photos

Photography Question 

Lorraine Smith
 

Traveling with a Digital Camera


I am new to traveling with a digital camera. Does anyone have tips on how to keep my memory card available? What do I do when I have filled it? I don't want to lug my laptop with me to download everywhere. Do I have to buy a bunch of memory cards? This could be pricey. Any tricks? Also, deciding whether to delete or not is hard to tell when just viewing a LCD - sometimes the shot is fine when I see it on the computer at home. How do I better view "in the field"?


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July 28, 2004

 

Damian P. Gadal
  Lots of memory cards or a portable hard drive are the route I'd go - and save the discerning view for the computer ...


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July 28, 2004

 

Steven Chaitoff
  You just have to budget your shots widely. Definitely get cards big enough where you can shoot all day, as much as you want, without memory restrictions for at least one day. That way you can shoot carefree for one large "block" of time. Then, when you have time off, you can go back and methodically examine your photos on the LCD and cull out all the garbage to free up some memory for later. I think any technique you use - if you want to shoot carefree - you have to have quite a bit of memory.


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July 28, 2004

 

Dave Cross
  Hi Lorraine. If you are traveling in the "civilized" world, many photo shops or cyber cafes have the facility to transfer your memory card to CD/DVD ROM. Otherwise, lots of cards and/or a portable storage unit are the answer. I find that I shoot a LOT more now I've gone digital ... I used up 3G of CF on a 4 day trip to Paris! Memory is not that expensive these days; buy for this holiday, and you can re-use it next holiday :-)
Enjoy your trip, and post some of your shots when you get back.
Cheers, DC


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July 29, 2004

 

Jeff Quiggle
  Hi. All of the previous answers are really good and should be helpful to you. Additionally, I am sure you are aware that the capacity of a CF card depends on the quality you are shooting at - i.e., several JPEG possibilities, TIFF, or RAW. You should be able to get several hundred JPEGs on a reasonably sized CF card, which will be quite adequate for 4X6 prints for an album. TIFF and RAW take a considerable amount of storage memory and greatly reduce the amount of images you can get on a given card. Remember, in a fix for space, you can always change the image quality with just a few clicks from your memory button and conserve space.
I, like others, have a portable storage unit that is just great for downloading images. Be sure to acquire the proper plug configuration for wherever you are traveling. Europe takes the common two round plugs found in most travel conversion kits.
Generally, I find that most of us delete too quickly from just previewing with the camera LCD. Most images are better than you think when you get them back to your computer. Look closely for composition, etc., and then delete the more inferior ones. You can acquire a little device called an LCD hood to better preview your pictures in daylight conditions. The cheapest alternative is use a toilet paper tube, and it's a good companion on any foreign junket, ha!


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July 30, 2004

 

Lorraine Smith
  Jeff, what do you mean by a portable storage unit? Any advice there? Yes, thank you for the reminder on the quality setting for the pics. I have it on JPEG for now. Love the toilet paper tube tip! Thanks to all.


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July 30, 2004

 

Steven Chaitoff
  A portable storage unit is just a hard drive that'll fit in your pocket. Or it can be flash memory or something else, but basically, it may hold 30 Gigs per se, and when your memory card is full, empty it out onto the portable storage unit so you can reuse the same memory card again and again. Belkin and Minds@Work both make these kinds of devices.


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July 30, 2004

 

Damian P. Gadal
  I use a Nixvue Vista for portable storage, as I shoot all RAW and can burn through 5 gigs in a day ... hth


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July 30, 2004

 

Derek Holyhead
  Hi Lorraine. Have a look at the Apple iPod. It comes with 20 gig or 40 gig storage, and there is a card reader attachment available to download your pics. It is very small and compact. You can even listen to your favourite mp3s! www.apple.com/ipod
Regards, Del


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August 01, 2004

 
- Robert Mann

BetterPhoto Member
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Robert Mann's Gallery
  Lots of storage devices are available. In general they seem to take CF media so if you shoot another media type you might have to get a CF adaptor. Portable CD burners are also an alternative, Road Stor is one. CAVEAT EMPTOR: DO NOT us a Kodak Kiosk to make a picture CD....That is what you will have, not your images on CD that you can use and Edit readily. You can get to the files and edit them, but all your EXIF information from your original shot will be gone.


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August 03, 2004

 

Wendy
  Hi Lorraine,
Be careful of the photography shop/cyber cafe download option. Some of these places change your images to their own format. We have one company called Rabbit in Australia who do a very good job of putting the images to CD with their own boot up little program etc, this is great for most people especially those getting films developed and want to be able to email them. But when I went to look at the EXIF info on a friends images they had removed it. So who knows what else they change.
We have a CinemaDisk. Which is a battery operated stand alone portable hard drive which has a 60MB capacity in our case (they do come in different sizes) you just put the CF card into it and it downloads. It can also be used to transport other files as needed.It also has a TV cable for checking out images via the TV monitor.


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August 03, 2004

 

Gordon J. Evans
  I just got back from a 2 week vacation and took the Wolverine SixPac 20GB Stand-Alone Data Storage Unit (I paid about $200 for it on the Costco web site), and it worked flawlessly!! When a card was full, I just popped it into the hand sized portable, rechargeable unit, pressed one button, and the images were uploaded, came home, connected it via a USB port, and copied the images to my computer...


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August 03, 2004

 

Phillip A. Flusche
  All of the above answers are great but one I didn't see mentioned are portable CD burners. there are several comapnies making them. I have the Apacer C-200 Disc Steno. I believe they now make a C-300 with more features. They both feature card slots for all the major card types. All you do is just plug in a card and hit record or record with check. The burner then copies all the pictures from your full card to a CD/R or RW. It operates on a rechargable Lithium Battery. Each card you copy results in a new folder on the CR/R. When the CD is full a red light will blink to warn it is to full to accept the contents of the next CF card. So start a new CD. The battery is supposed to be good for an hour of recording. I have used mine for several months on several trips now and it has never failed. This also has the benefit of providing a permanent copy of the original photos. After burning your photos to the CD just erase the card and you have new empty card or cards to use the rest of the day. The unit is about 5 X 6 or 7 and 1 inch thick. They run around $300. Go to Apacer.com to check out the specs. There are other models by different companies and I see them advertised in Digital Photo magazines every month.


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August 03, 2004

 

Steven Chaitoff
  I thought the Apple iPod was a great idea.
Like Derek said it's huge storage for a reasonable price, very small, made with apple quality & it's an mp3 player.

But after some experience, just know that it is quite slow when transfering images (at least the 20 Gig model as of Jan. 2004) so don't expect to use it on the run. It's also a monster drain on the battery of the iPod so you basically have to use it plugged in. Also, the Belkin adapter is another $100. I've heard these kinds of complaints from other people too...


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August 03, 2004

 

john clayworth
  with regard to freeing up space on cards and lcd viewer being to small I always take a video cable with me so that I can use a television like a computer screen most tvs have av in these days and most digital cameras have av out


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August 03, 2004

 
- Carol Marsh

BetterPhoto Member
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  Lorraine,

Costco has San Disk card,256 mg, for around $50.00. I carry two of them and three 128 cards and don't worry about running out of space. I was in Eastern Europe last year for 18 days and shot over 800 pictures. Good luck.

Carol Marsh


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August 04, 2004

 

Steven Chaitoff
  Carol, that is generally enough space, but if you're shooting seriously...like 5 fps at 6 MP RAW with a 20 frame buffer, space fills up faster than you would believe. So as long as you don't want to pay up from numerous cards, a large portable drive is a wise investment.


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August 04, 2004

 
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