Traveling with digital-first time

[raid]

More SD cards. Sod the laptop.

Cheers,

R.

I am also going this route. More SD cards and no laptop. I will have the IPad for internet access for the trip but not for photography issues.
Most of my SD cards are 4GB cards. Not too large and not too small either. I recently purchased another 6 SD cards.

 

[marcr1230]

it used to be planning for a trip meant laying out your pile of clothes on the bed and you money. take 1/2 the clothes and twice the money. Now apparently we should take twice the money and twice the SD cards.

seriously though, last year on a 6 week road trip, I took iPad, camera connection kit and 5 cards. when I would load the jpegs to the iPad, and then when I was in a Wifi area, the iPad will copy your last 1,000 photos to the "cloud" for download to any/all your devices.

it is possible to leave a computer on at home and have it save the entire stream (as you go beyond 1000) or have a friend/spouse/family open your laptop every so often to suck down the pictures.
The pictures are also saved on the iPad to the limit of your memory capacity.

this actually saved me once when I mistakenly formatted a card.

I'm not sure if this flow works with RAW - I saved RAW to another set of cards (CF cards)

 

[twopointeight]

I take a 15" Macbook Pro, a portable external hardrive and that covers it all for working from the road. But that's for working. The only thing I might change in that standard set-up is to downsize the laptop to an 11 inch model. Don't forget a back-up charger and back-up card reader. This is for traveling in developed countries with good safe hotels and for work. If entirely personal, I might try just an Olympus OMD system and lots of cards. Maybe even just my M6 and Pen W half-frame and lots of b&W film like the old days?

 

[Godfrey]

Laptops and tablets are treated the same.

Not true. The TSA officials have said explicitly that tablets stay in the bag.

G

 

[Bingley]

Laptops and tablets are treated the same.

Not necessarily. Depends on where you're traveling. I usually travel w/ an iPad, and sometimes I need to take it out at airport security but usually I don't. But you always have to take a laptop out.

 

[Lss]

Not true. The TSA officials have said explicitly that tablets stay in the bag.

They may have said a lot of things. It is news to me if the policy that is typically followed on the floor has changed.

 

[Stephen G]

Agreed.
In the last 3 years I've had an iPad with me through a dozen or so airports in US, UK, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, HK and the Philippines.
Only once, in 1 of the 3 Japan airports I've been through, was I asked to remove iPad and had bag rescanned.

Some places (UK particularly, repeatedly) may do an unpack/rescan if your bag is a bit too dense.. say Leica M8, 3 Leica lenses, iPad, Kindle, Blackberry, iPhone.. and a few cables. Too much metal..

Not necessarily. Depends on where you're traveling. I usually travel w/ an iPad, and sometimes I need to take it out at airport security but usually I don't. But you always have to take a laptop out.

 

[Godfrey]

They may have said a lot of things. It is news to me if the policy that is typically followed on the floor has changed.

Well, I've been through four security checkpoints on this trip alone. All have insisted I leave the iPad in my bag.

I ain't complaining.

G

 

[willie_901]

Put the sd card in write protect mode after u remove it from the camera. Do not undo write protect until after u get home. I do this for the following reasons..
- I can easily spot the used one among many others
- no accidental info or erase operation due to tablets interface updates to the sd card
- accidental format of sd card

Gary

This is excellent advice. I use a card storage folder that lets you move a small red flap over the card. This is redundant but useful.

Compared to the cost of the trip, cards are cheap.

 

[j j]

Take large cards. They take up the same space as small ones; would you take 12 exposure film when you could have 36?

Use your iPad to upload your pics to DropBox (or whatever) every evening.

Quick, easy, safe.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Take large cards. They take up the same space as small ones; would you take 12 exposure film when you could have 36?

Use your iPad to upload your pics to DropBox (or whatever) every evening.

Quick, easy, safe.

Highlight 1: No, but if a card goes bad, I'd rather lose 2-4 gig worth of raw files than 8-16 gig worth.

Highlight 2: Don't have one, don't want one.

Highlight 3: Ho, ho, ho.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Lss]

Well, I've been through four security checkpoints on this trip alone. All have insisted I leave the iPad in my bag.

I ain't complaining.

Insisted? I wouldn't complain either. My experience is the exact opposite. I am always requested to put my iPad in a tray such that it doesn't overlap with anything else, if I am not quick enough to do it myself before the security addresses me. I am even corrected and given an extra tray if I put too much stuff in the one with the iPad. (The laptop I put on a separate tray anyway.) Not once have I been told that I don't need to remove the tablet from my bag.

 

[willie_901]

There are TSA approved laptop/tablet bags that do not require device removal during screening. That said, the TSA purposefully applies their rules capriciously and arbitrarily to increase risk for those who intentionally try to circumvent the rules.

Using Cloud storage is useful if your itinerary includes areas with Internet access. The device you use for file transfer doesn't really matter. Just use what is convenient and practical for your personal situation. For instance if you visit friends/family during the trip you can use their computers to backup the files to the Cloud.

 

[raid]

I would format the SD cards inside your camera before you leave on the trip, to make sure that your camera recognized each card.

I got yesterday in the mail two 2 GB SD cards in the mail. The M9 recognized one card but not the other. The latter card was recognized by the M8.

 

[j j]

Highlight 1: No, but if a card goes bad, I'd rather lose 2-4 gig worth of raw files than 8-16 gig worth.

Highlight 2: Don't have one, don't want one.

Highlight 3: Ho, ho, ho.

Cheers,

R.

1. I've never had a card "go bad" in 10 years or more. You don't have to fill a card; I have missed shots due to having a full card but never from a half empty one.

2. The OP has an iPad.

3. What what what?