Traveling with digital

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MelanieC

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For those of you who travel with digital cameras, what do you do about image storage?

I am going to Morocco for a month and do not plan on bringing my laptop. Is there a smarter way to handle things than taking a fistful of memory cards and hoping I don't fill them all up?

Haven't decided yet which cameras I'm going to bring. I thought I had it down to the M3 and LX2, but then I thought I might regret it if I don't bring the D70s. Either way, I'm going to need to figure out how to deal with the images, which will probably be plentiful.

Thanks, M
 
Melanie,

Funny you should ask.... I'm traveling to Italy for the month of June and did some research on media storage myself. I purchased the Epson P- 2000 electronic storage unit. Basically it's an Ipod or PS2 on steroids. It has a 40 gig hard drive and dedicated CF and SD slots. It also has a USB port and a
3.8" screen. I've included the link below.

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?oid=49164278


Thet run about $ 500.00 but I bought mine at my local pro-shop for $225.00 used. Seem as though the original buyer went back to film! 😀

Anyway good luck with your search, I can tell you that the screen is very good and it weighs 8lbs. lighter than my Laptop.

Scott
 
I picked up a thing called a "Wolverine" which is a battery-powered hard disk which will act as a USB hard drive and memory card reader when plugged into a PC or which will save the contents of any memory card that's plugged in when the "copy" button is pressed. It works a treat. I picked mine up on special at Adorama so got a good price, but they're considerably cheaper than the ones with built-in screens for photo review etc. Its screen is a monochrome LCD that only shows things like the number of files being copied etc.

I'm sure that there are better things out there - I just like this because its cheap and functional (whereas I'm just cheap).

...Mike
 
I also bought the Wolverine (80 Gigs)recently for an upcoming workshop. My only real gripe is that it can only transfer 6 gigs before re-charging. Other than that its quite functional. Paid about $75.00 at Fry's after rebates. They also have cheapo CF cards-- 2gig for $24.00 ea. I wanted the Epson, but really can't justify it.
 
BigSteveG said:
My only real gripe is that it can only transfer 6 gigs before re-charging.
Click to expand...
Yikes! Even shooting a couple of Aussie Rules matches back-to-back, in RAW+JPEG mode, I haven't needed 6 gigs. And I was downloading one 1GB card while shooting another (with the Wolverine on my belt) then swapping...

They do take a while to recharge, though. I guess you can't expect fast charge at the price.

...Mike
 
I use a card reader that plugs into my iPod. I think it is made by Belkin. I'm not sure if they still make them, I got it about 3 years ago. I only have about half of my iPod filled with music at any one time, so it works out for me.

Alan
 
Not sure about Morocco but in many places you can go to an internet cafe or a photo store and just get a CD or DVD burned of your memory cards.

Tons of people travel with just digitals today (I'm thinking of young backpackers) and probably don't think of this stuff ahead of time and still manage to get their photos home.

I would do some Googling maybe on Lonely Planets website or similar and see what they have to say.
 
Melanie,

I hope you will be packing some chrome for your M3. Like some Fuji Astia 100, Velvia 100, Provia 100F, Provia 400F/X (if you can get some X) and some Kodachrome K64. I would pack some chrome, thus allowing some choices for enlargements in the future. 😀 M3 + chrome

Good luck and be safe!

Cheers

MArk
Quito, EC
 
The specs on this Compact drive...

The specs on this Compact drive...

kbg32 said:
Melanie, I highly recommend a device similar to the Epson, you can't review your image downloads, but it's far less expensive. It's the Compact Drive. I carry one with me when I travel and it's great.

See links below.

http://www.compactdrive.com/product_info.php?products_id=31

http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.1300/.f
Click to expand...

really exceed those of the Wolverine. But for less than 1/2 the price and the fact that I've already torn up the box to send in the rebate form I'll stick w/ the wolvie for now.
 
There's lots to read on storage devices on dpreview.com - I've considered the CompactDrive prior to shooting film almost exlusively for the past year.
There's also the photo dvd burners that rip a disc for you rather than store the images. I've read of people making a couple copies - one to keep with them and the other mailed back home.

On a trip to Italy, I burned several disks from an internet cafe (actually, the tech burned them for me). Result: I lost a day - and one of my favourite days at that. If you're going to go that route, make sure all the data has been transferred. Don't just assume as I did.... it's the same gut wrenching feeling when you lose a roll of exposed film.

Cheers, j
 
The Wolverine looks like what we have here as X-Drive. A battery powered case with cardreader and a Notebook drive. Works pretty good.

I traveled once with my dSLR and then I had a subnotebook with me, 1.4 kg with 12" screen.
 
If you shoot RAW, then you may want to take some backup; but my M8 will put about 500 shots on one two-gig card in jpg, so six cards would handle ~3000 shots, and B&H is selling Lexar 2-gig cards for $45...

I'd stay away from the P-2000. Epson has stopped updating the firmware so I can't, for example, save RAW shots with the M8 on my P2000. The newer models (called the 4000 and 5000, I think) are more expensive...

There's a story about shooting in Morocco on the Luminous Landscape that you might want to look at; apparently there is some hosility toward foreign photographers.

JC
 
I have the twin of the CompactDrive, the HyperDrive and it works great.

You can buy it w/o a HD and add your own, or go all the way up to a 120gig. There's a newer model that's smaller and more compact at the HyperDrive site.

I research quite a few different products, and had another cheapie portable HD, but the key with the Hyperdrive/CompactDrive, is that it takes AA's. With NiMH AA's, you can easily download 40gigs on 1set of batteries. It's also very fast, 1gig per minute. By comparison, an ipod takes almost 20mins to download 1gig with the card reader.

My wife & I were shooting 3 dslr's for 3 weeks in BC last summer, and the jpg's totalled about 20gigs. We did quite of a bit of editing in-camera, but we also take _alot_ of pics. I also came how with 6 rolls of film on top of that 🙂.
 
MelanieC said:
For those of you who travel with digital cameras, what do you do about image storage?

I am going to Morocco for a month and do not plan on bringing my laptop. Is there a smarter way to handle things than taking a fistful of memory cards and hoping I don't fill them all up?

Haven't decided yet which cameras I'm going to bring. I thought I had it down to the M3 and LX2, but then I thought I might regret it if I don't bring the D70s. Either way, I'm going to need to figure out how to deal with the images, which will probably be plentiful.

Thanks, M
Click to expand...
What is a LX2?
 
The "Wolverine" will only work when connected to a PC, which Melanie does not want to bring along. It is a portable hard drive with no slots for digital camera cards. The Compact drive has slots for compact flash and SD cards. You just slide the cards in and they automatically download. When one returns from their trip, you plug the drive into your computer via USB and your files are stored in separate folders on the drive. A new folder is created for each download.
 
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