Managing digital photos on the road - updates?

[davidmc]

Hope the answer to this question isn't somewhere else on the site, but I haven't seen too much in the last several months on this subject and nothing lately in the Photo Forum.

How are people with digital cameras currently handling the storage of their photos on the road these days? For my one year Asia trip beginning in April, I am not planning on taking a computer, nor an ipod or portable hard drive or any other electronic device. I plan on only using what is available at the local internet cafe.

Is the best thing to just burn your photos to a CD periodically at an internet cafe and ship home, or upload to a photo webhosting site like Smugmug, or a combination of both? Or just have a bunch of memory cards?

Just started using Smugmug, its really easy to use, but uploads are slow even on a high speed connection and I wonder if high speed internet is even available in many developing countries?

Looking for some guidance...

-Dave

[Steve Pickford]

Look here:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb...ML/000105.html

With my digicam came proprietary software for downloading images on to my home pc (Canon in my case). I can also download using a card reader/writer. I'm not sure if you download straight from camera to an internet hosting site such as Smugmug? I might try soon & see if it's possible?

You should be able to do so if you take your own reader/writer though. I have downloaded photos from home on to a CF card using the reader/writer, taken it to work & downloaded photos on to the work pc for a screen saver. When you upload to Smugmug, you're able to browse the hard drive of the pc you're using & if you have a reader/writer plugged in, look in My Computer, it will either be the E, F or G Drive depending if they already have other hardware installed such as DVD player/burner.

With Smugmug, the basic yearly cost is US$30, this gives you a 2GB monthly upload limit. For US$50 you can have 4GB per month & the ability to upload movies of of up 8mb each. Movies must first be converedted from .avi to .mpeg files. I've just started doing this using free software from www.winavi.com . Note that using this leaves a faint message across the movie screen encouraging you to buy the full version. I normally save an .avi version & convert another to .mpeg.

www.smugmug.com

My photos: www.possu.smugmug.com

Well worth the money. On a long trip you can share the photos worldwide as they're uploaded by providing friends/family with a link to you're photo galleries as I've done above.

[This message has been edited by Steve Pickford (edited 17 February 2005).]

[beddhist]

We'll be hitting the road in June and are facing the same problem, although we are looking for a small device to type emails and trip diaries on, as well as download web pages to read offline (HUBB!).

Having seen the abysmal connections in Turkey a few years ago we aren't planning on uploading any more than the most interesting photos. The rest needs to be burned on CD.

I don't think there is a way around that. For long-term travel thru the 3rd world you will have to carry a gadget of some sort, unless your camera is a Sony MVC using CDR.

I was thinking of buying CF cards to send home, but since they are worth their weight in gold you can only send them safely registered, which again pushes up the cost.

Seeing we will likely be carrying a small laptop I'm thinking of getting a used Imation RipGo!. It's a mini-CDRW burner using 8cm disks. Seems out of production and uses a proprietary battery, though.

------------------
Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.

[DaveSmith]

I've been getting copies of pictures from my CF cards to send home on CDr. I send 2 cdrs of the same pictures at 2 diffent towns. Better safe than sorry.

I bought 3 CF cards but I've just used 1. My Canon A70 is dying out. It's been a rough life for it in my jacket pocket. Going from a very humid 45c heat to dry and hot to cold. Once this one dies, I'll need to find a camera that can be treated roughly.

No computer with me, but I have an old Psion 5mx PDA that I can write travel journals on. And it'll run Opera (a web browser like Internet Explorer) so I can download sites like HU and answer a lot of messages at once. It'll also let me download email so I can answer them at my own time instead of paying by the minute at an internet cafe. The Psion runs off AA batteries which is nice.

--Dave


------------------
Trying to ride (and work) my way round the world on a 1965 Ducati 250cc. In New Zealand now. Japan in April. http://nokilli.com/rtw/

[beddhist]

Dave, how to you get the pix onto CDR? And what do you use to view them?

------------------
Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.

[DaveSmith]

Hi Peter,

Some internet cafes have CD burners. When they're updated enough for that they'll have programs that will show the pictures.

Microsoft stuff is pirated all over and I'd also meet people who had burners & Photoshop.

There's a digital camera that burns photos onto a CD. I thought about getting one but didn't think it could take the vibration.

--Dave

------------------
Trying to ride (and work) my way round the world on a 1965 Ducati 250cc. In New Zealand now. Japan in April. http://nokilli.com/rtw/

[awol13]

Morning all,
I've the same dilema as most. Digital camera photos are going to exceed the little SD(?) card's capacity. i don't believe we'll find a place to download so am looking into getting an ipod (or similar) and downloading directly to that. It seems you can get a device that plugs onto the bottom of an ipod to transfer data files. I'm guessing this should work but haven't looked into it thoroughly yet. I'll find out eventually unless someone already knows, perhaps?
Steve

[richardb]

you might find some cafes can take a camera card and put it onto a CD. Others will let you plug the camera into a PC, then copy and burn.

I ended up taking alaptop (Acer Travelmate) with CD burner. WHich also meant I could hike around my music collection for my MP3 player, and keep a diary that I uploaded to a website via CDs at cafes.

It is a lot of space, but for me worth it. Doing it again however I could leave the CDburner behind and use a USB storage device.



------------------
Richb
http://www.postmaster.co.uk/~richardbeaumont/60684/

[fireboomer]

The Ipod Photo is not mentioned here? Any reason for that?

Got to admit, we would only be on the road for about a month.

[Chris of Japan]

Originally posted by fireboomer:
The Ipod Photo is not mentioned here?

I used my iPod last year for photo storage when touring Alaska and Western USA. You need a Belkin Media Reader to load the photos, though.
With the high storage capacity of the iPod, I was able to keep all my pictures at the highest resolution. And I had my music selection too!
You can use the regular iPod instead of iPod Photo is you don't want to view the pictures. It will store them just fine.
iPod isn't cheap. But when you consider that you can use it when not traveling, too, it is a good investment (in my opinion).

[fireboomer]

Thanks Chris,

Know what to go for now.

Pieter

[davidmc]

Does anyone know if many internet cafes in developing countries (in Asia) have card readers? I don't plan on taking a computer, ipod or anything else but my digital camera.

If I could just burn some pictures onto a CD once every month or two, I would be set, I just got a 1GB flash card which stores nearly 1000 pictures.

Dave

[pierresas]

When you burn a CD, I think it is safer to always make 2 copies: one that you keep with you, the other that you send home.

Sometimes a burn might not be successful in spite of what the machine says, or it might not be readable on another machine. And sometimes the mail doesn't make it home.

Pierre Saslawsky
http://www.photobiker.com

[fireboomer]

Heard some stuff about the Ipod. Friend of mine says at a certain speed it will stop playing music. Reason is that the vibrations of the bike reach a certain frequency that in some way puts the hard disk out of function. Once the buffer-memory is full (or empty) you are out of music. When this happens, he told me, you are in trouble. The disk or memory gets damaged.

Any experiences?
Who listened to music on the road already?

I would go for the Ipod music (20gig) with the belkin adaptor.
Will use it on the bike for music.
On travel for photo storage
In the car I can link it to my stereo.
In house I can also link it to my stereo.


Pieter.

[Chris of Japan]

Originally posted by fireboomer:
Heard some stuff about the Ipod. Friend of mine says at a certain speed it will stop playing music.

I don't ususally use my iPod while riding,
But I do have it with me on the town much of the time. I would assume you have no problems if you keep the iPod on your body, not the bike, Put it in a pocket, and use one of the many padded cases available. I think your behind will feel the vibration more than the iPod! Probably wouldn't be a good idea to use it off road, though. Off road, turn it off and pack it with your clothes.
I use the "SportSuit Convertible," but there are many others available.
http://www.marware.com/cgi-bin/WebOb...qAbbF7oUhJ7beg