Hello all,
I'm embarking on a 5-month trip to South America come January. I will be bringing my simplest (and lightest) kit, the Nikon D60 with the 18-55 VR lens. I usually shoot in RAW when I have access to the computer here in the States, but its pretty clear that if I only get 800 shots to an 8 gig card that I'll have to revise my method of capturing images.
My plan was to buy perhaps 6 or 7 cards (8 gig each) and shoot in Jpeg Fine mode, yielding around 1200 images per card meaning that over the 5 months i'll be there i can take around 50 shots a day. That strikes me as a low number. I've also considered doing the same thing but periodically send the cards back home for upload and have them shipped ahead.
Really, neither one of those options appeals to me much. i'd ideally like to have a huge hard drive with a card reader built in (Wolverine used to make a 60 gig version... way too small these days) and just upload to it pretty much daily (and bring an 8 gig and a 4 gig backup) but this seams unfeasible as well (as well as dangerous--hard drives break easily)
What would you suggest? What solutions have you used in the past that are light, cheap, and yield as many shots as you can possibly get?
Thanks!
Sam
Reply to this Sam, there have been tons of discussions about this very topic on the forum. Here is one rather helpful link and I will try to find a few more:
Hard Drive Storage
Also, some of my own thoughts. My wife and I traveled a full year with a Nikon D80 shooting only in RAW. I shot close to 10k pics in the year and found that there will be many days that you won't bring your camera with you, or will not do things that are very interesting. This brings your average pic count per day way down. Some times I just hated carrying all the stuff and left it in our room. I carried a laptop and a 100gb hardrive and had tons of space left over.
Something I've been interested in is the
Epson P-5000 which is a portable storage device with screen and media card slot. It is only meant for photo storage. Pretty Cool, but as expensive as a whole laptop. I know a couple of pros who use these and love them, but they don't travel as long as you are talking about. Since you have the screen, you can go through a delete the absolutely worthless shots that you take which could save some space though...
Just some thoughts,
Mike T.
Reply to this Thanks,
sorry, as soon as I posted I noticed the millions of other posts on the same thing (i've broken the cardinal informal rule of forums!!)
One thing I think may be the best since I will be couchsurfing quite a bit is to maybe buy fewer cards (4 or 5 total) and a USB thumbdrive converter. That way when I AM at a computer I can burn to DVDs and send them back--one way transport would save on shipping and the uncertainty that I face with a rather flexible itinerary. It'd also be cheaper and I'd have about $100 less equipment in my pack.
With the advent of SDHC (SD capacity above 2 GB thats much much faster) Compact Flash is sort of on its way out (except for ultra-pro, but even the 1Ds Mark III has an SD slot for extra capacity) and its cheaper to buy more cards than to do what I've read on a few posts which is to stock up on thumbdrives. You really only need a single interface, and the one in most cameras is MUCH MUCH faster than most thumbdrives. In the interest of modesty though I'm thinking it may be good to have a single interface that isn't the camera so that you don't have a very expensive, very tempting piece of equipment out as you're transferring photos in internet cafes.
Thats a good point about the photo-per-day count. Did you find that you were less likely to take out your camera in populated areas? I've had friends (plural) get their cameras stolen by professional thieves (guy runs past you, steals what he wants, jumps on a motorcycle with another guy on it, drives away) in Caracas, Venezuela, but from what I've heard thats a particularly tough town. If I'm less likely to even be taking photos in these areas then it may not even make sense to worry about this at all and simply come up with a much more modest and inexpensive solution (say, 3 cards, a thumbdrive interface, and a point and shoot backup for populated areas).
Reply to this I did take my camera into populated areas. I found that as long as I had my camera strap on my neck, and my hands on the camera at all times, people left me alone. If you are aware and suspicious most of the time, you see these people coming from miles away. That said, I did not visit those particular towns. For piece of mind, I would always make sure the camera is insured as well.
Some days I just didn't feel like shooting. After a few months on the road I got burned out and would take a break. I'd always have the camera with me but often spent time experiencing things instead of just shooting. Also there are days where the weather is bad and shooting just doesn't make sense. You know what I mean!
Here is one more all in one option for portable storage that I just found at Adorama.com, the place where I order most of my photo equipment.
Handheld Unit I would say that just having a few cards can be a bit scary. If one of those cards breaks then you lose a bunch of photos. I was using an 8gb card myself, but usually backed them up once every day or two.
Reply to this One thing I would add to all the discussions on PHDs and other utilities is that -
Do not rely on one backup method alone.
I personally have a copy of all my photos on a PHD - a western digital 320GB drive - and then make DVD copies of the photos and send them to my parents for storage.
When travelling I take around 2GB of photos daily - so that ends up being a lot of DVDs - but if the PHD was to fail - I won't have lost everything.
Reply to this To add to Ali's statement above, we put all our pictures for the first six months on a hard drive that was then lost by British Airways (along with everything I had at the time). We were lucky and BA found my bag some six months later but it could have been disastrous! Backups are a great thing!
Reply to this noted!
I'm thinking the solution is probably to bring almost enough cards for the entire trip, back up to DVDs, and if I can borrow a PHD then definitely I'll keep it on that too. I'll be staying in Buenos Aires hopefully for an entire month while volunteering outside the city, so that may give me a whole new perspective since the city is undeniably modern and has plenty of broadband internet cafes. I'll have to see if its economically feasible, though.
However, and this is important to remember I think so that I don't ruin my entire travel experience due to worrying about my camera, I am certainly not a professional photographer, and while it'll be sad if my images get lost, I don't think I can spare the travel-cash to create more than 1 or 2 levels of redundancy in data backup.
...and I always carry-on my camera equipment. Sometimes it pays to travel (VERY VERY) light!
Thanks again for all your help, if you can wait 6-ish months you'll start to see the fruits of my intelligently backed up labors!
Sam
Reply to this Thumb drives are the way to go. I always have about 5 or 6 with me on my travels to put pictures on and to keep my SD cards empty. I have rarely found an area not to have a internet cafe available that i can use if needed to upload my pics to my thumb drives. ( Mine are the newer 20 gig models) I have even used hotel computers to upload my pics.
As a side note I also take a thumb drive loaded with basic medical info about me and who ever I am traveling with everwhere I go. It has a complete medical history and even copies of my dental xrays and emergiency contact info. It is labeled with the red cross for medical symbols. It takes no space up at all in my pocet and i can even where it like a necklace with a chain if needed. I have a few freinds over here in Iraq whose lives have been saved with this type of thing after I got them to use it. the doc/hospital can just open the info and have a complete mecial breakdown. ( almost everywhere does have a computer somewhere then nowadays, espically hospitals.)
Reply to this Do watch out with thumb/usb drives because they have been known to pick up viruses off of other people's computers to devastating effects. Just make sure you are in a place that you feel is trustworthy!
Reply to this Photography is an important part of my travel, so I carry a lot of gear. That includes a small laptop with a DVD burner and I burn my files to DVDs as I go along. So far -- about a month and a half into a two month Amazon trip -- I haven't quite filled up the 160 G hard drive, so I have all my files on the hard drive and on DVDs and carry the two in my two different bags. But that is because I do some weeding along the way. But these are big files, I shoot almost everything in both RAW and JPEG.
Security has not been a huge issue on this trip as I've not been in big cities other than Manaus. In Caracas I was only in the airport. Smaller cities and towns in Brazil are not the street crime havens that Sao Paulo and the larger cities are. I do get a cabin when travelling on riverboats, rather than just going hammock class.
KST
Reply to this I dont have that much idea what should I carry while travelling. Nice post! I have got cleared idea while going through this really I am feeling very useful. I would like to know more about it. thanks for your cooperation.
Reply to this Hey, i found that its best to travel with my laptop at base and i bought a tough drive to save the images on. The tough drive can be drop kicked and bounced about and still works fine. Mine is 150 gig and is plenty! Its a great idea as you can imagine the risks involved for those images whilst on a trek! Plus, once available get them backed up! I lost hundreds and had to pay lots of money to get them recovered! Have Fun!!
Jimmy
Reply to this Another option is a portable HDD from Vosonic similar to the Epson I guess. You can plug your camera card straight into it and have the photos downloaded onto the HDD. It has a screen so you can review the photos. Its also possible to use the device as an MP3 player / movie player. And its battery powered.
Reply to this HI,
Its important store the data while traveling like data about the places which we want to visit and what we want to see their so that we cannot miss any thing.Our photos and places photos must keep that data with you while traveling.Its better to take your laptop with you so that you can easily store all the data and information regarding your travel.
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jammywatson
Reply to this If you are going to have a computer or have access to one you could store your photos on an online photo website. I like the website snapfish but there are others out there. and then you dont have to worry about the cards getting lost or stolen.
Reply to this Not if you shoot large RAW files -- it just takes too long to transfer them. And if you are in places where you only have access to slow internet connections transfering large files -- even large JPEGs -- is hopeless.
KST
Reply to this "Do watch out with thumb/usb drives because they have been known to pick up viruses off of other people's computers to devastating effects. Just make sure you are in a place that you feel is trustworthy!"
*
Yeah, I worry about bringing a virus back home to my personal computer too!
On my flash drive I downloaded a free app called CLAMWIN Antivirus. It is slow but it works! When I am in an internet shop I will run a check on my FD while playing around with other surfing. I do run another virus check on the FD using my home computer before I open anything up.
http://www.clamwin.com/
By the way, I travel with a Flash Drive that has Firefox, Opera, ClamWin and Notepad on it - all free apps. The Firefox matches my home computers almost item for item-all the same bookmarks.
Have fun.
Reply to this For me the best solution was the portable hard disk, it has its own energy storage thus when your in the bush and have to be carefull with your power of you camera. You dont have to look back just put them all on the hard disk (they are in sizes up to 120 gb) I have one of 40 gb and a canon 350D after one month going loose i still had space enough to store others their photos while they where out of memory.
Dont know the brand my hard disk is, there are several diffrent ones.
Reply to this 
