Temporary photo storage

[Corry]

...ok, so I've been thinking about Erik and my trip to New York this summer....we will be going to a LOT of places taking TONS of pictures. Neither of us has a laptop (small possibility of borrowing on, but I'd rather not rely on that)...and we need a way to empty our CF cards so we can take more pictures til we can get home and put em on the computer. Someone has already suggested the Ipod video, but that's kindof expensive. Are there any other devices that store photos??? Any other options available to us?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[FatVana]

Corry,

When ever I travel I take my memory card into a photoplace and have them burn me a CD of what's on the card. Empty card and pictures on a very stable CD problem solved.

 

[Corry]

Corry,

When ever I travel I take my memory card into a photoplace and have them burn me a CD of what's on the card. Empty card and pictures on a very stable CD problem solved.

Are you sure those types of places support RAW format?

 

[zedin]

It shouldn't matter. All they are basically doing is copying the files from the CF card to a CD. Doesn't matter if they know what the file is. Just like you can copy windows files on a mac. Can't use them or understand them but you can move them about all you want.

 

[Azuth]

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002423UO/qid=1137049893/sr=8-6/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i6_xgl147/102-1687077-5510523?n=507846&s=pc&v=glance[/ame]

There are tons of different devices that do this, some with hard drives, or ones like the link that write to CD. Not sure what the price range is on all of them.

 

[hobbes28]

There are these even.

 

[AIRIC]

Are you sure those types of places support RAW format?

Be careful with the CD burns at stores. I have seen several customers freak because they got a card to CD burnt and then they deleted the images from the card only to find the CD burn was no good or something went wrong. Employee error or the CD got scratched, stuff like that.

If you do get it done make sure to ask for a straight transfer from the card. Don’t get any viewer software and other carp that may alter the files.

I would try to save up for more 1GB cards or some kind of affordable memory. You don’t want to loose valuable images. I always make everything double redundant and have 7 – 1GB cards. Each night I transfer the images to the laptop but will still not delete the cards until I get home unless I run out of memory. No media is safe so I have all my files at least double backed up on two types of media, external HD and CDs, and for some of the more important images I have two different sets of CDS.

I know how you feel as most of my life I have been on a very tight budget and only recently can afford a few more toys and luxuries so I do sympathise with your situation.

Eric

 

[Big Mike]

Getting the cards burned to CD makes sense to me...but ya, make sure the files are there before you format the card. And don't leave burned CDs in direct sunlight.

Memory cards are getting cheaper all the time...check for some deals and/or rebates and stock up...they will always come in handy.

 

[Corry]

There are these even.

Yup...Chase linked me to those last night after I posted this...that's actually one I've really started looking at.

And Airic...that's exactly why I didn't want to go that route. I've worked in the photo lab at Walgreens...I KNOW what kinds of problems happen, and I don't want them happening to me. At the moment, buying enough CF cards to last me the entire trip isn't feasible. My boyfriend seems to think it is, but I think he's forgetting that I can EASILY fill up a CF card in an hour or two, and that's in our little town...he thinks it'll last in NYC??? HA!

 

[Jeff Canes]

Funny I just order one of those today for B&H, this one

 

[Dweller]

40 GB for $189 seems like a great deal.

I have put some thought into this as well and one idea I had was to set up a few Gmail accounts and find a cybercafe to rent a computer for an hour and email my pics to myself. There are a lot of ideas you can do based on this theme but they all revolve around being able to get your hands on a computer for a short time. Perhaps a library...?

But after seeing these threads today an offline storage device sounds like the best way to go.

 

[Big Mike]

The concern I would have with that thing is stability/reliability. It's a hard drive so what happens if you drop it? You don't want to loose 20GB worth of photos if something happens to it. Although, I guess there is always that risk, no matter how you store your images.

Jeff, let us know how well that thing works.

 

[Bada Gora]

I use an Archos Gmini 220. It is a 20gig hdd and has a built in CF reader on the side. A word of caution though; if you use a microdrive it sometimes will not read those. I got it from B&H for around 200 USD.

I took mine to India and had no problems with it. It holds up in extreme conditions very well. And its an mp3 player also.

Cheers

 

[Jeff Canes]

Another option is a USB bridge device and 110vac USB external hard drive, not as clean & easy to set up to use, but for around the same money you should get approx 150gb set up

 

[hobbes28]

We have a device like that to store ours on at weddings and it comes in awefully handy. I worried at first about malfunctions and the like but after carrying it around all day at a few places, you end up subconsciencely protecting it. Another option if you have a website is, like Dweller suggested, to ftp your pictures to a server for download later.