HELP! Backpacking in India

liataharoni · Mar 22, 2014

Hey everyone,

I'm about to embark on a 5 month backpacking adventure in India and southeast Asia. I own 2 cameras: Nikon D90 and D700.

I would ideally like to take my D700 as it's the better quality camera.
However I have no clue how I will be able to transfer my RAW images to an external hardrive or something, since I want to pack light and am not bringing a laptop or photo storage device..

I don't want to bring my D90 but SF cards are sounding much easier at the moment...

Any advice on an easy way to transfer D700 photos while travelling???

Thank you!

BlackPoet · Mar 22, 2014

Could you not stop at any computer/internet cafes along your trek? I'm pretty certain a place like India would have computer/internet cafes for the less fortunate who can't afford the technology at home. I know in Africa it was as such. Then you can just hook up your external hard drive there. Are you staying at any motels/hotels? Perhaps call there beforehand and check if there is access to computers within the vicinity. I know we're in Canada but the motels I stayed at in interior BC had open computers for those staying.

liataharoni · Mar 22, 2014

BlackPoet said:
Could you not stop at any computer/internet cafes along your trek? I'm pretty certain a place like India would have computer/internet cafes for the less fortunate who can't afford the technology at home. I know in Africa it was as such. Then you can just hook up your external hard drive there. Are you staying at any motels/hotels? Perhaps call there beforehand and check if there is access to computers within the vicinity. I know we're in Canada but the motels I stayed at in interior BC had open computers for those staying.

Hey! Thanks for your response. There are supposedly internet cafes everywhere, but that won't suffice as I highly doubt the computers will recognize the RAW files since they will not have any photo reading programs installed.

Warm regards,

Liat

BlackPoet · Mar 22, 2014

I didn't realize you were looking to edit anything out there. If you were just wanting to move files to clear up your SD cards, you should still be able to see the files on windows explorer - just can't open them.

The_Traveler · Mar 22, 2014

use Irfanview.
It is free
It will open and view NEF files and can be run from a thumb drive or portable hard drive without being installed.
So you can carry a portable USB hard drive with Irfanview installed, plug that into Internet cafe pc and use Irfanview to view your NEF files.
Did that all over Southeast Asia with no problem. (I actually carried 2 small HDs for redundancy.)

The_Traveler · Mar 22, 2014

I would download only from the Irfanview home site.
There are lots of places that will have this for DL but try to sell you something.
There is a slide show feature that I use a lot.
IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide

liataharoni · Mar 22, 2014

The_Traveler said:
I would download only from the Irfanview home site.
There are lots of places that will have this for DL but try to sell you something.
There is a slide show feature that I use a lot.
IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide

Hi! Thank you for the advice. I've never heard of Irfanview and will be sure to look into it ASAP.

Love and light <3

liataharoni · Mar 22, 2014

Hey BlackPoet, my apologies for not being clear. I'm not looking to edit anything, but for some reason a computer will not even recognize when I plug in a Nikon D700 unless there's software that can read the files... Anyhoo, I think I'm going to try Irfanview such as the person below suggested!! warm regards.

The_Traveler · Mar 22, 2014

Don't plugin camera, use small card reader.
Faster, less wear on camera and the camera stays out of crowded environment.
If you are really compulsive, you could carry Linux on a thumbdrive and use a Linux app to move files.
(Unfortunately Irfanview doesn't have a Linux version)

If you have any questions about traveling with cameras in SEA, just ask here on TPF or PM me.
Both I and others have travlled extensively there and we have a couple of members who live in Thailand and Vietnam.

liataharoni · Mar 22, 2014

The_Traveler said:
Don't plugin camera, use small card reader.
Faster, less wear on camera and the camera stays out of crowded environment.
If you are really compulsive, you could carry Linux on a thumbdrive and use a Linux app to move files.
(Unfortunately Irfanview doesn't have a Linux version)

If you have any questions about traveling with cameras in SEA, just ask here on TPF or PM me.
Both I and others have travlled extensively there and we have a couple of members who live in Thailand and Vietnam.

Thank you for the offer. Would you suggest taking the cheaper D90 or swallow the risk and take the D700?? It's not a photography trip, but I want to seize the opportunity and create a solid body of work while i'm there.

Honestly I would appreciate ANY photography advice for travelling abroad. I would really love to hear more about your experiences. I can be reached at info@liataharoni.com

The_Traveler · Mar 22, 2014

I don't know the D90 but I did travel with the D700 and, while it was heavy, the pictures were terrific (by my estimation).

Most of these - Lew Lorton Photography | Travel - were made with the D700.

If you haven't yet, you should read the Thorn Tree Forums on Lonely Planet. https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/categories/country-forums
They are invaluable for information you can't get from guide books.

I have been to SEA 7 times, to every country in SEA but Malaysia and can respond either with answers or directions where to get current answers.
Look into health insurance, specifically that will repatriate you if you have a severe injury; (I was flown back first class from Thailand after a bad fall in 2010.)
My neighbor, who didn't think insurance was worth it, fell and broke a leg in India and it cost >14k for her and a companion to get home.

BlackPoet · Mar 23, 2014

Every trip is a photography trip liataharoni!

As for travel insurance and such, +1. Also, make sure you look well after your assets. Foreigners are targets in some of these regions I would bet. Africa is the same way - they see you pull up in a taxi and they're all over you. Just be extra cautious, that's all.

jaomul · Mar 23, 2014

Just to add, your choice of camera to bring also depends on your lenses. It's hard to make yourself bring lesser quality gear, but even though the d700 is better the d90 is great to, lighter and less obvious. For this reason alone I got rid of half my dslr kit and picked up a m4/3rds kit

Raj_55555 · Apr 4, 2014

I realize the thread is a bit old, but being from India I thought I should give my 2 cents worth.

1. Uploading RAW/NEF files from cyber cafes may not be such a good advice in India. While cyber cafes are available in most cities and towns, uploading anything above a few hundred MBs data may be difficult for many reasons. Upload speed and cost effectiveness being a few of them.
Most of the time when I go out shooting, I accumulate as much as 8-10 GB of RAW data per day at least. Uploading that much data is just impractical in India from cyber cafes as it may take well over 4-5 hours in most places.

A better advice would be to carry a hard drive or two(for backup) with you (they are relatively inexpensive) to the cyber cafes and copy the data from your card to the HDD. You should be able to transfer all you data for a meager 30-80 cents an hour in most places.

2. Carry a card reader with you, or better still buy it in India, it shouldn't cost more than 1-2 $ here, as many cyber cafes may not have the card readers.

3. Carry a portable antivirus with you (in a flash drive or somewhere), after you're done at the cybercafe make sure you scan your card properly for viruses.

Let me know if you need any further suggestion, I would be happy to help.