Going on trip? need to store photos on the go

[Eric Flescher]

I am going to China to see the next eclipse in July and travel.

What is the best way to store all the photos from the SD card? I could port some photos to the smaller SD card on the camcorder too. However for better resolution for later prints for at least some , I need a device to store the photos, wipe the card clean and then use again.

In 2001 , in S. Africa I stored photos on my small mac laptop.

However in China where every ounce is a factor, I don't think I can take my newer laptop or that older one.
I guess I could buy a big SD card (prices have come down so I should check)
Any good ideas or alternatives?

I would like to take some RAW pics but mostly jpegs.

 

[Laura Duchesne]

A portable USB hard drive would seem the best choice IMO. Just upload from the camera to the laptop, and save them on the portable hard drive. If you can't bring your laptop, I would get a real nice big SD card for the camera.... keep a couple SD cards on hand as well in case one gets full or you have issues with one.

 

[Stephen Locke]

I guess I could buy a big SD card (prices have come down so I should check

Eric, above is the best choice esp if you shoot .jpgs. Or get a LaCie Rugged Hard Disk.

 

[Bryan Stokes]

Eric,

If you can't take a laptop and a small back-up drive, then perhaps you should consider a large SD card and a stand-alone data storage device such as the Epson P-3000. It's a little expensive, but it does a fantastic job and the high-resolution screen is great for viewing your pictures on the go. If you go with the Epson, you may want to consider picking up an extra battery if you're not going to be by a power source each night.

It sounds like an awesome trip! I would definitely find ways to keep your data backed up at all times. (large SD/Epson combo) (large card, laptop, & burn/mail pictures home once a week for extra security) (etc)

Hope this helps,
Bryan

 

[Jerry Prsha]

You can always load them into iPhoto when you get back to the hotel. I'd add a DVD backup of the iPhoto Library every once in a while as well...

 

[Brandon Goforth]

Your best bet would be to upgrade the storing capacity on your card, at least get an 8GB as cheap as they're getting...I'd also probably take some sort of external hard drive, even if it is a flash drive, but there are plenty of options and plenty of sizes to choose. If you're not taking a laptop I'd just take 2-3 cards and swap it out when it gets full. I mean, you get 3 8GB cards and you've got 24GB to work with...and shooting mostly jpeg, if you use all of that then you're probably just shooting everything in sight and wasting space anyways.

 

[Bryan Stokes]

Brandon has a good point -- as cheap as cards are now-a-days, you can pick-up a lot of storage. The only downfall is not being able to back them up.

If you're patient, you can find some incredible deals if you don't mind dealing with rebates. In early January, I was actually paid to buy three 8GB Sandisk Extreme III CF cards. Seriously. 24GBs of storage for $89.10 and I received a $90 rebate.

Bryan

 

[John Wetter]

For something where weight matters, and also possibly not wanting to raise questions... There are adapters to offload pictures from memory cards straight to your iPod. If you have a high capacity iPod, it can be your company while traveling by giving you tunes, and can also store your photos on the data partition if you enable that. Win-win, musiv, and up to about 100GB of data storage.

 

[Patrick Martin]

Office Max has SanDisk 8gb SDHC cards for $19.99 this week. Just picked one up tonight for my XSi. Two or three of those will hold a lot of jpegs and allow you to still shoot plenty enough raw images.

 

[Eric Flescher]

Thanks very much for the advice and ideas

I will run over to the Office Max and check it out as well as the prices at Best Buy.
Also the ideas (why didn't I think of that ) of using an iPod or iTouch is a great ideas. It can be used for music and since they are HD or SD disc themselves, photos can be stored on them too.
I am also going to look at the iTouches too.

Thanks again.

::

Office Max has SanDisk 8gb SDHC cards for $19.99 this week. Just picked one up tonight for my XSi. Two or three of those will hold a lot of jpegs and allow you to still shoot plenty enough raw images.

 

[David Schuttler]

Maybe you could find a store in some cities that will transfer them to a cd.