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Others have mentioned a photo ipod with an adapter to upload directly from your camera memory card. I would strongly agree. Before this was an option, I used an XS drive. But if possible, put plenty of photos of your family and home on the ipod before you leave. People will open up to you more quickly and warmly and perhaps invite you into their homes, when you can show a few bits of yours. For any of the cheaper countries, forget the laptop. Without net its of limited value. If they have net, they have machines.

Depending on your attitude to photography, if you're anything like me, one big use for the lappy would be offloading pictures. If this is a big reason, you can get a portable hard drive (linked is just one example; there are a ton of others) that has flash readers built into it that you can directly copy them off onto the hard drive. (Combined with a PDA that would solve a lot of your problems.) There are some that have MP3 capabilities built into them. Alternatively, it's possible someone has built an adapter for iPods to do the same thing.

I know this first point isn't answering you, but:
BTW, what mp3 players have a cf slot on them?

There's one call the XS-Drive. There were a few others that I ran across that I can't find immediately now.

I didn't realize there was an iPod way to do that though... thanks for the link.

When was the last time you *needed* a cf slot on an mp3 player?

I haven't needed one on an MP3 player. However, I *have* needed a portable hard drive, and in one's absense, have had to delete photos and turn down quality. This was actually the motivating factor for finding these; I was looking for battery-powered hard drives with CF readers. (I have a friend who has one, which is where I got the idea.) During the process, I saw that for only maybe $50 more you could get one with MP3 playing capabilities. So this has stuck around in the back of my mind as a way to kill two birds with one stone if I ever wanted a hard drive-based MP3 player.

So it's less a CF slot on an MP3 player as it is an MP3 player running on an portable hard drive. ;-)

I'm in the market for a device like this for an upcoming trip to Europe. The problem is that I don't want a screen; I'd much prefer just an LCD display for status messages. I'd much rather have a smaller, cheaper (especially cheaper!) device with improved battery life, and if I want to review the pictures, I can always do it on my camera before archiving the photos to the device.

The review only mentions portable devices that have a screen, and I haven't come across many screenless options. The only ones I've seen are the Sony Photo Vault, which burns photos to 8cm (200MB) CDs; the Sony HDPSM1, which is way expensive for a 40GB screenless vault (and I think it is not available in the US); and the XS-Drive family, but their page has a warning about how you need to reformat your memory card after each time you use the device, which does not give me too much confidence in their product. Does anyone know of an inexpensive screenless photo vault available in the US?

Oh yeah, I have a Sony camera so I'm stuck with the stupid proprietary Memory Stick format, which of course makes this much harder.

Thanks!

X's Drive is a product that basically allows this, but without an external power source, and the advantages of still being able to use flash cards. Just get a couple of flash cards for your camera, and carry the hard drive around and it is unlikely you will run out of space.

X'S Drive

- mere Nikon 995 owner

I've been looking at these for a couple of weeks, and I reckon it's the best idea. Reads pretty much all various media formats, writes to whatever size hdd you put in it. Grab a small CF / mmc / whatever and xfer all the photos to this once you've filled it and you're cheering. The only hassle that the original poster may have is the usb, though there's gotta be some net cafes round the place that have USB...

The website for it is here:
http://www.xs-drive.com/xsdrive2/

copy/paste from the site:

X'S-DRIVE II FEATURES

Unlimited internal storage capacity
The X'S-Drive II works with 2.5 inches Hard Drives of any capacity. You can purchase the X'S-Drive II with a pre-installed Hard Drive or install your own (provided it's 9.5mm).

Compact & light device
It weights only 300g with the built-in Hard drive and is easy to carry (13 x 7.5 x 2.5 cm).
The X'S-Drive II is provided with a free Carry Bag that you can also use to carry your memory cards.

Compatible with all the Memory Cards - No Adapter required (apart from xD which require a CF adapter)
The X'S-Drive works with all current memory cards used with digital cameras: Compactflash, IBM Microdrive, SmartMedia, Memory Stick (Sony & LexarMedia), Memory Stick Pro, Secure Digital, and MultiMediaCard.

Fast transfer speeds
The file transfer from a memory card to the X'S-Drive is performed quickly by the X'S-Drive (i.e. a full CompactFlash 128MB is transferred to the HDD in 2:15 minutes).
The file transfer to and from your computer are done via the fast USB 2.0 interface connection.

LCD Panel
LCD Panel to display the working status (no picture preview).

1. File transfer status
2. Amount of battery power left
3. Main storage out of memory indicator

Rechargeable Battery
The Xâ(TM)S-Drive II has a built-in rechargeable Lithium-ion battery which allows 1.6 hours of usage on full charge.

Warranty
The Xâ(TM)S-Drive II is guaranteed against manufacturer's defects for 1 year.

I've picked up an X's Drive II and have to say it is one of the best devices for the on-the-go digital photographer. With sizes up to 60 GB, and six types of digital media readers built in, you can click away, transfer and go back to clicking away withing seconds. Highly recommended.