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Storing Pictures While Backpack Travelling?
"He hasn't yet purchased a digital camera, so any camera or convergence device to be available in the next 6 months is fair game.
We've thought of a few scenarios. Bringing along a ton of CF cards is neither cheap nor reliable -- suppose the media gets lost or damaged. An ideal solution might involve being able to mail media home, while still having a copy 'on the road' in case that media gets lost in the mail.
And isn't it about time we see consumer devices with support for firewire drives, such as the iPod? I envision a digital camera that can talk (and backup) to an iPod -- this would be more than enough storage in a 15gb model, and small enough to take backpacking painlessly. However, the new models feature a proprietary dock connector, which makes one the iPod's old great advantages -- charge from any firewire port! -- a thing of the past.
A camera that burns images to a CD would be nice, but only if the CD was secondary storage -- ie, save pictures to internal buffer, burn to N CDs, erase internal buffer. This would allow the easy creation of duplicates, but might require a lot of CDs.
How would you plan your gadgets, given 6 more months of advancement of new technology (and price-cuts on old tech)? There's a whole lot of neat camera-ready devices coming about about now, so there could be quite a few creative ideas. Winning solution is the simplest and most portable."
Here's a list of DIGITAL CAMERA ACC-Stand Alone Data Storage devices from B&H.
You don't want firewall, most cameras do the USB 2.0 thing.
In addition to storing pictures, many of these Devices are MP3 players as well. 10,20,30 even 60 gig drives with rechargable batteries..etc.
have fun.
-malakai
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
The problem with stuff that is "just about ready to come out" is that you never know the quality or durability of something that has just come out. Going with an established product, especially when your friend will be away from civilization for considerable stretches of time, is what I recommend.
While buying a lot of CF cards is not a great solution, it doesn't have to be too expensive. 10 256MB Sandisk CF cards will run you approx $650. That would store approximately 3500-4000 images - based on how I use my Canon Powershot A40 camera in "Fine" (medium lossy) format.
10,000 images is, in my opinion, somewhat unlikely to occur. Sure, you can take 10,000 pictures. But 9,000 of them are probably going to suck. Maybe just 8,000. Thus the bane and beauty of a digital camera. You can instantly review a picture or simply review the whole lot later, on your down time. Backpacking should have it's share of down time, unless he's pushing pretty hard.
Additionally, CF cards are very, very hardy. My 64MB Sandisk CF card spent 30 minutes at the bottom of a river when I dropped my camera. The card - and pictures - were perfectly ok after recovery.
Your friend will also want to pick up some hearty rechargable batteries - I suggest the new PowerEX 2000mAh NiMH batteries in conjunction with the Maha C401FS rapid, 100-minute charger. Your friend may also want to consider picking up a flexible solar panel to charge stuff while "on the road".
Lastly, camera-wise, I personally recommend the Canon Powershot A40. It can be had for about $200 now. It is "just" a 2 megapixel camera. However, the output is very nice for consumer level camera.
Exocet Industries - Taking over the world, one computer at a
Actually a lot of it depends on the resolution he wants to capture. At a fairly low resolution (640x480, encoded as average quality .jpg files) he could capture 8,000 pictures on a single 512M CF card. Even 1MP high quality .jpg files from my Kodak DC210+ (fairly older 1MegaPixel camera) run about 200k per picture, so with four 512M CF cards he would still be able to capture 10,000 pictures of with this camera set to max quality.
512M CF cards cost +/- $100 apiece, maybe a little more, so he could hold 10,000 one megapixel pictures on about $500 in media. CF seems pretty indestructable, if he keeps it on his person (in his pocket or whatever) I guarantee it will survive way more than he can. He can also get a cheap $20 adapter to pop the CF card into a PCMCIA slot on a laptop, so with even a little luck he will find someone with a laptop that can burn him CDs for a couple of dollars, somewhere in his travels.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
Pick up a couple of MicroDrives. These are the ~1GB hard drives that fit in some CF slots. Drop one in the mail every few weeks to you or someone, and be done with it.
There's also the possiblity of using a film camera. Film should be available everywhere, and it's much safer to mail back home. Digital isn't always the answer (OTOH, I just bought my first digital camera today:)
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
What about one of the sony mavicas that does burn to mini CDs?
There are devices just for sucking the pictures of a CF card and storing them on internal harddrive, some even with screens larger than the cameras for viewing and some even play mp3s as well.
-Sure, you can take 10,000 pictures. But 9,000 of them are probably going to suck.
Actually this is the best part about digital photography. Want a good picture? Take ten pictures of the subject and then pick the one(s) you like the best. With regular cameras this just isn't cost (or time) effective as you have to wait for prints, then wait for reprints, etc... but on a digital you can pop the CF card into your laptop to view the series and pick the good ones, then delete the stuff you do not like - doing this a few times throughout the trip will help reclaim 80% of the CF capacity if necessary. Of course if you have access to a laptop with a CDR, burn the entire CF off to CD and send it home in a mailer, make another copy for your backpack.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
errm... yeah. with a 1 megapixel digital camera, i get roughly 146 pictures/32 meg card, so if you have a 2 megapixel camera (standard these days).... 10 512meg CF cards will get you about 11000 photos, and weigh less than a 1/4 of a lb. Huzzah. Just kinda costly. But that's life.
moox. for a new generation.
Depending on just how serious you are about being without power for that long a period you may really need to consider an all-out power consumption analysis, as well as other more conventional factors.
;-)
One thing that I really noticed was your thought about writing CDs, which consumes a non-trivial amount of battery power.
I personally know almost nothing about how much power it takes to take one picture, or write 256MB onto a compact flash, or run a laptop, but you might need to find out. Batteries are heavy and basically dead weight (no value beyond their storage capacity), so you will want to minimize what you need to carry. Coming up with a fancy solution that requires thirty pounds of batteries to run for a week without contact with civilization is probably not useful. Also, you may get into trouble if you need fifty hours to recharge your battery set.
Just a meta-thought.
Our friends generally take their laptops with them, and send files back when they get near places with ISP's or hotspots. Of course, they work while they are out, so the option of carrying a laptop might not appeal to him.
You'd be surprised how backwater most of the world isn't. Power may not be guarenteed, but he should find something wherever he finds somewhere to sleep. Likewise, as most people out there don't have their own computers, there are likely to be affordable internet cafes he will bump into. He should use these as an opportunity to back up his data to a server you are monitering.
On the flip side, mail is *never* a good idea. It might make it, it might not. Usually it doesn't.
Technologically, USB 2.1 devices should be out soon, which allow for device-to-device communication. Unfortunately, firewire and USB 1.0/2.0 are both client-server models... Which is the server, the camera or MP3 player? Which charges which?
Likewise, Sony makes a Mini-CDR burning camera, but they're just huge. 100 Mini CDR's can be had at Microcenter for 40 bucks, though, and should be enough space for 10,000 images. If he was intending to take a 5MP SLR with 14x optical zoom anyway, this might be a good option.
HDD external storage is a bit risky because of the dangers to the device, but it may be your best option. Just remember to backup whenever you bump into an internet cafe.
One last thing: Battery life. If he's genuinely worried about the availability of power, he should consider making a custom battery pack based on AA rechargables. That way, if the only place around is a convienience/gas station he can still power up his machine.
The ______ Agenda
with an ethernet connection (using built in port) or a pcmcia modem you could email your pictures back home whenever you can find a convienient connection. Also backs up to windows and linux and can play movies/music with its built in output ports.
All of this in a 7x3.2x1" package
Bottles.
There's this amazing new technology that have been called 'optical cameras'. The idea is an interesting one: a lense refracts light onto a piece of photosensitive material known as "film". This film can then be developed into regular pictures, with qualities far surpassing any of their digital counterparts.
In other words, get an optical camera, and mail the film to yourself. Have it developed when you get home.
What about a regular film camera?
You can buy film just about anywhere and get it developed anywhere. It's small and inexpensive.
Of course there's no sense getting it developed right away so you can (easily) mail it back home for safe keeping. If you do send it back home, make sure it's put in a fridge or freezer: it helps preserve the chemicals and keeps it good longer.
Before you take it to the film shop, let it sit for a day to get it back to room temperature. Also, when you get it developed, you may want to ask them not to cut the negatives (keep it as one long strip). This will make it easier for you to scan the negatives: less feeding of the short strips.
Go with 35mm and not APS! APS is more expensive, may not be as accessible, and (in general) has lower quality.
35mm has been around for several decades and everyone knows how to handle it. You can even develope your own film with 35mm (mostly B&W, not as much with colour).
Despite what most Americans think, you can find electricity in other countries. We even have access to the internet and CD writers. Then you can burn a CD or two of your photos and reuse the flash card.
found on compgeeks:
X's drive
the usb2.0 version works well with linux. the usb1.1 version doesn't (for me, at least).
put any size notebook drive in there you want.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
I don't have the link, but I have seen stand alone CD-Burners that will burn the contents of a memory card onto a CD. He could just get a 512MB card, take pics... burn onto a CD and send home.
I also found this device when poking around http://www.gus.com/buphbadicapo.html
Also, what about USB-on-the-Go ? Isn't it supposed to allow cameras to talk to hard drives? I've found some hard drives that are USB on the go. Do any cameras support this?
Don't get me wrong, I love digital imaging. Fun to browse, to share, to manipulate. But I don't own a digital camera. Way too expensive for the amount of photography I do. I own several conventional cameras, and I have the lab scan everything when I get the film developed. That makes a lot more sense for what you're doing. You can get an excellent point-and-shoot autofocus camera for $100. It will store hundreds of high-resolution images on rolls of film that will be OK for months, with minimal care (temperature, avoid X-rays).
You might also consider an instant camera. The prints make excellent gifts for the people you meet. Scanning them in is a pain, but less so than losing all your images because your battery ran down or your backpack fell off the bus.
Insisting that your images be end-to-end digital smacks of technology for its own sake.
You are approaching the problem from the wrong end. You are asking; how do you support this technology under less than ideal conditions? What you should be doing is asking; how do I keep 10,000 pictures while I am on the road for a year?
The answer is low tech rather than high tech. First you need to get a good 35mm film camera. Stash 5 or ten rolls of film in your rucksack and have a good time. The next time you pass a post box, drop your exposed film in it, addressed to a friend or relative. When running low on film, pick some up in the next town. 35mm film is available in almost any town anywhere. It is also far cheaper than CF cards or self powered hard drives.
When you return home, have the film developed at your local drug store, or where ever you prefer, and check the little box requesting a CD-ROM copy of the roll or rolls. This way you have the digital format that you desire as well as a quality film picture that would require a digital camera of at least 5 megapixels to get the same quality and resolution.
This approach is also far safer from the perspective of protecting your pictures. It is entirely possible that, over the course of a year, your rucksack will be lost, abused, battered and especially soaked with rain. By regularly shipping out your pictures, the risk will only be to a few rolls of film rather than everything, as would be the case when a supersized CF card gets crushed or wet. Even if you lose the camera at some point it can be replaced with only the loss of a few rolls of film, rather than everything.
A couple of facts you seem to ignore ...
In some countries, mailing shouldn't be considered an option (Nepal, India, Africa, rural China, etc.)
It is NEVER a good idea to mail something by regular post when you really care about it, unless you are 100 % sure it won't be lost somewhere and be kept in good condition (in other words, if you trust in miracle).
Mail is scanned many times by all sort of rays, most notably X-Rays which can really screw you film if they are too powerful. You can wrap your films in aluminium paper, but then they might open the package or simply send it back (it happened to me once).
Films degrade over time. So after one year or more, I guess his oldest films won't be as good as they were. You can refrigerate them to slow the process.
Actually developping films is quite costly, especially if you want to get better prints for a number of particularly good photos. If he is serious about photography, I guess he won't go to local drugstore for that job !
Intelligence shared is intelligence squared.
You can get 1GB cards on yahoo shopping from SanDisk for about 200 dollars. I wouldn't recommend going with less than 4MP, but even then you can get a thousand pictures on one 1GB CF card for 200 bucks. (as opposed to a thousand pictures on 2 512 MB CF cards for 200 bucks.)
On the other hand, if your friend has never had a digital camera before, he may be shocked at how many pictures he will be taking. By my calculations, I have taken over 2,000 since December, and I have a job other than wandering around taking photographs. With 4MP Elph and lots, and lots, of free time, 11,000 might not be enough.
Just make him edit the shots before he shows you the slideshow.
The ______ Agenda
I will be going on a 2 week trip to Europe next month, living out of a backpack. We have 2x128 MB CF cards for the camera, but those wouldn't hold all of the photos we plan on taking during the trip.
My solution? I happen to have a Jornada 720 PDA and a 2 GB PCMCIA drive for the machine. The plan is when a 128 MB card if filled up, to move the contents onto the 2 GB drive. The PCMCIA harddrives are the same as in the iPod. You can get them in sizes ranging from 2 GB (a measly $70) all the way up to 30 GB (around $450). The PDA itself can be had for $300-450, depending on some factors. However, this was a good solution because I already had the hardware- it doesn't seem like a good idea for someone starting from scratch.
But then again, spending $350 on the J720 and then $70 on the 2 GB PCMCIA drive makes a lot more sense than buying $650 (!!) worth of SD/CF cards as someone else recommended as being a reasonable solution. At a decent quality, this 2 GB PCMCIA drive holds at least 10k images. I plan on recharging while at hostels and the occasional hotel. I am considering getting a solar panel as well, but I've not yet decided.
Would be great for journaling on the trip as well- I know I'd like to document all of my adventures and thoughts if I were taking a trip around the whole world!
This is *much* cheaper than the same space in a IBM CF MicroDrive, CF or SD cards.
---
The other option that may make sense is buying a camera that uses media like mini-CD-R discs. My uncle has a fancy Sony digital camera that burns the photos he takes on to the 3" CD-R disks. It was an expensive camera, but it takes awesome photos and wouldn't require a computer or a slew of expensive media like SD or CF cards.
I just looked it up, and you can get them cheaper than before. I remember my uncle paying $1000 for his fancy-pants CD-R burning Mavica, but it looks like you can get a camera which does that now for quite a bit cheaper.
The $500 MVC-CD350 and the $700 MVC-CD500 look like decent models. Definately seems to make more sense to pick up one of these rather than buying $700 worth in SD/CF media!
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
When travelling, I've found it best to make extensive use of the IYH network. ( International Youth Hostels ~ www.iyhf.org ) They often have Internet access and they often have the most practical and reasonable accomadations. The fellow travellers that you'll meet at the communal kitchens are a wealth of info.
Get a good travel pack, one that is both an internal frame pack and a suitcase with wheels. Pack light, get a money belt. Never display american money on the street if possible. Beware of black market money changers. If you buy soveniers, ship them home from the country of origin. It's best to check your passport into the embassy in some countries.
As for photos, don't buy a brand new spiff camera or other flashy equipment. It's far, far better not to display any signs of affluence. You'll encounter far less problems if you dress locally (trade at used clothing stores) and blend in. You're need a good universal current adapter kit and consider web email account as the most reliable way to get the pictures home. Internet cafes abound and there's always someone who has a fairly new pc or laptop somewhere. Also try searching thru or posting to the relevant newsgroups, many travellers and professional photographers have discussed these concerns in great detail.
One last, somewhat strange piece of advice, you may also want to sew a small Canadian flag to your pack. I've had far less problems since I did.
Main rule: get down, get local, that's where it's at. Happy trails.
Words to men, as air to birds.
Sony makes a series of Mavica digital cameras that write pictures to mini cds (160ish mb). This appears to fit all the criteria of your request but is pretty expensive and you still have to charge the battery, and I bet quite often because the cd burner must take some serious battery.
Yawn.
If you're actually going to be out of touch, like in outer Mongolia or something, go get a manual 35mm SLR. They don't need batteries at all and the bodies are virtually indestructible. Film is easy to carry, high quality, cheap and you can have it converted into slides when you like.
If you're going to be "out of touch" in major metropolitan areas outside the US then don't sweat it---there are WAY more Internet Cafe's outside the U.S. and contrary to popular belief there is civilization in other countries... you know, power, hot and cold running water... that sort of thing.
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.
Some camcorders take up to 1,998 pictures to DVD. And some offer 1MegaPixel resolution. Like the Hitachi DZMV380A, Panasonic also has one, and Sony has one on the way. But battery life will be an issue. Of course I would think that would be a problem with a regular camera also. But since it records to DVD-RAM, you should be able to delete the ones you don't want to keep.
Go here[iomagic.com] and look for the iDrive portable hard drive. My dad got one and it seemed to work pretty good. I tried it out, but itÂs about 20 gig, and USB 1.1, so looking at stuff can be slow. However, all you do is plug in your flash chip and the hard drive does all the copying for you.
Anonymous cause IÂm too lazy to create an account.
Thank you all for the replies; good suggestions all around!
One thing I neglected to mention is that part of the reason just 'mailing film' won't work is that this would be a digital operation -- hoping to get a few chances here and there to upload and describe images. Having a friend at home develop pictures would probably be more expensive than hanging on to a few CF cards or whatever..
About the volume of the pictures: it is true that 10,000 might be on the high side! Perhaps 5000 is more like it. ANd regarding desired resolution, well, higher (>1024x768) is definitely better, because online photo places can make some lovely prints these days (for the odd good photo..)
Cheers..
Well, when I did it, I carried my laptop along. Of course, this is not the best option if all you care about is taking pictures. It does help if you plan to keep a journal or are going to places where you can get it online from time to time.
I'd also sugest leaving the expensive hardware you will not bring along all the time with you at an airport or train station vault if the place looks trustworthy. Better than just dropping it at the hostel's room you will be sharing with 6+ people you barely know.
I have the same plans for May 2004 and I plan on covering over 17,000 miles. I asked a friend the same question, what is the best camera for my trip? Immediately he said the Sony DCR-TRV950 MiniDV Digital Camera. This camera is not only light weight but can record an hours worth of high quality video on a cheap medium and take countless numbers of digital photos. I seen this camera as low as $1449 USD from a place called cameratopis but they donâ(TM)t have a web site, I think, only a number 1-718-837-7722. Though my trip also involves sleeping out of a tent the entire time I have been shopping around for the best at a low cost. I am going to buy this camera next year some time after xmas and hoping the price will be around $800. I do not recommend media mail when shipping your tapes since media mail is the last class of mail to be sorted. I sold books on half.com for a while and found it to be a pain in the ass. Just spend the money to ensure a safe trip home for your tapes. Since the tapes are cheap I plan on buying a lot along the way. The digital pictures are saved on a memory stick. I also tried to figure out how to save a shit load to a disk of some kind. I seen a 2 Giga bite flash memory stick for 2 grand but Iâ(TM)d rather buy a http://www.panasonic.com/toughbook/ In the end I most likely will buy a bunch of MiniDVs and two 64 megabite memory sticks. Where Is your friend traveling to? Does the name Alby Mangels mean anything to him? -Terry inbox@tutkia.com
This little card weighs about as much as a
paperclip and is about half as thick as a dime.
Carry a little USB adapter, and hit an Internet
cafe once every 3 months. You can store about
550 1600x1200 photos on one card. If you take
1000 photos per month, that's just 6 cards to
carry, which will weigh less than half an ounce
and take about 1cc of space in your kit.
Carrying around CDRs would be a pain. They are
too wide and flat, and inflexible, and very
likely to be destroyed -- not to mention the
camera that weighs too much and is too big.
If you really need to recharge your NiMH batteries
away from "civilization", a solar panel rig would
be quite feasible, but cost you about 2 kilos
of luggage.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
The advise is simple. Don't use digital
Film gives you better photos, is easier to carry and the practicallities of using it while abroad are simplier. The cameras and the storage are more robust for film. Then, get the negatives scanned when you get home. I do have a digital, but its a fun camera, not for good photos. I don't bother taking it away with me.
You can now get some good digital cameras. (eg the Nikon D100) but I believe they are still a few years away from replacing film for most professional or keen amatures. The D100 does allow you to use a micro drive, so storage is less of an issue. This is one of the few cameras on the market that is close to a what cheap film SLR will give you in term of picture qaulity.
However... remember where you are going, how you are travelling, and what you'll be taking photos of.
Generally I've found that alot of photos I've taken have been of moving objects, dusk, or other difficult subjects. A good SLR is preferable, but a point'n'click for use in markets, train stations etc etc is also usefull. Your pushing the limits of the CCD in these conditions.
Drawbacks to digital are:
1) Theft: While most of the world has a lower crime rate than New York a 3000 USD camera can be more than a years income for your subject, hotel owner, or fellow hotel guest. Laptops are similar Don't be a target!!!
2) Repairs: Alot of the places I've taken pictures a have been deserts, montain tops, dusty streets. If your away for a few months who do you get to service you camera? With film cameras getting them serviced is easy in many remote locations. Mechanical stuff is easy to service/clean. I have a friend who dropped his camera in a river in Nepal. The guy at the local village could clean the lens, dissassemable and dry/relubricate the camera. It he had a digital it would likely to be more difficult.
3)Quality: Even the best digitals don't have the same speed as slow film. Often you want to take photos of moving objects, in low light, bright days. You need a camera/film comnb with a wide lattitude. Resolution and colour depth are also not as good on digital cameras as 35mm film.
4) Storage: There is no issue with carrying dozens of films with you in your back pack. They don't take up much space, and are reasonably robust. They also fit into plastic bag to prvent rain damage, something that is harder to do with a laptop. You can post film from most big cities via DHL etc. Internet connections are expensive, unreliable, and slow in most of the places I been to. Great for email, but not for hundreds of images (?1-2G) it not practicle.
My solutionis to take an SLR and a point'n'click and use film. When I get home I have the film scanned by the photo shop. Search around, there is a big range in quality of scanning. I pay 5 USD for 36exp at 9megapixels with 8bits depth per colour. Thats almost the most you can get from 35mm film, and its far better than even a good digital camera. Film is easy to carry and available everywhere.
Despite being a geek I still recommend film for travelling.
Elivs.
if you will have very few connections to the outside world -- few sources of power (at the odd hostel or train station outlet), no internet, and no USB?
Where is this mythical place he is traveling to? Antarctica? Northern Canada? A foot trip across the outback of Australia?
Sounds like an American who has never been more than 50 miles from his hometown, and thinks the rest of the world has no electricity or internet cafes. There are a few wild and savage areas on this planet, but for the most part you can find electricity just about anywhere if you go looking for it, and the internet pops up in the most unexpected areas.
Enough ranting.
Get some of the new 1 and 2 Gig CF cards, and an assortment of 256Mb or 512Mb models. Buy a nice but not too top end camera which can support the 2Gig cards. Make sure the camera is purchased at least a few months before the trip starts, so the learning curve is well past before heading out. Take a few weekends to hike to a neighboring town, taking pictures along the way, and then figure out how to get the photos home without carrying them. Practice trips are a great way to discover how much shit accumulates in the backpack of inexperienced travelers, and how out of shape they are. Practice with the camera will allow for learning the optimum resolution needed for most photos, super hi res for amazing shots where details count, medium res for some shots, and low res for just day to day point and shoot, thanks for the memory pics.
Typically, a traveler will take about 50 photos per day, or enough to fill a CF card in 5-10 days. So 2 or 3 big cards, and 8 to 10 smaller (cheaper) cards will suffice for a month or more. From time to time, take a day off from traveling and do all the administrivia needed, preferably in a good sized town or large city. Find an internet cafe and check email, phone loved ones with updates, write post cards, do laundry, eat a real meal or two, mail trinkets home, get a solid nights sleep, and transfer a bunch of photos home (which also keeps the family and friends happy). My rule is to spend at least two nights in a hotel(not a hostel), which gives a full day to run around with no backpack. (there is an upside to the occasional hotel, it allows you to shag the almost-cute-enough fellow traveler you met in the hostel or on the bus)
There are several ways of getting the photos home, a combination of these is recommended.
Email the photos to a waiting server (no free email services like $h*tmail). When photo attachments come into the mailbox, they get procmailed into a waiting directory with some PHP scripts to make web photo albums, and he can check from any browser they were received before deleting them from his media. Even poorly connected cyber cafes will eventually get the dozens of email messages out of their outbound queue, it may take them a few days. Never attach more than about 1Mb of photos to each outgoing email.
Purchase a small portable PC, with a tiny screen, annoyingly small keyboard, cram the largest HD he can fit in, a USB port and a CF reader, and ethernet. Ignore any cables which come with the cameras, they'll just get fscked up and drivers are generally a bitch. You can get additional CF cards anywhere in the world (not sure about Bhutan, but I bought one in Albania last month). You can also get USB based CF readers most photo places in any major town on the planet, in case the PC or reader gets lost. Don't bother carrying a CD burner, they're too common so you can borrow them as you travel.
If a whole tiny PC is too much to carry/worry about, then just a small USB CF reader you can hook to internet cafe computers will do. Small computers and fancy digital cameras tend to make you stick out in poorer areas, and thus a target for thieves, so don't count on the photos stored on the PC making it home.
Go into a cyber cafe and ask to use his own PC on their internal network. If they allow it, then find out what their outgoing SMTP server is, and use it to relay t
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
I remember Fresh Gear on Tech TV loved the MindStor device. But I only see it in 10g. B&H has a Delkin which is simular, in 60g. BTW B&H rules, bought lots of stuff from them. Lets assume they have a 5MP camera (I have a Sony 5MP). Each picture is about 2.5 MB in JPG format. You'd get about 24000 pictures on the 60g drive. If they are going to carry a laptop around also, they might want to purchase a DVD burner and just move them from the laptops hard drive onto the DVD after some time. You can get a external burner for $350 or less, and $1 a disc. But, if you are going to fill the camera, and need to empty it quickly, the hard drive storage will be best. You could always go with the cheaper hard drive unit, and a DVD drive. Once you get enough pictures on the unit, move them to the laptop, then to DVD, or even CD.
Fear Is the Only God
i just returned from a 8 month trip to israel and solved the same problem myself.
i brought along a small agfe camera with regular alkaline batteries.
it had internal storage for about 30 pictures and hooked up to any computer via usb.
i would then download the drivers from wherever i was ( you could carry them on disk as well) and whenever i filled up i would post them to Ofoto.com for free
this allowed me to send back an ongoing gallery of what i was doing.
I've long been a fan of CF, because of its high capacities and universality, which drives cost down. However, its is bulky compared to the other standards, and the multipin connector is expensive.
My most recent camera is SmartMedia (SSFDC) based, and I'm happy with it. The neat thing about the cards is that they're flat. I can tuck one into my cheek to conceal it, slobber all over it "I don't know what you're talking about officer", wipe it off, put it back into the camera, and it works flawlessly.
Doing the same thing with a CF card would result in the contact holes becoming waterlogged, and requiring compressed air to blast them out. By the way if you've never opened a CF card, grab one that you don't use any more (who needs all those 8mb starter cards that come with crappy cameras?) and rip it apart. They're pretty cool. I think I'll put photos up on my gallery, check the Tech album.
Anyway, CF's speed and size are great, but the connector is its downfall as a media format. (as an expansion slot, lots of pins are great!)
unless:
You want to wake up at 7:00am to a roll call
You want to sleep 20 to a room
You want to be overcharged
You want to have to pay for sheets.
FAR better is to find the small, indepedent ones. Look in bus/train stations for signs, ask other backpackers.
Scratch the frame pack/rollable suitcase - its going to be way too heavy, and you'll never really use the wheels. Just get a backpack.
Don't worry about dressing locally, or buying from local junkshops - there will be other obviously foreign backpackers everywhere, and unless you speak fluent, idiomatic you'll always be a foreigner.
Don't get a money belt, they're only used in James Bond movies and by kids whose parents are paranoid.
If you're hitting sketchier places, hang onto some American currency (like a 50 USD note). It's remarkable what kind of magic it can work in places when you "suddenly" have paperwork problems at immigration/customs.
Face it, you're a foreign tourist. Don't patronize the locals by pretending to be one. You'll fail at it. Don't be a rude, ugly American either. Treat people with respect, don't speak English LOUDLY AND S-L-O-W-L-Y and expect them to understand.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I don't know about you, but I've never seen web email that was happy about doing large file transfers. Assuming one only runs across an internet cafe every few weeks, one might have hundreds of megs of photos that need to be realiably sent home. No web mail is going to do that.
Plus, most internet cafes don't have flash memory readers attached to the computers, and might not be happy if you plugged in your own. The only way to use the network "as you please" would be to bring along a laptop or Terapin Mine, and plug straight into the ethernet.
Once internet access has been obtained, getting the photos somewhere is easy enough. Get an account on a friend's FTP server, and make them promise to make backups as soon as new uploads are detected.
Then you just have to cope with the speed of the connection in a foreign internet cafe. If you're supremely lucky, they might have a T1/E1 connection, but it's more likely to be quite slow. Sitting there waiting for a half gig of photos to transfer might take a sizable bite out of one's day.
Good tip about the universal current adapter. Instead of a 110-to-DC and a 220-to-110 adapter chained together, it might make more sense to order a 220-to-DC adapter. This is not only more reliable and lighter, it also makes it less obvious that you're a Yankee.
Carry a set of Lithium batteries. They weigh almost nothing, and when your NiMHs are dead with no chance to charge them for a few more days, you'll be glad you spent ten bucks on the Lithiums.
I completed (3 years ago) a trip to Europe where I backpacked and carried an SLR AgX camera (silver halide, aka Film). I shot approximately 100 rolls of film. Some were over,under, normal exposures (to capture dynamic range in chrome), alot were throw away shots.
.... be prepared to lose everything if your backpack gets stolen. :)
But the great thing about editing is I've got them all stored in the original format.... and I can go back and look thru them for images that strike my fancy now that didn't otherwise before. After all, the incremental cost of a roll of film is extremely small.... same with digital (Assuming, of course, you own the appropriate media).
Now, I didn't worry about 9/11 because it hadn't happened- all of my film was stored in plastic baggies that literally went in my knapsack wherever I went- raw, unshot film stayed in my backpack. My camera was NEVER out of my reach at any given point. I met people that worked for a living doing this that had had several )3) digital cameras stolen.
Also if you get film processed, you can always ship it back. A single SLR battery will get you 100 rolls, less if you flash. It'll also cost you about as much as your low end digital camera (well, relatively high end but not yet prosumer SLR quality) to go that route. Glass alone will cost 300$
What I am trying to say, in essence, is that the technology may NOT be there yet. You can hit cybercafes if you are close by to get them to burn you CDs, but you'd better have your own MIA (media interface adapter) and a CD of the drivers. And even then they may not let you touch the comps. I ran into a few places that had macs as their primary computer (who'd thunk that!).... burning CDs is a luxury that youd probably not get.
Best bet, which is very unfortunate, get a laptop that can burn CDs for you to back up from. Get a few power adapters for the various voltages.... and possibly a solar power charger for your backpack top (can stick it out the window on the train). BUy several backup sticks/memory cards- they will break/get stolen.
Worse of all
You could try to do a mail drop now and then, but I lost about 50% of what I sent home, so... good luck
Organization Stuff
Stuff the pictures into folders like this:
\yyyy\yyyymmdd
This allows the directory size to be managable, and since you're not likely to cause the camera to roll over, filenames aren't an issue.
Use a program such as Thumbs Plus to view the photos, and prune (if you must). The "slide show" mode lets you rip through images for review like a dream. For editing, I use Paint Shop Pro.
These programs have served me well for the 82,000 I've accumulated so far.
Gear
If you can, get an old laptop that burns CDs. It doesn't have to be fast, or pretty, it just has to run at least 2 hours on a charge. If that can't be done, try to get a pair of old Toshiba Librettos (they look like old PDAs, and are less likely to be stolen).
Get power adapters, cables, etc, for all the countries you plan to visit. If you're technical at all, take some alligator clips, and a small multimeter for use in rigging up power. (They make them small and cheap at Radio Shack)
Figure out some way to back the stuff up (via CD if possible, or cloning the Librettos)
--Mike--
I don't understand the points you're making. Are you saying that digital cameras are less likely to get stolen than SLRs? I don't see the logic here.
Target sells Kodak ISO 400, 96 exposure film at $9/roll, or about $0.10/exposure for film. Processing the film runs about $2.25/roll, or about $0.02/exposure. A 256 MB CF card runs about $56.99, and holds about 1000 exposures (based on the space of the pics I took on vacation last week). That's about $0.005/exposure for CF, versus $0.12/exposure for film. If you go with 64 MB cards, so you can send them back home every 200 or so exposures, then you're still looking at about about $0.01/exposure. Now, remember that with digital, you can pick your best shots and reclaim the space, for another improvement of from 3:1 to 30:1, depending on the quality. I'd say the incremental cost of film is much higher than that of CF. (I omitted the battery costs here, since I don't have a lot of info to go on. If you use rechargables and have occasional access to power, you're fine.)
Besides, I'd rather have thin, light CF cards and a light digital camera than lots of bulky film and a heavy SLR.
I personally own two Panasonic Toughbooks (an old CF-25, and my present CF-17), and I love them to death, despite the fact that the old batteries don't hold squat for a charge anymore. I found a place that'll rebuild the packs(nuclearcomputers@nospam.hotmail.com) but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Buying a used Toughbook can be bit of an adventure. If the auction doesn't say the port covers are present and in good shape, they probably aren't. If it doesn't say the battery holds a useful charge, it definitely doesn't. One nice thing is that all the Toughbook models share a common battery charger, so the AC and car adapters are universal.
Owning a machine that you can dropkick while running is a lot of fun. I think nothing of walking in the rain, laptop perched on one hand, typing with the other, Nextel velcroed to the back of the machine with a plastic baggie over the top of it because the sissy phone isn't ruggedized. IRC from a thunderstorm? You bet! Folks sometimes look at me funny when I use the laptop as a hammer.
As far as the memory stick thing: Utter madness! Can you imagine a computer with a 40-gig hard drive, that only let you store data on floppies? That's just assinine. Digital video cameras that don't let you use the tape for stills are crap. Many do, and I'm presently in the process of figuring out which do and which don't. Just imagine, thousands of megapixel still photos on a single tape.
By the way, if you're not Firewire-enabled, some of the new DV cameras will let you download the mpeg movie data from the tape over USB 1.1. Although it is agonizingly slow, it works in a pinch.
I just finished a 12 month trip to Asia and Oceania 6 months ago. I got by with a 2.4 MP camera and 2 128 MB CF cards.
I may not be a typical tourist but I came nowhere close to 50 pix a day as one of the other posters wrote. We took a total of 2500 pictures. Don't forget to have fun without thinking of taking pistures all the time.
My CF cards held a maximum of 450 pix at a time. I regularly stopped at an Internet cafe to write the pix to a CD. There are Internet cafe's everywhere and they're rapidly catching on to digital photography. Some photo-shops do it too but they tend to be more expensive.
I met some people from back home on the way and I gave them copies of my CD's to take home safely, in case I got robbed somewhere. This never happen although a couple of guys on a motorbike tried to pull my camera off my belt while I was riding a motorbike myself.
With the new 1GB CF cards I might have been able to do it with just the one card. But it's very risky to walk around with a year's worth of photo's on your belt. Pretty quickly the emotional value of the pix starts exceeding the value of the camera and memory cards.
X.
Even back in '99 I found them in the most unlikely places, every little town in Spain had one, Tangiers had one, little out of the way places in the middle of Africa that have no name had one. They aren't expensive by American standards unless your friend is really travelling on a shoestring. Where the connectivity is halfway decent he could probably find a way to email the pictures home for safekeeping, or if not burn a CD to snail mail home. I wouldn't risk carrying all my photos with me for a year, CF isn't indestructible.
And this was in '99. Now that Mount Everest has Internet, I suspect you really need to go to the most out of the way, poorest or totally unspoiled places in the world to not have technology available. Everything thinks they'll go there, but unless your friend really lives "The Beach", he'll be seeing an Internet cafe every place he goes.
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.
It's actually a bit higher on cost- rolls come in or 4 packs, so say you'll buy all 36 exposure rolls for 10$ (not unreasable, but not cheapest route either). That works out to be roughly $0.10 (what you got) worth of film. Development is actually 3x that cost since it's 3 rolls, so that cost is $0.0625, so about $0.16 per photograph ;)
Now your CF 256mb has a rebate on it- they are 80$ a piece. And you can only get 256 images from a 3megapixel camera (and frankly anything lower will suck for image quality). So that is $.313 for each photo. For arguments sake, you get 10 buddies together and they all spend the 85$ to get the cards with rebates for 56$, thats now $0.21 per image.
Yep, you can reclaim the images you don't like- lets make sure you know you will never want that photo...
One aspect about digital that you talk about but fail to understand (and many people do, I'm not singling you out) is that things *can* go wrong with *any* image, digital or AgX. Basically you can corrupt data bits on the card, can have the camera shut off too fast, or worst- accidently format the wrong card. Same thing with AgX- can drop the film, drive over it (done that). Drop it into water (been there).
And when it comes down to the final comparison, image quality.. well... you just can't beat AgX until you hit the digital SLR realm, in which case (and not even then) you come close.... to making an 11x14. I've got some 20x30's that hang in my room from my Europe trip which show exceptional detail, even down to the text engraved upon the wall. You can't get that from a digital point-and-shoot camera.
But it's no matter to try.
As for the 'bulky' film, well, it's about 3x bigger than the cartridge but much easier to handle and has alot less theft-interest
i have ran into this problem before in 2000... some of these problems have been solved now. there are a few ways.
just buy a camera that can handle CDRWs... like the sony CD mavica:
Sony Mavica CD 300 or any other of these series. the media is not the standard but carrying 10 of them won't be much of a problem. mailing will be simple too. since it's a smaller CD, whenever you run into civilization, you can back up onto something else (the internet, bigger CDR, DVD, etc.) without needing non-standard parts.
(note: smaller camera would be better, but if you're travelling for that long, you will want zoom...)
if you want something else that can handle PC card (all memory types has PC card adapters) like a digital wallet from minds@work (who are out of business... XD ) but there are some out that are previously posted. here's one on ebay: here
that would have kicked ass when i was travelling. shoot until have no battery instead of wasting time dumping pictures...
another would be to get one of these: VAIO C1 note. a picture book. that way, when you have dead time on the train, plane, etc, you can blog on it. adding more details to your pictures, etc. definitely worth thinking about. C1s can be had pretty cheap since they've come out with a few versions already... you gotta hunt on Ebay for a good deal. there are lots here in japan.
email me if you want some more suggestions/tips. i'm not a pro, but i have been on the road with consumer digital camera without a padded wallet and know what it's like.
What about one of these:
6 in 1 Card Reader (SM/MMC/SD/CF/Microdrive/Mstick) + Takes 2.5" HDD (not Supplied)
According to the product info, it is battery powered and does not need a PC. You can copy data between flash cards and the internal hard drive.
Using one of these readers, the questioner could copy photos from their camera's flash card to a larger hard drive. They might then post the flash card home, while retaining a backup with them in case it is lost in the post.
I hope this helps.
Actually given that the guy is going to have to download all the pictures to his hard drive to burn them to CD (the CompactFlash media transfer rates would never support burning a CD) so I sort of assumed he was going to do that anyways.
... and if they get upity about their data I highlight them all and hit delete, soon as they walk off I fetch them from the trash-bin. Call it off-site unintentional backup.
I always do
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
I recently spent 2 1/2 weeks in southern Chile/Argentina. I was traveling with people who were travelling for 10 months, and I spoke to a lot of people who were travelling for a long time. The simplest way I saw was just to transfer images from a camera using USB and then burn them on a CD. I wouldn't have thought this, but there were LOTS of internet cafes that provided this ability. Small towns in the middle of Patagonia with 1000 people would have 3 internet cafes. And, from what I've been told, it's like this all over South America.
Maybe where you are going it's different, but maybe you should look at the available technology where you are going.
This post cannot be rebroadcast without the express written constent of Major League Baseball.
CF Cards are fine I suppose, but they're oddly shaped for the traveler. I have a Sony 3.1Mp Digital Camera, and it obviously uses the Sony Memory sticks. Now I know it would run several hundreds of dollars to buy up a bunch of those Sony 128MB memsticks, however they're half the size of a stick of gum. If I were going all over the world by backpack, I'd just make sure to have some "pockets" in which to sew the memsticks into so that they're guaranteed not to fall out. Tightly wrap them in a couple layers of plastic and you'll probably be ok. Maybe send some home every couple months through priority registered Fedex out of the major cities worldwide, and confirm their receipt by checking in with friends/family back home before leaving that major city (you're site seeing in some of the major cities aren't you?).
Having backpacked through some really sopping wet conditions, I know those cheap Kodak one-time cameras stand up fine to the heat, wetness, and humidity (90% humidity in 90 degree heat with all-day downpour soaking me to the bone) well enough when properly wrapped up in plastic. Unfortunately, not having a digital camera meant I took some really crappy pictures that ended up being rather worthless once I was back home. And the previous poster was dead-on. Digital is FAR cheaper and easier to backpack with (weight is a consideration) than a bunch of disposable cameras or 35mm film. Just be careful with your equipment and you'll be fine.
Several of the hard-drive based MP3 players have connections for CF cards. The Archos Multimedia has a module with SMC and CF readers, and even a photo module that has a cheap crappy camera. You can then upload from the CF cards (buying only as much as you'll shoot before you get a chance to dump them to the MP3 player). A side benefit of this is that they often include a voice recorder so that you can diary things and track them by date.
For film, why not just send the film directly back to one of the online photo processing/image hosting sites? They'll get it developed and posted without any intervention from you, so your friends and family can check them out and you can also take a look when you do find Internet connectivity.
What would I do? Get a Canon EOS Elan II (or the more modern equivalent with metal parts, not the cheaper Rebels) and a Canon digital SLR (is it the D60 or is there something newer?) and a couple of lenses: 50mm prime, 28-110mm, 80-300mm... and just swap the backs between them as needed. Add the 20gig Archos MM w/ the correct card reader and you're good to go. Then if you're out of battery or film at least you have another option.
Of course then your pack is considerably heavier, but I wouldn't want to be without some kind of photographic means on a trip like that! I would skip the bulky/fragile laptop in favor of this setup.
--D
That said, I think CF is the way to go, wait until you are JUST ready to go before dropping into Fry's/etc. Look for the largest CF card you can get (512M today, 1GB tomorrow I am sure). Pick up as many as you can afford. They are light, and can easily be mailed somewhere (is loss in mail THAT high ?) and returned later in the itenerary. The other choice is to find a drop in iCafe, download the CFs that you have, and e-mail/transfer them to home (have an FTP site ready for it)
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
One last, somewhat strange piece of advice, you may also want to sew a small Canadian flag to your pack. I've had far less problems since I did.
Do this if you're a Canadian. If you're an American, why not see how well your foriegn policy flies overseas? Or are you not proud of the red, white and blue. God knows I see enough of that shit when I go to the US.
I -AM- a Canadian, and when I see arrogant americans doing this, it makes my blood boil. There's a reason that flag gives you less problems, idiot. If I ran into someone doing this, you would be mocked, and depending on how drunk I was - beat down.
Insightful my hairy white ass.
Why doesn't somebody invent a standalone CD burner that accepts a 512MB compact flash and burns a CD of whatever is on it? That would be great for this application.
Make sure you have all the adapters so you can recharge it via local outlets & voltages.
Traveling the world as a geek does rule. As geeks our major problem is we try to generalize our lives to NOT ENOUGH DATA. Travel gives you enormous quantities of data - especially if you blend in with the local travels. You learn so much about the world and when you come home and apply it to your own world - the possibilities are unlimited.
-Jay Thomas
Countries visited in the two years: Saudi Arabia, India (Kerela & Bombay), China (Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen), Japan (Tokyo), Hong Kong, Taiwan (Taipei), Macao, Mexico & Canada
Plans for the next year: Japan (next month!), Spain, Thailand, among other places!
http://www.jthomas2.com
jthomas2@uiuc.edu
The only problem I see with shooting at lower resolution is the inevitable "GOD! I wish I had taken that photo higher- it's awesome!". You know, that one in a million shot.... ;P)
My trip to Europe consumed around 100 rolls of film. The last one was 50 rolls in 10 days. So yeah.... burning film is a bit of a cost, but I have huge prints to thank for it (And a gf that really hates roman ruins now
My friend is headed overseas for quite a while with his new Sony 5MP camera he had the same problem. So my friends and I bought him and iBook- they're cheap (about $1300) durable (polycarbonate plastics) small and very versitile and have good battery life and a big hard drive (60 gigs). Our original plan was to get him a Sony Vaio but the battery life was...how to say it...severly lacking. The iBook has enough power to play MP3's organise pictures and watch movies. That said- It's no desktop replacement, but it fits this job quite well.
Get a good travel pack, one that is both an internal frame pack and a suitcase with wheels. Pack light, get a money belt. Never display american money on the street if possible.
One last, somewhat strange piece of advice, you may also want to sew a small Canadian flag to your pack. I've had far less problems since I did.
It's far, far better not to display any signs of affluence.
So when you're wheeling that suitcase/backback down the street with the Canadian flag on it, people will think "hey, a local."
Travelling light and blending in is the best advice. Forget the interior frame suitcase/backpacks. They're unbalanced, oversized and overweight. If you need to wheel your pack, it's very conspicuous and far too heavy! Carry the kind of pack that a highschool student would carry. You can only squeeze a couple sets of lightweight clothes in there and some maps & stuff. If you have money, most problems are easy to solve.
Don't use maps in public, don't bring out any travel guides in public.... and don't bring $2000 worth of digital camera equipment unless you're willing to hand it over when you're jumped in a dark alley. (Hide some bills in a very concealed location, don't keep your passport with your money, and keep a 'fake' wallet (a few bills and some domestic book cards) handy. (while you're at it, I've taken to scanning travel documents and putting them on a password protected website. Get companions to carry copies of your docs too, and carry copies of theirs.)
You're probably blending in alright when people start asking you for directions. It's impossible to blend in completely, you just don't want to make it obvious that you're a tourist, and you don't want to make it obvious that you're carrying lots of valuable stuff.
I like the disposable camera idea. I also like the idea of a cheap digital with CF or SmartMedia cards.
Youth hostels are o.k., some suck, who cares. If you're not carrying that flag-laden wheeling suitcase, sleeping in a park shouldn't be a problem. I tend to avoid it because I'm a small person and I'm not normally good with the local language. It's not safe if you can't answer the vagrant/drug dealer/police officer.
Most cities your friend visits will have tech shops that will download his pics and burn a CD for him. Check out Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree for lists of shops and to post requests for shop locations on your route. The most popular solution is to burn two disks: mail one and carry the other.
He could also bring his software and connection cable to any similar shop and upload your pics to a service like O-Photo for net storage and sharing with your friends while on route.
These solutions are not flashy but they are cheaper and simpler than most that have been suggested.
10 000 pictures... I'm glad I'm not invited to his end-of-trip slideshow.
You know, since my camera broke, it's revolutionised my vacations. You've no idea of the difference it makes when you use both eyes to look at something. Depth perception, it brings a whole new dimension to your holiday.
The author of this post asserts his moral rights.
Plan on getting robbed every 6 months while backing packing depending on where in the world you are. In poorer more desprate parts of the world, plan on even more often. The devices and media will get stolen. Many places with "low crime" may have a high rate of theft with little risk of bodily injury.
Most internet cafes can do run machines with USB and you should be able to transfer pictures back to a server but it will be slow. Many net cafes are a few dialups in parallel and you may get lucky and find a high speed dsl link but figure on upload speeds of about 1/2 modem speeds. Most one hour film devlopment places can put photos on cd and many of them can read most camera smart cards. It may be much cheaper to pay them to copy the data to a CD and mail the CD back home. You will need to keep track of what got mailed because you may find packages may not make it back.
You may want to consider a fiber reinforced security bags but in some parts of the world such gimmicks will annoy the thieves and that can result in being stabed.
I've got several friends that have been all over the world and some of them have been backpacking for years. Don't lower your guard, cause thats when stuff goes missing. Always keep photocopies of your passport and keep your other ID and money in two different places.
get a colour PDA that can read whatever media the camera uses. Have a decent photo manipulation program on the PDA (e.g. gimp), this way you can retouch, crop and recompress images thus getting a lot more images onto a single card. Probably best if both the PDA and camera run on AA batteries and compact flash is the most durable (and cheapest???) media. Your probably still best posting the disks home or just keeping hold of them. Uploading 64megs from a cybercafe using dialup is gonna take a while.
Backpackers can't blend in.
And I don't know how he looks, but if he/she is caucasian he will stand out in most parts of this world.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
The traveller needs to decide what his/her priorities are. Personally, in my experience, which includes 6 months of backpacking the Appalachian Trail in the US in 1999 and 5 months travelling overseas in 2000 (Asia, OZ, NZ), film is the way to go. The way I travel, the less shite I carry, the happier I am. With an SLR with one 50mm lens I didn't have to worry about batteries, or power adapters or even the value of the camera. When you start humping around a new digital camera, plus battery chargers, cd burners, laptops and the like, you're spending more time guarding, packing and unpacking that crap than you do enjoying the trip.
Internet cafes are shockingly ubiquitous in other parts of the world (easily more prevalent than in the US). But I wouldn't want to rely on them to upload my photos to home; how much time do you want to spend waiting on a 28k shared connection while it tries to send a couple megs of photos home? Yeah, there's a risk to sending film home. But I didn't lose any, whether shipped home from Podunk, Tennessee or Northern Thailand. When overseas, I usually developed the film locally & shipped the prints home. Negatives are pretty small & light & easy to carry in a backpack.
The camera itself is one I bought used for a girlfriend about 10 years ago for something like $200. She later bought a better one for herself & left this one behind when moving out. Takes great pics & for a reasonable price can be replaced on the road if it gets lost or broken. I can't imagine taking a brand new $1400 digicam as one poster recommended. a) thats a huge portion of most folks travel budgets and b) if you lose it, you're potentially in a hard spot; obliged to buy another unit that works with the storage media you've invested so much money in. Or start over with another media family. 35mm film is available everywhere, doesn't require much for a battery and takes a pretty decent picture. So thats what I'll keep using.
For what its worth, I do have a digital, that cost me over twice as much as my SLR, plus batteries & charger & storage media. It works great as a point-and-shoot camera. But for travelling, I don't trust its reliability or durability. If I scratch the SLR lens, I can replace it for as little as $30, though I'd prolly spend more like $60 for something at least half way decent. On a digital camera, what's it going to cost to fix that? They're certainly cool & serve a purpose, I just think a person talking about such an extended trip ought to consider all the ramifications of their decision.
To summarize:
There're other factors worth considering too, posted by other folks. This isn't an issue where one solution is perfect for everyone; do what you want. I know what works for me.
Looks like there has been a lot of great ideas for storage but, little mention of how to keep the devices powered up. A couple of people have suggested rigging solar panels to battery chargers. That is a good idea but, here is an all inclusive product for charging batteries via solar power.
Storage is really the least of your worries when traveling light with a digital camera. Your main worry is battery power and how to recharge/buy new batteries in remote areas. Spending a lot of money on Compactflash cards solves storage problems- but not your battery problem.
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=DCR-TRV950+&pr ice1=1000&price2=1300&price=between&btnP=G o
Check out the Archos Jukebox Multimedia 20 with the Super Bundle (link).
20GB portable hard drive with options up the ying-yang. Card readers and USB and cameras, oh my.
$400US.
As for being away from power, look at solar battery chargers, available at auto parts stores.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
There are several questions to answer before deciding if digital is the appropriate choice.
What does he want to do with the pictures? Does he like to give slide shows? How big does he want to enlarge for printing? Does he use a laptop as a photo album?
What kind of lens does he want to shoot with? Telephoto? Wide angle?
How light and how small does the whole kit need to be? Carrying more than 3 pounds all day long is a drag.
How important is it to shoot at night? Not many digital cameras have a lens as fast as f1.2 which can add an additional hour or two of shooting time to the day.
Is he willing to take two cameras? Perhaps a film camera for the serious shots (enlarging or slide shows) and a digital for snapshots?
Does he like B & W photography? Does he want to make nice big 16 x 20 B & W prints? That implies shooting B & W film and printing in a darkroom.
Does he already own any equipment? Can he borrow any for the trip? Many people have several cameras and are willing to loan ones they arenâ(TM)t using.
Such a long trip really makes the storage of digital files an expensive problem to solve. I would rather put the money into camera and lens than storage cards. Another problem is a digital cameraâ(TM)s appetite for batteries. The solutions for solving the storage and battery problems are going to be more stuff to buy, carry and deal with.
I would say there has to be some specific reasons beyond cost-per-shot for using digital; otherwise the disadvantages donâ(TM)t outweigh the advantages. Like if he really plans on emailing snaps back home as often as possible, maintaining a blog, or something like that which film canâ(TM)t do. Otherwise, just buy the best 35mm camera system he can afford.
Not long after I got my digital camera, I went on a 10 day holiday OS. I had to take my laptop with me to download the photos each day or two and I really wished this unit was around then. This nifty unit is the ultimate answer to your friend's (and my) dilema. The image tank has a laptop hard disk in it and a USB interface, with both CF and SmartMedia Slots. It has the option of between 20 to 40 GB of storage and is pretty small, reasonably light weight and rugged. It has a 12VDC adaptor, 100-240VAC power supply and based on most cameras putting out around a 1MB JPEG for the average shot (3.3Mp) it will store around 40,000 images before he will have to download. There are adaptors for Sony MemStick, SD Mem, etc. How do I know of these?? No, I dont work for them, it is on my Xmas list!. See this site -> http://www.image-tank.com/
I just got back from a trip where I did this. I had 2 large memory cards that I could use to hold about 400 pics total. When I started running out of space, I would find an Internet cafe and have them burn them onto CD. Pretty easy.
If you are worried about losing them, burn 2 copies and send one home.