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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
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.
TechTV tested a few different types of cards. They dropped them in water, lit them on fire, and even ran over them with a truck. Most types stopped working after getting soaked or fried, but the compact flash card still worked...that is, until they ran it over with a 1 ton truck.
Bugs are just features that have been fixed.
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."
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.
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.
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 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.