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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
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.
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."
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.
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.
> Depending on just how serious you are about being without power
Exactly. Is your friend going to England and France, Mexico and
China, or Bangledesh and the Cameroun? Urban, or rural? Are we
talking about being without power during the day and sometimes for
2-3 days because not _all_ of the hotels have power, or are we
talking about being sixty miles (on nothing that we would consider
to be roads in any North-American sense of that word) from the
nearest place that has power certain days of the week, except when
doesn't work when it's supposed to?
Regarding sending things back: are we talking about Europe,
where you can always get to a phone line within two days (usually
much more easily than that) and there's fairly reliable postal
service in nearly every country? Or is he going to South America,
where the mail service is abysmal, or Africa where (in large areas)
there are no phone lines? "Around the world" covers a lot of
territory. The difference between Paris and Abong Mbong is
the difference between "make sure the recharger can handle 220/50
current" and "buy solar".
Also bear in mind that outside of North America, what power you get
is unlikely to be 110-120 volts at 60 Hertz. Anything you get MUST
be able to run on 50-Hertz current anywhere from 100-250 volts, and
it may not exactly (ahem) be a smooth sine wave either. Either that
or batteries.
If you're going to the third world, I suggest either solar, or
stuff that runs entirely on flashlight batteries (a common size,
not smaller than AA, not larger than D, and not obscure like B),
since you can go weeks without seeing power in some areas. And
carry a couple spare sets of batteries all the time, because
sometimes you may not be able to buy them on short notice. Bonus
points if it uses rechargeable batteries and you have a solar
recharger. In that case, take three sets of batteries (one that
is in the device, one that is recharged and ready, and one that
is in the recharger).
If you're going to only first and second world nations and the
occasional breif stop in a major metropolis in the third world,
you can probably get away with equipment that charges from either
110 or 220 volts, provided it can handle 50-Hertz current -- which
you must not take for granted; a lot of stuff you buy in the US
will fry on 50-Hertz current, or at least not work properly. And
you don't want to carry around a converter, because it will be
heavy. (To convert the cycle, you actually have to convert to DC
and back, so the equimpent that does it contains an inverter and
therefore has significant mass. Not for backpacking.)
One other thing, should be obvious: get a camera that lets you
preview your pictures and delete some you don't want (to make room
on your current storage whatsit) so that you don't have to wait
to get back to a place where you can use your laptop/whatever
before consolidating. You will want to take at *least* two of
every picture you want and keep the better one. At home you
would keep them all until you get back to your PC at least, but
on the road you may need the space for other pics then and there.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
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.
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