Download RAW pics at the parks

[PoohLover78]

Hi all,

I have a question which I couldn't really find answered here. I plan on going back to WDW in a few weeks. Usually I had my laptop with me which gave me the ability to return to my hotel room at night and clear off my memory cards for the next day. Since I shoot raw, they tend to all fill up during the day, or after a couple days most.

Now, my laptop broke and currently, I am not able to replace it before my trip to WDW. Which puts me in a dilemma because I know my CF cards won't hold for the whole trip. I also don't really want to invest in more cards because I know I won't need them after. What I was thinking was to bring a couple 64GB USB stick with me and just find a place to download the pics from the CF cards to the stick.

Now here comes the question - is there a place in the parks where I'd be able to do that? While my hotel does offer a business center, they said I won't be able to hook up a USB drive to the computers for security reasons. Last time at WDW they weren't even able to burn me a Photo CD because I shoot raw (their machine couldn't read the format, for obvious reasons).

I'm slightly freaking out here. Part of the reason for the trip was the photography angle and because my laptop blew, I'm worried I won't get all the picture taking done that I want to. I'm open for all suggestions that don't mean spending a lot of $$$ for new equipment.

 

[Daisy14'sDH]

Buy a Netbook, pretty sure it can be used to transfer the data

 

[superdisneydork]

While I understand the sentiment of not wanting to buy cards for just a one time thing, in this case it may be your least expensive option, since without a computing device of some kind you'll have a hard time transferring the information. Also, I've accumulated memory cards over the years, I can honestly say I've never thought "Darn I wish I didn't have so many" .

That said, if you're really dead set against it and can borrow a netbook or something, I'd recommend using a portable hard drive instead of a bunch of flash drives. It'll likely be faster, and depending on how many photos you shoot, much more cost effective for the amount of storage you'll need. After the fact it does act as a nice backup tool as well.

Matt

 

[wiigirl]

While I understand the sentiment of not wanting to buy cards for just a one time thing, in this case it may be your least expensive option, since without a computing device of some kind you'll have a hard time transferring the information. Also, I've accumulated memory cards over the years, I can honestly say I've never thought "Darn I wish I didn't have so many" .

That said, if you're really dead set against it and can borrow a netbook or something, I'd recommend using a portable hard drive instead of a bunch of flash drives. It'll likely be faster, and depending on how many photos you shoot, much more cost effective for the amount of storage you'll need. After the fact it does act as a nice backup tool as well.

Matt

 

[havoc315]

Have you checked memory card prices lately?

I know 7 years ago, a 1gb CF card was $100.
But now you can get a 64gb CF card for well under $100.
A 32gb card for about $40.

 

[PoohLover78]

Thanks for all the info I was hoping to get away without actually having to buy more stuff and just do with what I have. Which is why I was hoping that maybe there'd be a place like a business center of sorts where I could just download the pics from the cards and be done with it.

I have also looked into borrowing a laptop or netbook from family or friends but as I will be gone for three weeks total, no one can actually spare their setup.

I'm a pretty tight on funds right now as everything seems to have broken down and was in need of dire replacement right after I paid for my florida trip XD Otherwise I'd have replaced the laptop already.

 

[superdisneydork]

Thanks for all the info I was hoping to get away without actually having to buy more stuff and just do with what I have. Which is why I was hoping that maybe there'd be a place like a business center of sorts where I could just download the pics from the cards and be done with it.

I have also looked into borrowing a laptop or netbook from family or friends but as I will be gone for three weeks total, no one can actually spare their setup.

I'm a pretty tight on funds right now as everything seems to have broken down and was in need of dire replacement right after I paid for my florida trip XD Otherwise I'd have replaced the laptop already.

Is there perhaps someone who can spare CF cards for a few weeks then? Also, if you have smartphones, most have a cable that will adapt their charging/data port to a USB port to connect a flash drive or card reader, you could possibly use that to dump on to the phone, and then plug the flash drive in and copy back to that, very cumbersome though.

Matt

 

[Daisy14'sDH]

What about repairing the laptop? If its the Hard drive make it run off an external...

 

[PoohLover78]

Is there perhaps someone who can spare CF cards for a few weeks then? Also, if you have smartphones, most have a cable that will adapt their charging/data port to a USB port to connect a flash drive or card reader, you could possibly use that to dump on to the phone, and then plug the flash drive in and copy back to that, very cumbersome though.

Matt

Seriously? I've never heard of that before. I have a Samsung S3. Must google that! Incidentally, I have 128GB worth of cards for the smartphone due to various free promos. That would suffice.

And I wish it was just the HD of the laptop. No, scratch that as the HD is still working (so glad about that, no data loss!). The mainboard fried, taking the power source with it. Repairing that would be more than a new one.

 

[superdisneydork]

Seriously? I've never heard of that before. I have a Samsung S3. Must google that! Incidentally, I have 128GB worth of cards for the smartphone due to various free promos. That would suffice.

It is not a popular feature, as it is rather cumbersome to use, but it does work with most smartphones, my last tablet had an actual USB port on it too, which was handy for this sort of thing. Especially since most phones require you to pull out the battery to change the memory card, so you'd have to keep swapping and restarting it. Still, if that was the only way I could take 3 weeks of Disney photos, I'd be willing to put up with it

Matt

 

[SkaGoat]

Which resort are you staying at?

 

[fabulousfive]

I would think cards is your best bet. All mine are 4gig Sandisk cards that I buy at B&H. They hold about 233 raw images. I always carry about 10 with me on trips & download when I get home. I like many smaller cards for safety reasons. If something happens to one card during download or something, my whole trip isn't lost. Good luck & have fun photographing.

 

[hakepb]

If you have MicroSD cards, there are Micro SD to CF adaptors so you can take pictures straight onto the micro SD cards. They will have a bit slower write speed, but that might only matter if you are regularly hitting your cameras internal buffer.
Here's one:http://www.adorama.com/ICDASDCFA.html
(Although that is SD, so you would also need the SD to microSD..)

With the phone transfers, you need to make sure you get the RAW off the phone. I might be confusing myself, but it sounds like some phone apps concert incoming RAW into JPG.

 

[ronfin]

It is not a popular feature, as it is rather cumbersome to use, but it does work with most smartphones, my last tablet had an actual USB port on it too, which was handy for this sort of thing. Especially since most phones require you to pull out the battery to change the memory card, so you'd have to keep swapping and restarting it. Still, if that was the only way I could take 3 weeks of Disney photos, I'd be willing to put up with it

Matt

This isn't gonna work with the size of the files. He's shooting RAW, and will most likely shoot a few gigs a day. The transfer rate would take hours. Great idea, but it won't work in this particular situation. Not practical I mean.

OK, to the OP: What kind of camera are you using? I shoot RAW only on a 5DIII, and that's about 36MB/picture. With a 128 GB card I can hold almost 2000 RAW shots. What size CF card are you taking, and how many shots will it hold on your MAX setting? What will you be using these pictures for? Are they intended just to be printed in A4 format, and maybe post online? Unless you're gonna make very large prints of these shots, you don't need to shoot at the highest setting. You can maybe play around with the settings and see how many your card will hold at Medium, or Small RAW, and as a last resort just shoot in JPEG. You won't have as much room to correct in post, but you'll almost quadruple how many shots you can take. You'll just have to watch your exposure, and take and delete test shots wherever you go. I just need to know what we're starting with so I can give better advice...

1) Camera make/model, and will it also accept an SD card.
2) What kind of CF card do you have right now.
3) How soon are you leaving?
4) What are you using the pictures for? Large prints, or A4 and online like Flickr etc?

 

[hakepb]

OK, to the OP: What kind of camera are you using? I shoot RAW only on a 5DIII, and that's about 36MB/picture. With a 128 GB card I can hold almost 2000 RAW shots.

Sorry to hijack..my first PnS used CF cards. I was going through stuff this weekend and found 2 old CF cards, a 64MB, and a whopping 256MB . Those would be good for 1 and 7 whole pictures on a modern camera

 

[PoohLover78]

This isn't gonna work with the size of the files. He's shooting RAW, and will most likely shoot a few gigs a day. The transfer rate would take hours. Great idea, but it won't work in this particular situation. Not practical I mean.

OK, to the OP: What kind of camera are you using? I shoot RAW only on a 5DIII, and that's about 36MB/picture. With a 128 GB card I can hold almost 2000 RAW shots. What size CF card are you taking, and how many shots will it hold on your MAX setting? What will you be using these pictures for? Are they intended just to be printed in A4 format, and maybe post online? Unless you're gonna make very large prints of these shots, you don't need to shoot at the highest setting. You can maybe play around with the settings and see how many your card will hold at Medium, or Small RAW, and as a last resort just shoot in JPEG. You won't have as much room to correct in post, but you'll almost quadruple how many shots you can take. You'll just have to watch your exposure, and take and delete test shots wherever you go. I just need to know what we're starting with so I can give better advice...

1) Camera make/model, and will it also accept an SD card.
2) What kind of CF card do you have right now.
3) How soon are you leaving?
4) What are you using the pictures for? Large prints, or A4 and online like Flickr etc?

First, to answer your questions:

1) I use a Canon 40D, only CF, no SD card
2) I have 2 4GB CF cards at the moment plus 1 2GB card (all SanDisk Extreme III). Since I'm a bit paranoid about losing them (I indeed have lost two in the past...), I won't get any larger ones so I won't lose everything
3) I'm not leaving for a few weeks, so there's still some time
4) A4 would be the largest these pics will be used for

The files all come out to around 13-14MB on MAX, so on a 4GB drive I get ~280 shots. Since I usually always download after the day, I never had a problem with the 3 cards I have now.

Since hakepb mentioned adapters - maybe that would be something to consider as backup? Like I mentioned, I have 128GB worth of Class 12 micro SD cards that I can only use in my phone as of right now. I don't know how speeds will be with an adapter but that might be something to consider?

 

[havoc315]

With a large enough memory card, you never have to worry about losing it, since you never have to remove it from the camera.

I just came back from vacation. Had a 32gb card in my camera (bought for about $30), 1100 pictures and room to spare. I did bring extra cards just in case. In my rx100, I keep a 64gb card. I've never come close to running out of room on that one.

I suspect a 32gb card will be cheaper than buying adapters.

 

[PoohLover78]

With a large enough memory card, you never have to worry about losing it, since you never have to remove it from the camera.

I just came back from vacation. Had a 32gb card in my camera (bought for about $30), 1100 pictures and room to spare. I did bring extra cards just in case. In my rx100, I keep a 64gb card. I've never come close to running out of room on that one.

I suspect a 32gb card will be cheaper than buying adapters.

Well, you know.... I lost my cards somewhere between taking them out of the camera to downloading the pics. Seriously. Don't even ask me how I did that because I don't even know myself. It happened to me twice. After that I went to the smaller cards so I won't lose everything again.

I guess I'll have to look into buying another card just to be on the safe side. Everyone in my family has switched to SD card cameras so I can't even borrow.

 

[fabulousfive]

I guess I'll have to look into buying another card just to be on the safe side. Everyone in my family has switched to SD card cameras so I can't even borrow.

I think buying more cards is a great investment. I'm sure at some time again you will wish you had more cards. I think it's your least expensive & best bet. How long is your trip? I'm just thinking you may need to buy a few cards.

 

[PoohLover78]

I think buying more cards is a great investment. I'm sure at some time again you will wish you had more cards. I think it's your least expensive & best bet. How long is your trip? I'm just thinking you may need to buy a few cards.

The Orlando portion of the trip that I need to cover is 14 days of possible shooting. After and before I will be at places where I know I can download photos off the cards.

Now, with my luck, I'll go out and buy cards now just to find out that the hotel I'm staying at (off-property) gave me wrong info and I could have just used their business center to transfer my pics to an external