Camera Memory Cards

[The Real Cinderella]

We love love love to take photos, and plan on taking the photopass photographers to their full advantage. However, I imagine that our 8gb card wont be enough for the full 2 week holiday.

Is there anywhere at disney at all that we can take the memory card and have the images put on a disc or where we can take a pen drive to transfer them to??

 

[2Tiggies]

It is all relative to the type of camera you have and how much resolution you have on each picture. I would think 8G would be enough.

You can take your card to any of the photo places in the parks and they will put it onto a cd for you. However, I tried this last time just because I wanted them backed up. After an hour in a queue with only 2 people in front of me, I waited another 30 minutes for the pictures to transfer - then the CM said they hadn't copied and would need to do it all over again. It was past midnight and I just left it. It would have cost me $13 or so for the CD. Honestly, I would rather just take a spare memory card, even with a lower storage capacity. You get a LOT of photos onto 8G!!!!

 

[wayneg]

Place like Walmart or Walgreens both do transfer to Disc. We did it a few years ago at Walmart, cost a few $'s but only upto 100 pics per disc. No idea what they offer now, its probably 4 years ago we did it.
We take 2 or 3 laptops with us now every trip so put them on there every night.
Other option is buy more memory, its dirt cheap now and no hassle putting them on disk.
Took us about 2 hours all in to go there, transfer, wait until ready the back to hotel, 2 hours I can do without spending on holiday, would not do it again.

 

[2Tiggies]

2-3 laptops Wayne? Aren't there only three of you?

 

[Pegasus928]

I would think that an 8GB card would be big enough to fit all the photos on that you would take - depending on how big each picture is that your camera takes. If you had it on its highest setting, and each pic was 10MB in size, you would get 800 pics on that card.
But while the card is big enough I would seriously consider doing what Wayne has suggested and find a way of transfering them regularly. We have had the heartache of having a camera stolen, along with the card and some of our pics. Luckily we were in the habit of copying them to our laptop every couple of nights so we only lost the last 2 days of our holiday - but it still hurt.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Why don't you buy another one in the UK before you go? I know they are not cheap.

 

[london75]

Those saying 8GB is enough bear in mind most digital cameras shoot video too.

I have two 16GB cards and tend to fill them quite easily. That's not clearing down each day though. Tend to collapse in the Villa and not feel like messing with cards.

I got my 2 class 6 (fast for video) 16GB memory cards from zoombits.co.uk for £30 all in.

I think you'll struggle to get them at that price over the counter in the US.

 

[wayneg]

2-3 laptops Wayne? Aren't there only three of you?

Yup, DS & DW couldn't be without theirs to keep in touch with their friends/family, I will manage at Easter for 12 nights using one when they are in bed. August will have to take another when we are there 25 nights.

On longer trips (25 nights) we take about 2500-3000 photos far easier with laptops & now DS takes video on his, as said that eats memory.

 

[tiring_day]

I would say buy more memory cards, they are more than cheap enough now and take up next to no space. If taking a laptop all the better but if not stock up on memory cards.

steve

 

[sam_rogers]

i took two 2Gb cards when we went last year and there was plenty of room, i took about 400 pics if you're worried about not having enough space you could always get another 2GB card just in case, i found them quite cheap on amazon.

 

[Pegasus928]

Those saying 8GB is enough bear in mind most digital cameras shoot video too.

I have two 16GB cards and tend to fill them quite easily. That's not clearing down each day though. Tend to collapse in the Villa and not feel like messing with cards.

Even though digital cameras do shoot video - and I have used mine for this as well - the quality isn't what you can get with a stand alone camcorder, especially as I suspect most of us take a good old point and shoot with us and nothing too fancy.
I use the video option only as a last resort if I want to grab something quick and don't have time to get the camcorder out.
As for messing with the cards when I get back to the villa - I would rather spend 5 minutes at the end of the day than have all my eggs in one basket, and risk losing all my holiday memories due to a corrupt or lost card.

 

[tttessa]

Hiya,

We are always wary of losing/getting cards stolen, but don't take the laptop abroad - may think about a netbook sometime.. so we take about 8 X 2 M cards with us (dead cheap) and take a fresh one pretty much every day. Leave the others in the safe, less chance all the memories will be lost.

Tessa

 

[london75]

Granted I do have a fancier camera than some might take so video is better quality than my current camcorder except for my biggest gripe that it's not in widescreen so I have to edit it all when I get home.

As for corruption though, this is worth saying I think, the best place for digital images is to leave them on the original media until you're positive you have a good copy on another device. I don't think that takes 5 minutes and people should be careful. Pegasus I think is a geeky chap like myself so this is more to people that aren't so nerdy.

The act of moving a file is the riskiest process of all and if the photos are precious, ideally you should keep them on the source media with the write lock enabled until you've got the prints you want. That sounds overly cautious but the more you know about how computers actually operate and the shortcuts they take the more you'll believe me.

Finally to anyone using Windows XP, if the only copy you have of your photos is on your computer, then they are at serious risk. There are a number of serious issues with the way various versions of Windows XP handles photos. Just viewing the photo can alter it and/or destroy it in severe cases. Incredible but true. And as for the very helpful rotate option built into Windows, try not to use this on Windows XP. Use the software that came with your camera. XP can and frequently will destroy your photo when trying to rotate. At the very least it will lose quality each time you rotate it!

Sorry for the geekery but it's worth warning in case it's someone's wedding photos or childs first trip.

 

[Scrap_Vamp]

Sorry for the geekery but it's worth warning in case it's someone's wedding photos or childs first trip.

I think that is a really important reminder - not geeky at all!

We always take our laptop and a whole stack of memory cards. When we transfer to the computer we also back up on to a CD.

At home we also have an external hard drive, and back-up regularly. I'm glad we do this, as our old laptop and my camera (with all memory cards in the case) were stolen when we were burgled two years ago. Luckily I had done a massive back-up literally the night before (had left it a while). If I hadn't, we would have lost loads of precious photos!

 

[wayneg]

Video on some new camera are now a better option than some camcorders. DS's new one takes HD video, better than our older DV tape camcorder but I cant be bothered trailing a camcorder around with us so its still camera video clips or nothing for us.

 

[Scrap_Vamp]

Video on some new camera are now a better option than some camcorders. DS's new one takes HD video, better than our older DV tape camcorder but I cant be bothered trailing a camcorder around with us so its still camera video clips or nothing for us.

Lol, same here! I quite like the video from my camera, but it is one of those ones that has some point and shoot functions, but also bits that are closer to a DSLR. Got great footage of Spectromagic last year.

 

[Pegasus928]

Video on some new camera are now a better option than some camcorders.

I agree Wayne - but as we only have a basic point and shoot the captured video isn't in wide screen, HD or anything else fancy. When I watch my music video back it is clear to me which of the clips have been shot with the camera due to the quality. And as soon as I can find somewhere that stocks my 'dream' camcorder I will be getting it and using that more than ever
As for the debate around storing the pics you have taken, I am sticking with my original recommendation and will always transfer the media over to my laptop every day or 2.
I think the chances of the pics being lost or corrupted during transfer are a lot less than the card being lost, stolen or damaged. Granted this is mainly because we have suffered both a loss and card damage and vowed to protect our memories better in the future.
Everybody will, I am sure, look at the advice throughout this thread and will take the option that best suits them - which is what I find so great about the Dis

 

[london75]

I'm going for the Panasonic HDC-TM15 or TM20 for reference.

Edit: Just seen the HDC-SD60 is out with wide-angle 25x zoom so that's now my favourite in case anyone else is about to buy.

Going to buy from Bestbuy when we're over next. Full HD recording, super light weight and takes SDHC memory cards. It looks pretty good and except for some motion blur issues which I think will affect any HD camcorder I can afford certainly it's looking like my perfect camcorder.

It also has a 3 second pre-record feature which sounds good so as soon as you turn it on it's effectively buffering 3 seconds worth. One of my problems with Mini-DV camcorders is the time to get the running, I've lost numerous £250 You've been Framed moments due to the delays! Not that I'd capitalise on other people's mishaps of course.

Should be available for between £290 and £320 over there depending on the exchange rate and my camera bag has a perfect small camcorder sized slot waiting for it.

 

[seashoreCM]

I would buy and bring enough memory cards that I think I would need to use without having to transfer pictures. Actually did that (about 20 memory cards) on one recent trip.

I would also consider transferring the pictures to CD or DVD or whatever but keep the memory card intact to have a backup of the pictures on hand. In my case I had a specialized disk drive that would copy the pictures without the need for a laptop.

 

[wayneg]

Thought I would bring this thread back rather than starting another incase anyone was still looking for memory cards.
Been into Tesco's today they were selling off their 4gb SDHC cards priced at £15.99(not worth that) down to £5. Its this one on their site but cheaper instore.
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.206-3274.aspx
Cheap enough to buy a spare or 2.