Memory for Disney Trip?

[deebee29]

We're heading down to Florida for two weeks in May/June, and I have an HP 8MP camera. I've only been to Disney once, and only for one day, and I took 300 pics. I take lots of pics on vacation and am going to need a lot of memory cards. What do you all do for this, it's a great expense to buy all of those cards, but I want to take as many pictures as I would like. Thanks!

 

[Master Mason]

I take my laptop and download my pictures each night and then burn dvd's.

 

[deebee29]

I have a laptop, but I don't feel comfortable travelling with it, the safes at POP are too small for it and its a hassle to travel with. Any other ideas? Should I just buy oodles of memory cards?

 

[MarkBarbieri]

How big is your memory card and how many pictures fit on it? Memory cards are really, really cheap now. I recently upgraded to 16 gig cards for about $70 each. One of those holds 1,500 RAW pictures on my camera. If I shot JPG, it would hold more like 5,000.

 

[brack]

Cards are cheap so take many! I buy a CF card every time I find them on sale and I buy as big as I can.

 

[deebee29]

I have an HP R927, and I am not sure if I can use those new SDHC cards. Soo that leaves me with 2 GIGs and under. (I think)
I have it on 8MP, minimal compression, (2nd highest setting) and can get about 400 pics on a 1GIG card. So I would need tons of cards! What MP and compression setting do you all recommend? Thanks!

 

[brack]

I have an HP R927, and I am not sure if I can use those new SDHC cards. Soo that leaves me with 2 GIGs and under. (I think)
I have it on 8MP, minimal compression, (2nd highest setting) and can get about 400 pics on a 1GIG card. So I would need tons of cards! What MP and compression setting do you all recommend? Thanks!

I shoot at the highest setting possible on all of my cameras. I do not shoot RAW though unless I plan to manipulate the photo later or I think the shot may have some monetary value. I don't sale many of my photographs though. It's my hobby not my job ...... yet!

Buy more SD cards they are cheap!

 

[deebee29]

Staples has the "Core Micro" 2GIG cards on for $20. With the ones that my mom and I have now, I plan on buying two of these and will be able to take LOTS of pics. Is "core micro" a decent brand name, and would you buy this brand, or is it better to stick with sandisk or something?

 

[Groucho]

NewEgg has been having a variety of 2 gig SD cards for about $10 or so lately. With shipping, I wouldn't pay more than $15 for a 2 gig SD card today.

For comparison, I just received today from NewEgg an 8 gig high-speed SD card for $35 shipped...

Check your manual to see if your camera can support SDHC, and if not, see if HP has a firmware upgrade on their web site that will give it such support. (Unlikely but not impossible.)

 

[ukcatfan]

Newegg is also my favorite source, but also buy from Buy.com b/c they often offer free shipping.

Kevin

 

[JR6ooo4]

I just looked at steve's digicams site and he says the card limit is 2 gigs. Which is a lot. I use two gig cards shooting large raw files. I only have 5 gigs of memory.

Mikeeee

 

[NostalgicDad]

Yep, I'm also a NewEgger and have been collecting 8gb SDHC cards for quite a while now. Dirt cheap as Groucho mentioned.

When at the parks, I also transfer to my laptop every evening. (Actually more like 1am!) I'll leave the originals on the SD card as well and, depending on how much shooting I'm doing, I'll maybe use different cards each day.

 

[Groucho]

Yep, I'm also a NewEgger and have been collecting 8gb SDHC cards for quite a while now. Dirt cheap as Groucho mentioned.

When at the parks, I also transfer to my laptop every evening. (Actually more like 1am!) I'll leave the originals on the SD card as well and, depending on how much shooting I'm doing, I'll maybe use different cards each day.

My workflow is to empty the cards onto the laptop, burn redundant DVDs, and format the cards in the camera, just to make 100% they're clean. This trip I may even have to delete some pics from the hard drive as I think that's it's quite likely that I'll use up the remaining 30 gigs or so on the laptop's drive... though I can probably free up a ton of room with a little cleaning.

Then I usually end up wasting time looking at thumbnails, processing a few raws, uploading them to my site, and posting on Disboards. Last WDW trip, I just did dial-up (free local calls for DVC members) and left the laptop connected for nearly the entire trip, all day and night long, and in California, there's free high-speed internet at the Disneyland Hotel (and it was really fast! I was uploading to my site at 300-400k/sec.) Now finally, there's free high-speed internet at all DVC resorts so I'll have a fast connection when we're at the Beach Club Villas... but I'm going to try to force myself to get some rest at night, I tend to stay up too late (like I'm doing right now).

 

[ukcatfan]

I tend to stay up too late (like I'm doing right now).

I resemble that remark! But hey, I only have to get up at 5:00.

Kevin

 

[JR6ooo4]

I do not erase or format the cards until I need them again. It only takes about 15 seconds to format a two gig card in my canon XT. That way they act as another backup, for a while...

Mikeeee

 

[cmwade77]

I use a device called a USB Bridge, you can either go on google or PM me and I can provide you with information on them and transfer to whatever memory I can find the cheapest price on, I use: a 8 GB USB Flash Drive, transfer from expensive XD cards to SD Cards (the SD cards are cheaper) note for the memory cards you do need card readers. The USB Bridges also work with USB External Hard Drives, CD Writers and some will work with DVD, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD writers. No matter which storage medium you choose, if you get the right USB bridge, you can verify that the data has been transfered properly (please note that I highly recommend you do some test transfers before the trip) and everything fits easily within the safes. Oh and no matter which setup you use it is substantially cheaper than a laptop if anything happens to it, I bought my USB Bridge for about $25 from ebay, but you can find them in the stores as well. There are also DVD writers with built in card readers.

 

[deebee29]

When buying SD cards should they be a certain brand, or are they all basically the same?
By the way, I am in Canada, and thats the chepest i have been able to get here and I would rather not order off the internet.

 

[seashoreCM]

YOu can buy a battery powered gadget a little larger than an iPod or a cigarette package onto which you can copy your pictures so you can erase and re-use the memory card. Two such gadgets are the Digital Foci Photo Safe and the Wolverine Flashpac. It has sockets for all common camera memory cards. Different storage capacity options are available for each. Prices start at around $100. for 40 gigabytes from discount on line photo dealers. You do not need to bring your laptop or use the computers at Kinko's or in a hotel business center.

I'm told that you can copy the pictures to a real iPod, although I would not rely on that unless I am sure I can get the pictures back out in full resolution (as opposed to iPod screen size). You may need an adapter with memory card sockets in it.

You might want to do both: back up your pictures using a laptop or a storage gadget such as the above, and have lots of memory cards so you keep your pictures on those without erasing and re-using until you get back home.

Digital camera hints: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/digicam.htm