Memory stick??

[DG Cruiser]

I read on another thread to save your pictures on a memory stick instead of bringing a computer on board with you. I'm not so savvy in this respect so how do you transfer your pics to a memory stick? Any help will be great!!

 

[wdwwishes]

Keep the laptop at home and pick up another memory stick/card for your camera. They're getting more and more affordable. I travel with 2--2gb and 2--4gb memory cards and haven't come up short. The number of photos your stick/card will hold varies though depending on mega pixels and quality that you're shooting at. I save my downloading and backing up until I get home.

 

[aznaphrodite]

I also read that if you do happen to run out of room on your memory card, Shutters can download it to a CD for $15.

 

[DG Cruiser]

So I should just buy extra memory cards, not sticks, right? I know how to use the memory cards but wouldn't know how to download to a memory stick & I guess I will use shutters as a last resort. Thanks for the advice.

 

[aznaphrodite]

So I should just buy extra memory cards, not sticks, right? I know how to use the memory cards but wouldn't know how to download to a memory stick & I guess I will use shutters as a last resort. Thanks for the advice.

If your camera uses memory cards, you should buy extra memory cards. Only Sony cameras use memory sticks.

 

[tvguy]

So I should just buy extra memory cards, not sticks, right? I know how to use the memory cards but wouldn't know how to download to a memory stick & I guess I will use shutters as a last resort. Thanks for the advice.

If your camera uses memory cards, you should buy extra memory cards. Only Sony cameras use memory sticks.

For most of us memory stick and memory card mean the same thing. How about we just call it memory media? To clarify, you don't download anything, you just buy enough memory media for your specific brand of camera to hold all the pictures you take. When you get home, you can transfer it from the memory media to your computer.
I just got back from Best Buy and they had 4gb of memory on sale for $9.99. That's over 1200 photos at the highest quality from a 7.1 megapixel camera. Thats enough to take 171 pictures a day on a 7 day cruise, or 7 an hour over a 24 hour period.
And, god forbid if you lose memory media, yes you are out your pictures, but you only lose a $10 item. Lose or break a laptop and you'll be out $2,000.
I should point out, that as a parent of two adult children, I have binders and binders of photos taken of them growing up, photos we never look at.

 

[kcashner]

And if you really need a computer, many of the ports have internet cafes where you can use their computer for a very reasonable rate.

In St. Thomas, it was $2 for 15 minutes for computer or internet time on their computer. In St. Croix it was $5 for 15 minutes or FREE with a purchase in their shop.

 

[DG Cruiser]

Thanks for all the advice. A 4gb sounds like plenty for me!

 

[kcashner]

Thanks for all the advice. A 4gb sounds like plenty for me!

Unless you have a teen who wants to shoot videos!

 

[sdaniel105]

And, god forbid if you lose memory media, yes you are out your pictures, but you only lose a $10 item. Lose or break a laptop and you'll be out $2,000.
I should point out, that as a parent of two adult children, I have binders and binders of photos taken of them growing up, photos we never look at.

Who spends $2000 on a laptop? If you choose to not take your laptop I would at least take two 4GB cards. Make sure you format the cards with your camera and take a ziploc or something similar to keep the protected when out of the camera. I would also not waste any time when you return to transfer them to you PC. Remember these are electronic devices and can fail. Also, the CDs/ DVDs most people buy are not long term permanent storage devices.

Sean

 

[tvguy]

Who spends $2000 on a laptop? Sean

Well, I did buy a cheap Dell at Wal-Mart for $950, but I think I've spent another $1,000 buying the software it did NOT come with that I needed.
It didn't even come with word processing software!! The most basic Microsoft Office bundle with Excel, PowerPoint, and Word costs $399.95.
PhotoShop is $699!!!!

And the college my daughter is going to in the fall requires Apple laptops. The minimum setup is $4,500...and that's AFTER a 15% educational discount. Yep, the darn computer they require costs $500 MORE than a year's tuition!!!

 

[wdwwishes]

That must be one tweaked up Apple laptop. I just got a 15 inch Macbook Pro for around $2000. My ever so nifty 24 inch iMac desktop with extra memory and some fancy external speakers DH said we needed didn't cost $4500. I hope it's just extra software that is needed. Good luck!

 

[tvguy]

That must be one tweaked up Apple laptop. I just got a 15 inch Macbook Pro for around $2000. My ever so nifty 24 inch iMac desktop with extra memory and some fancy external speakers DH said we needed didn't cost $4500. I hope it's just extra software that is needed. Good luck!

As you probably know, laptops are more expensive just because the compact components are more expensive. Every computer I have ever purchased always ended up costing twice what I expected. I know Apple is always more expensive......our graphics department switched to all PC software because it was so much cheaper for the same thing. They did buy one iMac since some clients still use Macs....it was over $6,000!!!

 

[BurghFan111]

I am one of those guys with the camera around their neck at all times. I love taking pictures. I have taken a couple thousand pictures on a vacation before. (Don't ask me how i got there). I use a device called a Wolverine. It is basically a multi-card reader and 100-500GB drive in one. So I fill up a memory card, take it out of my camera, pop it into my Wolverine, and hit copy. At that point it copies the contents of my 2G memory card onto the devices 160GB drive. I then erase the memory card and I'm good to go. The device is slightly larger than a cell phone. I do however carry 2 memory cards so I can take my time on the transfer and clear of the 1st memory card. My Wolverine is older, newer ones have many more options including color previews of all your photos.

 

[WDW Princess 71]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet but I bring a laptop with me on all vacations not because my memory card(s) fills up, but because I like to back up my pictures every night or at least every other night on my trip. Just in case my camera ever got stolen or damaged somehow, I feel so much better knowing that I have a backup. I'm paranoid like that...I am in the process of scanning thousands of our old photos before the digital days onto DVDs and then I keep copies of those DVDs at home and then in a safety deposit box in case our home and therefore the pictures were ever destroyed. So I think you can "get the picture" (no pun intended ; ) that I am obsessed with pictures and have the opinion that you cant be too careful. I'd rather spend 10 minutes a night on vacation before bed safely transferring my pics than risk losing a week or more's precious memories if something happened to the camera.

I will say though that I don't bring my "main" laptop with me...that one costs over $4000, fully loaded...instead my dad who is pretty computer illiterate has a very basic HP one that I use when I travel so I don't have to worry about losing my expensive main one.

 

[bonoriffic]

Well, I did buy a cheap Dell at Wal-Mart for $950, but I think I've spent another $1,000 buying the software it did NOT come with that I needed.
It didn't even come with word processing software!! The most basic Microsoft Office bundle with Excel, PowerPoint, and Word costs $399.95.
PhotoShop is $699!!!!

And the college my daughter is going to in the fall requires Apple laptops. The minimum setup is $4,500...and that's AFTER a 15% educational discount. Yep, the darn computer they require costs $500 MORE than a year's tuition!!!

Wow you seem to be over paying for everything. Office Home and Student which includes Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and OneNote costs $97 at Amazon. As you daughter goes to college, most colleges offer the full Office suite for around $10 to $100 which adds Outlook and Access.

Unless you are a media professional, it is highly unlikely you will ever take advantage of all Photoshop has to offer. Photoshop Elements is $60 and does almost everything Photoshop does. Even paint.net which is free does 99% of what Photoshop does. If you do need Photoshop, the educational discount by buying it on campus would be worth looking into.

 

[lyn9856]

Good grief! Scary costs! We have several PCs/laptops due to work and DH is a DJ, Even our most souped up microwave everything at 50 paces quad core all singing dancing pcs/laptops dont cost that much And I bought Office through work scheme, for only about £20!

I have just bought a great notebook for travelling, ...small and neat in girly pink! 160g HD...all I will need for mobile internet and downloading photos and video. Samsung NC10 only about £300/$440
I have 8 x 4gb memory cards, but like to back up my pics each night. I shoot in raw, so need a fair amount of storage. Plus my DH has a Hard Drive High Def camcorder that can only be burned onto Blue Ray...so need to be able to have a back up storage in case he fills the 60gb...which he doesnt normally..but...there's always a first time!

Risky to take? Well maybe, but then thats why we pay for insurance!

 

[lbgraves]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet but I bring a laptop with me on all vacations not because my memory card(s) fills up, but because I like to back up my pictures every night or at least every other night on my trip. Just in case my camera ever got stolen or damaged somehow, I feel so much better knowing that I have a backup. I'm paranoid like that...I am in the process of scanning thousands of our old photos before the digital days onto DVDs and then I keep copies of those DVDs at home and then in a safety deposit box in case our home and therefore the pictures were ever destroyed. So I think you can "get the picture" (no pun intended ; ) that I am obsessed with pictures and have the opinion that you cant be too careful. I'd rather spend 10 minutes a night on vacation before bed safely transferring my pics than risk losing a week or more's precious memories if something happened to the camera.

I will say though that I don't bring my "main" laptop with me...that one costs over $4000, fully loaded...instead my dad who is pretty computer illiterate has a very basic HP one that I use when I travel so I don't have to worry about losing my expensive main one.

I usually do the same thing but missed downloading our first 2 GB card on the PC repo and thought the card was lost forever when we got home. A month later as I was going through all the pockets in the finally empty suitcases I discovered it with a bunch of streamers and FE stuff in one of the pockets thank goodness but because of that I will never put off downloading the cards every single night. It had our first week on the ship on that card from my camera. I got my Dell from their website for around $600 and it is fully loaded with what I need for personal and work [do online transcription at home]. That includes extra memory and processing speed.

 

[gardengirlco]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet but I bring a laptop with me on all vacations not because my memory card(s) fills up, but because I like to back up my pictures every night or at least every other night on my trip. Just in case my camera ever got stolen or damaged somehow, I feel so much better knowing that I have a backup. I'm paranoid like

ITA. I do the same thing and with good reason. I was messing around with settings on one of my camera's when we were in Cozumel and accidentally reformatted the memory card, erasing all the photos on it. Thankfully, I'd uploaded them all to my laptop the night before so didn't lose a thing.

 

[brucechase]

To me it is much easier to bring a seperate memory card for each day of the cruise. I only put one day on a card and into the suitcase it goes. You can pick up 2G cards (which is more than enough for a day) for around $4 (Buy.com has a 4G for $3 now). That is still much less than a laptop and easier for me.