Memory stick??

[WDW Princess 71]

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.

That seems like kind of a hassle though to carry a memory card for each day of the trip? So for a week you would need 7, and many people go on vacations that are even longer...that doesn't seem very practical. Plus, you could still lose the memory card in your suitcase once in there, they are so tiny as Lisa said she had a card in one of the suitcase pockets and didn't find it until a month later. I personally would not feel safe doing this- the whole point of backing up your pictures is to transfer them to something else in case something happened to the card or camera.

Just MHO, if this works for you then that is great, its better than not doing anything at all but for me, the best way to go is the laptop backup each night.

 

[sbell111]

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.

That seems like kind of a hassle though to carry a memory card for each day of the trip? So for a week you would need 7, and many people go on vacations that are even longer...that doesn't seem very practical. Plus, you could still lose the memory card in your suitcase once in there, they are so tiny as Lisa said she had a card in one of the suitcase pockets and didn't find it until a month later. I personally would not feel safe doing this- the whole point of backing up your pictures is to transfer them to something else in case something happened to the card or camera.

It's really not that much of a hassle. All you have to do is pick up a memory card wallet/case to hold them and keep them organized. Keep the wallet stowed safely in your room safe or luggage pocket. Each evening, swap the current card out of your camera and replace it with the next day's card.

It's really an easy process to manage and keeps all of your pics organized by trip-day, allowing you to easily manage your pics once you get home.

Managing your pics this way is:

• inexpensive because you only need to buy cheaper 2gb cards.
• safer because you cannot lose all of your pics (if your laptop was stolen, lost, or broken)
• easier because very little time is spent each day transfering pictures
• quicker all day long because you won't have to experience the lag time that comes with shooting on a card with a huge number of pictures on it.

 

[tvguy]

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.

Haven't bought anything yet, so certainly will investigate to get the right software at the best price. These prices are all the allegedly discounted prices from the Public University my daughter will be going to in the fall. My son is a Senior in college, and a Computer Science major, at a Private and he uses a lot of software under the University's group license, but he has warned me he will likely need to buy a lot of expensive software when he graduates.
I thought the Photoshop was a bargain at $699, but only because the version we use at work sells for $1200.

 

[brucechase]

... but he has warned me he will likely need to buy a lot of expensive software when he graduates.
I thought the Photoshop was a bargain at $699, but only because the version we use at work sells for $1200.

I currently have well over $15,000 worth of software on my laptop (I am also an engineer). Makes the $1800 price of the computer seem kinda small.

 

[sdaniel105]

If you bought the software you don't have to buy it again.

I would hate to have my laptop stolen or broken as well, but I would also hate to lose all the precious memories of the cruise.

 

[lbgraves]

That seems like kind of a hassle though to carry a memory card for each day of the trip? So for a week you would need 7, and many people go on vacations that are even longer...that doesn't seem very practical. Plus, you could still lose the memory card in your suitcase once in there, they are so tiny as Lisa said she had a card in one of the suitcase pockets and didn't find it until a month later. I personally would not feel safe doing this- the whole point of backing up your pictures is to transfer them to something else in case something happened to the card or camera.

Just MHO, if this works for you then that is great, its better than not doing anything at all but for me, the best way to go is the laptop backup each night.

Exactly and I will not take the chance of losing our pictures again by misplacing one of those very small SD cards. It is no big deal for me to bring the laptop.

Also I do not have the only camera for our family. DH has one and the kids share our older digital. We have an 11 hour drive home after getting off the ship so I also enjoy working on organizing our pictures on the way home working on lighting, cropping, merging the three sets of pictures for each day. With over 3000 pictures from our 3 week trip to DL and the PC repo I needed the chance to get started working on them.

 

[brucechase]

If you bought the software you don't have to buy it again.

I would hate to have my laptop stolen or broken as well, but I would also hate to lose all the precious memories of the cruise.

Not always true on the software. Most of what I have contains software keys and the amount of time and paperwork to get a new key takes ages. In addition, there are only so many reactivations before you have to repurchase the software.

I just avoid the whoe thing by taking extra memory cards.

Taking extra is convienent for me, if you don't want to - great don't do it.

 

[WDW Princess 71]

Exactly and I will not take the chance of losing our pictures again by misplacing one of those very small SD cards. It is no big deal for me to bring the laptop.

Also I do not have the only camera for our family. DH has one and the kids share our older digital. We have an 11 hour drive home after getting off the ship so I also enjoy working on organizing our pictures on the way home working on lighting, cropping, merging the three sets of pictures for each day. With over 3000 pictures from our 3 week trip to DL and the PC repo I needed the chance to get started working on them.

That is a great idea, working on editing your pictures on the long drive home! I think I will try that out this time while driving home to NJ from our WDW trip in May, great way to pass the hours!

 

[bonoriffic]

If the overall goal is digital photo protection, do what the pros do. Digital wallets are basically portable hard drives that exist to simply off load your memory cards (or copy). Some may have a simple b/w menu, to others that allow you to review the photos on a large LCD and also output to multiple formats. They range from $50 to $500. About the size of an original iPod, they are more portable than a laptop, don't have the power needs, and much easier to protect.

Between your original memory card and the photos backed up to this device, picture loss shouldn't be an issue.