re: Can you download to cd in park?

[LMarge]

This is probably on here somewhere, but I can't seem to find it, so please excuse what may be a repeat question! In the parks, are there places to download your card to a cd? When we were there 2 years ago they didn't have anything set up to do this yet. I was hoping that by now there would be some sort of one hour service in place perhaps. It would certainly save on how many cards I have to take of my camera -- I take a serious number of photos - on the last trip I shot 28 rolls of 24 to 36 exposure film! Thank God for digital - and the delete button!!!

 

[meliahz]

Subscribing

I'd also like to know the answer to your question! . . .

 

[poconoboatniks]

Yes, you can download your cards to cds. The Kodak shop on the right as you enter the Magic Kingdom. I don't remember how much it cost.

Pocono

 

[tashasmum]

yes you can do it in the Town Square Exposition Hall on the right as you enter Magic Kingdom, also I can't remember the price but do remember thinking it was cheaper to bring additional cards with you.

 

[HarambeGuy]

We did this at MK in 2005 and it was $12.99 per CD.

 

[WillCAD]

You can have your pics downloaded at the camera shops near the entrances of all 4 parks, and the Kodak Imageworks in Epcot's Imagination pavilion. Cost is $13, limit 120 pics, and you might have to leave your memory card and come back if they are busy.

There are also self-service download kiosks in the camera shops at MK and MGM, and at Imageworks. Cost is the same ($13 per CD), but I think you can fill up the CD instead of having the 120pic limit.

If you have a car and can goi off-site, all of the local Walgreens stores have 24-hour photo counters that will download your pics for you; cost here is only $4 per CD for as many pics as the CD will hold.

Because of the high price of these downloads, it's usually a good idea to buy more memory cards. Don't get a couple of gigantic cards, get several smaller cards, each big enough to hold one day of pics. When they are all full, then you can download them to CD all at once. Or, if you have enough cards for each day of your trip, simply put them in your room safe till you go home.

 

[Groucho]

Look at it this way...

One two gig SD memory card, $20 (maybe slightly higher if there are no good mail-in rebates at the moment, or if you use xD or Memory Stick cards)

...or...

Dump two gigs of photos to CDs, $39. Remember that a CD maxes out at 700 megs, so it'll take three of them to store your photos. Then there's the time and bother to go over there and have them do it, and the time spent reviewing your photos to try to make sure that you aren't wasting space with failed shots, etc, etc...

I'd definitely buy more memory cards over trying to get CDs burnt in the park. Even if you do it off-site, you're looking at pretty similar money, but the CD burning will always be much more of a bother.

I'd also stick with two gig cards at this point as they are usually the best bargain. If you can find a one gig card for $10 or less, that's not too bad. If you want to go bigger than two gigs, you need to make sure that your camera can support a large-capacity card - some can with a firmware update if they didn't support it originally.

 

[LMarge]

Thanks for the info - $13 seems a bit much for a cd when the price of a 2G card is only around $25 at the moment at CC - I like the Sandisk Ultra cards - which brings me to my next question. Has anyone used the "Extreme" cards - are they that much faster that they are worth the extra $? I currently have 2 -512 cards and 1-1G card. I plan to pick up a few more before the trip and with the 2G on sale, perhaps I'll get 2 (I'll have to check the price on the others and compare at Costco as well.) But before I purchased I was curious about the new "extreme" card and it's speed. TIA!

 

[WillCAD]

Thanks for the info - $13 seems a bit much for a cd when the price of a 2G card is only around $25 at the moment at CC - I like the Sandisk Ultra cards - which brings me to my next question. Has anyone used the "Extreme" cards - are they that much faster that they are worth the extra $? I currently have 2 -512 cards and 1-1G card. I plan to pick up a few more before the trip and with the 2G on sale, perhaps I'll get 2 (I'll have to check the price on the others and compare at Costco as well.) But before I purchased I was curious about the new "extreme" card and it's speed. TIA!

It depends on your camera and your card reader.

Many digital cameras simply can't write to the new high-speed cards as fast as the cards are capable, so there is no bennefit to having them in the camera - your pics will still take the same amount of time to save.

Downloading at home is where the speed can really come in handy, especially if you have a very large card with lots of pics on it. But again, your typical $30 SanDisk USB2.0 memory card reader is not capable of reading the cards as fast as the cards are capable of being read.

If you have a high-end camera and/or a high-end card reader that can take advantage of the higher speeds offered by the Extreme cards, then it might be worth the money to you to get your pics saved on the camera or downloaded to your computer quicker. Otherwise, save your money and stick with the SanDisk Ultra II cards.

 

[Groucho]

My feeling is that with Sandisk, you're paying extra for the name (which IMHO isn't necessarily worth paying for - not that they're any worse than anyone else, but I'm not convinced that they're all that much better, either. They're certainly not immune to failure, like any memory card.)

But specifically, you need to look at actual speeds. The Extreme is faster than most but usually carries a premium price tag (though not as much as it did not that long ago.)

Sandisk Ultra 2 writes at 9m/sec and reads at 10m/sec.
Sandisk Extreme 3 writes at 20m/sec and reads at 20m/sec.
One of their competition, the Kingston 120x, writes at 18m/sec and reads at 21m/sec. (No particular significance to this one but it was the first I could find that listed the speeds.)

I did a big list in this forum late last year with a whole bunch of SD card read/write speeds (and need to either find it or re-do it one of these days), most 60x cards read a little faster than an Ultra 2 and write a little slower, and most 133-150x cards read a little faster than an Extreme 3 and write a little slower. Unfortunately, many manufacturers only list read speed (which is the usual listed speed) and don't tell you the write speed. Regardless, most any 120x+ card should be able to beat an Ultra 2 in most speed tests and they usually cost less, so that's where I go. Others feel that spending extra for a bigger name is worthwhile.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Rob Galbraith's site has a page devoted to showing the timings of various CF and SD cards for various DSLRs. Even if your DSLR isn't listed, it'll give you some idea of the range you might expect.

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007

I don't think he's updated the database in a while.

 

[LMarge]

I'm working with the Canon S2IS, so I'm not sure the "extreme" speed is going to be to my advantage with this camera anyway - anyone know for sure? Looks like I'll stick with my Ultra's and look into the one Groucho mentioned the 120x+ cards. My main concern is write time -from the point of capture to the next point of capture. I like to shoot in the continous mode a lot - especially at sports events, and I was wanting a faster speed for that reason. I really don't care about the read time - I just want to be sure I understand which is which - read is from the card to the computer correct? It can take all day as long as they get onto my computer!!! Any brand suggestions would be appreciated Groucho!

On a side note here - every time I read a post by Groucho I hear that voice in my head (the real Groucho voice, complete with cigar! saying "hello sweetheart!") Just makes me giggle every time (yes, I am easily amused!!! )

 

[Groucho]

Did I tell you about the time that I shot an elephant in my pajamas?

I think Rob Galbraith's site suffers from too much information with not enough conclusions. The data could use to be mined a little more. What I'd like to see is...
Cards speeds tested with one particular reader (for maximum, consistent, and comparable performance)

And maybe one particular card tested with various digicams.

If we know the max read/write speed of our camera, we can then see at what point the extra speed won't help when shooting. Of course, it doesn't help that it hasn't been updated in 11 months, but I am not in a position to criticize anyone for slow web site updates.

LMarge, yes, write speed is what you're interested in - that's the measure of how quickly pictures can be written to your camera. It looks like the S2 writes at about 3m/sec - so I think that most any high-speed card will be more than fast enough to capture as fast as the camera can write.

I don't have too much in the way of specific brand recommendation. I believe the memory in the cards themselves is usually made by a relatively small number of vendors, and that's probably the most likely point of failure, so in many ways, I think one card will be as good as another... but I admit that we're venturing away from known fact and into hypothesis.

One of my main concerns is that you get a lifetime warranty, which I think most offer.

 

[webshark3]

Look for local Computer Stores. Microcenter (while they don't show them online) offer their own generic brand of SD at the checkout counters. Everyday (no sales), $9.99 for 1GB, and $14.99 for 2GB. The speeds change time to time (around 60x). I have a few, and love them.

I also found a 4GB Kingmax on Amazon for about $25, then found out my Pentax wouldn't support it.

 

[Groucho]

I also found a 4GB Kingmax on Amazon for about $25, then found out my Pentax wouldn't support it.

Are you sure about that? I think all Pentax DSLRs support SDHC cards with a firmware update, and I suspect that at least some of the PnS models are the same way. You can get Pentax firmware from this page.

 

[webshark3]

Are you sure about that? I think all Pentax DSLRs support SDHC cards with a firmware update, and I suspect that at least some of the PnS models are the same way. You can get Pentax firmware from this page.

Sorry, to be more specific, it's a 4GB (non-SDHC), and my camera is the original Pentax Optio WP. I'm sure the dSLR would be fine. I upgraded my firmware, but no support over 2GB.

I'm a Canon boy when it comes to DSLRs.