some questions

[David.g]

Hi all

I am thinking of buying myself the new Pentax Optio WP digital camera for use when I’m out kayaking in the UK.

If I do get one I will be taking the digital camera on our next holiday to Orlando and I was thinking about backing up my memory card. I know from other posts that you can put the photos that are on the memory card onto CD in various places but what about video?

As it is a fully waterproof digital camera I was planning on taking some short movies on the various water rides.

So my question is
Do any of you know if there is an internet café or something similar that will allow me to burn my own CDs or DVDs?
Or do you know of another way of backing up the memory card that contains video (and no I don’t have a laptop )

Also
We will be staying at the Enclave Suites for the first part of our stay in a 2 bedroom suite has anyone stayed there recently by recently I mean in the last month or so if yes what did you think comments, photos and tips would be good.

Can anyone recommend a good place to watch the shuttle launch.
We have been told cocoa beach is a good place?

All the best
David

 

[wicket2005]

I think the majority of stores transferring data from a memory card to a cd are fine. However, one of the members of this forum, Cazzie, came home to discover none of her pictures where on the cd she had bought which was a terrible shame.

Personally I am just buying enough compact flash cards to cover me for my holiday. I had a record of how many pictures I took last time so just converted that into a total number to work out roughly what I need.

I am not using my digital camera to take video because I am using my camcorder to do this instead. If you intend to use your digital camera to take video you would burn through the compact flash cards easily.

At last they have brought out a waterproof digital camera. I lost my camera last year due to rain seeping through the zip on my camera case in an extremely heavy downpour. Digital cameras and water just do not mix. For my replacement camera I bought an Aquapac waterproof bag which also enables you to use the camera underwater (not that I have tried) and is supposed to float if you drop it in water. Though you are buying a waterproof camera with you enjoying kayaking it might be worth you looking at the site for the other products they sell which may be of interest to you.

 

[Goofyish]

Depending on your budget and how many much you use your digital camera there is another option - a portable CD or DVD writer.

There are a number of models on the market:

The Delkin BurnAway is a DVD player/CD-RW and allows you to plug you memory cards directly into the unit and backup to CD. It supports CompactFlash (I&II), Microdrives, SD, MMC, SmartMedia, Memory Stick and MS PRO. Also supports XD cards with an adapter (not included)

It costs around £179

There is also a DVD burner version for £220

Other models available are:

DIGIMAGIC DM 220 8x - £129

Apacer DISC STENO CP100 - £149

There are also quite a few portable disk drives designed to download you memeory cards onto, some with small LCD displays to view your pictures on too. These tend to be more expensive than the CD-RW drives though and less sturdy.

Take a look at this sit under Portable Storage for more details:

Warehouse Express

 

[David.g]

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my questions.

My intention was to use the digital camera only for very for short video clips like
going over the drop on Splash Mountain in MK it might not work but looking at the short clips might be entertaining.
I have a video camera that is not waterproof for every day normal use.

I have looked at getting a portable storage device but the cost at the moment makes it a no go also looking at the prices I would be better getting a second hand laptop just for downloading my photos onto.
Losing all my holiday photos is just not worth thinking about.


Thanks again
David

 

[wicket2005]

If you are just after a reminder of a ride there are plenty of video clips on the majority of rides in Orlando that you could obtain from the web. On the official sites they are taken with a static camera so the pictures are good. I think taking a video yourself in such conditions will produce a very blurry picture, however, you would be able to hear the screams perfectly ok. All you can do is give it a try.

I would be more concerned about actually losing the whole camera on a ride rather than be worried about the storage card.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Most of the Walgreens now do card to disc conversions and you can chack the disc when burnt.
I however, take the risk out by taking my laptop with me and burning the dvd's myself.

 

[rosiejo]

Has anyone tried the Image Tank? It's a portable hard drive that you put your memory card straight into.

I work off of xd cards - and last trip filled up a 512 and a couple of 256s (and that was for two weeks) this year we're out for three so I need some more storage (I shoot at 6 mega pixels don't like deleting images as I go as you never know what you can rescue with photoshop).

I've seen a 1mb card for £55 but then I came across this portable hard drive. £130 for a 20gb (you can get 40 and 60 but I think that's extreme) but they're on sale in the US for $150.

Has anyone used one, and is it safe ordering from the states? I assume it runs on batteries and if they're rechargeable AAs that's fine - but if it runs off mains I'll be stuck!!

 

[julie d' tooth fairy]

Hi David g.
My husband is a photographer and during our west coast trip last year he took over 5000 photos (Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon and of course Disney Land!)
He didn't want to take a laptop either so he borrowed a storage thingy?
It was similar to an i-pod (a little larger), and had a 40Gb HD and a larger screen (than his Nikon D1x) on it to view the pix.
All he did was pop the CF card into it and press the back up button, even I could do it.
I know it was a bit expensive at £300 but we are considering getting our own for our trip this year.
He tells me that a cheaper option is to buy a CD back-up machine, it works on a similar principle and looks a little like a personal CD player, you put a blank CD into it pop in your CF Card and press back-up in about 2 min a 512mb CF Card is backed up to CD and cost about ½ the price.

I can’t post links to other sites yet but search google for:
1. Apacer Disc Steno CP100
2. VP2060 X's-Drive II 20GB Storage Device
3. SmartDisk FlashTrax 20GB Digital Multimedia Device

I hope this help and if you plan to travel a lot and use a digital camera these things are well worth the price.

Julie

 

[David.g]

Thanks for all the information much appreciated.

Thanks again
David

Only 3 day left until we leave for Disney.