CF cards sizes, need advice for upcoming trip

Rcavi8tor said:

Hi SWS,

We are going on a long trip this fall and I was planning on getting a
battery powered portable hard drive for back up but I like your idea
a lot better.

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No way would I even begin to trust anything based on a hard-disk drive for this sort of thing, especially in light of the jostling you can expect it to take in transit.

Rcavi8tor said:

Guess I haven't been paying attention that these
existed and when I asked local salesman they didn't have anything to
offer. Any particular brand you have found to be reliable?

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Sorry, but like I said, I've not even looked at them since CD-R was the dominant writable medium.

FWIW, this one:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/RDS/RDS.HTM

seems to be well-liked; but the company may be toes-up -- the web site is now just a parked-domain placeholder page from NetSol.

To take a different tack... Even a relatively old, cheap laptop could conceivably support a standard-issue (and comparably cheap) external DVD burner. For that matter, built-in CD-R/RW burners were common as far back as the Pentium-II era; so if you were willing to put up with only 700MB per disk, that could work too.

Rcavi8tor wrote:
...

Rcavi8tor said:

Any particular brand you have found to be reliable? Seems
like those would make a good backup tool at home too.

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Further to my last...

A bit of web-searching turned up this:

http://www.ezpnp-usa.com/show_category.sstg?category=a7a9779f77564bd9

But please note that I know nothing about it's quality, reliability, etc.

Also, they're asking ~$370 for it -- at which price (or close to it), I suspect one could find a wide selection of used laptops with at_least CD-R/RW drives, if not DVD-R/RW

FWIW, and all that.

That just leaving the images on the CF card is all that bad a solution. It has been mine on several long trips. CF cards are small and reliable, and no more subject to damage than film was (is). Cost is not prohibitive - you can get 16 gigs for $80 now, which holds 1000 nefs.

I agree that HD "backups" are not a good solution when you are traveling due to shock and vibration issues. One alternative, if you don't mid spending the money, is to bring extra CF cards and duplicate your originals at a convenient internet cafe. I still don't trust making DVDs on "foreign" computers, without being able to verify reading them on my system.

Thanks. With card prices coming down like that it's a big help and feasible to carry a lot of cards. It was still about $40 for a 2 gig last Sept when I last bought some. I thought that was cheap. When I bought a D 70 in the spring of 2004 it seems like the price I paid for a 1gig card was about $300 or somewhere in that range. I haven't tried it but its my understanding too that some camera shops will put them on CDs for you too in some areas although that would be a hassle in an unfamiliar town.
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Don

Check out Newegg.com for transcend CF Cards at low prices. Seem to work fine on the D300 )both 8and 16s).

I have had DVD's burned in places like Lhasa, Tibet. Cost like $5 each. But, if the DVD writer is not working properly, you might wind up with a disk you can't read back home.

The issue of redundant backups is more an issue when you are working on assignment than on leisure travel. It looks really bad if you loose important photos.

breivogel said:

The issue of redundant backups is more an issue when you are working
on assignment than on leisure travel. It looks really bad if you
loose important photos.

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I can see where the client would NOT be impressed That portable DVD burner Secondhandshooter recommended seems like a good idea too so you can immediately make a backup for important shots while on a trip.
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Don

Hi, I'm rather astounded, you purchase a D300 & I therefore assume that you have previous digital experience?

2-4-8-16gb the larger the card the more work can be "Lost" -- In my view "faster" cards
are for "sports action men".

Buy 4 x 4gb cards, never fill them, always leave space for that "Must Have" shot. Take your laptop & burnable DVD's - back up your work every night..HD & DVD..Do not format your cards until ALL your back up is 100%.
Carry a Spare Battery & always recharge BOTH batteries...
These are my rules when I travel around the world...L

I think that a lot of small cards are a real pain to deal with, especially if you don't recycle them while traveling as I do. Yes you can spend your evenings on the laptop, but that does not go over very well when traveling with your family. It really comes down to whether photography is a business or hobby, as well as the prime purpose of the trip.

I have heard more than a few folks complain that they preferred it (in the "old" days) when they just put the day's film in a bag and relaxed.

Also, It seems to me that most times that folks have trouble with their memory cards is not while the cards are just sitting around out of the camera, so I am not so sure that there it too much risk of loosing your photos under those situations, unless the cards are lost or stolen.

How about an iPod as a back-up HD?

I'd like to reaffirm some good advice already posted with my travel experiences:

• Determing which to keep and other tips:

• Cull your images every day; they may all look like keepers but be realistic and delete the obvious out of focus, some of the four shots of the same flower or three shots of the wife in the same pose... you get the idea. Benefit: more Compact Flash (CF) disk space for the next day.

• Do not remove the CF while the camera is still writing to the CF (the green light will flash- as a reminder

• Check your histogram when determining keepers

• use the 100% zoom feature on the camera to cull your photos. The D300 zooms (when not manual focus) to the camera-selected focus point. Very cool...

• CF cards are cheap now with rebates in the air; a 4GB SanDisk or Lexar, after rebates, is about $50. I get about 305 raw, compressed, 14 bit images on a 8GB CF.

• CF card manufacturer and stores.
• I recommend ONLY SanDisk and Lexar. I've used both 8GB and 4GB from both manufacturers with no issues ever... I mean ever.
• The CF store key: buy a CF from a reputable dealer (B&H, Adorama, buy.com). This site is awash with stories of bad/pirated CFs off eBay.

• If you can, keep the images on the CF when it's full and put it in the plasitc storage container. I mark my absolute keepers on the CF with the protect key every night. It helps me from doing stupid things to my good images after a beer or two. I don't want you crying in your beer...

• Back up your images to some device/media during the trip: burn to a CD, copy to a laptop or to an external device. I've used the Epson P4500 Photo (80GB) for three trips; the power supply is universal (the plugs may not be universal, depending on the countries) and I backed up my images from my CFs to the Epson every evening. Two months ago, we were in Buenos Aires and some stores would back up CFs to CDs; the problem for me was a 4GB CF won't fit on a 700MB CD... and the employee/manager didn't understand how to span the copying over several CDs.

I understand your concern to save your "once in a lifetime" photos.

Follow some of the great advice in this thread.

Regards,

Pat

I'd do a few 4/8 G cards, and all the older ones like 1G, 2G, etc in your inventory if you got them.

The reason is if you put only 1 or 2 cards and they are lost/malfunction it's all over. I've seen people stepping on a CF card and boom it's gone.

Those portable hard drive would not survive a drop. It's like putting everything in a single basket.

Go for lexar or sandisk if you can. I know, the fast ones are expensive. I got a Ridata 8G card and it corrupted images on me twice (even after an exchange). Lucky that I usually shoot more than one frame on the same thing. Sandisk has yet fail on me. I am crossing my finger.

Zip lock bags. Very handy and you know your CF cards are safe inside them. I am starting to make it habit to zip lock my lenses inside the camera bag when it rains.

If this is a once in a life time trip I'd bring a second body. Even a cheap one. Your P&S is handy but we all know it's no match.

De-brand your gear. cover up the Nikon logo. Tape over the gold rings, etc. You'd be surprise how low profile they look afterwards.

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usr_c said:

I'll be going on a (probably once-in-a-lifetime) two-week trip
starting next week and am a bit paranoid about having my cf cards
stolen. Security will be a bit of an issue, but I've made peace with
the fact that I might get my gear stolen. Of course, I'll be
carrying my D200 and lenses in a scruffy bag (as opposed to a
spanking new lowepro!) and will be using common sense when it comes
to deciding where to whip out my camera.

What I wanted your input on is whether you think it would be better
to take a few large CF cards (say 8GB) and not have to worry about
switching them all the time or a dozen or so smaller sized ones so
that I can hide the filled up ones in an inside pocket? Backing them
up isn't an option since I probably won't have access to the Internet
and won't be bringing a laptop with me.

I've read the posts here

( http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1039&message=26657395 ), and I'm thinking of taking:

Nikkor 18-200mm Nikkor 50mm f/1.8
Nikkor 12-24mm 4 batteries
Cheap Sony p&s Monopod
Cleaning kit (Maybe, just maybe, the D70 as a backup body)

Thanks

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USR_C,

We went to Africa safari with enough CF card and small laptop. We emptied all the cards in Laptop and same time we burn DVD as second backup.

Take inverter that you can use with cigarette lighter so you can charge your batteries and charge your laptop.

So we had all the images in the laptop’s hard drive and on DVD.

Do not panic, enjoy the trip. If something going to happen it will. You cannot live life in fear.
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KP

The single best piece of advice from this whole thread!

Kpatel said:

Do not panic, enjoy the trip. If something going to happen it will.
You cannot live life in fear.

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JurassicPizza (TM)

JurassicPizza said:

Kpatel said:

Do not panic, enjoy the trip. If something going to happen it will.
You cannot live life in fear.

Click to expand...

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JurassicPizza (TM)

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Thanks JurassicPizza.
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KP

Lots of great advice, thanks everyone for your input! We're leaving tomorrow morning and we couldn't be more excited.