How many cards, how many batteries??????????????????????

I'm going on a 12 day cruise and was wondering how many CF cards, and how many batteries I should bring for my D300; I shot RAW and tend to shoot a lot. I currently have a 2GB and 8 GB card and two batteries, but how much more would I need?? I'm also going to bring my Panasonic LX3 for those late night outings when my wife says "don't bring that large camera".

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Allen
http://www.pbase.com/artist/whatever_catches_my_eye&page=all

http://www.pbase.com/artist/people_in_passing&page=all

If you can charge on the boat, I would assume two batteries could be sufficient. I have three batteries because I have the MB-D10 grip and can use two at a time. It sounds like you shoot about as much as me (a lot and raw, or raw and jpeg). I carry two 16 GB cards, one 8 GB card, and one 4 GB card. The longest I have gone shooting is 5 days and I had way more than needed. I believe I have only filled up about 24 GB.

I would suggest you get at least one 16 GB card.

Sounds liike a great vacation.

--
John
http://www.strockphotography.com

Instead of an expensive 16 GB card, I'd get a portable backup drive.

On the basis of my own experience with a D300 and a older Panasonic I suggest that checking that batteries can be recharged on board is essential and check if you need to get an adapter to connect your camera chargers to ship power points (both shape and voltage).

A couple of inexpensive 4GB cards in addition should more than suffice - it is a pity that the Panasonic and Nikon seem to use differant types of memory cards.

This web site shows a LX3 battery life of only 380 shots whereas I find the D300 is much more sparing in battery usage.

ARB1 said:

I'm going on a 12 day cruise and was wondering how many CF cards, and
how many batteries I should bring for my D300; I shot RAW and tend to
shoot a lot. I currently have a 2GB and 8 GB card and two batteries,
but how much more would I need??

Click to expand...

Check that you have a recharging capability on the ship. In that case, 2 batteries should suffice. If you do lots of chimping, previewing, or popup flash, you might consider 3 just in case.

As for CF cards, you can estimate pretty accurately how many images will fit on a given card. And you know better than anyone else how many you are likely to shoot.

Personally, I would take a laptop. Each night before going to bed, copy the images onto the hard drive, and then recharge the batteries. This approach has worked great for me on several overseas vacations.

ARB1 said:

I'm going on a 12 day cruise and was wondering how many CF cards, and
how many batteries I should bring for my D300; I shot RAW and tend to
shoot a lot.

Click to expand...

Define "a lot". I have shot 20GB in one day, so if you shot that for 12 days you will need 240GB, or a way to store them off cards as you take them. Figure out how many you will shoot, and multiply your average file size to get the number you estimate.

--
'Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.'
===============
Nikon D300 - MB-D10 - SB800 - TC-14EII TC-17EII TC-20EII
Nikon 24-70(2.8), 105VR(2.8), 70-200 VR(2.8), 300VR(2.8)
http://wretchedradio.com

Hi Allen,

I did 3 cruises so far (7 and 9 days), but they were all done with the D50 as main camera. I used 8 GB and 2 batteries. Form my personnal experience, I would not leave home with less the 16 GB for the D300. The batteries can be charge every night, so this is not a problem. If you have a flash, don't forget it as it will be useful for indoor shot. Ships are great subject.

Have fun !

--
Daniel

http://danielbouchard.zenfolio.com/

Howard A. Lewis said:

Instead of an expensive 16 GB card, I'd get a portable backup drive.

Click to expand...

They're not expensive anymore. I recently paid $30 for a 133x Kingston 16 GB card, and $20 for a 233x 8 GB card.

FYI, I usually use those 2 cards, as well as 3 older 2 GB 100x cards, which I rarely use since I got the two larger cards I mentioned above. I also carry 3 batteries and my charger.

12 4gb cards or a storage device. If you have a laptop take that on the cruise you can then down load your pics everyday. 2 batteris.
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Bluenose

I would pick up some inexpensive cards (they are all well priced now). I was in the Galapagos and Ecuador for Christmas and picked up quite a few inexpensive cards, 16GB A-Data, 2 4GB 266x Transcend, 8GB 133x Kingston (which must have been a bad copy because it kept on corrupting the files). In addition to 20GB of Sandisk extreme IIIs.

You could also keep an eye out for rebates, I remember last month Lexar had their 4GB 300x cards rebated for $5.

I went with buying extra cards because I doubt I would be needing this memory at one time for a long time. If you routinely need more memory I would go with one of the Media Storage Devices. The Epson's are supposed to have great screens on them.

Two batteries should be more than enough because you should be able to charge the batteries at night.

--I went on a 12 day cruise this past June. I brought 8 2G cards for my D80, plus 3 batteries. I was able to charge the batteries on board. Most of the modern ships have 110V AC outlets, but I would check with your cruise line. I also brought a laptop and external hard drive to double backup of my images. On returning from our trip I put the laptop and hard drive in separate carry ons You wouldn't want to lose all your images if luggage get lost.
Have a nice trip
Ed

Allen,

I did a 14 day tour and cruise to Alaska in September. Frist, if your going on a cruise ship take a three prong plug adapter. There is only one electrical outlet in the room.

I took 6-8GB, 4-4GB and 2-2GB cads for the trip, also a laptop and small back-up drive. I backed up everything at night! But, because I carried enough cards I need not need to erase anything.

The next point, how many photos in a day. I averaged just around 400 shots a day. Some days 600.

Please post your work and have fun!



All the best!
--
Steven
D300, 14-24f/2,8, 24-70f/2.8G, 70-200f/2.8VR and sb800
http://www.stevenboston.com
PAS (Panorama Addicts Society) Member

I have four cards
sandisk IV 4 Gb
sandisk III 4Gb
sandisk III 8 Gb
jessops 2 Gb

BUT: i recently bought an Epson 40Gb viewer and that way I have storage AND I can view and sort my images. it reads the raw as well as the JPG files and it works like a clock

About batteries: I have 3 batteries. I use the MB-10 pack with 2 batteries and that goes on like ages really.

Think about the Epson, it is really really good and usefull since you can see your immages on the LCD screen (large)

--
Mariette
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Please visit my album at http://www.mydigishots.com