I took a portable storage device, a hard disc in a little machine where I could save all my pictures. It also turned out to be an mp3 player, although I didn’t know when I bought it. I cannot remember the name, if you give me a day or two, I’ll look for it. It broke down on me 1 1/2 years after I bought it, which was a bummer, but it fulfilled it’s purpose of bringing home my pictures, although if you find the IPOD version of it, I would go for that one, since the brand on this thing I bought is kind of unheard from, and it’s kind of primitive when compared to the IPOD.

thanks, please let me know what brand that photo storage device was. also, did you have to bring many power adaptors to use it in foreign outlets? optimally, i’d buy an ipod, but those are too expensive for me.

-charles

Wow, that’s impressive!

Would you consider buying an older iPod, possibly a used one? I’m thinking, it may no longer be "cool", but it would provide 40 Gigs of storage. I believe that iPods come with dual voltage adapters, so you would only need a plug adapter in whatever country you’ll be visiting.

Dude, I spent a year in China and I didn’t take that many pictures! Anyway why don’t you just take a couple of extra memory cards and then drop into a photo store now and then to have them make a CD of it? If you end up with a pile of CDs you can ship them home.

I have not traveled extensively overseas yet but I am planning to next year. Right now I do day trips and I have found with 8 mega pixel camera you can fill up a 1 gig card really fast. I only own the 1 gig and the hyper drive, its all I need.

Your best bet is a device called a Hyperdrive http://www.hyperdriv… you can get a 40gig drive for under $200.00 an ipod and connector cant touch that price.

The other thing is it downloads fast, real fast, 3 minutes for a 1gig card. I know, I know, your saying your not in a hurry and can wait? I pod can take over 15 min and it can often kill the battery in the process. hyperdrive you can download about 10 gig on one card, if you shoot like me, thats 10 days before you need to recharge. Ipod…2 days…maybe.

You can get capacities up to 120gig if needed. The only down fall is they are twice the size of an ipod, but if you factor in the card read for an ipod, they are about equal (hyperdrive’s card reader is built in).

If you need more info, go here, these guys will tell you everything.

http://forums.dprevi…

If your camera take CF cards you have other options, but to be honest, the consensus seems to be hyper is the best bang for your buck.

Oh, and on the issue of extra memory cards, one 4 gig costs the same as hyper with a 40 gig hard drive. Memory for cameras is comming down in price, but unfortunatly not fast enough.

Hope this helps.

Chris

Suzanne makes the most sense. So, i would get 1-2 large memory cards (+1gb) and then have CDs/DVDs made as i went along.

But MOST Important: MANAGE YOUR MEMORY in your camera. Taylor the size/resolution of the pic to your needs. In most cases, you don’t have to use more than 0.5GB to get a really nice image, even if your camera can take pictures that require 2 GB per shot at the best resolution.

So, for example, if you have s small 3.2 MP camera, your shots can range from 0-1.5 GB roughly and you can more than triple the number of pictures you store on a single card if you cut back the resolution. Try it out before you leave.

I recently took a 7 day trip from Portland to San Francisco with a 3.2 MP camera and took over 500 shots, all stored on a single card, all looking just fine for the size pics i make.

thanks for the varied responses everyone. cver22, i looked into the hyperdrive and that is EXACTLY what i was looking for. unfortunately, the technology is so new that that company is the only that makes it, and i can’t find any deals anywhere. do you know how or where i can find a discount on one?

-charles

Short answer no,

They are technically made by a company called Compact Drive that produces them somewhere in the UK i believe, so if you know someone there or are there, you might get them a little cheaper, but not much, and personally I like to try out a product if I am gona rely on it like that. And know that I can send it back. I have heard of Hyperdrive sending people a new unit without recieving the old one back, or even knowing its comming back at all.

http://www.compactdr…

Thats the website if you want it, but I would go through hyper drive, no import tax either. You can get the older 7x for cheaper, but its not too reliable. the 70x is the equivilent to the hyperdrive.

Getting one used is out of the question, people who buy these tend to collect them and use them as back ups.

Personally I’d get the 40gig or 60gig, and drop it off at a reputable photo shop if you fill it up to unload on to DVDs, depends how long you are on you trip for I guess.

As per the get several memory cards, as I said before, this bank is cheaper than buying a few or even one large capacity memory card (if you are buying fast good quality cards). So buy one or two really good cards and use the bank to store (or you likely already have at least 1).

If you doing snapshots, then yes 3.2mp and 2gb would be fine, if your going as a photographer then 2gb my be your daily use. All depends on your camera and use. If he uses Raw, espically on olympus then the mb can add up real fast. Personally I print a minimum of a 5×7, usually 8×10, and sometimes bigger, 3.2 mp for a really good shot and blowing it up wouldn’t cut it.

If I am going to go on a trip such as this, why would I skimp on the photos and memories?

I just wanted to thank everyone for their contributions!
I’m a total newbie to digital photography and was also looking for a way to free up my memory card on the go without shelling out too much money.

Big cheers to cvr22 for the hypedrive tip!!!

Seems not easy to get it, though… They say "free worldwide shipping for a limited time", that’s a bit vague. Furthermore, as I’m living in Switzerland, I’m not entirely comfortable with ordering this from the United States (with warranty issues, payment safety etc.) It’s even supposed to go by UPS, but what if they decide the "limited time" is over, so I suddenly have to pay for UPS shipment (72 USD, I calculated…) ? etc. Sounds quite paranoid, I’m aware of that

Thanks again for all the suggestions!

If you are anywhere else in the world besides North america you best bet is to go through compact drive, the original maker and dealer of the product.

http://www.compactdr…

They have local distributors scattered throughout the globe, a few in Switzerland.

As for the limited free shipping, they have had it on for about 6 months now, I bought mine in January and I know they had it on before that. I don’t think they will kill that promotion until sales slow. Your best bet is to actually catch them when they are out of stock. They offer an extra set of rechargeable batteries if you pre order (4 on top of the original 4 that come with it).

You might also consider the mini drive they have, I think it uses the same drive as a iPod and thus is smaller than the regular drive.

Hope this helps.

Chris

i was paranoid about my pics
i took three memory cards and two batteries
i have a canon ixus 55 and it was great

i took the cards to a camera shop ..once in vienna and once in dubrovnik and got it to disk for 10 euros each .. those mean the world to me so i dont care about the expense

i didnt wipe the memory cards…just in case i lost my stuff
i made it safely with my pic s and theyre great

my guy on the other hand took about 70 pics only but hes relying on mine

@ cver22:

Thanks for yet another spot-on reply!

Seems to be quite the moment to buy a hyperdrive indeed – although I have come to realise I don’t really need 60 GB of storage on the go.
So I would be quite interested in that mini drive you mentioned, but which I couldn’t locate on the site…!?

(The swiss dealers’ website lack compactdrive products, I’ll have to call them).

Cheers!

do not get the ipod photo adapter crap – quite honestly I’ve found the ipod horrible for battery life. look for a shop or tourist place that has a service to transfer you fotos onto a disk? ok maybe not.