Going to Australia! Have some Questions...

CSGAS · 25 Jun 2006 at 12:18

Well going to Australia in August (all 4 weeks) and of course I'm going to be rather trigger happy considering I probably won't be back there for many many years, if ever.

I'm going to be using a s9500 but the problem is going to be storage. Now the questions...

1. Thinking of storage - when should I shoot in RAW and when in JPEG (and in what size)
2. I've beeing thinking getting a 1GB card and portable hard drive/reader - is this the thing to do considering I'm going to be there for 4 weeks?
3. If it is what brand is best card wise, and what size+brand should I look at for the hard drive? (cheapest is good, but not if it compromises quality)

Your answers will be hugely appreciated!
Thank you!

Chris

JBuk · 25 Jun 2006 at 12:26

i`m going to Oz (+hong kong & bangkok)for 3 weeks in september and I was thinking of buying a cheap laptop to store stuff, and it will also give a chance to edit shots if/when i`m in the hotel room doing nothing

something small and light, with a half decent battery would be great

then again i`m also thinking of not taking my 20d+kit as I dont want to have to worry about lugging it around or it getting stolen/damaged , i may look into getting an S3

cyKey · 25 Jun 2006 at 12:35

From my 3 weeks in Toronto I shot about 20gb of photos. It would have been more if I didn't get blisters so easily. Say an average of 7mb per shot that's roughly 3000 pics (rounded up). I normally take a lot of pics though. I would advise you to take as much as you can. I had 2x 1gb cards, Epson p2000 40gb hard drive and my Macbook Pro.

Mohain · 25 Jun 2006 at 12:44

You will only get 54 RAW shots from the s9500 to a 1GB card (18.2mb files).

I filled about 3GB of cards in a 4 day holiday shooting RAW and I'm no way trigger happy when photographing.

CSGAS · 25 Jun 2006 at 12:47

Right So its gotta be a hard drive. Say 40gb. Whats the best for ~£150?

Joe T · 25 Jun 2006 at 13:00

PD70X with your choice of hdd from HK.

thumper · 25 Jun 2006 at 13:05

JBuk said:
i`m going to Oz (+hong kong & bangkok)for 3 weeks in september and I was thinking of buying a cheap laptop to store stuff, and it will also give a chance to edit shots if/when i`m in the hotel room doing nothing

something small and light, with a half decent battery would be great

then again i`m also thinking of not taking my 20d+kit as I dont want to have to worry about lugging it around or it getting stolen/damaged , i may look into getting an S3

you have to take the 20d - u'll regret ir if you don't - then again you might want more glass than just the kit lens - but for less than the cost of an s3 u can insure all of the stuff you have

cyKey · 25 Jun 2006 at 13:34

thumper said:
you have to take the 20d - u'll regret ir if you don't - then again you might want more glass than just the kit lens - but for less than the cost of an s3 u can insure all of the stuff you have

Agreed. If I bought a smaller compact I would have regretted it.

nomore · 25 Jun 2006 at 13:48

From my experience of long holidays, I recommend taking a laptop. It's useful for many other things, but you can see your photos full screen on the same day you take them. I also backup each day's photos onto CDR just incase the HDD decides to die.

For an expensive holiday, I think it's worth it to take extra procautions with storage of the photos.

JBuk · 25 Jun 2006 at 13:50

dont get me wrong, i`d love to take it , but in Oz i`ll be staying in hostels most likely and I cant see them being very secure, i`d spend most of the hol being worried, when i was meant to be enjoying myself
i`ll have to check nearer the time and see what sort of facilities the hostels have

CSGAS · 25 Jun 2006 at 14:28

Been looking at this PD70X. Looks the business but its rather expensive! I take it the hard drive is external of the unit itself?

Cheers
Chris

Joe T · 25 Jun 2006 at 14:46

CSGAS said:
Been looking at this PD70X. Looks the business but its rather expensive! I take it the hard drive is external of the unit itself?

Cheers
Chris

TBH its about as cheap as they come. I believe the hdd is internal.

stuart38 · 25 Jun 2006 at 15:26

Dont shoot RAW - unless you absolutely need the best quality you can get then shoot high quality jpegs... I'm assuming as youre not using a dslr that you are not doing this for profit/business and therefore jpegs will do just fine giving you a lot of extra shots per 1GB card.

RAW in my opionion is either for the odd shot where you absolutely cannot afford to screw up in terms of exposure and white balance, or where you don't feel confident enough in your camera or yourself to get the pic right in the first place.

ajack · 25 Jun 2006 at 16:39

I did the same thing last year for about the same amount of time. I took a gig card and when it was full (every few days), I just went to a photo shop/internet cafe and got them to transfer them to CD, then formatted the card. If you're doing the west coast there are loads of places that'll do it. Beats taking a lappy or portable hdd around with you.

Scam · 25 Jun 2006 at 18:15

stuart38 said:
RAW in my opionion is either for the odd shot where you absolutely cannot afford to screw up in terms of exposure and white balance, or where you don't feel confident enough in your camera or yourself to get the pic right in the first place.

Surely travelling somewhere as far away as Oz would fall under this category though, as it's not exactly likely you'll be able to get back to have another go?

I'm interested in what everyone is saying here as i'm planning a trip around Asia for about 5 weeks. Currently i've just got one 1GB card and shoot with RAW, however we are stopping in Hong Kong on the way out so i'm planning on picking up one or two more cards. (In fact how much would i be paying over there? I'm under the impression it should be cheaper?)

ajack said:
I took a gig card and when it was full (every few days), I just went to a photo shop/internet cafe and got them to transfer them to CD, then formatted the card.

This is what i'm planning on doing. Should be easy enough in Oz or NZ, although maybe a bit more difficult in Thailand or HK

Was it cheap enough?

It's probably worth mentioning that there's nothing stopping you shooting in RAW and if you start running out of space through the day you could always swap to JPEG or even go back and delete a few bad shots. The wonders of digital eh

CSGAS · 25 Jun 2006 at 18:22

ajack said:
I did the same thing last year for about the same amount of time. I took a gig card and when it was full (every few days), I just went to a photo shop/internet cafe and got them to transfer them to CD, then formatted the card. If you're doing the west coast there are loads of places that'll do it. Beats taking a lappy or portable hdd around with you.

If there are lots of internet cafes - we're doing the east coast - then I'll just take my ipod 30gb, find an internet cafe and put them on the ipod. A bit cheaper!

ajack · 25 Jun 2006 at 18:49

Yeah good call, there are internet cafes in most towns. If you're doing it in 4 weeks, I'm assuming you'll only be going to the more popular places so you definitely won't be short of internet cafes. The only potential problem I forsee is that USB ports might be inaccessible in some places. You can always get them put onto CD though if that's the case - I think it was only a couple of quid.

stuart38 · 25 Jun 2006 at 20:05

my view is that if youre there on holiday then you are there to have a good time - not to stress about running out of memory cards because youre shooting RAW (which gives you so little extra its not worth bothering with)

Also you have to consider the extra effort and time you will need to put in on your return if you shoot RAW.

My opinion of course so take it or leave it

Alex53 · 26 Jun 2006 at 09:56

Not to rubbish anyone's comments, but if you're a photographer you shoot RAW because you care about the final image upmost, and spending some time on each image is worth it. If you are a tourist on holiday who happens to be taking pictures then JPG is fine. (Of course there are some pro scenario exceptions where there is no time for processing before sale.)

For me my photography and the enjoyment I get from it and from a good final image takes precedence. Luckily the wife is into it too, otherwise I'd have to draw the line and not take the camera at all on some outings.

I'd hate nothing more than a good shot in JPG that is let down by things I could correct had I taken it in RAW.

The price of RAW is predictable, so just pay it in advance, get double the memory you would have got to shoot JPG.