Travelling - Storage Space?!

[Dunks]

Hey guys,

I'm going travelling around Europe for 22 days in June, and of course I'll be bringing my trust 30D. I'm not bringing my iPad/laptop so will be relying on webcafes and hostel computers for my internet access, which means I'll be pretty low on storage space, only my CF cards really.

I currently only have 2x4GB CF cards and I'm thinking of buying a couple more to bolster my amount.

But they'll probably fill quite quickly so I was wondering what would be the best method of backing up my photos, rather than carrying around X amount of full CF cards.

I was thinking along the lines of maybe burning them to DVD if possible and posting them home?

Anyone done anything similar or have any other ideas?

 

[Dunks]

I was thinking that, I guess it depends on the internet at the cafes/hostels.

They might be woefully slow so I was trying not to rely on that method.

 

[Dunks]

Can you not just take your iPad and copy them onto that?

That's what I always do when I'm travelling.

My intended route is:

Dubrovnik - Zagreb - Sarajevo - Belgrade - Budapest - Vienna - Prague - Berlin.

I did consider bringing my iPad (32GB, plus where there's WiFi I could hopefully upload stuff overnight), but I'm not sure if I really want to be carrying a fairly valuable item around with me!

 

[Dunks]

You could just bring a 2.5 USB HDD and copy them onto there? Or even 32GB USB stick!

This is one of the reasons I have a netbook with a 250GB hard drive in it. Also very small and portable and useful for accessing the web when away from home via hotel Wifi etc, although the iPad has now taken over most of those duties. Still take the netbook as a backup system for photos though.

My GF has a pretty old notebook that she might let me use, it's got an uber low internal hard drive though, but I've an external hard drive I could bring with me, but I'm a little worried about reliability!

 

[Dunks]

your camera's hardly cheap tat though so there's not too much difference between that and your ipad

That's true, and I've just dropped a hefty sum on a Sigma 50mm f/1.4

But I'm trying to keep the tech down to a minimum!

I have contents insurance included with my travel insurance, so I guess if anything happens I'd be covered.

 

[Dunks]

Thanks for the replies guys, muchos helpful. I think I'm gonna go with a couple more 16GB cards and a couple of 16GB USB pen drives, can get them under a tenner these days, so cheap!

 

[Dunks]

Yeah, I saw those netbooks when I had a quick look yesterday, quite tempting at the price!

 

[Dunks]

I very rarely if ever fill up that much memory cards even on long trips around the US parks. I tend to think and plan before shooting, test photos for exposure etc are deleted as I go. I do bracket some shots for focus and exposure and may duplicate key shots as a backup. I also tend to make slightly different compositions to review at home on a large screen, it is surprising how shifting a feature a few degrees can change a scene. This also provides plenty of similar photos so I can host some on micro stock and others on macro stock while keeping the best for my private portfolio.

I tend to delete all failures or less interesting photos as i go, reviewing in the evening.

Good points, if I review and delete as I go, I should be able to keep the storage requirements pretty low!

Personally if I was travelling around as much as you I'd prefer to travel light and could do without the weight and hassle of lugging a Netbook around with me. Downloading the images to a USB stick might be OK for redundancy but then you've got to keep the USB drives well away from the CF cards so you don't risk losing them all. If not you might as well just have the CF cards.

Yeah, that's why my first thoughts were burning them onto DVD when possible and posting them back home.

 

[Dunks]

Yeah, gonna go with buying a couple of 4GB cards and just delete the duffs as I go.

And good shout about the sticky dots!