Digi Cam Questions

[stitches12]

I have a digital camera and a memory card that holds about 40 or so pics. I'm wondering what is the best way to take additional pictures (i.e., just buy more memory cards?) or can you download them somehow onboard and just keep using the one memory card? Lastly, if you can download them, is it mucho expensive to do so??

[Henrik_Keller]

You can get your pictures developed onboard, but you can not download then any ware unless you bring your own computer.

 

And it you don’t bring your own computer, the best thing you can do is to buy more memory cards.

 

Remember to check your ports of call. Maybe you can get memory cards cheaper in a port of call (e.g. St. Maarten or St. Thomas)

[jd10367]

If you have a modern laptop with a giant hard drive, you can always take it with you and download your pics into it. However, if your camera card only holds 40 pics, the problem is more likely to be that--halfway through your shore excursion--you're out of space.

 

You can get the cards fairly cheaply now. I bought a 5MB digital camera at BJ's for $190, and I bought a 1GB SD card for it at Circuit City for $70 ($90 with a $20 rebate). With my camera, the 1GB card will hold 360 pictures at highest resolution, so it's like having 10 rolls of film built right in. No laptop needed to lug on the cruise (you can use the AV cord to show your pics to other people on the room TV, most likely).

 

Once back on land, you can get the pics developed just about anywhere (local drug store, Wal-Mart, etc.,.) for between 19 and 29 cents per pic. You can rest assured that you'll pay a LOT more than that on board (assuming they even have the capability).

 

Another little side benefit, at least with my camera: I can use the camera and the 1GB card as a portable hard drive. It shows up on my computer as a "Removable Disk", allowing me to transfer files (older pics, word files, programs, whatever) into the camera and take them to another computer. :)

[shan&steve]

Just from my experience, you can buy brand new in package memory cards on eBay for dirt cheap. Just bought a couple of 128mg CompactFlash cards for about $15 bucks each (with shipping.) Just make sure you watch the shipping charges.

[PTarbay]

I agree with shan&steve. I bought memory cards on Ebay for very little.But do check the shipping price first.If you have more than 1 card and something happens to 1 you always have the other ones.

[PelicanBill]

There have been reports that some ships photo departments offer the service to download pictures and burn a CD. If you do this, run right to the cyber cafe and ask if you can check the pictures on a computer before you erase them from your card.

 

When you shop for cards, calculate the price per MB (1GB = 1024 MB) and buy the size with the best unit cost. It's good to have several cards in case one gets lost or damaged, so you won't lose all your pictures.

 

If the cards you shop for specify the hold xx pictures and do not say what size they are in MB or GB, moveon to another brand. That is a new attempt to obscure the real size of the cards. Number of pictures is highly dependent on your camera's settings for image size (megapixels), resolution, file type and compression. On most cameras you can switch settings to take pictures at a low, medium or high setting, storing more pictures per card on medium or low settings.

 

My approach is to leave on medium setting which produces terrific prints up to 5x7". If I am taking portraits that I might want to rpint at 8x10" then I switch to high resolution settings for those pictures.

 

Remember to burn a CD of your pictures at home as soon as you get back to have a backup!

[MLG4MEE]

I just bought a 1GB card and I can get 777 pictures on it at medium setting.

[MissLioness]

I think it's best to buy the biggest card you can get... Generally, the per/MB cost is a little cheaper with the bigger cards... Also, if you take high resolution pictures, I would reccomend a faster card - This will allow the camera to save the picture to the card faster. I just got a 2GB Ultra SD card. I can take pictures till my nose falls off!!

[dougp26364]

The easiest thing to do is just buy additional cards. I've purchased 1GB SD and Compactflash cards as low as $49 on sale. Most of the time I can find them between $60 and $70 without any problems.

 

From reading the postings I believe many of the ships have the ability to transfer digital photo's to a CD but, it seemed a little cost prohibitive IMO.

 

You give no indication as to the megapixel rating of the camera you're using. I have a 5 megapixel camera and a 1 GB = a little over 600 photo's. On my wife's 3.2 megapixel camera she can get a little over 1,000 pics on a 1 GB card.