Do you take multple memory cards for your camera?

[Delta Dear]

We are going on the Carnival Legend in Feb. 2010, a 7 day cruise. I know I will take lots of pictures. A sister cruiser said she is taking her laptop so she can clear the cards each night.

 

I wonder how many cards I need to take, if I don't plan to take my laptop. I'm not sure I want to be bothered with it.

 

Are there any other devises for downloading pictures from the cards while on a vacation like that?

[fendbass]

My own personal opinion is to go out and buy 3 or 4 memory cards. Compare the weight and size of a few memory cards vs a laptop. A 4GB memory card (which can be had for under $10 I think) will hold hundreds of pictures. We took 3 memory cards to Hawaii a couple of years ago for 17 days, and barely filled up one of them- and my wife like to shoot.

 

And, if you are paranoid, many times the ship will offer a service to save your memory cards onto a CD

[FlyerTalker]

I travel with about 10 gigs of camera memory, offload to a laptop, and backup to a portable hard drive. Yes, it's carrying "stuff" but it allows me to share photos while onboard, to edit/delete out the junk that's useless, and to be sure that my shots come home with me.

 

It all comes down to what kind of pics you take (how large are the files), how many you take (I take many hundreds a day using auto-bracketing to get the right exposure) and how do you want to secure and transport them home.

 

Finally, the best insight came from a fellow who was a guest speaker on Crystal - the head of photography for NASA in the moon-shot days. He said "how many people do you know who complained that they took too much film with them on their vacation?" It's almost always the other way around, even in the digital age.

[DaDead]

I'm guilty of taking my laptop with me. I love to take a lot of pictures, and movies and even though I take an 8, 4 and two 2 GB memory cards I still run out of space:confused:. I also take a ton of batteries, at least 20 rechargeables. I guess I take way too many movies :D And I always start creating my slideshows while relaxing on board ship. This way I can make my DVD and show if off right away.:)

[Keith1010]

I do take multiple cards. I would take a minimum of two just in case one goes bad.

 

How many you take beyond that depends on how many pictures you plan to take relative to the total memory of the cards.

 

In my case we do take a computer so we download the pictures to the computer fairly often. Another option to consider that is available on most ships is to copy the pictures over to a CD. The downside is what they charge.

 

Keith

[Denny01]

I specifically bought a small laptop for cruising. I use it for the internet, journaling and transferring and managing my photos.

 

Many options now. I have the 7" ASUS that cost less than $300. Has a SD slot for my camera memory.

 

Denny

[uppitycats]

Yes! They're so small, why wouldn't you? They're not that expensive, either, if you watch for sales. We don't have a laptop, so that's not a consideration.

 

What I will need to figure out between now and next April is the European electrical system -- we're going on a Norwegian ship up the coast of Norway..I'm sure I have to have some sort of converter to plug in my camera rechargers, but I have to do some homework about that.

[Essiesmom]

Yes! They're so small, why wouldn't you? They're not that expensive, either, if you watch for sales. We don't have a laptop, so that's not a consideration.

 

What I will need to figure out between now and next April is the European electrical system -- we're going on a Norwegian ship up the coast of Norway..I'm sure I have to have some sort of converter to plug in my camera rechargers, but I have to do some homework about that.

If you check your camera rechargers, chances are they are dual voltage, so all you will need is a plug adapter. EM

[uppitycats]

If you check your camera rechargers, chances are they are dual voltage, so all you will need is a plug adapter. EM

 

 

Oh, really?? Thanks! I'll have to check that!

[Bonnie J.]

I believe you can have your pictures put on a CD at the photo counter when you know a card is full. This is probaly an overnight procedure.Then you only need one other card. My card takes over 300 pictures. Three big cards should be enough.

[BroncosFan2010]

I have a 1 G card, and it works well for my camera. I don't have anything fancy, just a 5.5 mg pixel. I have it set to full resolution, and usually have plenty of room. I like to take pictures, and will take TONS of underwater pics when snorkeling. I don't want the hassle of bringing a laptop, so a 1 G card, or even 2 cards is much smaller and much less weight to carry. I do my editing and posting pictures when I get back home.

[Brian Raine]

uppitycats Most European ships use the round 2 pin sockets, all my chargers( I must have 8-10 of the things) will input 110- 220 volts and output whatever is required, so there should be no problems with your chargers.

[not2old]

Absolutely! They are so much cheaper to take then to buy on ship or even in port. I always take 3 or 4.

[flamomo]

The process of transferring your pictures from your digital camera SD card to a CD onboard is pretty easy. The staff person in the Photo Shop onboard showed me how to use the equipment, and I had no problem doing it. It took maybe 20 minutes. And I'm a non-technology-oriented senior citizen!

[DaDead]

The process of transferring your pictures from your digital camera SD card to a CD onboard is pretty easy. The staff person in the Photo Shop onboard showed me how to use the equipment, and I had no problem doing it. It took maybe 20 minutes. And I'm a non-technology-oriented senior citizen!

 

Do you remember how much they charged you to transfer your pictures to a CD?

[alicam]

Seeing as we have to fly to where we want to cruise from, a couple of digital memory cards are a whole lot lighter to carry than a laptop...also, I don't want to waste valuable vacation time sitting at a computer downloading pictures which I can do when I get home...this is what works for us, for you, it may be a different situation

[ehfl]

I take a large memory card. It holds many thousands of pictures....pleny of room for all your cruise pictures and more. 16 GB cards are only about $30, and they can hold 5,000+ high quality pictures easily....many more if you tend to shoot at low quality mode.

[rjsams]

I travel with about 10 gigs of camera memory, offload to a laptop, and backup to a portable hard drive.

quote]

 

I asked this question elsewhere and didn't get a response. I don't want to carry my laptop with me, too bulky. But I can pack a small portable hard drive. Can I use the ship's computers to transfer pics from my camera to my portable hard drive? It means two USB ports on the computer, but no internet time required.

 

I'm bringing 4 2G cards along on a 12 day European cruise. I'm thinking that won't be enough, so I want a way to transfer the pics off. If I can't do the above, how much does the ship charge to transfer the pics off a card to a CD? (approx.) :confused:

[matj2000]

I had a 2gb card and took over 1000 photos. If you have to take more than that, you spend to much time taking pictures.......

[FlyerTalker]

I asked this question elsewhere and didn't get a response. I don't want to carry my laptop with me, too bulky. But I can pack a small portable hard drive. Can I use the ship's computers to transfer pics from my camera to my portable hard drive? It means two USB ports on the computer, but no internet time required.

Completely depends on the computer systems on your particular cruiseline/ship. Some have central systems with dumb terminals, others use full-blown networked PCs. There would have to be a card reader at your "station" as well as the two USB ports.

I'm bringing 4 2G cards along on a 12 day European cruise. I'm thinking that won't be enough, so I want a way to transfer the pics off. If I can't do the above, how much does the ship charge to transfer the pics off a card to a CD? (approx.) :confused:

Buy more memory. Seriously. 8GB Class 4 cards are out there for $20, Class 6 for $24. And that's regular pricing for quality cards. Try B&H Photo for tax-free pricing and reasonable S&H online. Saves the hassle of transfering onboard, which is a BIG profit center for a ship. Plus, they probably aren't using top quality disks for the transfer.

 

As for pricing, last time I was sailing, the charge to burn a DVD was $15. But that's only one data point - YMMV.

[rjsams]

I had a 2gb card and took over 1000 photos. If you have to take more than that, you spend to much time taking pictures.......

 

Not true. It depends on the resolution of your camera. If I'm taking high quality pictures, my 2G cards will only hold 250 pictures each. If I'm shooting in RAW, it's even less than that, but I don't intend to shoot in RAW unless I have a shot I intend to blow up. So that's 1000 pics with the four cards I'm bringing. For a 12 day, port-intensive European cruise, I don't think that's enough. We're going to be in 11 different cities, and I may never get back there again. :cool:

[FlyerTalker]

I had a 2gb card and took over 1000 photos.

Remember that the number of photos on a card is dependent on the pixel count and resolution - which the user gets to set for their camera. Even the photos taken at the same resolution/pixels have different sizes depending on the subject composition of the image.

[BostonGal07]

Typically I carry a 16g in my camera and bring an extra 2g as my camera will take 1hr long video and stills.

 

How many pics a memory card holds depends upon the megapixels of your camera. Check your camerabook or online to determine whether you will need to purchase extra memory or not.

[chipmaster]

We are going on the Carnival Legend in Feb. 2010, a 7 day cruise. I know I will take lots of pictures. A sister cruiser said she is taking her laptop so she can clear the cards each night.

 

I wonder how many cards I need to take, if I don't plan to take my laptop. I'm not sure I want to be bothered with it.

 

Are there any other devises for downloading pictures from the cards while on a vacation like that?

 

Don't know how many pictures you take, nor whether you shoot raw or jpeg or both, but however many you think you'll take plan 2x and make sure you have that much memory. Memory cards are just to cheap to do anything else. How much you need depends widely on whether you have a 8 Meg or 12 Meg or 24 Meg DLSR and shoot raw. I can't imagine anyone but the shoot every minute shooter to need more then 16GB.

 

DO NOT clear your cards! I generally download from my cards as backup to view, share, but never clear my cards till I get home and archive them on my homecomputer and backup. Its too easy for HDD to crash and you to lose all your pictures. HDD failure rate is likely higher then and flash card failure.

 

As others have mentioned there are portable HDD specifically designed for card downloads. I'd not bother with these unless you are a hardcore photographer and don't bring a laptop.

 

Have a nice cruies

[chipmaster]

I believe you can have your pictures put on a CD at the photo counter when you know a card is full. This is probaly an overnight procedure.Then you only need one other card. My card takes over 300 pictures. Three big cards should be enough.

 

Never use the CD service, for that price you can likely buy 16GB of memory, more then enough for between 1500 and 2000 pictures for even the most advance digital cameras