Travel Tips

Digital cameras store captured images and videos on flash memory cardsInternal memory is available on some cameras but for travel purposes there is rarely enough of it.. Those are currently available in capacities over 100 GB and can hold thousands of photographs. Although capacity and cost vary among formats, SD-derivatesSD, SDHC & SDXC now dominate the market and have the lowest cost-per-capacity.

The total size required depends on the average picture size and the number of pictures taken. A typical 12 MP camera produces 4 MB pictures, so 2 GB is good for 512 photos and 16 GB is good for 4096. High-end cameras can take larger images though. Remember that you get to delete poor and uninteresting pictures along the way, so you need capacity based on the number of photos you bring back.

The ideal is to carry a single memory card large enough to accommodate all the pictures you could take during a trip. This way, you can't lose the card without losing the camera, since you don't need to take it out from the camera. This strategy may not be feasible for one of the following reasons:

• Sufficiently large cards are too expensive.
• The format used by your camera does not come in a sufficiently large size.
• Sufficiently large cards do not exit yet.

Flash memory cards are very tough and durable but there is a one-off chance that a card stops working. This is the only risk in carrying a single memory-card. To diminish this risk select brand name cardsLexar, Sandisk (Black or Red) & Kingston are known for durability and often back their cards with a lifetime warranty.

Another possibility is to carry multiple cards in order to have sufficient capacity to last a whole trip. The only problem is that small memory cards can get lost, so try to carry the least number of cards possible. If you do carry plenty of cards, get a card-holder big enough for all your cards.

The third possibility is to keep a single card, or a few, large enough for at least single day of shooting and transfer pictures out of it daily. This strategy requires an additional device to copy the contents of a memory card into another medium. Possibilities include:

• Laptop or similar portable computer: If you have a laptop and plan to travel with it, then it gives you access to its internal storage or an external drive. In either case, capacity is cheap and transferring is fast. The downside is that laptops and hard-drives are fragile and tempting to thieves.
• Hard-drive-based portable storage: This can be a device with a built-in card reader, a media-player, an iPod. This is often lighter and cheaper a laptop. The main downsides are the same. An additional downside is that most small hard-drives found in those devices cannot operate at altitudes above 10,000' (3300m).
• Flash-based USB storage: This is very robust and its small size makes it easier to hide. The main issue is that another device, such as a laptop, is needed to transfer images.
• Optical-disk burner: A stand-alone burner is ideal to avoid lugging a laptop but otherwise any burner will do. Since blank DVDs are very cheap, a burner has virtually unlimited capacity. Most importantly, the media and the device are separate. It is easy to make duplicates for added safety, keep them in separate places such as a suitcase and carry-on luggage and even mail them from abroad.
• Internet cafe: Depending where you go, counting on this can be risky to say the least. This can be a good light-weight option though. The real key is to bring your own secondary storage that connects via USB. For reliability, flash-based devices are the best. This can be more memory cards, USB keys or SSD drives. In the case of memory cards, bring a flash-reader too. It will save battery power, time and money, if you are billed by the minute.
• Photo store: Many photo stores around the world charge a small fee to copy a memory card into an optical disk for you. It can be risky to count on it for certain destinations. When available though, this is the lightest option and gives you flexibility of an optical burner without bulk.

Whichever device is used to transfer pictures should be verified before leaving on any trip. Disadvantages of traveling with a laptop include bulk, weight, power-consumption and visibility. Smaller laptops are more suitable for traveling due to diminished size, weight and power-consumption. There are rugged laptops made to withstand rough handling which may occur while traveling.