Uploading photos while abroad...

[bluechigger]

Greetings,

I am planning to travel to Europe next spring, and initially I was planning on bringing my laptop along. After considering the weight and security of hauling my computer around the world, I am re-considering.

My new plan is to take my Canon digital camera, which has a USB connection and simply plug it into computers and upload photos to a website such as Flickr every few days.

What does everyone think? Will this work? This is my first trip, so I'm not certain that I will be able to hook up a USB device at a hostel's computer terminal. Also, I will be studying in London for the first 4 months, so I wonder if I can hook my camera up in their cafes?

Thanks so much for all your input! This is the most helpful site I have ever visited!

[LHR02]

CALLING EAGLE!!!!!

Blue....Eagle is the resident expert hereabouts for everything techno! The fellow is a walking manual for most anything you need help with. Be Patient...he will sign on soon enough and see this...and you will get the answer to any question you might have about this. ;D


And good decision on the laptop....you'll find next to no support for it here. The weight, the worry level, the security issues make it a bad choice overall. However...if you need it for school...another item that must be considered.

[Jules80]

many of the hostels i stayed in didn't allow you to hook up usbs to their computers... one guy i met on my travels would get them downloaded and burnt on to cds as he went. however the necessity of all this depends on how trigger happy you are, how big your memory card is, and what your camera resolution is

on the whole flicker thing... i don't really use the software... but from what i understand from my friends that do is that it takes a while to upload pics... internet access in some parts of europe is quite expensive... just somethign to ocnsider.

[gougeAway]

I just had everything burned to a cd as my memory card filled up. I mailed the cds home as I went. 5 cds (yes I was a little trigger happy) of photos and no problems. Not sure how likely it is that they'll let you connect your camera via usb.

[Eagle]

bluechigger, first of all, welcome to the Board! I'll try to answer some of your questions briefly. Now that more people are travelling with digital Cameras, these questions seem to come up more often.

As mentioned previously, it's not really a good idea to pack your Laptop around with you, as it's just one more piece of kit to worry about. If it were to be stolen (especially towards the end of your trip), you'd lose not only the Laptop but also all of your photos! However, if you need this for school, you may have to take it along?

It's highly impractical and perhaps impossible in some cases, to transfer photos via USB at Net Cafes, for a variety of reasons. With larger file sizes this becomes a VERY slow process, all of which you're paying for. In addition, my Canon Camera had a very strong warning that the Camera was NOT to be connected to a PC until the software was loaded. I can just about guarantee that Operators of each Net Cafe you visit will NOT allow you to load software. In addition you will find a variety of PC's in use with a variety of OS's in use. You might want to check www.adrianwarren.com for further information, as this topic is well covered there.

Some Net Cafes might allow you to plug a Card Reader into the USB port. If they are using fairly current OS's on their computers, it probably won't be necessary to worry about driver software for the Card Reader. I find that transferring photos using the Card Reader is a bit easier than plugging the Camera in.

Your best bet (again, as suggested previously) would be to find a Photo shop and have your Photos "burned" to CD when the cards are full. These shops are becoming a lot more common now, and the staff at the Hostel will likely be able to direct you to a local shop. You could also take a portable CD Burner along, such as the Apacer Disk Steno. I believe one of our members here used that method on her trip, and it seemed to work well. Another option would be Portable Photo Hard Drives (with built-in Card Readers) such as the Epson P-2000 or FlashTrax XT, but these are a bit on the pricey side, and carry some of the same "worry factor" as Laptops.

You might have to wait until you have access to somewhat normal Internet facilities before you'll be able to transfer your photos to the Flicker site. This situation is improving all the time, so if you find a method that works well, let us know as I'm sure it will benefit all on the Board.

Sorry for the delay in replying to your post. The last week or two have been very "hectic" and I haven't had much time to spend on the net lately.

Good luck and happy travels!!!

[dumbdiety]

What kind of memory card does your camera take? What about just buying a crapload of memory cards, then you don't need to worry about burning any photos. Plus, memory cards are small and can easily be hidden in your bags.