Merlino18

I was planning to travel. I went to Guatemala 2 years ago with my clunky laptop which turned out to be a good decision bec each evening I downloaded my pics to the laptop and added them to a blog. But I had a small point and shoot camera. I now have a new Nikon SLR. I now shoot in RAW. My question is what do you do when traveling and taking tons of pics? Where do you store them? I don't want to take both my camera equipment AND a laptop. I have an IPAD but with RAW, it would take up too much space. Should I just take a lot of SD cards and wait until I get home? Help, I've been trying to figure this out so I am turnin to you. Thanks for your input.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

I only ever take extra SD cards. From previous travels/holidays I have an idea of how many photos I will shoot, I use that number, then double the total capacity of the cards I take.
I also have a certain amount of money marked for "unplanned spending" and if I DO run short of SD card space, I can buy more (hasn't happened yet).

If you are planning to stay in hotels, it is likely they will allow you computer access (sometimes at a price). You might be able to set up a Dropbox or similar account and upload your images to downoad them to your computer at home when you're back.

bntenterprises Loc: Jacksonville, FL

Hey,
To answer your ? about sd cards for storage purposes.
You could do that then you will find out as i have had to in the past is which sd card you need? Where did you put that pic? If you have an ipad with available usb get an external hard drive that way you can get at least 1 Terra-byte that will be plenty of space.
Do you have a usb dongle with sd card reader? if so download the pics from the card thru the ipad directly to the USB External drive.

Allen Hirsch Loc: Oakland, CA

I'd probably take a small, lightweight laptop and a portable hard drive (they're small, light, and cheap enough) to make sure I have my RAW files backed up.

You don't say how long you'll be traveling for, but I'd almost certainly want to access my images to sort and edit at least a little as I went along. The laptop enables that.

If a laptop is out of the question, I'd consider shooting jpeg so your iPad can be your display device, and allow sorting/editing.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Just FYI, CF cards are NOT available in much of the world, but computors are. Take a small portable drive, and the ability to download to it. ;-)
SS

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

But SD cards, which is what OP asked about, are. My nephew travels all over the world, and has never had a problem buying an SD card anywhere he's been.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Star, yes, SD's are pretty common, but if you are out of memory, and it's Saturday late, with everything closed on Sunday, it's still a problem. Still best to be able to download, self-contained. No need to be able to preview or PP, just to get the files off your card, so you can shoot. Been there and done that. It's pretty easy to waste huge amounts of valuable vacation time spinning your wheels looking for cards. Just saying.
SS

Nikon_DonB Loc: Chicago

It would depend if you want to review and edit your images while on vacation. If so, you'll want a laptop with good storage capacity(either internal, external or both.)
If you can wait till you get home I would get a good carrying case for the SD cards and a bunch of SD cards. Then date the cards to keep the images in order of occurrence.
Have a good time.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

UHH just had a recent topic on this subject http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-192319-1.html

Chuck_893 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

We are retired and take a yearly "Grand Tour," staying out sometimes 60 days or so. We don't travel out of the country much except to Canada occasionally. Up 'til now I have been taking along an ancient but working Mac iBook G4 and daily uploading all new picture files to it as a backup. Sometimes I would also upload them to a 16 or 32 gig USB thumb drive. You could do that, and/or upload the files to extra SD cards, or an external drive, and so on and so forth.

But this year I am going to try something completely new. I am going to try the "cloud." We often spend the night in KOA's. I have never yet been in a KOA that did not offer WiFi + high speed internet. My antique iBook had become just way too clunky and slow, but new laptops are pretty spendy. I discovered that a $200 ChromeBook might do the job. ( http://www.amazon.com/Acer-C720-Chromebook-11-6-Inch-2GB/dp/B00FNPD1VW/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top ) It has a built-in slot for standard SD cards. It has 16 gig of onboard storage for occasions when you are not connected to the internet, but any more you can get connected just about anywhere. Almost all restaurants offer free WiFi, just for one example. Purchase of the machine includes two years of free 200 GB space in Google Drive. I don't expect to have a problem uploading everything to Google Drive or to Dropbox. If I'm still worried about losing stuff I can also transfer the files to a USB drive, or at least temporarily store them in the computer itself until I can get them into the "cloud." When I get home I can download everything to my big desktop terabyte drive + backup.

What attracts me to this concept is that cameras can be stolen, cards can corrupt, laptops can be stolen &c, and my thinking is that if the image files are in the "cloud" I can always recover them, but if they were all only on the (stolen) camera and (stolen) laptop, then they are gone. My old iBook had PSE-4.1 loaded so I could do a little PP, but I can live without that as I'd rather do it on a desktop machine anyway, when I get home.

I have tested the concept on a small scale and I know it works. I have not done it on a large scale yet, but I will this spring/summer, and I'll try to report back with results. :D

emptynestertraveler Loc: North Carolina

I've done a lot of traveling and have found that less is more. Less stuff to lug around, less stuff to have to worry about keeping safe in a hotel room or airport. I just spent 3 weeks in South America with my D7100, 18-200 lens, a camera rain jacket and 6 SD cards. Always shoot in RAW. Check the day's photos every evening and delete the obvious losers or duplicate images. When I wanted to post pictures to Facebook along the way I used my camera phone. Otherwise, enjoy where you are and do the photo processing when you get home.

bigsmileinrichmond Loc: Richmond, VA

http://www.adorama.com/alc/0011757/article/the-best-portable-storage-right-now

Here is a link to possible options that I use. You can get all levels of features (with all levels of price obviously). Options have a SD slot and others require a card reader?

One benefit to a more expensive version might be a screen that allows you to see the photos after they are copied.

Suggestions:

1- practice this workflow at home before your trip, including copying images from the portable drive back to your pc.

2- your sd cards should be out of the camera when traveling so a stolen camera doesn't mean lost images as well.

Many years ago I lost one half of the families Disney World vacation photos due to a stolen camera (Air travel). Had the memory card in the camera :o(

Good luck - sounds like a great trip.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Since you want to travel light, get a bunch of 16GB or 32GB cards and some cases like this. The price is good, and they are very durable. As others have said, SD cards are available everywhere, but they might be less expensive at home, with a better selection.

http://www.amazon.com/CowboyStudio-Professional-Rubber-Sealed-Memory/dp/B003RLJVYK/ref=sr_1_12?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1394972268&sr=1-12&keywords=sd+card+case

When I travel, I bring a small Acer netbook and an external drive.

James R. Kyle Loc: Saint Louis, Missouri (A Suburb of Ferguson)

============

Traveling is what I do Most of the time... However, only by car (Jeep Liberty).
In so doing I carry a lot of "stuff" and I am out for as long as three months at a time. (Yes, I am single) :-)
I have two 500 gig external drives - and one 1 tetra. Every night (when not shooting) I up load to the HD's and clear the cards. I also up-load to the computer (Lap-top).
I have lost some shots before by NOT doing this -- (Really pisses me off to no end how stupid I was in the beginning of digital photography as not to have thought of doing this). It's like having a fire and your house burns down and the film negatives go with it. (Yeah! Been There - Had That Happen, Once.)

I have recently bought (B&H Photo) a "PhotoSafe II". And I shall see how That Thing works out of the trips this year.. However, I shall still do the back-ups to the other drives as well.

You might call me over protecting my RAW files - but you see.... Once Burned... Twice Shy..... :-)

sirlensalot Loc: Arizona

Really depends on personal preference. If taking shots is the goal, SD cards are a lot lighter to carry around than a laptop with an external drive. If you have the time, and enjoy looking at our shots daily, take as much as you need to do it.
I have tried it both ways, but these days liking hauling around SD / CF cards and wait until I get home to load and edit. Never had a card go kablooey. I Do keep them in a protective case.