How much SD storage for a 7-day Alaska cruise? (Page 4): I always travel with my laptop and two terabyte drives, each of which fit in a shirt-pocket. Also wear a belt and suspenders...

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

I always travel with my laptop and two terabyte drives, each of which fit in a shirt-pocket. Also wear a belt and suspenders and carry a credit card and cash. That said, I would take 10 new 32gig cards. I'd plan on using at least 3 cards each day. Not filling each, just swapping it out. If the chance to upload to the external drives came up I'd do it.

bikerguy

"Since I shoot in RAW, which everyone should be doing, my average file size for each exposure is about 42 Mb. So, 1500 + 200 exposures = 1700 exposures multiplied by 42,000,000 bytes each = 7,140,000,000 (7.14 Gb). So I could get by with a 8 Gb (16 Gb just in case) flash memory card, but I normally have 256 Gb cards in my camera anyway. Many photographers use one flash card for each day of shooting, which lowers the minimum size requirement."

I believe that your math is off by a factor of 10. You would need 71.4 GB. 42MB = 0.042GB. 0.042*1,700 = 71.4GB.

dkeysser Loc: Minneapolis

Barry, I did the same 7-day Alaska cruise last year (and added a day in Anchorage and three days in Vancouver), and I approached file storage differently. Every evening, I downloaded my photos from the camera onto my laptop (doing a quick first-edit in the process), and then reformatted my SD card. I have more faith in the integrity of my hard drive than I do of my SD cards (having lost a lot of pictures on one trip because my SD card became corrupted). In this way, I don't worry about SD card capacity or card integrity, and I have all of my photos together on one hard drive (actually used two camera bodies). If you don't plan to travel with a laptop (is that even possible?) then I would plan to buy multiple SD cards and change them every other day or so.

User ID

`
All such silly questions should be banned cuz the
load they put on the servers is a major cause of
global warming.

`

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

I think for a 7day cruise I would get four 32gb. cards. Probably twice what you will need but why not? Something people are often surprised at when they take these cruises to my town (Juneau); we have stores here, right by the docks, that sell memory cards and other accessories. So do Ketchikan and Sitka and Skagway. It's not all dogsleds and igloos up here. Have a great cruise.
...Cam (Juneau photographer and tour guide.)

quote=bbrowner]For those who have taken a 7-day Alaska cruise...

What total SD card total capacity would you recommend?

I know there are many variables that I can't answer. And, of course, each person shoots differently. I would say that I'll take a lot of pictures. (This being a first time there... I don't really know)

I already have a 16G and an 8G. (I loaned my daughter another 8G for her Africa trip on Sat.)

Thanks for your input.

Barry[/quote]

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

bbrowner wrote:

For those who have taken a 7-day Alaska cruise...

What total SD card total capacity would you recommend?

I know there are many variables that I can't answer. And, of course, each person shoots differently. I would say that I'll take a lot of pictures. (This being a first time there... I don't really know)

I already have a 16G and an 8G. (I loaned my daughter another 8G for her Africa trip on Sat.)

Thanks for your input.

Barry

Take a backup harddrive to download/backup those SD cards... Something like https://www.wdc.com/products/portable-storage/my-passport-wireless-pro.html#WDBSMT0040BBK-NESN. They work like a charm!

bwa

Ob1 Loc: Utah

We went last year and took 2 cameras 42 mg pixel, and 24 mg pixel, each had a 128 gig card per camera, each camera had about 2000 pictures. I had 2 additional 128 gig cards as backups, I did not use. Buy the cards, keep them in in the protective covers, take many pictures in raw, have covers for your cameras (in rains a lot), most of all prepare for the time of your life.

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

You should use quote reply so we know which silly question you are replying too.

User ID wrote:

`
All such silly questions should be banned cuz the
load they put on the servers is a major cause of
global warming.

`

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

I gave up carrying a laptop five trips ago. Just too much. I bring enough cards to do the longest trip, use them until they are almost full, lock them and stash them away until I get home. I've never lost a vacation shot on a card in 15 years. Of course I worry until everything is downloaded and backed up at home but even those backing up as they go probably worry about this too.
...Cam

dkeysser wrote:

Barry, I did the same 7-day Alaska cruise last yea... (show quote)

tims.ak Loc: Butte, Alaska

bbrowner wrote:

For those who have taken a 7-day Alaska cruise...

What total SD card total capacity would you recommend?

I know there are many variables that I can't answer. And, of course, each person shoots differently. I would say that I'll take a lot of pictures. (This being a first time there... I don't really know)

I already have a 16G and an 8G. (I loaned my daughter another 8G for her Africa trip on Sat.)

Thanks for your input.

Barry

From the cards you have now I'd recommend at least 2 more 16 GB cards. If your camera will take 32 GB I'd use them. They don't cost much and should give you some storage room. If you have another storage medium for transfer one extra might be enough. You never know what you might come across on a cruise. If the weather is cloudy and rainy it may change the focus of your interest. However there are lots of things to see in the towns you stop at. Last week while out fishing we encountered a pod of Orcas eating a humpback. You could fill a card very quickly with that type of encounter. It's very easy to rack up 1000 images or more per day when there's lots to see. SD cards are so inexpensive now, never go wrong having extras on a cruise to Alaska. Hope you enjoy our beautiful state.

Delderby Loc: Derby UK

I cannot see a problem for Americans coming to Europe - surely if spare storage starts to get low, buying some more would not be a problem?
Don't cruise ships sell memory cards on board? I would have thought Americans would not be slow to see an opportunity.

bikerguy

CamB wrote:

I gave up carrying a laptop five trips ago. Just too much. I bring enough cards to do the longest trip, use them until they are almost full, lock them and stash them away until I get home. I've never lost a vacation shot on a card in 15 years. Of course I worry until everything is downloaded and backed up at home but even those backing up as they go probably worry about this too.
...Cam

I perform a double backup each evening and keep the 1TB had drive separate from the flash drives. After that is completed I don't worry about losing the images. Generally, I leave the hard drive in the hotel/on the boat and carry the flash drives in a zippered pants pocket. Because I am a belts and suspenders kind of photographer I also carry at least on spare battery and an SD card in my pocket.

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

Many here say carry a laptop or some other way to backup. Unless you actually lose the card that's not really going to save you. If your card dies during the day, you won't be able to download to anything, tonight in your cabin or next week when you are back home. At some point you just just have to go with the flow. Your pictures are as safe on your cards as anywhere else until you get home.
...Cam

bbrowner wrote:

For those who have taken a 7-day Alaska cruise...

What total SD card total capacity would you recommend?

I know there are many variables that I can't answer. And, of course, each person shoots differently. I would say that I'll take a lot of pictures. (This being a first time there... I don't really know)

I already have a 16G and an 8G. (I loaned my daughter another 8G for her Africa trip on Sat.)

Thanks for your input.

Barry

df61743 Loc: Corpus Christi, TX

As inexpensive as SD and MicroSD cards have become, I suggest using the largest capacity card(s) your camera will allow. Then you just don't have to worry about space issues regardless how many JPG, RAW, or videos you shoot. I just returned from a week long trip with an Olympus TG-5 where I shot 46 videos, and 454 highest resolution JPG plus RAW stills. The entire 7 days resulted in 925 files totaling 11.8 GB... leaving 52.2 GB of unused space on my 64 GB SD card. That card will hold over 3100 highest resolution JPG+RAW images. You would have to shoot about 440 shots a day for 7 days to fill it. If you really want security from card failure, take along a WD Wireless Passport drive and copy your files to it at the end of each day.

Just for the record, I believe the paranoia about card failure is simply unjustified. I have so many in various devices it would take considerable effort to count them, and have never had one give me a problem.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Buy one of these for each day to insure against odd and unlikely card failures. Get the next size up if you shoot video.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1182600-REG/sandisk_sdsdxne_016g_gnci2_extreme_16gb_sdhc_u3.html