Techno-savvy people-camera memory card / picture transfer while traveling Europe...

[Janie]

I don't really know enough about what I need to know to ask these questions!:) So, please bear with me!

 

Originally, I had planned to take my laptop on our 17-day trip to Europe this summer and transfer my pictures from my Kodak EasyShare camera each night. Now I don't know if I should even take my laptop because I'm not sure how available or accessible the Internet will be. In some of the hotels, Wi-Fi is extra and we are with a tour group and have already paid for everything. Anything extra would tend to become complicated and time-consuming, although I would love to use e-mail to update our family.

 

So, is it possible to transfer pictures from my camera to a flashdrive? This would be so easy (I think) and certainly would not require bulkier equipment using only one large capacity memory card and a flashdrive.

 

For all you techno-savvy people, what are the options for transferring pictures to a storage device in my case?

 

Any other suggestions to simplify?

 

Thanks!

[Pixie]

I am not sure if you can transfer directly from the camera to a flashdrive.

Personnally I would either take the laptop even if you can't access the internet or buy several memory cards for your camera so you can just keep the pictures on them until you go home.

My choice would depend on how many pictures you think you might take.

If you are like me and take a huge amount of pictures (1700 pics during a week at Disney:lol:) then take the laptop (I didn't when we went to disneyworld and regretted it because I filled up my memory cards and had to skip some pictures by the end of the trip). If you are more reasonnable, go with the extra cards.

[i.love.lucy]

We took over 400 pics on our trip to Mexico last year and we just had several memory cards for it. You can get them in 2 and 4 gig, and when you fill them up, you just pop in a new one. Then put them in a VERY safe place or even mail them home to yourself. I just got a new camera today and dh got me a 4gig card for it and said it was about $15. It will hold hundreds of pics.

 

I personally wouldn't want to haul around a laptop, but that's just me. I like to travel light.

 

Also, in most other countries it'll be easy to find an internet cafe or something like it where you can use a computer to update via email. The one we used in Mexico was 5 pesos for several minutes and I used a yahoo email account I had set up.

 

Oh, I also used that account to scan in our passports so I could access them if anything happens, but I'm sure you already know all that!

[Snickerdoodle]

We just took several memory cards on some of our longer trips and it worked fine. The memory cards are pretty cheap these days.

[Julie in CA]

We took a 10 day trip to Paris and Rome in March. Between my ds and I, we took over 1000 pictures. I debated the same thing you're asking, but in the end I did not take my laptop and I'm glad I didn't. I think we used three 2 gig cards. They were teeny to store, easy to carry with us each day in case we needed to swap, and extremely easy to keep safe. If I'd taken my computer, it could have been stolen many times, but a teeny tiny memory card could just go in my zippered pocket.

 

Have fun! :seeya:

[JFSinIL]

I took close to 1,000 photos on our trip back home to California last June and simply took several memory cards. Note - better to get several smaller cards with less memory than a few bigger cards with more memory - if a card is bad you lose fewer photos!!! I got a small case to hold the cards, and once I filled a card I marked it a consecutive number AND stuck it back int he case label in, so I would not try to use it again.

[Rita]

When we went to Europe last summer, it was quite a challenge to find internet access for our laptop. Two of our hotels claimed to have interenet, but one had a bad modem and so we couldn't wi-fi, and the other one was just having problems, so no internet at all :(

Wi-fi cafes were NOT common.

I would leave the laptop home and buy several memory cards. The cards are so cheap now, that it would really simplify life :)

Have fun in Europe!!!

blessings,

Rita

[ConnieB]

An alternative to more memory cards......consider checking with the hotels ahead of time to ensure that they have "business centers". We found them even more prevalent in Europe than they are here (in Europe business centers were in less expensive hotels whereas here in USA they tend to be in the mid to high price hotels). Then take along a box of DVDs to burn your memory card contents. Then you can erase your memory card and reuse it.

I still would recommend that you have at least two memory cards....you don't want to be on a tour and have a full card without the chance to burn it off until you return to the hotel that evening.

 

Also....here in the USA you can take your memory cards to most camera departments at Walmart/Walgreens/CVS, etc and for a fee they will burn you a DVD. We never had to do this in Europe as the hotel's all had business centers for us....but I'd venture to guess that a decent camera department in Europe would have this capability as well. This can of course get expensive, but it's an alternative if there are a couple of the hotels you'll be visiting that don't have business centers.

 

If you're going with a professional tour guide, you might ask them what they recommend....I'm sure this is a common situation and they'll have some alternatives for you. Hey, maybe it's even a service available through the tour guide themselves, since they're likely to have a computer at their disposal.

 

Have a wonderful vacation!

[Sebastian (a lady)]

When we traveled in Europe, DH would switch cards every evening. At the time, we only traveled with 2-3 cards, so there were pictures from a couple different days on each card. Now I would just travel with about 6+ cards so I didn't have so much overlap.

 

I don't think it would be worth my time to be bothering with transfering and uploading photos (not to mention the expense of the connection or the hassle of carrying a laptop unless I had to have it for other reasons).