To buy or not to buy?

[mich_2103]

Dear fellow CSnappers,
I am in a dilemma so I need all the advice I can get before spending my money (sorry, I am still a poor student so every dollar counts). :cry:

I am going to Japan with 3 of my friends in December for a 10-day trip. Basically we will be going to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. I am terribly excited because this is the first time I am going to Japan on a F&E trip. Previous 2 trips were all by tour groups and as we all know, tour groups don't really bring you to the 'heart' of the city. Basically I have visited all the main tourist attractions and now, I want to see another POV of these cities.

To cut the long story short, I seriously suspect I lack of CF cards and I am considering whether I should buy more for the trip. I have 2 CF cards, both of them 1GB each. I am using a Nikon D70s and I don't plan to shoot them in RAW. If I am shooting them in JPEG, I don't know if I should shoot them in Fine, Normal or Basic for the image quality.

Previously for all my overseas trips, I just shoot my photos using JPEG Normal and my 2GB worth of CF cards was able to contain all my shots. But those trips were maximum 6 or 7 days tour group trips.

As such, should I just use the JPEG Basic settings and settle with what I have, or buy some more? If I should buy more CF cards, should I buy the 2GB or the 4GB?

And is there another IT show at the end of the year? Or do I have to wait next year?

Tank kew berry mud in advance for giving advice!

 

[Kit]

CFs are a dime a pound these days, just get as much as you can afford. Alternatively, you can ask around here if any kind soul is willing to loan you some for the 10 days.

 

[Parka]

I bought my 2GB at $30 each on Yahoo Auctions.

 

[MichaelLee]

Dear fellow CSnappers,
I seriously suspect I lack of CF cards and I am considering whether I should buy more for the trip. I have 2 CF cards, both of them 1GB each. I am using a Nikon D70s and I don't plan to shoot them in RAW. If I am shooting them in JPEG, I don't know if I should shoot them in Fine, Normal or Basic for the image quality.

Get a external storage that solve all the problem.

 

[SolBadGuy]

if i were u, i'd:

1) shoot in JPEG fine at highest res (6MP in this case)
2a) buy a portable storage device, like the digimate, which bro Pauche is selling at BnS. not sure how much it would cost 1st hand, OR
2b) get another couple of 2GB-4GB cards. CF cards are really cheap nowadays. Don't think you will have the need to buy the higher end (and higher speed) 1s right?

hope this helps.

 

[hacknet]

i've shot my holidays on fine jpegs. frankly, after you shoot so much, especially if its candid, its going to be a huge pain to convert all that raw to jpeg for printing.

do get another 2gb at least, 4gb is quite comfortable over 10 days..

 

[attap seed]

another way is to hold your shutter.

i started off shooting color slides and very seldom go beyond 2 rolls (72 exposures) a day.

its far better to plan each shot carefully, making everyone counts rather than being trigger happy. really, u dun need 10-20 shots of one scene

currently using the canon 30D, shooting at JPG "super" fine, i can get 213 shots on my 1 gig card. if shooting at JPG normal, i get 425 shots. and according to ken rockwell (if u believe him), the quality is about the same. i haven really explore and see f myself yet.

anyway, for holiday snap shots, most ppl dun even print them, or at most print 4R and up to 8R max.

so, assume u go for 10 days, (2 rolls per day x 10 days = 720 exposures), 2 x 2 gig cards may jus be enough. u also ve the option of deleting images u dun wan at night.

i'd worry more about battery.

 

[kirkchua79]

aiyo bring your laptop along la. i always do that and can view straight away on bigger screen or for editing.

 

[Fotophilic]

1) Buy more CF card(s). But do find out what is the max capacity ur camera can support.
2) If you will be at places where there are digital photo shops around, you can pass them your CF card and call them to burn into CD for you (at a fee of course). Then you can keep the CD and refresh the memory for use again.

To be frank, I still think getting CF card will be a better option. I don think you will need high speed ones, so just go for the low cost-per-gig CF.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your trip. Bring more batteries.

 

[martinchatswood]

Dear fellow CSnappers,
I am in a dilemma so I need all the advice I can get before spending my money (sorry, I am still a poor student so every dollar counts). :cry:

I am going to Japan with 3 of my friends in December for a 10-day trip. Basically we will be going to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. I am terribly excited because this is the first time I am going to Japan on a F&E trip. Previous 2 trips were all by tour groups and as we all know, tour groups don't really bring you to the 'heart' of the city. Basically I have visited all the main tourist attractions and now, I want to see another POV of these cities.

To cut the long story short, I seriously suspect I lack of CF cards and I am considering whether I should buy more for the trip. I have 2 CF cards, both of them 1GB each. I am using a Nikon D70s and I don't plan to shoot them in RAW. If I am shooting them in JPEG, I don't know if I should shoot them in Fine, Normal or Basic for the image quality.

Previously for all my overseas trips, I just shoot my photos using JPEG Normal and my 2GB worth of CF cards was able to contain all my shots. But those trips were maximum 6 or 7 days tour group trips.

As such, should I just use the JPEG Basic settings and settle with what I have, or buy some more? If I should buy more CF cards, should I buy the 2GB or the 4GB?

And is there another IT show at the end of the year? Or do I have to wait next year?

Tank kew berry mud in advance for giving advice!

I got a 1GB CF card to loan you if you don't mind the size.

 

[cantaresg]

When I go for long holidays, I'd bring my laptop along, and transfer the pictures into the laptop at night. So each day I'd start with a fresh card.

 

[night86mare]

buy an external portage storage device that can read cards and download info off them
you will use it every trip, trust me
i use the vosonic, you can get it at eastgear, though a bit on the high side, though you can view your pictures

there is also digimate etc, and some people have recommended lassup brand ones to be better than digimate, i'm not sure about that

 

[mich_2103]

I got a 1GB CF card to loan you if you don't mind the size.

Thank you very much for your kind offer!

buy an external portage storage device that can read cards and download info off them
you will use it every trip, trust me
i use the vosonic, you can get it at eastgear, though a bit on the high side, though you can view your pictures

there is also digimate etc, and some people have recommended lassup brand ones to be better than digimate, i'm not sure about that

It seems some of your recommend the idea of buying a portable external storage device. I went to some of the websites of some of the brands mentioned here and because of the size, I also think this is a pretty good idea too. I don't mind bringing the laptop but I have no idea how many things I am planning to buy so yes, taking photos is damn important to me, but so is the baggage too.

Should I wait for SITEX then buy the portable external storage device? Because I bought some Sanyo rechargeable batteries during the last show and found out it really ain't cheaper. Found the same package at NTUC selling at $4 cheaper...

Have a good week ahead folks!

{Mich}

 

[SolBadGuy]

Should I wait for SITEX then buy the portable external storage device? Because I bought some Sanyo rechargeable batteries during the last show and found out it really ain't cheaper. Found the same package at NTUC selling at $4 cheaper...

Have a good week ahead folks!

{Mich}

Well, that's why alot of bros/sis here have always mentioned, "Keep your eyes open!" Do research on the prices of the stuff you want to buy at reputable shops before the event. Then compare during the show, and make sure you walk around more to hunt for the better deals.

Purchasing at SITEX, or any other similar shows/exhibitions, is like our normal day-to-day shopping. Not all merchants are honest; neither are all of them reputable or competitive. Do your own research and go in with your eyes wide open. If not, you have nobody to blame but yourself.

I could have lent/sold you my extra memory cards as well, but I saw this thread too late, already sold them off yesterday morning.

 

[2.8photography]

depends on how much u shoot

ive gone on a 2wk holiday (last dec i think) with just a 1gb CF card with my d70s. shot in jpeg normal 'on accident', and it wasnt really enough cos the last number of my pic was 700+, but the final no of pics was only 300+ so i had deleted 1/2 of the pics along the way. i suppose that was quite wasteful

im going on another hol in dec, shorter this time, just over a week, and am bringing 2x1gb cf cards, and a 160gb portable HDD with card reader. so storage is definitely not an issue this time, though i will be shooting in either jpeg fine or raw, and shooting a lot more this time too

my advise is for a 10 day hol, at least 3gb of storage, and shoot in jpeg fine
(of course again, it depends on how many pics u will be shooting)

 

[Big Kahuna]

I am using a D70 too and I have with me a 4GB and 1GB CF everytime, I never run out of storage on my trip because that's almost 2k jpgs at high resolution in total :thumbsup:

 

[tkbonz]

I used to use a D70s with a 4gig CF card.

My advise is to get another 2 gig (on top of your 2x 1 gig) so that you have 4 gig in total. $ gig at max resolution lets you shoot up to 1.2k (conservative number) shots.

Then based on the total maximum shots possible, plan each day how much you can shot. If you feel still not enough, get more CF cards. And when you're on the trip, take note of your the number of shots.

This is the cheapest method i can think of. Furthermore, back in Singapore, the 2gig CF card will replace any of your 1 gig for your normal shoots.

 

[night86mare]

don't need to wait for sitex

just hardcore search for cheapest deal and you will get it

in fact, if you're going for digimate it is not very expensive in the first place, i remember can get for less than $100 for the casing and then it's just hard disk after that

though some people complain about battery life and transfer rate lor.. gotta admit that laptop is ley chey to be brought overseas.. and losing a hard drive is much less painful than losing a laptop.. or spoiling it for that matter

 

[Stratix]

buy 1 more 2GB card, and bring a notebook along.

solves everything. =)

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

normally i bring a portable storage with a big screen to view... if i'm not using then probably can lend you... else too bad...