Toolfreak in New Zealand. - toolfreak goes New Zealand

Well, i`m leaving the Netherlands on the 18th of feb. to do a 5 month tour in New Zealand and surrounding islands.

I have a LP guide, but i don`t want to follow this particularly, so if any of you have recommendations, about places or areas which can`t be left alone, i like to hear all about it :)

My following question is a bit technical; its very nice to have a digital camera but, i`d like to show some pics while touring, so can i use internetcafes or libraries?

In other to get the photos from my camera i need an USB plug and the camera software, but i don`t see how you can connect in public places, the most PC`s are hidden behind covers etc.
Any ideas?

Thanks,

:beer:

Re: downloading pictures from your camera to a computer. Two options come to mind. I don't have any personal experience which one (if either) of these is acceptable from librarian's / internet cafe owner's point of view.

1) Use USB as you suggested. You probably will have to install some software to get the computer recognize your camera. I would imagine most libraries or internet cafes will not allow you to install software in their computers.

2) Find a laptop. Take the memory card from your camera and insert it in the PCMCIA slot of the laptop. Size matters here, your card will be too small to fit directly in the slot, so you need an adapter specific to the memory card type your camera has. Buy and test the adapter before you go, so you know what you're doing.

Quite a few internet cafes have laptops, and at least newer versions of Windoze should be able to recognize your memory card as an additional disk drive in My Computer. We use W2K in our laptops, and it works well. For a M$ product, that is :).

Enjoy the trip! :beer:

--J

Thanks for looking Juha,
i`ve never taught about the card reader, but its worth while to look at this option.
I believe there must be some way to crack this "problem"

:beer:

Hi toolfreak-

I had a similiar problem when I was abroad. I had no way of downloading my camera pictures, so when I ran out of memory, that was it! What I ended up doing is using a lot of disposable cameras and all my memory from my digital camera.

When I got back, I found out from a friend of mine that some of the more modern digital cameras have flash media cards, and the better internet cafes will have a slot you can insert your memory card into. You can download your pictures from the memory card onto the computer and do whatever you like with it.

Unfortunately, I had a figi film digital camera with a more uncommon memory card, so I was screwed.

If you're going to use a digital camera, try and get a camera with the most common memory card, and get a few of the cards with the most amount of memory. If you set the camera for a low resolution, you can probably get in at least 400 pictures with a 64 Mb memory card. If you had like 4 of those memory cards, I'm sure you'd be set.

One thing that frustrated me with the digital camera was that the batteries ran out so quickly- even when you're not using the camera, the batteries get drained. One thing I did was whenever I wasn't using the camera, I would take the batteries out and insert them in backwards to ensure the batteries would not get worn down. I don't know why, but the batteries will run out in a day without doing this, and it takes a while to recharge them. So keep a spare set of batteries fully charged and ready to go just in case too.

Also, I don't know if you know this, but I'd not use the video function at all. It sucks the battery power faster than a vampire stealing blood from a victim at night.... frustrating.

Keep us updated on your trip. It sounds like it's going to be great- New Zealand from summer to winter! Wow!

Take care,

koffee

Thanks Koffee,

I have some rechargeable batteries with charger, darn heavy thing, but i can use the same batteries for my bikelights.

I`ll try to write some traveloges with pics :)

Toolfreak-

I vote you go ask Joe to create your own sub-topic like what me and Dave and Catfish did. 5 months is a long time to be away without letting us know what's going on with you and having to pick through the posts trying to find you would not be as fun as going right to your sub-topic.

K B

If you need more storage, there's always IBM's MicroDrive, which is essentially a 1GB hard disk squeezed into physical form of a CF type II card. If your camera supports CompactFlash Type II memory cards, you may be able to use the MicroDrive instead (check for compatibility).

--J

toolfreak,

i have a Cannon digital camera (i love it) and i have wanted to do the same thing on trips. from my experience most internet cafes do not let you install any software, so you'd have to find one that does allow it plus gives you access to a USB port...

then, what would you do with all the photos from a full card, say 64MB, at an internet cafe anyway? upload it to a website? you'd need a fast connection and most aren't that fast from my experience... plus you'd need to have set up a pretty big storage account somewhere with a nice upload function (ftp may also not be possible from internet cafe)

with the price of the memory cards not being SO high, it might just be better to buy a few extra high-capcity cards. i use a 64MB card which holds like 120 photos or something which gets me at least 2 weeks (i had 1 picutre left including 3 viedo clips from my recent trip to Russia) plus the 8MB card that came with the camera and sometime soon i will buy a >128MB card. my sister and another friend have like 3 cards. depending on the memory type, you can get big cards pretty cheap. my girlfirend bought a 192MB for $90 this summer!

but, since your trip is considerably longer, i would think you would still want to transfer the photos off the card at least once or twice. i would suggest trying to meet someone along the way and offering to pay to use their personal computer and burn a CD. seems like you could meet someone along the way (if you were in Germany you could use mine)

other ideas: i think some photo shops now might be able to read the memory card and burn a CD. never done it, but i think i've seen offers. maybe something to check out. if i remember right the cost was like $25 or so although i think it was for only 36 photos (like normal film quantity)

Mark,

All the best for your trip.

I have heard it said that New Zealand is like Scotland with better weather.

Can't see that being true. As I recall it was sunny every day you were over here :D

Take care.

John

Is there someone back home who can download the photos for you and then post the memory card to some prearranged stop on your tour? If so you can get by with three or four 64mb cards and just rotate them, mailing them to your support back home when they're full and picking them up at the prearranged locations after. This is assuming that NZ has something equivalent to "general delivery" addressing as here in the US.

Even at pretty good resolution you can get a lot of photos on a memory card. I've got a little Sony camera with either a 32 or 64 mb card (pretty sure it's a 32 but the camera isn't handy right now). I can get about 200 pictures at 1600 X 1200 at the finest quality setting.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you can select quality and resolution on a frame-by-frame basis. For simple shots of road signs and whatnot you can use low resolution and quality, then switch to high resolution and quality for scenic shots.

Actually, batteries will probably be more of a problem than memory cards. Digital cameras are battery hogs and if you don't have some way of recharging them you're stuck using alkalines, and cameras eat alkalines like candy!

John

Toolfreak....I hate you.....you better take pics!
I am planning a similar trip to NZ but wont be for a couple of years. Let me know how it goes. Have a great time!....you b@stard!:beer:

Can't see that being true. As I recall it was sunny every day you were over here :lol:

Thanks John, let me know when you visit the Lowlands, i may not be home, but i can fix a place to stay.

Thanks everyone for the advice about the storage / upload problem , i appreciate it!

All i can do is use the advice and go shoot some nice pics :D

Good luck Mark!

Keep those wheels spinning.
Looking foward to hearing about your adventure.

Are you taking the trailer? with all the mountaineering gear this time, just wondering....

Regards Willi`c