Backup/copy/protection of digital pictures while traveling? w/o computer?

Do the cyber cafes allow connecting USB cable to upload the best pictures to an online photo service?

Some do, some don't - sorry it's not the most helpful answer but that's the way it is. I'm sure if you're willing to put in the legwork you could find somewhere that will.

Does anyone have a good ideas about how to protect these precious memories in the event my camera is stolen, etc.?

Well first the chances of your camera getting stolen are slim so I wouldn't over worry but there are a few things you could do.

Most camera shops will have the option of burning your photos onto CD (just like in the US,) some cyber-cafes also offer the service and in large supermarkets you'll find the self service machines that you can use yourself. (Make sure to check the CD works before you delete any files from the camera.)

Assuming your camera uses removable media (MMC, SD, MemoryStick,) and most do, you could just spread your picture over multiple cards.

There are some portable hard drives that will connect directly to a camera that you can back up to. I'm not to sure of the details here but I remember other posters talking about these in the past.

Finally you could take a laptop/netbook and use that to upload your pictures.

The self-service machines mentioned by Manchester Peter above can also be found in the larger Boots the Chemist shops in England.

I responded dto a similar question yesterday.
I have CDs and perhaps prints made as I travel.
You will find one hour service in most major cities.
But I have even done it in Arles and Avignon which are not major cities. Standards of printing are very high. I found the French photo printing quality
to be superior to the places I use at home.

And like Peter says, use smaller memory cards, and don't keep them with your camera.

I have traveled with both my digital and a small camcorder just in my handbag and have never had any problems. Just keep your wits about you. You need good street smarts!

There are little USB connectors you can buy to connect a camera to a usb storage device. At least with the one I have the USb storage device has to have it's own power supply, and if it's battery powered, the picture transfer is a major drain.

I haven't tried it it Europe, but in Hawaii, we just did the store machines, burned to CD's, and it worked great.

For this last trip, we got a little ACER netbook for $199USD, and it worked great! It was very small (under 2lbs), and had 100Gigs to put pictures on, built in card reader too! :)

Hope those options help. If I can find the device I have for transferring, I'll link the name. I forgot it. :(

For transferring between USB devices you can use a USB bridge. Go to amazon.com and search "USB Bridge." I tried the first one on the list but at the time I was trying to transfer to a portable hard disk and the batteries in the bridge didn't have enough juice to spin up the hard drive. If you're transferring between solid state devices or self-powered devices it should work better for you than it did for me.

Try this link:
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Components-USB-Portable-Bridge/dp/B000AR8V4U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1246665711&sr=8-1

We use the Iomega portable hard drives for storing all our pictures. There are all kinds of devices for digital picture storage.

As Peter (of Manchester) and JB both posted, there are portable hard drives available. Epson and Digital Foci both make models that not only store photos but allow you to view them and have other features. I carry a 100-gig Digital Foci Picture Porter Elite. Each day I move all my photos to it.

I do what MaryAnn does - I go to a photo place and upload my pics, and have them printed out and put on a cd, 200 at a time or so. In the UK there is a chain called Snappy Snaps. They do one hour photos as well as next day pick ups. Great quality. Better than the ones I brought home and had Walgreens print out.

I also go to an internet cafe that lets me upload them, and I put them on my Facebook, etc (its also fun that my friends get to see them while im still on vacation! They always leave great comments!)..

I am a bit phobic about losing my camera or them being erased. I would never just keep taking pics and never planning to upload them until I got home.

I just got a brilliant idea (I think!): bring along a 8GB USB flash ("Thumb") drive.

Hey, do cyber cafes usually have:

1) an SD slot read

2) a USB port

or are they just dumb Internet terminals (unlike a PC)?

I'll need a computer (somehow) to transfer files from my camera's SD card to the USB flash drive.

This is cheap, small, and hopefully reliable solution.

Peter: the "PCs" in cyber cafes are actual PCs (as a rule) so they'll have USB ports etc. The problem is that quite often the PCs are either placed somewhere inaccessible with you only having access to the mouse, keyboard and monitor, or have their USB ports blocked off.

As I said earlier some cyber cafes will allow the connection of USB peripherals some won't, it's not a universal thing. As long as you're in a town big enough to have more than one place you'll probably be able to find somewhere that will allow you to plug in a USB device - I guess it's a combination of luck of the draw and how much time you're willing to invest in looking around.

If you want to backup directly to a USB memory stick then you can use a USB bridge (as mentioned up thread) instead of a PC. They'll work as well with a solid state drive as with a hard drive.

Another way to minimize the loss would be to use multiple cards, alternating them periodically. For example, use card 1 in the morning and then card 2 in the afternoon. Then, if you keep the card separate from the camera and something happens to the camera, you've lost "only" half your photos. (I travel with a portable storage device, which several people above mentioned. I do this more to reduce the number of cards I have to bring; I have shot as much as 2 GB/day. Also, this is expensive as my device was $200 + the cost of a hard drive, which I happened to have lying around.)

Paul