Just purchased our first digital camera (coming from film)for our '08 trip to Europe and wondering if I can expect a big "adjustment" period.
Also, I also purchased a 1GB memory card. About how many photos is this memory card on average capable of? Do I need a second or should the one do the job? It's a 7 megapixel camera if that helps.
Your input would be appreciated, thx.
I agree 2 cards is better safe than sorry. You can purchase them in Europe, but they are usually more expensive. Also, check into downloading your pictures to a storage place on the web. I have a .mac account that allows me to download from whereever so I can visit a cybercafe and clear my card regularly. I still have my 35 mm SLR film camera but I haven't used it in about 3 years! We own 3 digitals so we all can use one on our trips.
I would suggest you buy a 2 GB Flash Drive to back up all your pics once you are home.
I keep my back up in safe just in case of fire, etc.
They are also coming down in price...expecially when there is a sale.
I always carry a back up in case something happens to my card. My 1 gig held several hundred...not sure now how many.
I took a PHD - portable hard drive especially for downloading pictures...just in case.
Congrats for switching to digital - I found it so liberating! I would suggest buying at least one more card and making it at least 2gb. They are so cheap now you can get a 2gb one for under $30 with a good sale. You might even want more than that if you're not going to have a laptop to download pics every night. You will soon learn that you can just take and take and take with digital and just toss away the ones you don't like! It's great!As for how many pictures your camera will take on a certain card, check the manual. It should tell you about how many pictures for various sizes of cards depending on the quality settings (of course for the best pics you want to use the highest-quality setting but you get fewer pictures). My camera also tells me right in the LCD screen - when I turn it on there is a number in the top right and that is how many pictures I have left on that card with the current settings. Sounds like you got a nice camera, have fun with it!!
Congrats on your first digital camera. Mine also tells me how many pictures I have left in the top right corner. I would also suggest another memory card.
I think it wouldn't hurt to do some testing with the camera while you are at home or out and about in your town. It does take a little bit to get the feel of the camera and know what it can do for you.
Hey Gary,
I also got a digital camera (my first!) before heading to Europe last year. Practice with it at home and get used to all the settings/options. We bought 2 -1GB cards.
Your manual will tell you the capacity for various settings. We came home with about 800 photos and didn't come close to using up the cards memory. After having the digital camera for a short time, I can't imagine why I waited so long to get one.
paul
I have bought all my memory cards at Costco Wholesale. They have great prices!
Purchased my at Costco when they had the $15 off coupon. If you have a Costco card Gary, watch the coupon books you receive in the mail.
Thank you all for all the great suggestions. Our trip is next year so I have some time to practice. =-).
Thanks again.
JB -
The 2 GB flash drive you mentioned, are they usually compatible with most new cameras? I purchased a Kodak Camera along with a SanDisk memory card cause IMO the Kodak brand was too expensive and I'm also looking at a SanDisk flash drive.
Question 2: I have no idea how this is done since I've always used film, once I'm back home and walk into the photostore (Walgreens/ Walmart for instance) before I would give them the rolls of film to process... what do I hand to them now? lol. The memory card??? Pardon my ignorance but this digital is totally new to me.
Thank you
Ok, I may have googled and found out some of the answers. I would take it that either during the trip or after returning home you can hook the flash drive into the camera's USB port and upload your photos to the PC and then upload them for printing to say Walmart.com? Is this correct?
Yes, you could upload the pictures to your PC and then have them printed anywhere. You could also print them yourself. 4x6 (and other sizes) inkjet photo paper is fairly inexpensive. You could also upload them to a site like Shutterfly, Flikr (sp) or Exposure Manager (there are many other sites) and share single pictures or entire albums with friends and family.
Welcome to the digital world! My biggest hurdle was learning to take lots of pictures.
This is what I tend to do. If I have a bunch of pictures that I just want printed and I don't want to change them or mess with them, then I just go to Walmart, pop the little memory card in the machine. Then I'll just do some shopping then head back over and get my pictures.
If I want to alter the pictures (and sometimes when I just want to) or when I want larger sizes I will load them to the Walmart site and just order them from there.
There are a bunch of ways to do it, I guess it just depends on your preference. Oh, also if I order them from Walmart, I like to get the CD. Sure I could make it at home, but it's easy for them to do it too.
This isn't completely related to your question but worth looking into. We had trouble getting our digital camera to charge. The manual and cord said they were rated for Europe but for some reason in Italy the conversion didn't work. We ended up buying an actual battery charger for 30E in Milan. Thankfully they had a charger for our battery but we went almost 3 days without our camera. We used a disposable but its not the same.
Upon fiddling (practicing) with the camera around the house I've found something that I thought was just bizarre.
"You have to charge your -brand- new rechargables the first time."
I was amazed, the alkaline's ran out after 20 or so pictures of course and I popped in the new batteries and the camera cut off. I was like, interesting and then went to the camera store to ask the photo technician.
IMO Kodak leaves "newbies" in the dark! First the owners manual is only 6 pages long unless you download the manual from the internet which I thankfully did (78 pages). Then their batteries don't tell you to charge them the first time unlike energizer batteries @ the store did say that on the package.
Just some things I found unique in the first week with my new digital camera. =-)
BTW, thank you all for your informative replies as this will help us as we get closer to our trip.
I would be sure and have at least 2 gigs of memory card. REview and clear out the bad shots at night.
My bigger concern is battery charging! I carry three charged battery packs and my charger. Yep it isn't exactly light - but I pride myself on my photography and must have all my toys.
I went digital about 3 years ago and have not touched film since.
