pic storage for a long trip in gobi

I am taking a trip to the Gobi desert backpacking with my nikon

coolpix 5000. I will need more storage than my 3 0r 4 128 mb

flash cards. What recommendaions are there for a reasonable priced

external storage for my pics?

Jerry

use a film camera for this kind of adventure.

3 x 128 = 512, which is probably enough for ONE serious day of shooting. I would consider picking up a 512Mb card to complement your currect collection. 128Mb is fine, but if you decide to shoot RAW/NEF (highly recommended) each card will only accomodate 20 or so images forcing you to swap cards in disty condition + greater change of loosing cards.

 

You don't say how long your trip is going to be, but I would make an assuption of one to two weeks ... perhaps you should look into digital bank solutions that are hitting the market right now. They are basically hard drives with an interface to download images from CF cards, so you will have 20Gb of storage on your trip.

 

Also, shooting is the desert can be difficult. Thus, I suggest shooting RAW/NEF so that you can correct exposure and WB later. If you are going to shoot JPEG ... braket like crazy :)

 

A suggestion to use a film camera is reasonable, if you have existing film gear. With film you don't have the besky problem of battery life etc. You will have to keep your Data/Image Bank device powered/charged and your camera as well.

a backup film camera (35mm manual SLR) with a couple of lenses 28, 50, 105 - something compact like a Pentax or Olympus might be a good idea.

 

Gobi is more rock than sand, at least I have that notion.

 

I was just pondering this and wondering if anyone has made and sells a solar power recharging unit.

 

one other consideration is temperature - cold at night hot during the day

 

sounds like quite a trip

To William J. Gibson:

 

FWIW: I recall a short blurb in "Outdoor Photographer" a year or so back that showed a solar battery recharger device for field work. If my memory is correct, a drawback they noted was that the time required, based on the actual solar energy available, might be too long (ie, you'd have to leave it stationary while charging for the better part of a day if any cloud or foliage blocked the device). Also, if you'd have to recharge multiple sets of batteries (either as back-up sets for your camera/flash, or for other related devices like a digital wallet) that you may not ever have enough solar energy available during an off-the-grid trip to keep them all going. I don't recall the brand of the device reviewed. Maybe a Google search would turn something up if you're interested?

one day soon perhaps our outdoor clothes will be solar power charging or maybe just the bill on our caps? or a propellor on our heads for wind power?

 

: )

Jerry:

 

Have you checked out any "digital wallet" type reviews on sites such as dpreview.com? It seems there are about ten (or more) options these days that routinely get blurbs in the major mags. I think that site does a lot of "standardized" write-ups/reviews and comparisons among the likely candidates.

 

William:

 

Sounds like you ought to be doing some "tech clothing" entrepreneurial work in your spare time :-)

Hi Jerry - check out http:www.xs-drive.com. I got the XS-Drive II. Bob Atkins had problems with his and Windoze 2000, but mine works great with my XP and Windoze 95. It's not much bigger than a pack of smokes, has (at least) a 20 gig internal laptop hard disk that runs on batteries. It hardly weighs anything. When a card gets full, pop it in the XS-Drive and download it to the internal hard disk. (Mine takes about 8 minutes to offload a 512Mb card) I took mine to Yosemite back in the spring and it worked great. It also doubles as a card reader and supports USB 2.0. I believe Adorama offers a similar product - price somewhere between $250-$300 bucks. I really recommend it or something close to it - keeps you from having to lug a laptop. Best wishes . . .