Photo backup devices for Digital cameras on trips

I have never ever taken near 900 shots in one day.

Thanks for the perspective.

The world is a bit distorted I guess looking out of my little fish bowl.....;)

I used my old laptop as a backup device this weekend at Cade's Cove and it worked OK. I couldn't resist looking at the images though to get a feel for if I was getting focus on my Leica (which can be a learned skill). I ended up taking over 1100 pictures over 4 days but culled quite a lot of them after I got home. Probably about 500 left of which maybe 40-50 are actually decent images. A lot of this was dodging cars on Cade's Cove loop road trying to get one without a car. I posted some pictures in the Travel forum. Note that I had 4 cards and didn't reuse during the trip (used all 4 but didn't fill them up). No card failures, but one wouldn't read at first, so ...

 

Back when I was a college kid (in the Jurassic era) I went to Australia to visit my dad and I bought a 100' roll of Velvia (I think) and rolled my own cartridges. I think I ended up taking 19 rolls over the space of a month (which seemed like a colossal number of pictures at the time. Processing them impoverished me! My hit rate was a lot lower then but I got a few decent ones. I also took a horde of pictures about a decade ago when I went to Kauai. You pretty much can close your eyes and point your camera in Kauai and get a great picture. Very photogenic place.

focus on my Leica (which can be a learned skill

Amen! If everything is working right, including. your eyes, the double image in the rangefinder will appear to pop into focus. You have to find an edge with enough contrast to distinguish it in that tiny window.

 

I developed cataracts and astigmatism, which tended to produce double images in everything, making the rangefinder unreliable for me. It helped to add a 1.4x magnifier to the viewfinder, along with a diopter so I could use the finder without wearing glasses. You can't even see the largest (possibly the second largest) frame completely if. you wear glasses.

 

Cataract surgery fixed the astigmatism too, and my Leica is once again useable. We'll see how that goes.

I have Cataract surgery in my future as well and I’m not looking forward to it. Any surgery is problematic living alone but EYE surgery scares me. My dad could never get used to the near far thing, so I probably will correct the astigmatism and set myself up for no glasses while driving. I probably will still need reading glasses. I think this means I’ll be glasses free while photographing.

 

Note that the 35 line is hard to see in my Leica Ms, but it’s still usable (with 0.72 mag). Haven’t used magnifiers.

The hardest part about getting used to using the S3 is the double image feature of the rangefinder.

But I’m learning to pick it up a little better all the time. So far quick extreme movement seems to work best.

I think this means I’ll be glasses free while photographing.

Exactly! You will need glasses for reading and using a computer, but they can be drug-store quality. I have a pair with "blended" lenses - 1 at the top for TV, graded to 2.5 at the bottom for reading. The middle section is great for working at the computer without craning my neck.

 

re rangefinder focusing: The double image will seem blurry as you approach the focus point and the separation becomes too small to see, then suddenly clear up. It's a lot like focusing on a ground glass or microprism finder - go past the sharpest focus then back up. For people, find something with good contrast, like eyes, eyeglass frames, or an edge of the face.

“Past and back up”

That is better stated than “quick extreme movement” (cranking the lens back and forth to pick up the focus “pop”)

Thanks.

The beauty of manual lenses is the tactile feedback at your disposal. It's easy to feel how far past the sharpest point you go, then back up the same amount.

 

You lose that feel with focus-by-wire lenses, because they are velocity dependent rather than linear. What you describe as "quick extreme movement" is probably apt. You have to move slow enough to see what's happening, and back up at the same speed. Too fast and everything is a blur. Too slow and the focus may not even change. You can get pretty good with practice, but each lens works differently. It's never intuitive nor fun.

I remember when I first started using the split prism on the Pentax all those years ago, looking for a vertical line.

Then I started simply looking for the scene to pop into focus rolling the lens and that was much faster.

Funny thing is using this rangefinder I’m back to those slower focus days....

Got a Bit of practice at Elmwood on the way home from work today.

Getting used to it more and more.

Meter around the neck now.

Something I never saw myself doing, but it’s fun.

Like inking a fountain pen......

When I use a no meter camera I use a Soligor spotmeter I bought years ago (uses 9V batteries) with a leather holster someone made for me! Really convenient, if I don't get shot by a policeman or something. Does kind of look like a gun. Nothing like a spotmeter though to really examine a scene closely.

I remember when I first started using the split prism on the Pentax all those years ago, looking for a vertical line.

Then I started simply looking for the scene to pop into focus rolling the lens and that was much faster.

Funny thing is using this rangefinder I’m back to those slower focus days....

Got a Bit of practice at Elmwood on the way home from work today.

Getting used to it more and more.

Meter around the neck now.

Something I never saw myself doing, but it’s fun.

Like inking a fountain pen......

My dad has one,but it is rarely used......Maybe I should go back and ask him.