Plan for 2021 Trip to South France: Android Device for downloading Images from XPro Fuji 2 and 3

Over 2 weeks in France. Want to download images to Android device and email for processing after trip and to make room on camera for more images or should I buy several sandisk cards for processing after trip as an easier task?

Thanks

Andy

Both!

IHMO, it depends, If yr camera can can connect to your Android device and if your Android device e can connect to WIFI, then you can upload all your photos

to somewhere in 'the cloud''./

 

You could e-mail photos via your smartphone. ,

 

IMHO, it depends a lot on your workflow. So you want to publish (via smartphone) while shooting? Or just make a backup while shooting?

SD cards are available cheaply in just about any decent size hypermarché, you won't find UHS II cards so easily, but you're unlikely to be shooting an X-Pro like a machine gun.

 

So I wouldn't worry too much about running out of space.

 

The Fujifilm app works on my ancient Android 6 smartphone, but I don't think it can transfer RAW?

 

Otherwise, my advice is the same as to anyone else - tale a bunch of 16 gig cards, swap every day, that way if the worst should happen, you only lose that day's photos.

 

If you should come up as far as central France, I'd love a play with an X-Pro...

SD cards are so cheap now and your cameras have two slots. I’d just use two cards in duplicate mode and not rely on the app. It can be a pain, and I don’t know if the Android version allows transferring raws or full size JPG but if it does I bet it would take a really long time.

 

Can you plug an SD card reader into an Android phone then browse it and offload files?

Thanks for commenting!

I plan to take X Pro 2 with 23 f1.4 and X T 130 with 50 f2. My cell phone is a Pixel4 XL . In US public libraries have free use of PCs which I use. So I plan to see if there is something similar in France.

Thanks for commenting!

I plan to take X Pro 2 with 23 f1.4 and X T 130 with 50 f2. My cell phone is a Pixel4 XL . In US public libraries have free use of PCs which I use. So I plan to see if there is something similar in France.

There are typically public computers, but keep in mind that:

 

The hardware may be physically locked down so that you can't access usb ports.

 

They may be running Linux.

 

The OS and keyboard will be in french.

 

You may have to be a member of the library, which can be complicated if you are not a local resident.

 

 

All of the above are true where I live, but will be different for each local administration.

 

So it might be workable, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

Your hotel may have a computer for guests to use.

 

 

Personally, I wouldn't go sticking my SD cards into some random public computer, not without having booted it from a live CD first (which would likely get you thrown out).

I'd lean towards the extra cards and would doubt if e-mailing works at all. A dozen JPEGs should be doable but...

• Inbox storage limits? - 2GB not uncommon with free accounts...
  
• Size limit for attached files? - I've encountered 10MB and even 5MB
  
• Speed / time. It took me all day long to upload 2GB with my sluggish domestic DSL. While a hotel / whatever might have a better connection for starters; it shares them between more patrons, so it might be worse in the end.
  
• To my greatest dismay I haven't spotted any "Spam machine gun app" yet, that would automatically mail a folder picture by picture, each an individual mail, to a preset recipient...
  

Did you mean cloud upload instead of e-mail?

In US public libraries have free use of PCs which I use.

I'd consider half a vacation day too precious to bother reaching a library.

 

SD cards can be dirt cheap. Stuff both slots of your cameras, and go ahead.

Considering that all the world's Kodachrome got processed in the US at a time, snail-mailing one of 2 cards home might be an option too?

 

To free space in your camera having more cards is the easiest option.

I wouldn't be confident about stuff stored on my Android toy, since that might be my most appealing (non cash) possession, in a juvenile gangster's eye.

To upload 10 GB per hour requires really fast internet. Can you guess how long it would take to upload a 64 GB card from an hotel room or internet concession? Uploading from a phone will cost about $10/GB in data usage, and I have a really good, open data plan. Here are some alternatives.

 

• Buy enough memory cards to last the trip without reuse. "Enough" usually means twice the memory you think you'll use
  
• Bring a laptop and a portable 4T hard drive, and copy your cards nightly (if possible).
  
• Reformat (not erase files) the cards in the camera once you're sure you have an accurate copy
  
• Buy a second 4T hard drive, and back up the first. Keep the drives separate in case a bag gets lost.
  

In terms of mobile data plans, my contract includes 70GB/month and is one of the better ones. So uploading my camera cards would wipe it out pretty rapidly. I don't know what is on offer from 'pay as you go' type deals these days, but expect them to be expensive, certainly a higher cost per GB than SD cards.

 

I've tried to find out what is available at my local library, but without much success, they're currently closed due to the Covid lockdown in place.

 

In case I haven't made it clear, I'm french, I'll offer what advice I can, but I live in the Limousin, in central France, so not local to the area you're planning on visiting.

 

It may help us to help you if you give some more details of the area you plan to visit, 'South France' covers a fairly large geographic area and facilities differ between the major agglomerations and more remote areas such as the Alps.

 

I would say, that in France, in general, you will find fast 4G mobile access, but you will pay for it. Fixed line internet will vary from super fast (fibre) to 128kB/s, depending on the state of the local network. I can say that they are currently stringing fibre in my local area, but nothing is connected yet...

 

Large shops (Carrefour, E'leclerc, U, Auchan, Geant Casino - equivalent to Wallmart and the like) are common and any major town will have several. They all sell SD cards, around 5€ for a 16GB card last time I looked.

 

How will you be traveling around? If renting a car, I would seriously advise a good, up to date road atlas, Michelin are good. Mobile phone based GPS is getting better, but I personally find Google Maps to take some very odd decisions regarding routes, though it is some years since it last ordered me to 'turn left now' - which would have involved a 150m plunge from a viaduct...

128gb SD cards are about $40 now. On an XPro2 that’s about 5000 compressed raws. Just pack a few extra SD cards and don’t worry about it until you get home.

Waze worked for me in Iceland and Ireland. Fewer wrong turns or oddball routes than with either Google or Apple maps, but not as detailed. Buy a local SIM card an data plan. Data is far cheaper than from your home plan, and lasts longer. Long distance data is used as though you were streaming or gaming. I went through 2G in the first day before I caught on. Edited November 23, 2020 by Ed_Ingold

Ahhhh. Travelling to photograph. That's something I remember doing a lot.

 

What you need with you depends on how you want to behave and spend your time whilst away. The big decision for me is whether I want to process/edit images whilst I'm away in any more detail than I can achieve by looking at the back of the camera to get rid of shots that simply, obviously don't work or are duplicates. If you want to edit properly you're going to need a laptop and if you have a laptop you may as well load images to it and use that as a form of back-up, keeping the original images on their cards till after you get the laptop safely home.

 

For me, I never carry a laptop ( I carry an iPad mini for internet/email/watching movies etc but not photography) . I don't carry a laptop because I won't have time and begrudge the time to edit on a trip. I spend a lot of time with my nose in a computer at home , and I'd rather spend on location time more sociably or planning my next day or two or relaxing over dinner. I'll do a better job of editing on the desktop computer at home & will enjoy doing it more there, and my wife will enjoy the trip better without a constant reminder that what is for her a holiday is actually just a photography trip. So for me the entire question is how I keep and protect my images on the trip. I want it to be safe & I want it to be light.

 

The way I do it is to record every image onto two cards -as mentioned above. Cards are cheap and light. I don't use big capacity cards because I don't want to lose more than a days photography if anything should go awry or more likely if I mislay one. I change cards and backup cards together but I store /carry the two sets of used cards separately. I hope to avoid being the guy who loses all his pictures when his camera bag gets stolen at the airport on the way home because he keeps both sets of used cards in there. With the exception of total garbage, no images leave either set of cards till the load to my at-home computer and external drive system for back-up has been completed and verified. And even then I'll probably keep all the images on cards till I actually need to format the cards when I next load them to a camera.

 

The other way is to use a hard drive to load all images daily. You can use that with two sets of cards or one. but you still keep all images on cards till you load up at home and carry the cards separately from the drive.