Memory card

[Marvin]

<p>I know that this is an unanswerable question but - I'm about to take a transatlantic cruise (8 days at sea) with stops in Spain, France and Italy - total 3 weeks. 4 days in Rome, 4 days in Paris. I intend to leave my 7D home (in order to travel light) and take my Powershot SX50HS (12 Megapixels) in order to travel light. It came with an 8GB SD card. I intend to just keep ALL images on the card instead of transferring them to a computer. Now, for the question. How large an SD card/cards do you guess that I'll need. All JPEG no RAW. The instruction manual makes no sense to me.</p>

 

[igord]

I would check how large is 1 jpeg and multiply it by the number of photos I would be going to take per day, next I would

multiply it by 2 just in case. I would also take one spare, the same card.

[bobatkins]

<p>You'll need an average of around 20MB per shot for RAW+JPEG, so you'll get maybe 400 shots on an 8GB card.</p>

<p>Only you can estimate how many shots you'll take, but memory is small, light and dirt cheap so take twice, maybe 3 times, as much as you think you'll need. Also, they sell SD cards in Europe (and almost certainly on the boat too at an exorbitant price since you have nowhere else to buy one) , so if you run out of space you can always buy another one.</p>

<p>Personally I'd also take a backup camera if you have one. A small pocketable P&S in case the SX50 has problems, though again they do sell cameras in Europe if the worst happens. If you buy one here there are lots of usable P&S cameras for under $100. For $70 you can get something like the Lumix DMC-SZ8.</p>

<h1> </h1>

[JeffOwen]

<p>My Canon 20D (12Mb if I remember right) saved high quality JPEGs at between 2 and 8 MB. Say 8 MB then for JPEG shots only you should get over 1000 shots from an 8GB memory card.</p>

[tien_pham]

<p>I did the calculation.</p>

<p>For me, it's maximally about 8 8GB cards/day, with the RAW format and burst shooting. Burst shooting is for wildlife. When I went to Africa, I stored all pix in those 8GB CFs and SDs (SDHCs) for those shooting 9 days. It was a 10-day trip. Remember, you lose about 2 days: Europe is ahead the US 1 day, 1 day for logistics (boarding, orientation, etc.,) and you may lose another day at the end of trip. Landscape shots take less memory card than wildlife shots.</p>

<p>Another alternative is to get a portable storage, but this kind of solution has problem of its own. If you get a storage, it tends to be used for the trips in the future. Depending where you will go and how to get to destination, the storage can shake and may ask you to format it. For example, if you have to get to a destination by a non-paved, dirt road, etc. </p>

<p>I figured out that memory card storage is relatively safer. Other words, if the memory cards are new, they rarely fail. Old cards tend to fail ("leaking," the solid state circuits cannot hold the correct logic state anymore.) And the high speed (>30MB/s, about 1.5 of 21MB, the full resolution of the 1Ds3.) CFs aren't cheap. In landscape shooting, the camera rarely fills up, thus does not need high speed cards. (Well, it did in my case. My camera is a FF 1Ds3, and I "configure" the shots around the morning light.)</p>

<p>CFs are definitely more expensive than the SDs. And the CFs have been stopped on new development. I don't know what the "dramatic" decisions are, beside the fact that Nikon "steals" the CF-SD (slot 1 - slot 2) configuration, thus "steals" Canon's customers, starting at the Canon 1DX time frame.) If this has been the only reason, then I think it is a stupid reason.</p>

 

[jamie_robertson2]

<p>My advice would be to take the 7D. If you don't you will regret it.</p>

[victor_kunkel3]

I take 4 fast 64gb units with me

wherever I go, plus an 8gb just in case.

I have a 6D and have never run out of

space. I agree, it would be good to take

the 7d. The adjustability and night

metering will be sorely missed....I also

take a small MacBook Pro in my

backpack so I can do initial keep/don't

keep at night in the hotel. On the other

hand, the cards should not be hard to

find in any of those countries.

[bobatkins]

<p>The super minimalist approach (the photographic equivalent to sawing the handle off your toothbrush to save weight) would be micro SD cards and one adapter. I have a couple of micro SD cards and they work just fine. You can get a name brand 8GB class 10 microSD card for $7 or a 16GB class 10 UHs-1 card for $15. Weight of a microSD card is 0.064oz or 1.8g. The main problem with microSD cards is that they are so small they are easy to lose.<br>

<br>

I like the SX50HS. It's a very, very good travel camera, within the limitations of a small sensor. Shot in RAW at low ISO it's capable of excellent image quality and as long as you don't intend to make poster sized prints it will perform very well. It's a reasonable alternative to a 7D and a bagful of lenses if the purpose of the trip is a vacation and not a photo expedition. See http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/digital/canon_powershot_sx50_hs_gallery.html for some examples.<br>

<br>

</p>

[victor_kunkel3]

Good point on the micros; I use them in

XM and other music products. Never

have in photo. Will need to try that!

Again, good point.

[Marcus Ian]

<p>While I don't necessarily agree with your decision to go sans DSLR, it <em>will</em> certainly make the travel lighter, and with less crap to haul, you may enjoy the travel more.<br>

I definitely would NOT use microSD cards with a single adapter. They are so easy to lose -and that's when NOT travelling - that there is no reason to risk it. I have never seen a card wallet that is even designed to fit them (except while in an adapter). </p>

<p>That said, I'd definitely get a wallet to store them in and keep track of the cards. I'd probably carry ~128GB of storage (2 64GB, or 4 32GB). In practical terms, you are highly unlikely to use it all, especially since you are planning on shooting all jpegs. However, IME, on trips like this, you will likely find at least some occurences where you'll want to capture once-in-a-lifetime images at a RAW level, heck, you may even find yourself wanting to shoot the occasional video. Having more than enough storage capacity will allow you to shoot like this whenever you feel the desire.</p>

<p>I would also make sure to have at least two spare batts. Having to remember to charge them every night adds annoyance, especially when you aren't exactly sure where/how you be able to charge them.</p>

[bobatkins]

<p>I'd say not shooting RAW would be a pity. For a small sensor camera like the SX50HS you need all the help you can get with image quality, noise and dynamic range and RAW is the way to get it. Shoot RAW+JPEG if you want to, but having the RAW image may save some shots and give you the option of improving the rest of them. You'll get 50 shots/GB so with 64 GB you'll get 3200 shots. that's 160 shots a day, every day, for your 3 week trip.</p>

[peter_c5]

Do you really like living dangerously? I'd take the 7D with your favourite lens AND the SX50 as a backup, and shoot RAW

+ JPEG. You aren't going to make this trip again, are you?

 

As for cards, they're cheap. Take more than you think you'll need - and don't forget to lock them after use so you don't

accidentally format a used one!

[dcstep]

<p>I'm continually surprised that people buy exceptional cameras and then leave them at home when going on the photo-op of a lifetime. Just saying...</p>