Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
When I move from Alaska to (maybe) Texas, I want to take lots of pictures along the way. I have both a digital and a film camera, but the problem is... with the film camera, buying/developing film is expensive. It is convienient to be able to just pop in another roll and have them developed, but... If I took as many pictures as I wanted it would probably cost several hundred dollars. That's expensive.
With the digital camera, ugh. It's such a pain to put the photos on the computer, because I can't load them all at once without it being one huge file. And it takes forever to sit there waiting for the photos to load one at a time so I can save them as individaul files. Plus, when I save the pics it doesn't save the data from the camera (like the date, etc.) so I have to add that manually before I can delete the pics from the camera.
Plus, it'll be even worse when we're traveling, because the computers will be packed, so I won't be able to transfer the photos to them. And the camera battery dies fairly quickly. It'd suck to be constantly charging that thing and not being able to take pics while it charges.
Are there some options I'm overlooking? I was thinking I would buy postcards from everyplace I stop, but I want that to supplememnt the photos I take, not substitute for photographing places.
Also, I'm thinking of having a logbook, kinda like a diary, that I write in to record the different things I see. Any suggestions for info I should include, format I should use, or what I should use for my log? Like, would a regular notebook be good enough, or would something fancy be better?
Besides photos, postcards, and logbooks, is there anything else I can do to help me record/remember my journey?
You can buy disposable cameras just about everywhere. They take great pics (even out the window at 80 mph). You can even get ones that take extra wide panoramic pics.
Just because you have taken the pics does not mean that you have to have all of them developed at the same time.
How serious are you about photography? Maybe you need a different program to load the pictures or a faster computer. It only takes a few seconds to do ours and the date is already there. We use film and digital, film gives you better tonal quality, but digital is great from practice shots. We scan our pictures in and photoshop them then print them. Sounds like you probably don't want to do that. so I would stick with film. And like Evey said you don't have to develop them all at once or buy all of them. Walmart and Sam use the best paper. I don't like the Kodak paper. We shoot both, both have good and bad things. What kind of cameras do you have?
Just because you have taken the pics does not mean that you have to have all of them developed at the same time.
With film, no. With digital, when I fill a memory card I have to transfer the photos or buy more memory cards.
Quote:
Take your memory card to a photo store and have them printed. Get extra memory cards, they are not very expensive.
Hmmm... Doing a quick web lookup... buying more memory cards as they fill up might actually be cheaper than getting film, for the same number of pics it can hold. That's weird. For some reason I thought they were expensive (I wasn't the one that bought the memory card for the camera). I'll have to look it up at the local stores and see.
As far as disposables- They were $1 at the dollar store, but that's in Arizona. It would be cheaper than buying a roll of film, if I could find some at that price here, but I don't know if I can. And there's still the price of developing to consider.
With digital there's the problem of transfering the pics. Getting the photos printed? That'll cost $$. Not sure how much that would save over film, and with film you get negatives. Would the prints have as much detail as what's on the memory card? If I were to put them on the computer from the prints I think there'd be some loss of quality.
I guess an easy way of saying it, is I want the full quality pics available to me. For the most part I won't be using the high quality stuff (posting pics online, etc.), but I still want to have it in case I need to use the detailed stuff for some reason. With film that would be the negs, and with digital that would be the tiff file on the memory card.
What would be a good free program I could use to put the pics on the computer all at once as individual files w/the camera data without having to babysit it? All I have is the imaging program that came with Windows. It's lame. Also, what I can I use so that I don't have to have the memory card in the camera to transfer the pics?
I guess another option would be to have some shop put the pics on a cd or dvd. For some reason I feel more comfortable having negs lying around than CDs, though. And again, $$.
I guess I'm gonna have to do some research to find out which is the most reasonable option. It's just that I was hoping that with my digital I wouldn't have to shell out the bucks anymore!
Well, that still leaves the question of battery power. With film that's no problem. One battery lasts a good long time and if I buy a few I'll be set for the trip. But with the digital just leaving the battery alone for a week it seems it goes dead, so even if I bought extra batteries that might not help. Are there long lasting battery options available for digital cameras?
My cameras are: digital- Canon D-10 film- Fuji Discovery 290 ZOOM w/ drop in loading.
Quote:
How serious are you about photography?
An amatuer that likes to take lots of pictures. I might like to eventually get good enough to make money on it, but right now it's just a hobby.
I figured out the solution to my photographic quandary.
I bought 3 2GB CF cards for the digital camera at $45 each. According to the camera each one takes 715 pictures in JPG format, but in RAW mode I figure it'll be about 320 apiece, or about 13 rolls per card. So I'll have between 30-90 rolls of "film" to work with, which'll take up about $6 worth of space on my hard drive.
Then I got a second battery for $50, so that I can charge one while I use the other. I'm going to get an adapter so that I can plug the charger into the cigarette lighter, that way I can charge it while I'm driving, which I think will be more likely than plugging it into the wall.
Then, for my film camera, I got a new battery and will get 3-4 rolls of film. That way, if there's ever a point when I don't have the digital ready to shoot for whatever reason, like a dead battery, I'll still be able to take pictures.
They have Kroger brand for $1 at Fred Myers, and I can get Kodak for $2/roll if I buy the right 4 pack. I think I'll go with the cheap brand, unless someone gives me a reason not to. It's been awhile since I've gotten film- I didn't know it was so cheap!
Oh, and about putting the photos on my computer- today I got a $10 CF (compact flash) card reader, and it transfers all the files over exactly as I took them, with all the EXIF data (date, camera model, etc.). I just plug it in to my USB port and drag the folder onto my hard drive and presto, a few minutes later everything is there as it should be.
For deals on memory cards check the website www.edealinfo.com. They have memory card deals just about every other day.
On our trip to Alaska my sister had the same problems. You can only buy so many memory cards, and once they fill, your done. She purchased a portable hard drive that contains a memory card reader. Problem solved. Every evening she would dump the contents of the memory card to the hard drive in a folder she named and dated so that she knew what was there (ex. Talkeetna Aug 3).
My camera is a Sony that writes to 210mb mini-cds. At the file level it records the date, time, camera settings (f stop, shutter speed) on each file. YOu may be able to setup your camera the same way.
For a free image utility I would check out Picasa. It is put out by Google. If you go to Google and do a search it should come right up. It is easy to use.
Take your memory card to a photo store and have them printed. Get extra memory cards, they are not very expensive.
I'm a film photographer. Any WalMart in any state will transfer your film onto a Photo CD for about $2.95 to $4.00 per roll. Of course, that is without printing them.
Then, take the CD and transfer them onto your computer when you're unpacked and settled! And the WalMart's have a machine you can pop on your CD and print ONLY the photos you want . . . and even wallet size.
That's the answer . . .at least, it works for me. I have a ton a CDs and put them on my computer from there. And only the one's I want from the CD.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I might like to eventually get good enough to make money on it, but right now it's just a hobby.
WalMart and CD Transfer
