Is it easy to get digital camera photos downloaded onto CD's around Europe? Are there any traps to watch for?

No, it's not particularly easy. One problem is often that it's not an "instant" service, but a "leave it with us for a few hours" service, and that's not generally possible if you're only staying somewhere for a few hours.

You'd be a lot better off getting a picture storage device, of which there are many on the market. I have an "XSDrive II" myself, which works very well indeed; for details, see:

http://www.xs-drive.com

Basically it's a box slightly larger than a pack of playing cards with memory card slots in it. You put the card in the slot, press a button, and the pictures are read from the card and stored on a hard disk inside the device. When you get home, you connect the device to your computer via USB and copy all your pictures onto the PC. Works beautifully.

Cheap ones like mine are purely picture storage devices; the more expensive ones also let you view the pictures you've stored.

There are also other portable devices which will store pictures - eg the Apple iPod will do so.

Regards,

Chris

Thanks Chris, sounds much easer than finding shops, will look into it

cheers

Chris, I looked up the web page for the XS-DriveII. I notice there is one without a hard disk and two (20gb and 40gb) with a hard disk. What is the difference between "with and without" hard disk?
Margaret

ooh I just bought an xdrive for my European Experience tour in June - glad to see someone else recommend it!

margaretc - you NEED a harddrive to save stuff to it, I'd only buy one without if you're technologically savvy and are able to install you're own (might some some money).

>>What is the difference between "with and without" hard disk?<<

The model without a hard disk is for technically competent people who want to install their own hard disk in it. It needs a hard disk in order to operate .

Regards,

Chris

Thanks for answering my question Chris. Now I know what to get, I'll give it serious consideration as it sounds great.

Thanks to you for your reply also Kristen.

Just so you don't think Chris is the only one with an X-drive, I have one too with a 20 meg hard drive. Only professionals or those on very long trips will need more capacity.

Last March, spent two weeks in Italy. Took 835 images, all 2 megs each. Barely made a dent in the capacity.

You can buy it with a European plug with an adapter for the US or a US plug with an adapter for Europe. Charges on either 110 or 220 current.

Glenn

Gsrunyan
Sounds great Any clever tricks as to remembering or recording where all the photos were taken

Cheers

Many "higher end" digital cameras let you record a little "sound clip" along with the photo so you can say what it is. This is an _extremely_ useful facility - it's worth checking to see if your camera allows you to do so.

On my camera (a Minolta), when you copy the pictures to your computer, the pictures come across as "JPEG" pictures, and the sound files are "MPEG" "movie" files (although they contain only sound) with the same name as the corresponding picture.

Your camera will almost certainly store the date and time it was taken in the "header" of each picture, so you'll be able to see when it was taken. That, in conjunction with the tour itinery, should at least give you a clue.

When I get home from the tour, what I do is create a folder on my PC for each day of the tour, put the pictures for each day in the appropriate folder, and give each picture a long, descriptive file name to say what it's showing. Then I write the whole lot onto a CD-R for safe-keeping. I find that if I don't do this, I end up with my disk full of picture files with meaningless numeric names and I haven't a clue what they are .

Regards,

Chris

Giving each day its own folder is an excellent idea. I usually end up making some kind of a slide show with text and special effects, but the separate folders would make it easier to organize.

Thanks
I had only thought of the date, but will look into the sound recording. I guess the main thing is to do the folder thing as soon as possible when you get home.
cheers

Hi Bob,

With my camera, the sound recording is completely automatic (once you've turned the option on, anyway!). You take a picture, and the camera automatically records 5 seconds of sound - there's nothing extra to press; you just speak and the camera records it. It really couldn't be easier .

For those without such a facility, though, your suggestion of a digital recorder is an excellent one. I've never used such a recorder myself - is it possible to transfer the recording to a PC?

Regards,

Chris

Chris--if you record audio clips on your digital camera, doesn't that eat up the memory card pretty fast? My new camera has that feature but I figured I probably wouldn't use it for travel because I wouldn't be able to get enough pictures on my cards.