Is taking a laptop practical just to upload photos?

[gus49]

I took mine on our last cruise-downloaded each night along with writing my journal. Much easier to keep track-especially when on a long cruise and alot of ports.

[DaDead]

I take my laptop on every vacation, be it a cruise or camping. I download all my pics every night and on sea days I start making my slide shows to copy to dvd to send to my family so they can share in our adventures. It's much easier for me to do this than to wait 'til we get back and try to get back to work, load pics, make the slideshow and remember the order of the pics (if you have several memory cards).

[sunseeker09]

Lots of good points for and against. I'm leaning against taking it for the "hassle factor", since we already have a big camera bag for our DSLR, another camera w/housing, a video camera (if we bring it), luggage and dive gear... with a stop/connecting flight in LA on our way to San Juan. Different for a direct flight (or no flight!)

But on the flip side, nice to download photos daily, as well as have it for the looooong flights. Still, I'd be worried about taking the lap top and leaving it unlocked. I have a lock. They're cheap, small and worth it. Othrwise if you download all the photos and clear the memory card, and your lap top gets stolen... there go all your photos (unless you put on a phot share site too, but you lose the quality through resizing) Unless we get a lighter/smaller lap top (have a 17".. heavy) I think I'm going to have multiple smaller cards and not leave the used ones with the camera. I never liked the idea of having 1 mega card for ALL your photos. Way too risky to me.

[B+S]

Lots of good points for and against. I'm leaning against taking it for the "hassle factor", since we already have a big camera bag for our DSLR, another camera w/housing, a video camera (if we bring it), luggage and dive gear... with a stop/connecting flight in LA on our way to San Juan. Different for a direct flight (or no flight!)

But on the flip side, nice to download photos daily, as well as have it for the looooong flights. Still, I'd be worried about taking the lap top and leaving it unlocked. I have a lock. They're cheap, small and worth it. Othrwise if you download all the photos and clear the memory card, and your lap top gets stolen... there go all your photos (unless you put on a phot share site too, but you lose the quality through resizing) Unless we get a lighter/smaller lap top (have a 17".. heavy) I think I'm going to have multiple smaller cards and not leave the used ones with the camera. I never liked the idea of having 1 mega card for ALL your photos. Way too risky to me.

 

Well, I think you got good advice from a wide range of opinions and made a good decision. I have a 17" laptop that never leaves home - love it but they're big and heavy.

 

I had meant to mention a pro photographer friend and her daughter who went to India with National Geographic only to have her her laptop hard drive die. And that's where 90% of her pictures where. There are two types of hard drives - those that are dead and those that will die.

 

Have a great trip - don't forget to share some photos and tell us how it went.

[Cruzaholic41]

8GB memory cards are going for 30 something dollars now. If your only purpose for bringing a laptop is to download photos, I'd just buy a couple of these cards.

[Delta Dear]

Thanks, everyone for your advice and personal experiences. I have months to decide, but I'm leaning toward just making sure I have extra cards. I have traveled with my laptop when going to visit our son for vacation, and it is a bit of a hassel in airports. Since we also travel with my husband's c-pap machine, our hands will be juggling as it is.

 

I didn't expect to generate as many responses as I did. You folks are great at helping someone like me to plan those 'little details.' I'll think about you on Feb. 7 when we board the Legend ! Yahoo, I can't wait.

[matj2000]

Bring a couple 4gb SD cards. You can buy them for as low as $10. That will hold around 5000 photos. I couldn't possibly see anyone taking that many but you have the space. Deal with the editing when you get home.