Digital Memory card nightmare on cruise

[Deb in Cali]

Prior to cruise to Alaska we purchase a Konica Minolta Di MageZ5. We also purchased a 1 gig SD memory card (for $80) to complement the 128mg that was included with the camera. :eek:

 

I was sorely tempted to purchase an additional 1 gig card, but decided that two cards that size were overkill. I knew that we would really go crazy taking pictues but my DH though that a 1 gig card was going to suffice for the 11 day cruise. I had a backup plan that materialed just about a week prior to our cruise. One of my fellow CCer's DH was a avid photographer. He was going to have his laptop to burn CD's from the memory cards, so if we brought some CD's with us and our 1 gig card got too full he would put us back into business.

 

Sure enough only a few days into our cruise and we are using up memory space like mad. My friend's DH to the rescue. He downloaded our info onto a CD and reformated the card for future use.

 

The day that we were in Juneau we had a whale watching expedition and a tour of the Mendenhall glacier. Our firends were on their own tours so we didn't get a chance to download a second CD that evening. The next morning we headed off on the White Pass RR, then were scheduled for a helicopter tour that afternoon. My DH was sure that we would have enough memory to last for two days of pictures and video clips.

 

Just about two hours before we were to take the helicopter tour the digital memory card suddenly came up full. No problem we thought we will just walk a block over to the camera store that we just saw, and have them download the card into a CD and we will be back in business.

 

The guy at the store told us to come back in an hour and pick up the CD and our memory card. So we did some shopping and came back. He was mystified as to what was going on with our camera. When he tried to download the pictures onto the CD ithe momory card told him that it only had 30 pictures. Yet the card still that it was full. We knew that the card had to have at least 300 pictures on it. The card had developed a case amnesia.

 

So there we were less than an hour away from our helicopter tour with no digital memory card. I was about to cry not just from the impending situation, but at the fact that we had lost almost 2 full port days of pictures They were just "gone".:eek: We bit the bullet and purchased a half gig card for $125. :mad:

 

There was nothing we could do about the situation, so we just put on our happy faces with our gold plated memory in hand and took the heli tour.

 

We couldn't wait to talk to our friends to see if there was a way to recover the lost pictures. Our friends had never had that experience so we were still at a lost, but hadn't given up hope totally. We obviously were very carefull to get the heli tour pictures loaded onto a CD pronto so we didn't lose them.

 

The next day our cruise was inTracy Arm, so the photographys were out in force on every level of the ship. We started telling other photogs our tale of woe from the day before. After telling a small group of guys that looked like some serious photographers we found one guy did have a similar experience. He did inform us that he was able to recover his pictures using a program that he was able to download from the computer. His was able to test the program to see if it worked before he purchased it.

 

Sure enough we just tested and purchased a digital recovery program that is going to give us our pictures back. I was very upset with our new digital camera when it pulled this stunt because I had never heard a single complaint about using a digital system. Everyone raved about how well the digital cameras preform compared to a traditional film camera. I have foregiven it, but it was a hard lesson.

 

The lessions that I learned from this cruise is:

 

1. You will take hundreds if not thousands of photos on a 11 day cruise.

 

2. Digital camera do have some flaws.

 

3. Buy a second 1 gig card where it is cheap instead of being forced to purchase it when it is a crisis.

 

4. Digital recovery programs are available if your memory card develops amnesia.

 

 

Deb

[Suzieb]

One thing I noticed, if you don't mind. Your friend said that he formatted the chip, I have a tip if you don't mind. Do Not Format the chip on a computer. Let the camera do that for you. Insted after you pull the pictures off the chip delete the pictures off the chip after you know the pictures have been xfered.

 

Glad you got your pictures back

 

enjoy

[KansasScrapper]

I second that. I always always format on the camera by the camera through the camera. I still take as many photos with my SLR film (yes they still make it). My DH uses & takes his "own" set of photos with the digital and I take with the film. One then will always back the other. I had taken about 50 rolls of film on our first cruise (we even renewed our vowes). I took them to WalMart to develope them. Went back 2 days later and to my horror they ruin everyone of the rolls I sent in. But we still have 200 photos from the digital camera. No they weren't all the same but atleast I had them. I do not have the time nor do I want to have to log around all the stuff to burn them to CDs. So I have 4 cards I travel with 2 1gigs & 2 512s. I am slowly getting the 1 gigs as they go on sale. However I have found that some of the photo labs (where they have the digital card reader) can only read up to 300 pics at one time. I have complained. So I load them on to my PC and then burn them to CDs. But I do it once we get home. Also, I had some friends that had all their pics on one card till it got full then they would burn it to a CD in their stateroom. One night when they were burning something happened and they LOST off those photos. They tried a recovery disc and it didn't work. They lost all those photos. So they now also carry more than one and rotate it more than just using the one card. Carring a couple more cards is easier than all the stuff to burn them.

[hermang]

Prior to cruise to Alaska we purchase a Konica Minolta Di MageZ5. We also purchased a 1 gig SD memory card (for $80) to complement the 128mg that was included with the camera. :eek:

 

I was sorely tempted to purchase an additional 1 gig card, but decided that two cards that size were overkill. I knew that we would really go crazy taking pictues but my DH though that a 1 gig card was going to suffice for the 11 day cruise. I had a backup plan that materialed just about a week prior to our cruise. One of my fellow CCer's DH was a avid photographer. He was going to have his laptop to burn CD's from the memory cards, so if we brought some CD's with us and our 1 gig card got too full he would put us back into business.

 

Sure enough only a few days into our cruise and we are using up memory space like mad. My friend's DH to the rescue. He downloaded our info onto a CD and reformated the card for future use.

 

The day that we were in Juneau we had a whale watching expedition and a tour of the Mendenhall glacier. Our firends were on their own tours so we didn't get a chance to download a second CD that evening. The next morning we headed off on the White Pass RR, then were scheduled for a helicopter tour that afternoon. My DH was sure that we would have enough memory to last for two days of pictures and video clips.

 

Just about two hours before we were to take the helicopter tour the digital memory card suddenly came up full. No problem we thought we will just walk a block over to the camera store that we just saw, and have them download the card into a CD and we will be back in business.

 

The guy at the store told us to come back in an hour and pick up the CD and our memory card. So we did some shopping and came back. He was mystified as to what was going on with our camera. When he tried to download the pictures onto the CD ithe momory card told him that it only had 30 pictures. Yet the card still that it was full. We knew that the card had to have at least 300 pictures on it. The card had developed a case amnesia.

 

So there we were less than an hour away from our helicopter tour with no digital memory card. I was about to cry not just from the impending situation, but at the fact that we had lost almost 2 full port days of pictures They were just "gone".:eek: We bit the bullet and purchased a half gig card for $125. :mad:

 

There was nothing we could do about the situation, so we just put on our happy faces with our gold plated memory in hand and took the heli tour.

 

We couldn't wait to talk to our friends to see if there was a way to recover the lost pictures. Our friends had never had that experience so we were still at a lost, but hadn't given up hope totally. We obviously were very carefull to get the heli tour pictures loaded onto a CD pronto so we didn't lose them.

 

The next day our cruise was inTracy Arm, so the photographys were out in force on every level of the ship. We started telling other photogs our tale of woe from the day before. After telling a small group of guys that looked like some serious photographers we found one guy did have a similar experience. He did inform us that he was able to recover his pictures using a program that he was able to download from the computer. His was able to test the program to see if it worked before he purchased it.

 

Sure enough we just tested and purchased a digital recovery program that is going to give us our pictures back. I was very upset with our new digital camera when it pulled this stunt because I had never heard a single complaint about using a digital system. Everyone raved about how well the digital cameras preform compared to a traditional film camera. I have foregiven it, but it was a hard lesson.

 

The lessions that I learned from this cruise is:

 

1. You will take hundreds if not thousands of photos on a 11 day cruise.

 

2. Digital camera do have some flaws.

 

3. Buy a second 1 gig card where it is cheap instead of being forced to purchase it when it is a crisis.

 

4. Digital recovery programs are available if your memory card develops amnesia.

 

 

Deb

I recently purchased a new Nikon D70 and a 1 Gb Lexar CF card from the dealer. Purchased a second 1 GB SanDisk from Staples. I agree - let the camera do the formatting. Here is where I will disagree with a couple of your comments.

 

A friend of mine is a professional photographer - he says Don't buy 1 gb cards

buy 512MB cards instead - Less likely to lose all of your pictures.

 

Make sure what you buy is compatible with your camera. Nikon is very specific as to what will work and what wont.

 

Test each card before the trip.

 

I am going with 2 - 1gb cards and 2 512mb cards as well as a backup

camera - as you say - Alaska is going to be 11 days of massive picture shooting. And a 1 gb card won't fit on a CD

[Flossie]

Hello Everyone,

I too have been in this big question about how many cards to purchase and what size, for my recent purchase of a Caonon Digital Rebel. I recently read from another poster on these boards about a new product that is a CD burner that is pc free! yep pc free! and it is light and compact. Takes all types of cards too. It is called a Roadstor. You can check it out at Roadstor.com The cost is about what we would spend on two or three 1gig cards. Check this out even runs on battery power. I can't wait to purchase one of these. Wow do we get lots of info on these boards or what!

[Flossie]

The thread that I mentioned above is -Advice or Opinion on downloading on Memory cards. Check out this thread lots of good info.

[Suzieb]

I agree about the Roadstor unit. There is also another unit out there but not sure about the brand name. It is a little more versitale but they both do the same thing. I've used my roadstor and it works pretty good. We will be taking it with us on our Sun Cruise in October. I thought about taking extra CD's so others can use this unit and won't have to worry about the ship doing it!:D

 

Isn't Photography fun, so many choices, so much money !!

 

Enjoy

[Flossie]

The other unit was it the one that they talked about on the other thread from Addonics?

So what are the pro's and con's of the Roasdstor unit? I am still looking have not purchased one as of yet, it is on my must have "soon" list tho. so would appreciate your thoughts on it and if you would buy this brand again.Thanks Susieb for any input that you can give on this.

[JohnQ]

There are several other brands of portable cd burners. I heard last week that the RoadStor had been discontinued? Anyone else heard that. That was from a guy talking to the factory. My son has a EZ Digimatic unit that he and I have used on last two cruises and it worked fine.

 

As for reformating cards after transferring photos, never do on computer. There is setting on camera to erase all photos or erase each one individually.

Plus I always check the cd to make sure the photos are ok before I erase the card via the camera.

[Flossie]

Wow thanks for the info on the cd burner. The roadstor has a new unit out , wonder why they are not going to make it any more, and wonder is that the unit that I really want to purchase if it is going to be no longer available. Anyone with any other suggestions I would appreciate your help. I have a couple of months before I " need " to purchase one. JohnQ thanks for your help I will check out this EZ Digimatic unit that your son has.