On board photographs

[pfd104]

Most (if not all) ship crew taken photos on a cruise, are taken using a digital camera. Has anyone asked for their pics to be copied on to a CD to be taken home? What was the out come? Thanks

[pfd104]

Any comments ????

[electricron]

From searching this forum for past responses:

 

Yes, maybe, NCL uses two different photo concessions on their ships. One of the companies offers this servicve onboard. The other does not. It really comes down to which company is on the ship you choose.

 

The Sun offers this service but it is a total rip-off. $99 for unlimited CD burning. You can go out and buy nearly 1GB extra storage for this price, which IMO would be highly preferred over burning some CD's. I did see that in most ports there were shops that would do it for much cheaper.

 

I agree - $99 is way too high - I don't care how many CD's you burn. On an RCCL ship last March they were charging $10 (if I remember correctly) per cd, and had machines set up for you to do your own copying directly from the cards (you could use multiple cards but no CD/RW, only CD-R's so one session per disc).

 

One option would be to bring your laptop if you have one and if it has a CD burner. You could also do this in port at many internet cafe's.

 

Simpler, as someone has already suggested, I would just bring extra memory cards for your camera. I just ordered a bunch from http://www.tigerdirect.com and they usually have specials with rebates (I got a 128 MB SD card for $8 recently) and you could probably find other good prices online as well.

 

Bring along a few blank cd's, the ships photo service will transfer them for you for a nominal fee. i think i read somewhere where it was like $10-15 per CD.

 

The other factor to consider is the reliability of the ship's transfer system. We had neighbors who had their digital camera pictures transferred to a CD while in Alaska. They were devasted when they got home to find only 12 pictures from the memory card had transferred correctly, and they lost the majority of their pictures.

 

We were able to recover some of them that hadn't been written over, but the others are gone forever. I prefer to buy extra memory rather than take that risk. If it's absolutely necessary, I would have them burned to the CD and then bring it up separately before you erase the pictures to make sure everything works correctly.

 

I used the service on the STAR in Hawaii. I had an XD Memory Card with 540 pictures on it, and the photo shop burnt them right onto a CD for me for 15 bucks.. They supplied the CD and everything. They WILL NOT format your disk after they burn the CD (at least he assured me they wouldn't...and they didn't...you could reiterate that request.) Anyway, I took it to the Internet Cafe on board (definitely computers available with CD drives) and made sure all my pictures were safe and sound on CD. Once I knew they were ok, I formatted my memory card with the camera, and I was good to go with 550 more pictures.

 

It is also common to find internet cafes on the islands. These generally have rates that are a small fraction of what the ship charges. You can probably burn some cd's there.

 

Whatever you do, just make sure to have fun!!!

[WaldosPepper]

Most (if not all) ship crew taken photos on a cruise, are taken using a digital camera. Has anyone asked for their pics to be copied on to a CD to be taken home? What was the out come? Thanks

If I'm understanding the question, you are actually asking it the photos taken BY THE SHIP'S PHOTOGRAPHER can be purchased on a CD.

 

I've never seen this offered, but that doesn't mean it isn't an option. Perhaps it depends upon the individual ship, because as Ron mentions above, there are two different companies that operate the onboard photo concessions.

 

Perhaps someone who has sailed recently and seen it offered will post and let you know.

 

Sure hope I understood your question properly. :o

[niki1785]

I formatted my memory card with the camera, and I was good to go with 550 more pictures.

 

Maybe you can help me out... this may be a dumb question :o Do you know what the MB is on your memory card for your digital camera? I checked out the website you posted that sells the memory cards, but I would love to order one that will hold that many pics. Mine now holds about 50, not nearly enough!

 

Thanks for your help!

[electricron]

How many pictures you can get onto a memory card depends upon its size, ande how much memory you set your camera to take.

 

I have a 512 MB card I got at Wallmart for around $50 for my digital camera. That should be more than enough for an entire cruise, even at higher mega pixels settings. They had a 1 GB card for less than $100.

 

My camera came with a 32 MB card, and that card could hold around 12 pictures at 7 MegaPixels, 48 pictures at 3 MegaPixels, and over 100 pictures at 1 MegaPixels.

A 512 MB card should easily hold 15 times as many pictures.

[Cuizer2]

How many pictures you can get onto a memory card depends upon its size, ande how much memory you set your camera to take.

 

I have a 512 MB card I got at Wallmart for around $50 for my digital camera. That should be more than enough for an entire cruise, even at higher mega pixels settings. They had a 1 GB card for less than $100.

 

My camera came with a 32 MB card, and that card could hold around 12 pictures at 7 MegaPixels, 48 pictures at 3 MegaPixels, and over 100 pictures at 1 MegaPixels.

A 512 MB card should easily hold 15 times as many pictures.

It also depends on the compression setting you use. I shoot using the least amount of compression. Using a five megapixel camera each photo is about 2MB, so a 32MB card would only hold 16 photos. A 512MB card will hold about 256 photos. By increasing the compression a bit I can double those numbers because each picture is now only 1MB in size.

 

Next you have to factor in the number of photos you shoot. In 2004 I took two cruises and shot about 500 photos per cruise. In Oct 2005 I took a cruise and shot over 950 photos. So I would have need about 2GB of memory to store them all. However, I brought my laptop. I can store the photos on the laptop and view them on the 15 inch screen (vs. the 2 inch screen on the camera).

[niki1785]

Thanks so much you guys! Your information has really helped! Can't wait to use only my digital camera this year instead of the digital and disposable (aside from the underwater cameras)!

[pfd104]

If I'm understanding the question, you are actually asking it the photos taken BY THE SHIP'S PHOTOGRAPHER can be purchased on a CD.

 

I've never seen this offered, but that doesn't mean it isn't an option. Perhaps it depends upon the individual ship, because as Ron mentions above, there are two different companies that operate the onboard photo concessions.

 

Perhaps someone who has sailed recently and seen it offered will post and let you know.

 

Sure hope I understood your question properly. :o

 

 

Yes, thats what I mean. Sorry for the confussion

[electricron]

It never hurts to ask.

 

The photgraphers onboard are selling photo prints by different sizes. Of course, the larger the size of the photo, the more they charge. Selling you a CD of the photos they took kind of defeats tthe purpose on how they make their cash.

 

You could easily print your own photos, or take them to the local Wallmart to get prints of any size, which puts them out of the loop business wise. I don't they will do it.

 

But it's never a crime to ask.

[Cuizer2]

It never hurts to ask.

 

The photgraphers onboard are selling photo prints by different sizes. Of course, the larger the size of the photo, the more they charge. Selling you a CD of the photos they took kind of defeats tthe purpose on how they make their cash.

 

You could easily print your own photos, or take them to the local Wallmart to get prints of any size, which puts them out of the loop business wise. I don't they will do it.

 

But it's never a crime to ask.

Generally agree. However, I have seen posts about Wallmart refusing to make prints of professional cruise photos because of copyright laws. Ask the cruise line for a release.

 

Also, you could buy the print and scan it yourself, then print your own prints on good quality photo paper. Look at it this way, $10 each for a 5x7 or 6x9 photo on the ship. Buy one.

 

Then $1.00 each for good quality photo print paper. Even if you use up $2.00 worth of ink per print, you still come out a head. Of course, this only works if you have the scanner, computer and printer already.

[electricron]

To add more to what I wrote earlier, since I have my camera in hand,

 

With a 32 MB memory card,

At 640 x 480 (VGA) I can fit 196 photos

At 1 Megapixel I can fit 50 photos

At 3 Megapixels I can fit 20 photos

At 5 Megapixels I can fit 12 photos

At 7 Megapixels I can fit 9 photos

 

With a 512 MB memory card,

At 640x480 (VGA) I can fit 3071 photos

At 1 Megapixel I can fit 767 photos

At 3 Megapixels I can fit 319 photos

At 5 Megapixels I can fit 199 photos

At 7 Megapixels I can fit 144 photos

 

How many pictures you can take on a digital camera depends not only on the memory card size, but also how you have your camera set. When you consider the weight of what you're packing, a larger or spare memory card weighing a few ounces makes much more sense than carrying a 6 to 9 pound notebook computer. When you also consider the money, a memory card worth $50 vs a notebook worth $500 or more, it becomes obvious what to pack and what to leave safe and sound at home.

[Cuizer2]

To add more to what I wrote earlier, since I have my camera in hand,

 

With a 32 MB memory card,

At 640 x 480 (VGA) I can fit 196 photos

At 1 Megapixel I can fit 50 photos

At 3 Megapixels I can fit 20 photos

At 5 Megapixels I can fit 12 photos

At 7 Megapixels I can fit 9 photos

 

With a 512 MB memory card,

At 640x480 (VGA) I can fit 3071 photos

At 1 Megapixel I can fit 767 photos

At 3 Megapixels I can fit 319 photos

At 5 Megapixels I can fit 199 photos

At 7 Megapixels I can fit 144 photos

 

How many pictures you can take on a digital camera depends not only on the memory card size, but also how you have your camera set. When you consider the weight of what you're packing, a larger or spare memory card weighing a few ounces makes much more sense than carrying a 6 to 9 pound notebook computer. When you also consider the money, a memory card worth $50 vs a notebook worth $500 or more, it becomes obvious what to pack and what to leave safe and sound at home.

 

I respect your opinion, but I perfer to bring my notebook computer with me. I do more than just store pictures on it. As for viewing, the 15 inch computer screen easily beats the 2 inch camera screen. Also, I have games on the computer that I can play while my plane is delayed two hours.

[electricron]

Well, the OP was asking specifically about photos.

 

As for passing some time away at the airport, a very small Game Boy game works just as well. The Game Boy weighs much less than a 6 to 9 pound notebook computer, and takes up far less space too.

[Cuizer2]

Well, the OP was asking specifically about photos.

 

As for passing some time away at the airport, a very small Game Boy game works just as well. The Game Boy weighs much less than a 6 to 9 pound notebook computer, and takes up far less space too.

 

But you cannot store any photos on a Gameboy, I don't play action games (I play strategy games), Gameboy does not have a word processor (for review writing), Gameboy does not offer an e-mail option, I can burn CDs on my computer (in case I want to give someone a copy of the photo - you cannot burn CDs on a Gameboy), it is much easier to evaluate a photo on a 15 inch screen than it is on a 2 inch screen and you cannot edit photos on a Gameboy or in the camera.

 

Finally, if something happens to the memory card, you have lost your photo. I not only put the photos on my computer, I also have a portable hard drive, so I have a back up copy also.