Travel technology forum
Enough WiFi bandwidth for mass flickr uploading?
Have questions? Jump to our menu of forum quicklinks
Add your reply
You need to be logged in to add a reply.
Not a member? you can join here.
Welcome to Travelfish, original Asia travel intelligence you can trust
Menu
staverton
Joined Travelfish
3rd August, 2009
Posts 1
Member profile
Profile private
Messaging not enabled.
Hi all,
I'll be travelling to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand from mid September for four weeks and am trying work out my best option for backing up photos on the move.
I'm a keen amateur photographer and have been known to take over 1,000 pics in a day whilst travelling (this is the very extreme of course, thanks to all the pretty shrines and temples in Kyoto last year). Realistically I expect to take anywhere between 0 and 300 pics a day. My main camera is 10MPx and so even the JPEGs are around 4MB each (I've given up taking RAWs when travelling).
So, given the volume of photos, the options I had for backing were either:
1 - Buy a load of SD cards and carry them around in something waterproof or maybe mailing them home (although I fancy my chances of getting them home myself better).
2 - Buy a netbook to offload the pictures from the SD cards I already have. Plus, I have a PacSafe and a notebook lock to secure these up in the guesthouse while I'm out for the day.
I think for the amount of photos I'll take, the netbook would be cheaper, plus it would be really useful for using the net on the move too. But the thing is, if it gets stolen I don't really care about the hardware, but loosing the pictures would be awful. So I thought to myself, I could always spring for a Flickr Pro account so I could upload as many photos as I wanted and easily back them all up. That said, I have no idea how much bandwidth the average free guesthouse WiFi has. I mean, if its like South Korea (and I don't expect it to be!), fantastic! However, if it's like Africa, then I may as well not bother.
Any other travelling techies or photographers care to weigh in on how plausible my plan might be?
Cheers!
#1 Posted: 3/8/2009 - 23:04
somtam2000
admin
Joined Travelfish
21st January, 2004
Location Indonesia
Posts 6450
Member profile
Profile page
Private message
Good question -- in the bigger centres - esp in Thailand and Vietnam, I'd say no problems - go the Flickr route, but for laos in particular good high speed internet can be a little less common.
The advantage of using a netbook though is you won't have to sit in internet cafes for hours on end uploading pics when you could be out taking pics!
#2 Posted: 4/8/2009 - 05:55
somtam2000's social networks[Twitter] [Facebook] [Flickr] [Google+] [Instagram] [Pinterest]
------------------------------
Travel films for Southeast Asia
Advertisement
BruceMoon
Joined Travelfish
27th December, 2008
Location Australia
Posts 1941
Member profile
Profile page
Messaging not enabled.
staverton
Two issues here - storage & laptop.
Storage, I've chosen to use the higher resolution cards (sandisk Ultra 3) as the write speed is faster and I've had less 'losses'.
An alternative to getting 'hooked up' with technology is to back up your SD cards on removable USB storage 'Flash drive' cards. I know it sounds like more 'gear', but the wealth of pics versus a laptop may be the solution.
Also, the time to transfer the contents of an SD card to a USB flash drive may be a lot less (in many places) than trying to upload to Flickr.
On the laptop, there are many posts, some are for, others against. Look here and here and here for ideas for you.
So, in the end it comes to convenience and weight and what's best for you.
Cheers
#3 Posted: 4/8/2009 - 07:27
------------------------------
An Australian Veteran globetrotting...
busylizzy
Joined Travelfish
31st December, 2007
Location New Zealand
Posts 1903
Member profile
Profile page
Private message
My plan for photo back-up is as follows:
- copy photos to my latpop (carried for purposes of backing up photos, writing emails/blogs without having to spend more time than necessary in internet cafes, and for managing financial accounts, etc of small business while I am away.)
- also copy photos to my iPod (Classic 160gb) - iPod will always be kept with me where practical, or at least separate from laptop. Will also be used for listening to language podcasts and music on long busrides.
- copy to DVD or CD and send home.
I am hoping that between all of these, I should be well protected against loss of photos.
#4 Posted: 4/8/2009 - 09:55
------------------------------
As you grow older, you'll find the only things you regret are the things you didn't do.