photo transfer during the trip

[Pickleodeon]

I've seen a post about photo websites, etc. to upload photos to while on the trail. However, I don't have a card reader, and I don't want to take hours to upload my photos on a public computer. My goal is to get them online during the trip so my friends and family can see them. ok, so, what's the best way to do this without carrying a fancy camera/phone/laptop etc. Should I carry a card reader to upload them?

Should I fill a memory card and send it home to have someone else upload them? -then I'd have to fill the memory card which could take a while. I dont want to be in Maine when my Geogia pictures finally get posted. Also, if I send my SD card home, what happens if it gets lost in the mail. Or, what happens if I'm five pictures from filling my card and I drop my camera off a cliff and lose all the pictures? I'd like to back them up somewhere along the way. Also, if I send my card home, that would require me to have a couple of cards to replace them with.

If you use a site to post them, what do you recommend, ie. free photo posting.

[Bulldawg]

I'd maybe post them somewhere, there are MANY public posting spots. But I'd also consider bouncing them home back and forth between two or three cards. Maybe get someone at home to upload them if you don't want to waste the time uploading them from trail towns. Most cameras have a simple wire to hook the camera up to the PC without the need for a card reader. I know my Sony came with a little short wire to upload from. Good Luck!!

[Tennessee Viking]

The best idea is to post them to a photo sharing site any time you can. But not every hostel or library will have full computer services. So just mail the cards home to switch them out at mail drops or any major trail towns.

Most cameras should have a USB port to where you can download pictures. If you use Google Photos, you may want to create a couple accounts if you take a lot of pictures.

If you send a card home through the mail, send it priority to have tracking number on it.

I have 4gig SD cards for $25 at Target. Then we have card readers the size of a USB drive to a very wide credit card.

If you have a MicroSD or camera cell phone, you can email your pics as you take them.

[KG4FAM]

I don't want to take hours to upload my photos on a public computer.Good, you are already on the right track. Don't tie up the old 486 at the library with a futile attempt to upload things.

Take the cards to a drug store and have them put it on a cd and mail the cds home.

Free photo website - picasa.google.com
They have a free photo manegment software that you can manage your pictures on your computer and then upload the albums to the web. If you really get into it you can link it up with the blogs that google runs as well be able to email a picture from your cell phone to a blog site and the picture gets stored on your picasa albums. You might not have to have the blog but if you do, you can just run it as a shell to do this operation.

[Pickleodeon]

oh yea, I forgot about the computer plug-in USB cord. I like the idea of the drug store photo things with a cd, but I don't know how many drug stores there are in the little trail towns.

am i the only person that has a cell phone not capable of emailing?

[KG4FAM]

am i the only person that has a cell phone not capable of emailing?Have you tried putting an email address in the recipient of a text message? I don't have email on my phone, but I can send things to an email address through a text message.

[Kirby]

One my trail companions had two memory cards to start. He would use one for a while, then send it home and use the other one while someone at home uploaded them onto the computer, then that person would send the empty one back to him, where he would then send the other one home. Rinse and repeat. He said it worked well for him, but he did have someone on the home front who did everything she could to support his hike.

Kirby

[jnetx]

I did the transfer to CD thing, sent the CDs home, and only cleared off my memory cards when I had confirmation that the CDs were home (and readable). I only did the top 500 miles, but there were drug stores with photo/CD capability in Gorham, NH and Hanover, NH where we made the CDs. I'm sure you'll find a CVS or Walgreans, etc in plenty of towns on the way.

Picasa by Google is a good place to upload to for free.

I did try using a micro SD in my camera so I could attach photos to emails to send home, but the best quality image on my camera produced jpg files too big to be attached to emails anyway. I didn't want to cut the photo quality/size, so I just took an occasional photo with the camera to send hime, but took most of my pictures with the real camera.

[Red Hat]

I've done the CD thing as well. It is probably the best way to avoid hogging computers. But if you want to get the photos up right away, an SD card and an inexpensive card reader with USB connection is easy and cheap (I think my Targus reader was less than $10 at Walmart)

[Highway Man]

I'm a little torn between the additional ultra light weight CF cards, 2x8G, and a harddrive from NexTo. The latter ones have 120~500G storage capacities, and weigh about 0.5 Lb. One single full battery charge can transfer 40G data from the storage cards. The costs are a little high. But you can keep it with you till end of the trip, as long as you don't lose it. I have a Canon 20D, and usually shoot RAW. I'll probably use a Canon G3 for the most part of the hike, but really want to switch to the 20D once I'm beyond VT. The outdated small 4MP camera just doesn't do too much justice.

[Knees]

I bought 4 cards when I switched to digital on the PCT. It worked well for the mail bouncing back home routine. I did some basic editing on the camera. Next time out, I'll probably just bring more cards and skip the editing on camera--they're cheap and light.

[Pokey2006]

You could always just upload a handful of pictures at a time. Say, 5-10, no more. That way you're not taking up too much time on public computers, and you're not making your friends and family sift through 200 pictures every other week. But your friends are still getting to see a little bit of the latest stretch of trail.

[Sly]

SD cards are cheap enough now, you could just buy a few and not even worry about getting them mailed back.

[Silver Bear]

Early in the year I got a Nikon S550 & put a 4g high speed card in it. At 5 mp it will store something like 3,000 pictures. If I drop to 3mp I can get 4,500 pictures on it. Battery seems to hold up well, may need second for long hike. it can be charged in about 1 hour.

[Johnny Swank]

Pokey's got the right idea. One other advantage of going that route is that it's easier to jog your memory when sorting through 1000's of photos at the end of your trip if you've got something to go by already. Memory's gotten so cheap these days that I'd just carry a couple extra cards and call it a day. You'll spend $15 or so getting photo's put on cd's, then postage on top of that anyway.

[88BlueGT]

Go on ebay and get your cards... they're DIRT cheap. Just make sure you get real SD carsds, besides that, theres nothing else to watch out for and you wont find them anywhere cheaper then on ebay.