Photographers thoughts on media

[Miss Dot]

In June we will be doing our first cruise of Alaska on the Coral Princess SB. Prior to this we have 6 days of land touring. I'd like some input from photographers on the amount of media cards I should take. With the coming of digital age I have become trigger happy and we have many great tours planned. I use mostly 32 gb cards but just not sure how many to take. Also, thoughts on the use of a tripod!

[zqvol]

In June we will be doing our first cruise of Alaska on the Coral Princess SB. Prior to this we have 6 days of land touring. I'd like some input from photographers on the amount of media cards I should take. With the coming of digital age I have become trigger happy and we have many great tours planned. I use mostly 32 gb cards but just not sure how many to take. Also, thoughts on the use of a tripod!

 

You are going to get a lot of answers that include taking a SD card for each day to taking only one or two.

 

The real question is are you taking a laptop so that you can download all of your images daily. If so, you don't need as many cards.

 

I usually take two, and copy pictures over to a laptop daily. The last trip I took almost 4000 pictures and that was about 25 GB. So for me a single 32GB card was fine (I think I only used one card the whole trip). (That was a 15 day trip.)

 

To me tripods are a lot of extra effort. Not really useable on an excursion boat, or flight seeing. Sure you can set up on the ship or to take landscapes, but not so much for animals. I don't fool with one but if you want to take it I say go for it.

Edited February 8, 2015 by zqvol

[Miss Dot]

You are going to get a lot of answers that include taking a SD card for each day to taking only one or two.

 

The real question is are you taking a laptop so that you can download all of your images daily. If so, you don't need as many cards.

 

I usually take two, and copy pictures over to a laptop daily. The last trip I took almost 4000 pictures and that was about 25 GB. So for me a single 32GB card was fine (I think I only used one card the whole trip). (That was a 15 day trip.)

 

To me tripods are a lot of extra effort. Not really useable on an excursion boat, or flight seeing. Sure you can set up on the ship or to take landscapes, but not so much for animals. I don't fool with one but if you want to take it I say go for it.

Thanks, my thoughts were the same on the tripod; may take a mini one for when we tour waterfalls see if I can make it work. Thanks for your response. No won't be taking my laptop on this trip; although when possible I do take a laptop to dump cards nightly.

[Crew News]

In June we will be doing our first cruise of Alaska on the Coral Princess SB. Prior to this we have 6 days of land touring. I'd like some input from photographers on the amount of media cards I should take. With the coming of digital age I have become trigger happy and we have many great tours planned. I use mostly 32 gb cards but just not sure how many to take. Also, thoughts on the use of a tripod!

 

If you shoot RAW photographs, you will need to do some calculating to determine how many pics per card with at least 10% safety margin. I take at least three 64 gb cards (one for use and one for backup with an extra card in case one of the other two becomes inoperable). A laptop or tablet that will allow connection of a portable hard disk for storage is a must.

 

I do a nightly backup of all used cards on both the laptop and the portable hard disk before cleaning the cards for their next use.

 

IMHO a monopod is the best answer for somewhat stabilizing longer telephotos while on a bobbing whale-watching boat or when in a large group of fellow passengers. Using a tripod that interferes with other passengers' feet is an issue as well as it being constantly bumped. If you plan on taking longer exposures or not around a large group, take the tripod.

 

Bottom line is to take both a monopod and a tripod. It is better to have both than to feel the agony of missing a great shot.

[ikirumata]

In June we will be doing our first cruise of Alaska on the Coral Princess SB. Prior to this we have 6 days of land touring. I'd like some input from photographers on the amount of media cards I should take. With the coming of digital age I have become trigger happy and we have many great tours planned. I use mostly 32 gb cards but just not sure how many to take. Also, thoughts on the use of a tripod!

 

SD cards are cheap and dont take up much space. Take as many as you can afford.

 

The thing you should be mindful of is batteries, especially if you have Image Stabilization, shoot video, use live view, or on camera flash.

 

Good luck! Make sure to come back and share!

[xlxo]

SD cards are cheap and dont take up much space. Take as many as you can afford.

 

The thing you should be mindful of is batteries, especially if you have Image Stabilization, shoot video, use live view, or on camera flash.

I agree 32gb are so cheap... I would pack 2 or 3 for the shutter happy types.

 

Good point about the batteries.... especially if you hit cold climates. Do you have one of those fancy mirrorless cameras? Those eat batteries when turned on.

 

The good thing about Princess is they allow me to pack a powerbar for more outlets in the cabin for charging my devices.

Edited February 8, 2015 by xlxo

[Miss Dot]

SD cards are cheap and dont take up much space. Take as many as you can afford.

 

The thing you should be mindful of is batteries, especially if you have Image Stabilization, shoot video, use live view, or on camera flash.

 

Good luck! Make sure to come back and share!

 

Yes, I have 2 batteries may look into another. I have the Canon 5D Mark III, I know there are a lot of cheap cards on the market but I don't like to use those. I won't use the video on my camera and never use the live view. I don't like using thevIS on my lenses either. Camera doesn't have a built in flash and provably won't take my OCF. If I get to a place that flash is a must have Ill use my P&S. Yes, I do shot in RAW

[Giantfan13]

I take hundreds of Pixs at everything I see. Most of my pixs are taken at the

1Mb setting. You know what, if you aren't taking video's, I'd bet ONE 32G card would be sufficient. You know how many pixs you can get on that?. But, if you, are at all concerned, buy a 64Gb one or another 32. Believe me, you will not need any more.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[peety3]

In June we will be doing our first cruise of Alaska on the Coral Princess SB. Prior to this we have 6 days of land touring. I'd like some input from photographers on the amount of media cards I should take. With the coming of digital age I have become trigger happy and we have many great tours planned. I use mostly 32 gb cards but just not sure how many to take. Also, thoughts on the use of a tripod!

 

My wife and I are both serious hobbyist photographers - consider that your disclaimer. Here's the stats as I remember them:

 

2010 Alaska cruise: four cameras, six lenses; 5500 shots, ~85GB (all RAW).

2012 Alaska cruise: four cameras, six lenses; 9500 shots, ~135GB (newest rented camera shot in JPEG as my Lightroom was too old to read its RAW images).

2014 Alaska cruise: five cameras, eight lenses; 14,500 shots, ~350GB (all RAW). Our biggest day (Tracy Arm with small-boat excursion, plus a whale watch in Juneau that added some salmon/eagle viewing on the fly) was 157GB alone, across 13 cards (mostly 16GB). I specifically developed a multiple hard drive storage/backup solution to handle this trip (plus a sports photography workshop I attended two months later): every morning, I could see that my images were VERIFIED on three hard drives, and that made it a lot more comforting to format those cards and reuse them.

[peety3]

Yes, I have 2 batteries may look into another. I have the Canon 5D Mark III, I know there are a lot of cheap cards on the market but I don't like to use those. I won't use the video on my camera and never use the live view. I don't like using thevIS on my lenses either. Camera doesn't have a built in flash and provably won't take my OCF. If I get to a place that flash is a must have Ill use my P&S. Yes, I do shot in RAW

 

Two batteries is probably more than enough for any given day. I think the lowest I've seen our batteries get on any particular day was 40%, either for a pair of batteries in a gripped camera or a single (albeit large) battery in a 1-series.

 

However, in Alaska, I'd highly recommend you get comfortable and familiar with IS. You'll be shooting stuff so far away, and/or in wind (the ship is creating ~15kn winds while underway, even if there's no local wind), and/or on a vibrating surface (the ship or an excursion boat). You'll be dealing with long focal lengths, where IS helps more.

[Langham1865]

My wife and I are both serious hobbyist photographers - consider that your disclaimer. Here's the stats as I remember them:

 

2010 Alaska cruise: four cameras, six lenses; 5500 shots, ~85GB (all RAW).

2012 Alaska cruise: four cameras, six lenses; 9500 shots, ~135GB (newest rented camera shot in JPEG as my Lightroom was too old to read its RAW images).

2014 Alaska cruise: five cameras, eight lenses; 14,500 shots, ~350GB (all RAW). Our biggest day (Tracy Arm with small-boat excursion, plus a whale watch in Juneau that added some salmon/eagle viewing on the fly) was 157GB alone, across 13 cards (mostly 16GB). I specifically developed a multiple hard drive storage/backup solution to handle this trip (plus a sports photography workshop I attended two months later): every morning, I could see that my images were VERIFIED on three hard drives, and that made it a lot more comforting to format those cards and reuse them.

 

I love nature photography... Which of the three Alaska cruises would you recommend for that?

[peety3]

I think the scenery going north (or south) on the cruises out of Vancouver is a lot better than on the cruises out of Seattle. Once you're in Alaska, just pick excursions that tickle your fancy.

[mskaufman]

I also take a lot of pictures and tend to use 16 GB cards. I generally change cards every two days as insurance so if something happens to my camera the cards are tucked safely in the cabin safe. This year I will be trying something new. I bought a cable that will let me attach my camera to my tablet and have the tablet set so that when there is Wi-Fi the pictures will automatically be uploaded to the cloud. Will be testing this out on our Baltic cruise in a couple of months. Usually, the terminals have free Wi-Fi.

[donaldsc]

Yes, I have 2 batteries may look into another. I have the Canon 5D Mark III, I know there are a lot of cheap cards on the market but I don't like to use those. I won't use the video on my camera and never use the live view. I don't like using thevIS on my lenses either. Camera doesn't have a built in flash and provably won't take my OCF. If I get to a place that flash is a must have Ill use my P&S. Yes, I do shot in RAW

 

I would take at least 4 or more cards and 2 more batteries. Cards and batteries are cheap compared to the price of your cruise and the angst of missed photo ops. Also, I would shoot raw and JPEG if your camera allows it. There are lots of sites on the WEB that will tel you how many pictures you can fit on a card. Check them out. What if you are at a glacier and it really starts calving or you get some really good whale opportunities. You could be shooting at the full 6 fps and that fills up a card really fast.

 

Also, rethink the idea of not taking your laptop or buy a tablet for backups. I do a daily backup to my tablet and then copy the stuff to 2 different 64 gig flash drives. I bought an android tablet instead of an Apple as I found that while you can copy from your camera card to the IPAD, you can not copy the stuff from the IPAD to an external flash drive.

 

Finally, rethink the idea of using 32 gig camera cards. If a card goes bad, you loose a lot of pictures. I take 16 gig cards instead of 32 gig cards.

 

DON

Edited February 24, 2015 by donaldsc

[GUT2407]

Take as many cards as you can get your hands on.

 

Do you shoot RAW or JPEG? [Personally I shoot both on special trips].

 

Instead of a tripod have you though about a mono-pod there are a few that double as a great walking pole.

 

Also a couple of spare batteries.

 

I take a portable hard drive that I can back straight from the card to, or an ultra book and an external HDD, but I like to have my photos backed to at least 2 places before I re-use a card. My absolute preference is to copy to two places and NOT re-use the card unless I absolutely have to.

[GUT2407]

Yes, I have 2 batteries may look into another. I have the Canon 5D Mark III, I know there are a lot of cheap cards on the market but I don't like to use those. I won't use the video on my camera and never use the live view. I don't like using thevIS on my lenses either. Camera doesn't have a built in flash and provably won't take my OCF. If I get to a place that flash is a must have Ill use my P&S. Yes, I do shot in RAW

 

Sorry must have missed this bt vearlier about you using a 5d3.

 

If you have a 5d3 then it takes both a SD and a CF, use say 16gb [i actually prefer 8 GBs] and shoot each shot to both. Then follow your back-up plan.

[mskaufman]

I generally take a card for each day (or 2). I keep the used cards in the cabin safe. This year I will be taking a small tablet with me. I bought a cable that will let me download from the camera to the tablet, then when I have Wi-Fi the pictures are automatically uploaded to Dropbox. This way there are three copies of the pictures floating around.

 

I guess the next camera will be one with Wi-Fi.

[Mercruiser]

My wife and I are both serious hobbyist photographers - consider that your disclaimer. Here's the stats as I remember them:

 

2010 Alaska cruise: four cameras, six lenses; 5500 shots, ~85GB (all RAW).

2012 Alaska cruise: four cameras, six lenses; 9500 shots, ~135GB (newest rented camera shot in JPEG as my Lightroom was too old to read its RAW images).

2014 Alaska cruise: five cameras, eight lenses; 14,500 shots, ~350GB (all RAW). Our biggest day (Tracy Arm with small-boat excursion, plus a whale watch in Juneau that added some salmon/eagle viewing on the fly) was 157GB alone, across 13 cards (mostly 16GB). I specifically developed a multiple hard drive storage/backup solution to handle this trip (plus a sports photography workshop I attended two months later): every morning, I could see that my images were VERIFIED on three hard drives, and that made it a lot more comforting to format those cards and reuse them.

 

This sounds more like an addiction than a hobby. Or maybe just a case of anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

 

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