practical tech. wisdom? Minidisc, camera..Too much gear?

solsurf

for an extended trip , 6months to (???)

has anyone come back with some practical tech. wisdom?

I'm planning to bring a fuji 5100 digital camera. larger than pocket size. Are the pocketable ones far more convenient on the long journey?

A sony Hi-MD minidisc to record live music, conversation,lectures
the new units store 33 hours live (lowest fidelity)/disc

One of the new sony mcmd-r1 card readers to use the minidisc as digital image storage. (on amazon, U.S.)

A bundle of minidiscs. (should i bring more blank discs than i think i will use, or less?)

AA batteries and charger.

It's all fairly lightweight, but i'm wondering if i'll tire of "babysitting" the valuables. I plan to travel and live simply. It would be nice to sleep outside sometimes and not feel paranoid of theft or worse.

I'm not sure that trying to "capture it all" is really the best way and I would have an extra thousand U.S.$ if i just pring a pocket camera. (should last for 3-4 months for me)

i would appreciate any insight.

Thanks,
Shawn

wonderwomanusa

I would get tired of "babysitting" all that expensive equipment, of being fearful that it would be lost or stolen.

I took my Sony digital camera, two sets of batteries, 3 256mg memory sticks and a charger. More than enough for three months. The camera was always with me.

Your mileage, of course, may vary.

Baldy

my advice - don't pack gear that will cause unreasonable anxiety of loss or theft. Esp if you are travelling cheaply - public transport and cheap lodgings

Baldy

Nick-H

I wouldn't be without my minidisc if only for the flights.

It's nice to have camera, camcorder etc,

Ultimately, we havae to choose either good insurance (even then, will it cover >£1000 camcorder?) or take the risk. In a way there's no point in buying all this gear if we just lock it up at home

__________________
.


IndiaMike Mod Team (The Grumpy One)

Bryan

Make sure you take a number of blank MDs
They can be difficult to find in India

Useful for recording from other travellers

Bryan

__________________
Then let us pray that come it may
(As come it will for a' that),
That Sense and Worth o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree an a' that.
For a' that, an a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That man to man, the world, o'er
Shall brithers be for a' that.
- Burns

vistet

lightest solution : 512 mb cards and burn cd`s along the way. 250+ high res jpegs per card.

safest solution : ipod + card reader + firewire-USB adapter . burn double cds and send one home. About the same cost & weight as the minidisc + reader.

best recording solution : md

Charger : with the frequent power cuts and the fact that sometimes the power to your room is cut intentionally while you are away you might want to check to check out some of the new superduper fast chargers (15 min to an hour) . Noisy though.

wonderwomanusa

>>You'll also need a voltage converter for the charger.<<

The charger that came with my camera handles all voltages -- I think that's true of many of them.

ramalaka

I agree with Wonderwoman that you don't want to babysit youir equipment, and suggest using old neoprene mousepads to wrap your equipment in.With a MiniDisc player/recorder you can listen to music and make sound recordings. You'll need one with a mic input and some decent microphones, and you can rip anywhere from 74-220 minutes of music on one MiniDisc. Forget about iPods - You can listen to sound clips at:
http://www.firedrill.com/audio.htm

Also, a lot of newer electronic equipment is dual voltage 230/220 or 120/110 but I would not use a power converter without a stablizer between it and the 220 source. Be sure you read the manual and understand polarity before attempting to use converters. I have not had any problems despite power brownouts and surges. For all of my equipment, I spent about 15,000 Rupees for voltage stabilzers, power converters step-down 220/230 -120/110, and a UPS. This takes care of arefrigerator, washing machine, two computers, scanner, printer, amp, mixer, 3 CD players, and two Mini-Disc recorder/players, DVD and TV, plus a few other items.

jay_kiran

The pocket size camera would be a great idea. It would allow you not to expose these ultra high priced equipment to locals.

Instead of bringing in a lot of high MB memory cards, why not just empty them into your website periodically. As soon as your card gets full just upload the pictures to those free photo websites. delete your pictures and start again !

Saves a lot of money on cards and you do not have to to worry about losing all of ur pictures as you keep taking more of them.

vistet

That`s just not on with the speeds involved - uploading a single picture can take anything from minutes to hours.

J to the G

Okay...this has probably been answered. I've read a bunch on the site about converters and what not. Still the exact answer has not been found. I don't know if I'm in the right forum. I'm still learning how to navigate here.

3.7V mini disc battery: it charges the battery inside of the mini disc recorder. Is an adapter okay? Or do I need a transformer/surge protector?

I have to bring it I play music, I must write songs. Yes babysitting sucks, but are thieves that huge of a problem?? I'll be in Rishikesh, Delhi, Mumbai, outside of Trivandrum, mostly at Ashrams, trying to avoid really touristy spots. I will also probably bring a cheap small guitar...am I crazy for carrying anything extra like this?

Plus...

digital camera battery charger 100-240V: sounds like just an adapter will be fine. Did I read this right?

Nick-H

The camera charger will be fine.

The mini-disc charger --- it depends on the input voltage (like the camera) not on the output. if it is 110 only, no good. If it is 110-240, good.