Memory cards...

I once saw a radio in Burma Bazaar* with the word "Sony" obviously stuck onto it! This was not even a clever deception, just made me laugh, but I expect they know their market and someone was fooled by it. On another forum, someone bought some Blu-Tack (adhesive) and, on close examination, the package did not say "Bostik" but "Sostik"!

I remember being suspicious about a Sandisk product, but careful comparison of design, type, etc, with their website made me feel better about it.

Had some concern over a Nokia battery bought in Singapore, especially as it was 2/3rd the price of the last one I bought in India --- but comparison, back home, convinced me that it was ok. It works, of course!



*For those that don't know, it is Chennai's location to buy cheap stuff, grey-market imports --- and fakes.

As far as I know, I've only ever encountered a gray import once, from ebay. That too was for a memory card - a 4GB Sony memorystick Duo. Didn't work full stop. So I went down to a certain high street catalogue store and reluctantly spent £165 on the exact same official product. This was at a time when they (okay it was Argos) had no idea how to price anything electrical. Anyway I briefly got to compare the two products - the iffy one was slightly paler in colour and the text a little faint too. I had a brainwave! I decided that I didn't really need two cards after all (well 4GB was huge back then) and took the card back for a refund. Now a quick warning! Although Argos did break and eventually gave me a refund - they didn't have any more in stock (thank God!!) they did point out that shops don't have to give refunds/exchanges for this kind of product.

So you "returned" a non-working fake item purchased from ebay to Argos for a refund?!!! How very honest of you!!!

My camera is grey-market, and sold as such, with no company warranty. I asked myself if I would pay this price for a second-hand camera, and decided yes, so bought it.

Sorry, bit of a late response. We were touching on web searching regarding plane tickets on another thread the other day; as I indicated there, I'm one who boringly still prefers a good ol' physical shop

So for a money belt, get yourself over to either a sports gear or a travel supplies shop; it's just a flat little thingie that goes underneath your clothes, typically around the waist, although there exist other types (shoulder, leg, whatever). To keep your money and documents and bank cards and stuff in. Full memory cards then, indeed. Anything that's flat and not bulky and you'd absolutely like to keep. You could make one yourself. Some come with a clip that may be uncomfortable, try to find one with another closing mechanism that fits more snugly. I tend to secure it with an extra safety pin for good measure. Some come with a plastic lining, but being fitted in there I don't find so practical. So I put my stuff in there in ziplock bags; take some extra along, as they'll wear at some point, fairly quickly even, since you'll be taking your stuff in & out of there a lot. I mean the ziplock bags, not the money belt, which if a decent one will last you practically forever.* Word has it there exist ones with a waterproof lining, would obviously be handy for swimming, esp. to a solo traveler who can't leave their stuff anywhere else.

* Sweating will be an issue, so you really need to wrap your stuff in some sort of plastic. After three months of traipsing around the bush, you really don't wanna present that passport in the state it will otherwise be in; not with, er, some other things that go on around the general waistline area either. (Or the armpit, no doubt.) On that note, bring two money belts, so you can wash them sometimes. It can otherwise be a bit of a hassle as you're waiting for the thing to dry while you might like to go out. Pure cotton is otherwise most comfortable, of course.

(The whole thing isn't to be mistaken with a money belt as in what people may wear over their clothes. Can be handy for your daily needs, though. So your wallet with a few hundred Rupees and a cigarette lighter and some chewing gum and stuff. If someone wants to take that, let them be my guest.)

Regarding memory card makes and stuff, like I said I'm not very technically versed in it all. I think (but can't be sure even) my camera takes a not-quite-typical card type, I found it available in India as well, though. So what I do is walk up to a shop and ask do you have a card for this. Then put it in there & I'm ready to go.

It's a simple life, isn't it

ps Regarding theft there then, it's nothing to overly worry about. Us prudent folks just like to add some layers of protection for what we really can't afford to lose, right (or what would just be a major hassle to replace, i.e., a passport, indeed); anywhere in the world. The good news in India is any theft if at all would typically be of the snatch-and-run variety, violent crime against tourists there would be extremely uncommon. So if you make the snatching and running or pickpocketing a little harder to do, with a little bit of luck you should generally be alright.

nb Not sure if it's been touched on on this thread already, but regarding digital storage, you'll find many seeking to make their mega-Gigabyte cards stretch further by making their pics and clips in a lower resolution.

This is obviously thinking the wrong way around: Always use your camera's best settings, you can downgrade a file later, but not upgrade it. (And any further fine-tuning, or indeed even downgrading, you want to do will of course be better served by the higher quality original file, and etc.) That one lucky happenstance snapshot just might have looked so much better in a higher resolution. (And so there's really no point in wanting to let it depend on the situation, either. Since more often than not you won't be able to tell beforehand. Just leave that camera on its best settings, by default.)

Instead and if necessary, look for more storage space i.e. extra memory cards, indeed.

I guess the lower storage option is just there for people's modern wishes and needs and consequent misconceptions (Yes! Give me another bell and whistle, and let me feel autonomous about it, please!), but you wouldn't seriously buy an old-fashioned analog camera with preferably all mod-cons and gizmos thrown in, then set it to half-quality (it it were an option at all), right. Hey, guys, if I don't put a film in at all, the camera lasts much longer (Saves quite a lot on film, too.)

Hi machadinha
Thanks for your time explaining all about those money belts. I wasn't aware of them...apart from those ugly handbag looking things that hang off peoples hips here in the UK. But yes, found a few now and put in my Amazon wishlist (which is getting quite big now) It's not so much I'm worried about being mugged, I'm just a bit bad for losing things myself so any extra protection is welcome. I'll take a few small sealable sandwich bags too to keep things free from sweat. And also use hotel safes too if available and are okay?

Still facing a dilema over memory cards but it's hardly life threatening I'll probably go with at least two 16GB ones, class 10. Plus take my netbook, there's 100GB spare on there for storage of my photos. OR ditch the bulk of the netbook and take three cards. Hmm decisions decisions

Camera settings for me will be 'Best' (but not raw if the camera supports it) I remember several years back, a friend ruined all his Disneyland photos doing what you've described above, lowering the res to get more on his card. Tragic waste. So yeah, any cropping, resizing etc can be done at home on my normal PC.

Take your net-book, use other peoples Internet connections, email and store your pictures on your net-book. Best thing I took on my last trip, I kept my friends updated with a blog etc.

Money belts.
Can sow one or two inside pockets in the trousers a bit bigger than the passport with enough to put safety pin at the opening to make it more safe.
Money belt under clothes, can make a bag with zip also bigger than passport with a belt made from wide elastic to go round the body,no buckles or anything that can cut into you and no need to take off except for a shower!cost minimal.
As mentioned before everything should be in plastic bags (have been rafting and passports and money stayed dry)

Is there no place in India that one could simply purchase more SDHC cards for their camera? I'm taking a few cards but have no idea how much video I will be capturing, so I was hoping that could just pick up a few more while I'm there. Although some of the comments in this thread give me the impression that I either bring them or I don't have them. Is this the case?

Thanks!

This thread is more about what you will end up with if you buy things like Memory cards on the street instead of shops that deal with such products.

If you buy them from shops that deal with them/similar products and make sure the pack is not tampered with/opened, mostly you should be fine.

It is better to buy 'em from NYC or NJ (save a couple of tax bucks) or online from TigerDirect or some such...

I use the first generation of this device (PhotoSafe by Digital Foci): the present generation has larger capacity and a couple of glitches fixed. It is simply a device to back up memory chips. The device automatically creates a sequentially numbered directory for each chip. It's pure Bauhaus: wonderful!

I prefer 2-3 small 4 to 8 gb cards rather than big 16-32 gb cards..reason being no cost advantage on buying one big... memory cards can go corrupt any time...and if a 4gb card go corrupt.i loose less images than if a big 32 gb card go bad... also in case of permanent failure you are at less loss if you have more smaller ones.. one more benefit i see is if you have to give cards etc for printing or sharing snaps with your friends ..it becomes lot easier... a 4gb cf card allows me to take almost 900 images before i have to change.. so that is fine with me... but yes you should have at least 4 or 8 gb card..

but lot depends on what your requirements are..as these days SLR have video option on them and so they might need bigger for continuous recording.. i use 80-GB hard disk drive camcoder so i don't have to worry about video.

Cheers!

The best portable storage solution for digital photography while traveling if you have your laptop or netbook is My Passport hard drives from Western Digital. They're small, they don't require a power outlet, and they offer enormous capacity for very little money. I travel with three 640gb drives, and all three can fit in my front pants pocket.