uploading images while in India

Nadalay

I'm going to be in India in January and I'm glad I found this site. It will help me very much in planning this trip and networking with other travellers...My question is whether I will be able to upload images from my digital camera while in India. Or if I should even bother to bring one if it is troublesome for webcafe administrators to let customers access the computer's ports. Any alternatives to uploading from internet shops?
happy trails Nad

indiamike

Hi Nadalay,
I think a lot would have to do with what kind of camera you are bringing. The Digital Cameras that burn to a cd are probably better to work with, since you would be able to just insert the cd, if a cdrom is available, and upload that way.

For cameras with a USB connection I would recommend that you bring a three inch floppy with the installation program that is needed for your camera. Though cameras are always listed as plug and play, we all know that this isn't the case and older versions of windows will not recognize the usb connection.

I too am bringing my digital camera on this next trip and it will be my first experience with it. I am guessing that it will probably work okay but will take some convincing to get internet cafes to allow to use it.

I would also suggest to get the most storage that you can possibly afford, even suggesting a digital wallet which a lot of pros use instead of a laptop.

Mike

ps...if you check out the digital wallet, shop around for prices. The listing at mindsatwork is top dollar, I have seen it around for hundreds less

picklepak

I can say that I've wrestled with the same thing. My digital camera is really the only piece of electronics that I am for sure planning to take for my second (and much longer) trip to India -- sure, I know that I will need to always, always carry it with me and that will be a pain, but I am willing to take on this burden in order to better remember some of the favorite places in my travels.

However, my plans are very much to assume that I will never, ever find a suitable place or way to upload my images. Plan for enough memory to last you for your entire trip. I have a USB-based camera that uses Smart Media cards, and I will be taking 128 Mb, 64 Mb, and 16 Mb cards (one of each).

From what I've seen of Rajesthan, you will be quite lucky to find a USB-enabled computer. And even if you do find one, what do you do with the images then? The Internet connections are all using modems except in the biggest cities (Delhi) and so you cannot reasonably expect to email your pictures home. You might be able to find a place with a CD-RW but it could be quite hard. Your best bet is to indeed bring a floppy (or your installation CD) if you are lucky to find such a computer, but don't plan on it unfortunately.