Hi all,

I am purchasing a new Panasonic Lumix FZ30 for our trip in July (3 nights Rwanda, 4 nights Masai Mara, 2 nights Nairobi). I don't really want to purchase a separate storage device and was thinking of just getting enough memory cards and keeping the images on them - I'm thinking 4x 1GB cards (which should give me about 800 photos in jpeg 'best' mode). How many photos have you taken on your trips and how long was the trip?

i took between 1200 to 1600 pictures, though more than 2/3 were weeded out and deleted due to "shake", "fuzz" "oops" or just how many pictures of a warthog do I really need?

I can't tell you how many photos you'll take but I'll give you a heads up on where you can buy cards at a good price. newegg.com I have bought from them 4 or 5 times (the most recent last week) and they have always done a good job. I think the FZ30 takes the SD cards. If so, newegg has Sandisk 1GB cards for $34 and Sandisk 2GB cards for $68. As well as many other brands at lower and higher prices. (I just picked Sandisk as an example and I know they are good cards.)

Matnikstym - How did you store those photos? Did you 'weed' them out each evening or when you returned home?

sundowner - Thanks for the heads up but I'm afraid I won't be able to take advantage of neweggs low price as they don't ship internationally (I'm in Ireland). I'm purchasing my camera from BH Photo (will order it this week hopefully) and their price for SD is $49.99 which is still much heaper than here in Ireland.

Only-I just used cards for storage, no external device. I used 1 GB, 2 512s and 1 256, though not all were full. The only one that got full was when I discovered the video mode on my camera. I'd look at all the pics at siesta time, and the obvious blurred, missed shot shots were deleted then. I waited until getting home and downloading to go through the rest and deleted then. If I don't buy a video camera before the next trip, I'll buy more cards and take videos with them.
p.s. The first trip was 11 nights, the second was 11 nights in Africa and 2 in London.

I know the truth: The only reason Dennis didn't have more keepers is because he didn't use his bean bag.

1300 pics in 3 1/2 wks. - most were taken in Tanzania with a smaller amount in the Seychelles. I had 6 gigs and could have used more due to the videos. I mostly shot in jpeg. and took a max. of 10 pics. in raw.
I love my Fz30, btw.
Sherry

perhaps it was too many G+T's and not the lack of the beanbag

I own the same camera and am very happy with it. Good choice. You didn't mention where you're staying but I just returned and I was fortunate to be staying where they had a computer and I could download my daily photos on to a CD each evening (brought my own). I didn't take nearly as many photos as in previous trips but if it's your first trip, you will take a lot. After deleting the obvious duds and duplications each evening, I averaged about 200 photos per week. On my first trip I probably averaged 400 per week.

, cybor, after the G+T's, even if i knew what the darn bag of dirt was for, it would not have improved the amount of "keepers" On the first trip, i swear i had over a hundred pics of warthogs and double that of sleeping lions! I did keep all the dog pics, blurry or not.... want to borrow them? hehe...

Oh, Sherry, he HAD a bean bag, didn't you, Dennis?!
;-) ;-)

Crickey - we cross posted!!

Take lots of memory cards....more than you think you'd need. Some drives may be slow game viewing---wise, but others will be buzzing throughout and often you may run short of film or memory space and end up frustrated...

Hari

OnlyMeOriish,
Read your post/question on Digital Photo Review but declined to answer. You should be aware that the regular participants of that particular forum (Storage media) are each pushing their own agendas. Each has a favorite storage device and most of them are really more into computer technology than into photography. They think nothing of opening up one of these personal storage devices (PSDs) and swapping the hard drive or installing new operating systems. They build their own battery suuplies and go on endlessly on the merits of one battery over another. Unlikely you will get much helpful advice there. My experience on a three week safari might be helpful to you. I used a Canon 20D SLR (8 megapixel) my wife has an Olympus (8megapixel Camera). I took over 7,000 photos, she took about 1,000. Although we had 12 Gigabytes of storage, we had to store our images on a PSD. We purchased an Epson P 2000 and it was simply fantastic. It is about as foolproof as a device can be and has a fantastic bonus feature, a wonderful screen on which to review your photos. This will let you know how successful your camera technique is, on a daily basis. You will not be able to make that determination from the screen on your camera, trust me on this. The Epson is the choice of many professional photographers. People who are interested in their images use either this device or, if weight and size are not an issue, they use a laptop computer. Stay away from the small tricky PSDs suggested in that other forum, they are trouble trouble trouble. The Epson is sometimes available with a $50 rebate coupon from Epson. Check out B & H or Adorama, or OneCall. Someone here (Cooncat I believe) mentioned beanbags to stabilize you camera. This is a great idea, even if your camera has an image stabilized lens.
Cheers, CJ

Thanks for all the replies.

Matnik - I will be taking my camcorder with me (despite DH protesting!)and won't be using the FZ30 for videos so that should cut down on the amount of memory I will need. I also know excatly what you mean about duplicate photos - last years trip to Alaska proved you should only take so many glacier photos - not 5 rolls LOL!.

Sherry - Glad to hear good things about the FZ30. Did you just use cards to store the images too? Based on your 3.5 weeks, we are only there for 9 days, so do you think 4GB will be enough?

pjammin - Another happy owner of the FZ30 - glad to hear. We will be staying in Kigali at the Hotel Des Milles Collines (hopefully - have to book it yet!) and then the Mara Serena and then the Nairobi Serena. It is not my first trip to Africa but it is my first trip to Rwanda (and seeing Gorillas) and Kenya.

Hari - How much memory would you suggest? How much would you typically take?

Thanks again everyone for all your help.

Imelda

Hi OnlyMeOirish,
I also have the Panasonic FZ30 and I go on gameviewing trips of about 22-26 nights. There is no doubt I am a happy snapper - each morning on my walk, I can take between 50-150 photos, on a daily basis! On my last trip in prime gameviewing area of the Sabi Sands, I did use 5 x 1 GB of memory cards. Towards the end I knew I had enough memory space, so I didn't delete as much as I could have. So I did feel that 5 x 1GB memory was sufficient, because I could delete as I went. Looking at a computer screen back home, I wasn't as hard in the deleting department as I could have been, as photos do look better on that little screen! I am quite harsh when deleting, but I have to be because I take so many photos each week!

In the old world of film, I would take 80 rolls x 40 photos away, and I, at my worst, did use 72 rolls x 40 photos.

Kind regards,
Kaye

Hello OMO,
I would guess that 4 gigs would be enough. Do remember though that these cards can get corrupted so just for kicks you may want to bring an extra card or 2 for insurance. Keep them in the original wrapping so that you may return if not used.
Depending on your shooting style you can get on a 1 gig 350 -400 pics. in jpeg 5m., 250 -8m. I sometimes backed up what I thought would be an amazing shot in raw which can only be shot on 8m - you'll only get 54.
I never deleted anything unless it was glaringly and very obviously bad or one too many elephant arses . Some of the pics. that I thought were questionable actually turned out ok when home editing.
If I had to do it again, I would get the ebson. I was already 3gigs into it when I realized that I should have just bit the bullet and sprung for it.
Good luck!
Sherry

btw, I never used the complimentary sand bags in our vehicle. The IS really seems to help.

KIBOKO - For some reason our posts crossed and I missed yours last time. Thanks for the heads up on the Storage Media forum - I was a little overwhlemed in there. The Epson sounds good but I'm still not sure if I will opt for it. I'm not sure I will get enough use out of it other than this Safari? Have you used the video mode and / or music mode on it? How does the video mode work? This is probably a stupid question BUT... is it possible to get a DVD downloaded on it and then use it like a portable DVD player?

Kaye - Oh boy, 72 rolls!! I can't even imagine taking that many photos BUT all that might change with my new toy. I'm afraid I'm one of those people who hate deleting photos, even if they aren't very good.Hubby is a lot more brutal than me so I will have to let him be the judge & jury on the pics when it comes to deleting.

Sherry - Thanks again for the info. - I might be OK with the cards but I'm still undecided on the Epson - decisions decisions!

OnlyMeOirish,
I have not used the Epson in video or audio mode. It does have a nice little speaker and the sound is pretty good. I think I have come accross a post complaining that the video mode was a bit "Jerky". Later I came accross another post claiming that a new firmware update had fixed that problem. However, I really can't comment on that particular feature first hand. I do swear by the fool proof nature of the device. The screen is awesome and you will love having all that storage and the visual confirmation that your images were actually copied. These are once in a lifetime trips, even if you go back to africa again, the photo opportunities will be different. For this reason, I would only back up on a device that I could verify immage transfer success. The epson is much smaller than any laptop and its screen is good enough so that you will be able to evaluate you photography technique on a daily basis. As far as numbers of images is concerned, I took over 7,000 photos on safari. If I had been shooting film, I probably would have taken 2,000 images. The beauty of digital is that you will be able to take so many shots and from them choose the best (keepers). It's also fun to sit around in the evening (with of course a cocktail) and review your pictures with others. If I may offer another suggestion it would be to go the Andy Biggs website and review what he takes along on his photo safaris. It might seem a little advanced for your needs but the information is really very good for anyone interested in safari photography. By the way, he does list and Epson P2000 as one of his Kit items.
Cheers, take lots of photos. CJ