How much memory?
 

Our 18 day safari is coming up fast, we leave June 10th I am worried about running out of memory card for my camera. Can you tell me how much you used and was it enough? I don't think I'll be needing it for video as we're taking a camcorder. Just don't know
how many GBs to take. Any feedback will be helpful, I won't be doing any downloading while out there.Also I have 10x24 bino's is this enough? don't know much about bino's.Please help don't want to find I haven't enough memory or bino's are not enough field of vision or high enough magnification. this is my first safari
(hope it won't be my last.)
One last thing (for now anyway)all my correspondance say's they strongly recommend That I obtain a visa before I leave, yet I note that many of you do not get your visa beforehand but obtain it on arrival is this really ok?
I'm worried that I will arrive and for some reason not be able to get a visa am I just going into panic mode? Didn't really want to send my passports away as they seem to hang on to them far longer than they say.

it'll depend on which settings you use on the camera for taking pictures and what you want to use the pictures for after. if you only want them on the web or up to 8 X 10 I think, then you can use lower settings which will give you more pictures. If making poster or larger size with higher pixel rates, you'll use higher settings and will have less pictures. Then if shooting in RAW mode....etc. I take around 4 GB's (on 5 seperate cards) when I go and have never ran out, but my settings are about in the middle range.

On my last safari I needed about 15 GB worth of storage. But here's how to figure it for you.

How much memory does each photo require? Multiply that by 18 days and by 200 photos per day. That is your total amount of memory card storage. For example, let us say that each photo requires 2 MB (mega bytes, or 2 million bytes). 2MB times 200 photos per day is 400MB per day. 400MB per day for 18 days is 7,200MB or 7.2 giga bytes, GB. You need 7 (or 7.2) GB of cards. A 1 GB type CF or SD card sells for $10-$20. For instance here is an amazondotcom link that has Kingston 1GB cards for $13, no sales tax and buy 2 or more for free shipping.
http://tinyurl.com/2kjdbb

Or, get 4 cards at 2GB each for about the same total cost.
regards - tom
ps - if you take not 200 but 100 photos per day, cut the card storage in half.

A better way would be to determine how many images you plan to take a day. Once you have an idea, do the calculations and buy as much memory as you will need, it's pretty cheap nowadays. I average at least 500 images a day, some shoot more, many people shoot less. Not long ago flash memory costs were much higher, over $200/GB, now $10-15/GB is pretty common. Actually cheaper than film ever was.

If you live near one of the Comp USA's that is going out of business, you can buy memory on sale. I just bought a 4G compact flash card for $90.

If you have an ipod, I suggest getting the camera connector so you can back up your photos on the ipod; it's $29. It would be awful to get home and find an entire card had gotten zapped or lost. Plus, if you do run out of memory, no worries, you can download your photos and reuse a card.

I was gone about one month last December and used up 12 GB with my FZ30 Panasonic Lumix set to the best quality. I took about 150-200 pics per day. Is this helpful? I also did some video clips, but it doesn't really use up that many GB. My binos are 10X42 Nikon Monarchs, which I consider minimum, but considering weight and value is absolutely adequat. I get my Kenya & Tanzania visas upon arrival every time.

What is the difference in cards. I just bought a San Disk Ultra II at Costco for $34.99. My new camera is a Pentax SLR. Does using faster memory make any difference or is this just marketing from the manufacturers?

another thing to consider is putting the camera down once in awhile and enjoying the animals through your own eyes, no memory card needed for that.

The faster memory card usually makes the most difference when you download it into a PC. That is, the camera itself doesn't get much benefit from the faster card. But when you put the card into a card reader and download the photos into a PC the card is asked to dump all of its data then and now so its read speed comes into play. This may not make any difference to you anyway at that point in time. Sandisk Ultra II are excellent cards. I wouldn't spend any more money for a (supposedly) faster card.

And I agree with Dennis about just watching. That is why I don't like to do much video. It requires me to see through the camera for too long and I loose intimacy/touch with what is going on.
regards - tom
ps - the memory card speed thing can be important with some cameras with some shooting situations

For the price, I'm guessing you bought a 1 gig card. The difference between that and say a 4 gig card is just the amount of memory.

The card I bought is a 2 GB card from Costco. I will probably get at least one more and probably a couplde of 1GB cards as I think it is safer to have more cards with less memory in case a card fais.

Yeah, saw that at Costco, 2GB card CF or SD, $34.95. Two years ago I bought a 1GB (oneGB) card there for $75. Now, two years later twice the capacity at half the cost.

And FWIW, here's my take on smaller cards are better because they hold less. Just because it is a 2GB card does not mean you have to fill it up. You could pretend it is 1GB and stop using it at 1GB filled. Then if you absolutely have to you can go back and use some of the rest of it. A problem we ran into last safari was using the same card for photos and video, with a Canon S2. You never knew when you might want to take a 1 minute video clip which requires about 150MB. On occasion we ran out of card space using 512MB or 1GB cards before the video was completed. Soooo, this coming safari I'm saying, use 2GB cards, pretend the 2GB card is 1GB and "fill it up" to 1GB without worry about how much space is left. And if a video pushes it past 1GB fine, we still have all of the video and then change out the card.
regards - tom

Wow, that's pretty cheap. But I like the 4 gig cards.

For any of you that might be interested, all of the financial publications predict that flash memory (compact flash, SD, XD cards, etc.)will continue to fall in price througout the year. You might want to wait until just before your trip to purchase. Also, an internet seller, Buy.Com generally offers the lowest online prices. No this isn't an add, someone recently recommended them to me and I wish I had known about them earlier.
Chuck

Not familiar with buydotcom so did ResellerRatings check on them -
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Buy
Seems like something is happening to them.
regards - tom

ps - FWIW my favorite e-tailers are amazon dotcom and newegg dotcom. Amazon has a LOT more than just books. Newegg specializes in PC related gear.
regards - tom

A lot will depend on what camera you are you using and whether you are saving pictures in RAW and/or JPEG. I have just returned from a 10 day safari shooting RAW and hi-res JPEG so there are two photos for every shot taken - a total of about 15-18 mb per picture taken. Multiply this by 100-200 shots a day and that is significant memory needed. Digital is also easy to take a lot of shots as well - I have just counted 60 photos of one particular scene - a cheetah stalking a lion cub. I took about 20 GB of photos on the safari but downloaded then each night to a digital storage device - in my case an Epson P300 (40GB). This was fantastic as each night I could review the photos and delete the obvious duds. Although shooting in RAW gives me a lot of scope for 'fixing' the not so good shots when I get the time so I did't delete too many.
I took with me a fast (Extreme III) 4GB card and formatted it each morning as well as having two 2GB cards as spares.
I strongly recommend having the data storage rather than relying on the cards alone. I, too, would have hated to run out of memory. It also stored music for me to listen too as well as being able to store video!
In regard to speed ratings of the cards, it does have an effect on the camera if you are shooting continuous shots - the transfer speed to the card is important. I used 5 frames per second on a cheetah chasing a small gazelle and I'm glad I had the faster cards.
We got our visa's on arrival at JRO - easy and fast. Dont get too hung up on the bino's - most creatures are close enough to see well without them.
Have a great trip!
Cheers
Peter

Hello keah05,

I know how you're feeling. I'm leaving this Saturday and kept fretting over memory amongst other things. I have a Canon S3 (wants to be a SLR) and a Canon something (so not an SLR). The Canon S3 takes secure digital cards and I am bringing 3x2GB with high speed writing. Do I need the high speed? Yes for me because of action shots and the movie mode otherwise no big difference. The other camera takes compact flash (which Canon DSLRs take)and we're bringing 3x1GB. Might seem like a lot of memory but I'm a photo nut and experience has taught me not to share cameras with my bf. As well, as cheap as cards are why not?! We also bought a back-up device (I'm that just in case girl) called the something Hyper Drive with 40GB capacity. Paid full store price, didn't have time to search online as we just purchased it this weekend but you can find them cheaply priced online.

With regards to Visas, I usually get them in advance but have been advised by many wise and well-travelled individuals on this board that they can be easily purchased upon arrival. Will let you know when I get back. Also don't like the idea of sending them off alll by there lonesome.

Cheers,
Juliet