Rome photography question!
 

I have a couple of questions regarding photography in Rome.

1) Photgraphy is a hobby of mine so will be taking lots and lots of photo's.I am taking a digital camera with me with a 1 gigabyte memory card. Instead of buying another card(s), has anyone noticed if processing labs in Rome have the facility to burn images from the memory card, straight onto CD or DVD ? This would save me the expense of extra memory or storage devices.

2) I know the Borghese Gallery, doesn't allow photography, has anyone noticed restrictions elsewhere?

Thanks in advance

Hi T,

Places that don't allow photography will have a pic of a camera with a slash through it.

Some allow pix, but without flash or tripod.

I think that the Sistine Chapel prohibits photos.

((I))

PS,

You can get a 1 gb SD card for about $30.

Why bother trying to have it downloaded and, possibly, ruined?

((I))

Last summer when we were touring the Sistine Chapel, there was a guard walking around trying to announce over the din of tourists to not take photos. That didn't stop anyone and they didn't seem to do anything about it. We did not take any pictures but were amazed at all the people who didn't respect the request.

Yes, there are lots of places where you can get pics transferred to CD, though, because it's a 1 GB card, it's slightly more complicated, since it won't all fit on one CD, and the services already aren't terribly cheap (I think around %euro;5 was the going rate, plus the media price). Compared to the price of your trip, an extra 1 GB card is basically nothing, I'd go for it, and then you don't have to worry about the CD not burning properly or getting scratched or anything (flash memory isn't invincible, but it's much hardier than a CD).

Except for the Sistine Chapel and few isolated rooms, you're pretty free take photographs in the Vatican Museum, sometimes even with flash.
Previous posters are correct about the many tourists rudely ignoring the no-photography rule in the Sistine Chapel.

I found myself running out of memory card space 3 days into out 2 week Italian vacation. There are several places in Rome where you can have your photos transferred to CD, however, I have had trouble with this at home, in Texas at Walgreens, so I opted to fork over the $$$ for more memory cards. It would be horrible to get home to realize your CD was blank!

I would suggest buying some smaller cards such as 256 mb or 512. If you have a 1 GB, you basically have all your eggs in one basket. If anything happens to the card, it gets lost, the file allocation table gets screwed up, etc, you just lost a LOT of pictures. Smaller cards allow me to take pictures maybe city by city and then storing them safely. If a card messes up, I still have lots of my pictures. Just a suggestion.

Thanks for the replies

Ira, where do you get a good quality 1 gig card for $30? B and H photo in New York have the Sandisk ultra II cards for $38.95 after a rebate!
My camera uses CF cards and for me here in Australia, a 1 gig card is $85 incl tax, and a 2 gig is $199 incl tax!
I was thinking of purchasing memory from B and H , but will prob be too late arriving before I go.
The camera I have takes raw files and will on occassions when using a tripod, take a few of these in addition to the jpegs. Raw files are 8 meg' .
Not sure how many pics I'll be taking, but have 17 days in Italy, so am thinking even 3 gig won't be enough!
Thanks for all the suggestions, food for thought!
Also thanks for the hints related to question 2.

Here's one for $32: http://tinyurl.com/qk89r , though shipping to Australia would probably be prohibitive, but I'd be surprised if there aren't similarly priced ones there (there's nothing wrong with buying from ebay, so long as you get a reputable seller, that is, one with lots of positive ratings and very few negative ones, and you get it new in box, just to make sure).

Thanks for the link grsing!

try www.newegg.com

I just bought a one gig SD ultra card for 52 bucks plus shipping. it was shipped in a matter of days.

if you have a lot of time, and, if the internet cafes have newer computers you can merely insert your card into the SD slot and download to your heart's content and from there upload to say www.worldisround.com or kodak gallery. (this is assuming you have an SD card of course).

the other option is to take one of those generic multi-card readers with you, and plug it into a USB port and do the same.

drawbacks: you need a lot of free time which could be better spent sightseeing or eating gelato... and you'd have to then delete all your photos off the computer lest someone else access them.

I'd just take extra 1 gig cards and be done with it.

Hi Tracker,

1. We are photography enthusiasts as well and with our digital SLR, we were averaging 2Gb in 3 days and we were shooting in 3Meg.

You could try to look for an external hard drive. We brought a small 20Gb X-Drive along. It is a multi-card reader but most importantly has a rechargable battery so no need to go into any internet cafe. Doesn't take up any extra time at all, only 10 mins for 1Gb when you're taking your shower at the hotel and an occassional recharge every few days. Can be safely bumped around, just don't drop it directly on the floor (obviously!).

2. We brought our tripod along with us as Rome is simply beautiful at night. Also because we wanted to take some good shots with both of us in the picture! But note that every single indoor and quite a few outdoor locations do not allow tripods, including outdoor places like Piazza Venezia (which by the way has a great rooftop view of Rome).

If the place does not allow flash photography, and the security people are strict, and there are many other people flashing away, you may want to wait before taking your shots even though you have no intention of flashing.

My husband got told off twice - he held up his camera composing the picture but hadn't taken any shot yet, but the guard got so annoyed at a few people he just asked everyone around with cameras to not only put away the camera but to leave the area.

By the way, if you are like us - too curious and anxious to wait till we got home - and would like to view the pics while you're there just to check, there are plenty of Internet cafes around the Termini Station area walking towards Santa Maria Maggiore. Some only advertise as Phone centers. Price is about 0.50 Euro for 15 minutes, most have USB ports.

Great! thanks again for the excellant advice.
perth2europe, do you recall the cost of the mini hard drive?