Hi,
My fiance has a large camera and anticipates taking a number of nice photos of scenes during our honeymoon in London, Paris, Nice, Florence and Rome. My concern is not how to keep it safe when we're out and about, but rather how to keep it safe when we don't have it with us. Although hotels in London and Paris have room safes, the hotel in Florence and maybe Nice only has a hotel safe, which in my travels elsewhere generally are the size of small P.O. Boxes. Any advice?

Hi R_Ktravelers, that is the problem with bring large photographic equipment. From the sounds of it the actual hotel safe (in the lobby, not the room safe) may be to small also. Guess all you can do is put it in your luggage and lock your luggage. Maybe get one of those cable things as people suggest for luggage on trains and use it for the luggage to be attached to something stationery in the room. But that would sure be a dead giveaway that something valuable was in the luggage.

We used to drag a fancy Minolta, along with lenses, filters, dozens of rolls of film (all of which required a large and heavy extra bag to drag all over). We waited way to long (and wasted far too many hours scanning and editing photos, along with the cost of developing) to switch to a teeny tiny digital camera - no accessories required, 1gb card no film worries, 5 whatever pixels with 3x zoom. It has been well worth the price of the new camera, card, wristlet case and neck cord, to lighten the load - and still acquire magnificent photos. Not to mention - no cost to develop, no scanner required, fabulous software for editing (if you need to, though you probably won't).

I would wonder just when you would not have the camera with you and need to store it in a safe?

For "nice photos of scenes", the glorious postcards available all about are far superior to anything you can shoot no matter what your "equipment". In fact, bothered with taking far fewer photos after discovering webshots.com - such a joy to be out and about without spending inordinate time lining up photos everywhere!

Get yourself a good digital camera for shots of your personal memories. Once home, it's a snap to upload them to your PC, enjoy them yourselves, and share them with friends and family. High quality photos.

It's best to experiment with a new digital at various settings to determine which are best (the higher settings do not necessarily, and often do not, produce better results, or even the most beautiful enlargements).

The inexpensive "photo" printers available these days, along with exceptional photo papers available, render those bulky old 35mm antiques a thing of the past...

Get yourselves a nifty digital camera. They're tiny and nearly weightless. There are nifty cases, which secure the camera by threading the strap so no one can grab it. And, you'd want to have it with you at all times, everywhere you go - and you can always find someone willing to take photos of the two of you enjoying your honeymoon all about.

The cost of a new digital camera will probably be less than the cost of film and developing.

My "nifty" digital camera is quite large. Your suggestions fail to take into consideration that people own cameras other than your own model.

"The higher settings...do not produce better...results...or enlargements" Have you lost your mind??? You are out of your element. Stop typing already.

Next, djkbooks, you'll be suggesting people leave behind the S500 in favor of a Vespa.

Hi RK,

I think that the safest place for your camera is in the hotel safe or on your person.

You really do need higher quality settngs to get good enlargements.

I have enlarged digital prints to 16x20 with excellent results... that would not have been possible if I had used lower quality settings.

While your 3x zoom takes up less room...my 7x zoom is larger but offers more flexibility.

Stop bragging about the size of your zoom.

Ira,

but then I don't have to compensate (as others do) by getting an expensive sports car

i dont think the solution is to suggest a smaller camera. the fiance appears to be a film camera enthusiast & would probably never dream of going to europe without this camera.

my best advice is to mentally prepare yourselves for the worst outcome (e.g. camera gets stolen, lens gets struck during morning rush in tube, leaves it behind in taxi, & accept that.

whats important is that such an event would not spoil the honeymoon for your fiance & you. if you think it would then its best he leaves it behind.

also maybe you can insure the camera for any type of loss?

Store your exposed film in the hotel safe...the camera is replaceable.

R_Ktravelers, I can confirm that room safes are often very small. I carry a Nikon D70 and discovered last week that it wouldn't fit in the safe in our room at the Hôtel Castex in Paris.

I thought about probabilities and consequences for a moment, and then simply stowed it in my carry-on luggage in the room. We also carry an iBook, and we left that in the room as well.

Anselm

Make sure the camera and various equipment is insured.

Lock it in a suitcase in your room or check it at the hotel front desk (neither are perfect but it's the best you can do).

Exposed film is the most valuable thing you'll have sentiment-wise, deal with it carefully.

When y ou use a camera bag your advertising your have a camera...I have a little soft sided case(looks like a little cosmetic bag) that I keep my camera in (I hate wearing it around my neck).. and another non-camera looking bag that I keep that in. When we are walking and my husband has his camera out I'm always aware of people around us and stay next to him and the camera.. We both use digital cameras..he does have a 10 plus zoom lens on his...For Europe he will be buying more cards...we too willbein Rome and Nice.

The OP hasn't actually mentioned whether his/her fiance has a digital or a film camera. Some digital cameras are quite large. I just returned from a trip to London, and DH and I are both into photography. I wouldn't leave my good camera and lenses in the room safe or with the front desk for five minutes because I don't trust anyone with my stuff, but that's just me.

Leave the big camera at home. Buy a good compact digicam for $250 or so and keep it in your pocket.

You won't miss any shots, and you will have purchased more than $250 worth of peace of mind by not worrying about something you left at the hotel.

Thanks for your opinions. My fiancé is fond of cameras and bought me a small Optio digital camera that's the size of a credit card and about 1/2 inch thick for when I'm traveling alone on biz, so that the camera isn't as apparent. It's fine for my purposes, but he does a lot of different things with his camera (a Canon 20D), which is digital. Although we don't have the film issue, it is large and has a large lens. I figured that we'd be ok in London and Paris b/c we're staying at larger hotels, but perhaps in Florence and Nice we may be in smaller facilities. Someone asked when wouldn't we want to bring the camera, I'm thinking at night--dinner, etc. Perhaps we can camouflage it in some way....

I bring a camera _everywhere_ with me. If you don't have a camera with you when that once-in-a-lifetime shot appears, you're out of luck, and the only way to be sure that you'll have the shot is to keep the camera with you at all times. If you're only a casual photographer, of course, this may not be practical; but if you like photography enough to have spent a lot of money on nice equipment, it makes no sense not to keep it with you all the time. Thus, the problem of where to keep it doesn't come up, since you won't ever be leaving it behind, anyway.

To leave a camera at the hotel to go to dinner eliminates those lovely nightime shots of the lights and the river taken on the after dinner stroll back to the hotel. The cities you mention are often more beautiful after dark.

I have to admit that I look for the best answer to this one too. I have a digital SLR and a new pocket size camera, 6mega pixels and all that.

I agree that the pocket size is the best deal for the burden issue, but frankly it'll never measure up for good photos. If you're fiance is really into photography and not just into capturing shots for the photo album, I suspect he'll miss the SLR as I have when I leave it behind. The idea of buying other people's photos isn't for me and the mega pixel issue is sort of a non-issue to me. It's nice to have big files, but good glass and control are a lot more important to me. I get a little frustrated when all I can do is zoom in on something, but can't control the depth of focus. Short of buying yet another camera, I try to store it in a safe if possible and am paranoid enough to keep the bag with me otherwise.

Stop worrying about the camera being stolen. Simply insure it for what it is worth on your travel insurance and ensure that you store the film well away from the camera and anything you use to carry it in.

I had a valuable camera stolen on a train in Italy, and far more disappointing than losing the camera (which incidentally was fully covered in my insurance claim) was the loss of the film stored in the camera bag - totally irreplaceable.

Incidentally I've never had anything stolen from a hotel room AND I always leave my room key with the hotel reception.