PDA and photos

[LaOutbackTrail]

I will be taking a trip through Central (and possibly South) America on my motorcycle in 08. I've got a laptop, but am wondering if getting a PDA would be the way to go?
I'd like to store photos but am not sure if the memory could hold the number of photos I would take along the way.

OR should I do this? Take the PDA and a bunch of memory cards for the camera. Upload a few photos to update the folks back home when I can and just save the photo editing for when I get back? All in all it would save me about 8 lbs in weight and more than 175 sq inches of space.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas?

 

[MossMan]

I've got a treo w/ a 2gb SD card that I hold a good amount of pictures and music on and it's a great multi-purpose gadget. Small, convenient and most everything I need on one device. I've even got a bluetooth GPSr and TOMTOM Navigator on it. But I say most because it does come with a cost. Uploading photos and typing are the two biggest drawbacks. If you plan on doing either of these the data speeds will make the uploading cumbersome and the small keep board will most likely keep you from wanting to do any real amount of writing. What you could do to help with this is get a PDA (treo or otherwise) with WiFi capabilities and and external keyboard. That would be the best of both worlds I think.

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

I've got a treo w/ a 2gb SD card that I hold a good amount of pictures and music on and it's a great multi-purpose gadget. Small, convenient and most everything I need on one device. I've even got a bluetooth GPSr and TOMTOM Navigator on it. But I say most because it does come with a cost. Uploading photos and typing are the two biggest drawbacks. If you plan on doing either of these the data speeds will make the uploading cumbersome and the small keep board will most likely keep you from wanting to do any real amount of writing. What you could do to help with this is get a PDA (treo or otherwise) with WiFi capabilities and and external keyboard. That would be the best of both worlds I think.

Yeah I forgot to mention that I require the WiFi capabilities. Treo you say?

 

[MossMan]

Yes I have a Treo but it does NOT have WiFi out of the box. You can buy a "sled" which is like and SD card size wifi adapter. I gotta say the iPhone seems to have a lot of good out of the box but add ons are zilch. Palm OS and windows mobile are best in that category. So you can consider a palm Treo or something similar. Right now I think I like this one the best.

HTC Mogul

 

[paulj]

A couple of years ago when I was hanging around some photo forums (dpreview) there was a lot of talk about portable hard drives that could download from memory cards directly. Some also had screens to allow viewing the photos.

Since then the capacity of memory cards has gone up, and cost down, so there is less need for that kind of device - though the size of photo files has also gone up. Memory card costs are on the order of $10/G, or 20G for $200.

And now ipods and the like have screens and memory that is usable for photos as well. The border lines between these devices, including pdas, laptops, tablets, etc, are pretty blurry these days.

paulj

 

[preacherman]

I took a laptop and two sd cards across africa last year and when I go back this time I will just take a pda and more sd cards. I bought a quad band unlocked treo 650 on ebay and will jujst take it and more memory cards. If you are going to be on a motorcycle you have a big can o worms with carrying a laptop. Plus it will take up valauble space. I only used my laptop to send e-mail, and download photos, and a pda or treo would be much easier to transport, keep up with, keep safe, and just worry about. I also used my ipod to store photos as a backup.

What ever you do talk to you insurance agent about a "personal articles policy" I bought one for my laptop, nikon d50, ipod and gps for $30. It covers full replacement for any reason (theft or distruction) , anywhere in the world for one year. I got mine through statefarm. I didn't have to use it but in made me sleep better while traveling.

 

[Carlyle]

I know you are looking at a PDA, but a good used Toughbook can be bought for about $600 online. I now have, with a 160 gig HDD the ability to watch movies, listen to music, download a ton of pictures, GPS, books wifi and a very sturdy and light weight weather proof PC for about the same price. Small is nice, but a real PC has some advantages that can pay for itself and a screen you can see and the ability to actually type.

 

[preacherman]

I should have mentioned, I also carry a pda folding key board and have ms word on my treo so I can type/edit/post blogs just like a pc.

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

have any of you guy used a Palm TX? look like what might fit my bill. I mean, basically all i am looking to do send email without having to take out my big ol laptop to update the family send a couple pictures and maybe store all of my photos on one BIG SD card. And it looks like i don't want to bring my laptop at all because i am looking at an SLR D40 camera... Which will take up some room....