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Gen

what was the outcome with Jetstar? - did they charge you for excess luggage

 

ive often had the same problem with Jetstar and my tack is to go on the front foot about the noise I will make ( bad PR for them ) if they don’t let me through- it’s always worked so far

 

i also don’t travel with heavy zooms and tripod goes in hold along with chargers and cleaning kits

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It was always impossible to back up film on the road, and as an old film guy I am comfortable not backing up, or looking at, digital images when on the road.

 

My trips are always under 6 weeks. I do not do any processing on the road, as I want to either spend my time shooting, or sleeping and eating between shoots. It is a film approach.

 

I carry an iphone for telephone and email only. I do not carry a laptop or tablet. Memory cards are cheap, about $1 per gig, so I carry a lot of of memory cards and do not back them up on the road. I just fill up one memory card after another. 

 

I take notes by photographing location signs or writing out the info on paper and photographing that. I prebook accommodation from home, so no need for a laptop to book accommodation while traveling.

 

I use my carry on allotment to carry lenses and cameras only. My largest lens is a 70-200 F4.

 

I travel with my wife who uses her carry on for our personal items. My camera case is not a wheel on, but a smaller case that will fit under the seat in case the overheads are full, and the airline are asking to gate check a wheel on. Tripod in checked baggage.

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18 hours ago, MDM said:

You could maybe lose the laptop and get a WD My Passport Wireless Pro. This is a 2TB hard drive with an SD card slot for direct backup without a computer. It needs a charger as well. I've not weighed it but I'd guess about 300 grams or so. So far I've not taken it on a trip but it does work for backup. It takes a bit of a read of the manual to set it up in the first place.

 

M - I thought that too. Just returning my second WD MY Passport Wireless - this one doesn't turn on after charging - the first wouldn't charge up at all. I have many WD drives including two from 2000 that are still working - old archived stuff backed up elsewhere too (not tempting fate) - this is the only one that's been a total bust. Also, without a little screen, how do you trust the photos are on there? I guess you can look from your MyCloud phone account? No clue since I never got mine to work. Is that how it works?

 

Gen - I'm looking at new pro lenses - macro and zoom - for my Olympus OMD-E1. It's been great for traveling light. But definitely general travel and landscapes. I'll let you know how the other lenses work out but I'm no bird photographer and I have to think that for specialist work like that the larger glass may well be better although I tried the 300mm (600mm equivalent) at PhotoExpo two years ago and the detail was superb. Can you rent mirrorless or is there a camera store near you with a 15-day return policy that you could try out a mirrorless system? What about a hard case you can send through? Costly if it's three flights I'm sure. I wrote about the ease of traveling with mirrorless here: 

https://www.greatescapepublishing.com/articles/travel-photography/light-and-quiet-mirrorless-cameras-are-perfect-for-shooting-stock/

That's my daughter in the photo - which they licensed from Alamy I'm happy to say. I've actually got a series of articles about Alamy coming out later this month and next. 

 

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Last two years I have been traveling a lot, so I started from the basics my carry on luggage is new I ditched the old carry on which was 8 lbs in weight without anything in it, my new luggage while being airline specification for carry on is 4 lbs, so a big win there and I only travel with carry on, no checked luggage. I'm prepared to pay a little extra to avoid the really nickel and dime airlines, choosing the 10 kilo carry on limit plus one personal item airline. Most airlines will allow a camera around your neck without counting that as part of your limit. In the past that would be a Canon 5D MKii with 70-200 f2.8, hey it's a camera!! Now I use a sling strap and wear it onto the plane usually under a jacket. I'm a cargo pant (trouser) wearing air traveler and what I can't get in them well that's another story, but they do act as another camera bag and without putting bulky stuff in the pockets you can take a lot of weight out of your luggage by wearing spare batteries, chargers, point and shoot camera, off camera flash units (strobes), cables, DSLR body without lens body cap on (GH4). 

 

I have downsized away from full frame to micro four thirds and I would say that for Gen a serious birder the low light performance of M4/3 wouldn't compete with a full frame flagship camera in a rain forest bird shoot. It does great in all other areas where you don't need more than 800 iso.

 

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21 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

Main camera + charger (a double brick for Nikon D4) + spare battery

Back-up camera + charger (another single brick) + spare battery

Wide-angle lens

Zoom lens

500mm or macro lens + kit

Laptop + charger (another brick)

Small external drive for second back-up

Tripod in suitcase

 

Gen

 

Is this for some high paying commission? Maybe you need to hire some help to carry the equipment. 

 

 

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I have not long come back from 11 months (Sept 16 - Aug 17) back packing around Malaysia, Malaysia Borneo, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia, taken many domestic and international flights between them all (mostly Air Asia) and have some how managed to not once have my carry on camera bag weighed. I am aware it happens and maybe once ignored the staff and queue at set of scales. Ive also noticed they seem to target people with those small wheeled carry on's.

I always wear the backpack with booth straps and try to look relaxed wearing it hoping to give the impression thats 'theres nothing to worry about here.'

The camera bag is a Lowpro protactic 450 and the big bits in it are

Nikon D750 plus battery grip.

Nikon 80-200 lens

Tamron 15-30mm lens

Tokina 100mm macro

Nikon 50mm lens

13" Macbook pro

2tb Lacie HD

All in weighting on the plus side of 10kg.

 

Don't quote me on this but i am sure i read some where that laptops can be removed and not weighted as part of your carry on bag.

 

I know ive got away with it for years but don't worry its all going to bite me in the ass one day, Ive recently brought a Sigma 150-600mm sport. This thing needs it own hold luggage.

So like I am now thinking, instead of travelling lighter upgrade to one of those Peli protective cases and put some of it / all of in the hold.

 

How did you like Borneo btw? Where did you visit?

 

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It's a big problem (I'm a bird photographer too, though that's not obvious from my Alamy port).

Way out in the boonies, there often aren't any options of airlines, you could be on a little bushplane with, in my case, as few as two passenger seats (though on that one they weighted the pilot, me, my husband and all our luggage, and I was scared they were calculating fuel to the teaspoon!). Some of the little Cessnas can only hold small amounts of luggage if they're full, and the fuel there is strictly calculated too. You are told about the weight restriction in advance (I don't know about Jetstar), so tweeting would be rather inappropriate.

 

Also on these trips, there generally isn't anywhere to hire, and in some places hiring a big lens for a couple of weeks costs about as much as buying. If on a group trip, there isn't a possibility of getting to a hire shop (other than adding an extra day on either side of the trip). Still, I went through years of only being allowed 5Kg hand baggage - total. But that was film days before I had back ups of bodies and lenses and computing. My compromise is a netbook as someone above mentioned. It lets me see that the files are OK, and I can back up onto an external HD. It's too slow even to view RAWS at any decent size, so no keywording etc. However, if I shot jpegs it would be fine, though a bit slow, for that.

In former times my carry-one bag was the biggest available, and I had small camera bag with my backup long zoom inside my hold case, and I'd use the little bag on a daily basis. However, the last time I had - of all things - my little G12 stolen out of its case out of my hold case - (but not my backup gear!) (i.e. the little camera's case was empty in my case when I arrived!), so I'm nervous about doing that in future.

 

I see that for my next flight, the carry on allowance is so big I'd never be able to carry it (two carryons each weighing more than they used to allow for hold baggage!). However, they do say that they may take one bag as you board. The last time that happened, my lenshood broke, but as it was reversed on the lens, maybe it protected the actual lens from the crush. But no possibility of replacing the hood, which is more or less essential on safari.

 

Has anyone tried having their hold luggage wrapped with that clingfilm stuff?

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I did get my luggage wrapped coming back from Namibia. It was recommended. I guess it works. Fortunately, I have not had any theft problems though I do carry backup lenses in the checked luggage. Nowadays I have to be sure my little waist bag purse can be put inside my "personal item" before the loading. So annoying.

 

Paulette

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10 hours ago, tarsierspectral said:

I don't keyword on the road as I'm normally too tired for that but I do take images of signs and builtin GPS helps a lot and I take notes.  I do not need internet connection, but I can't do without laptop.  I always transfer my images to two external HDs and carry those in different bags using the smallest and lightest MacBook (MacBook Pro is too big so stays at home, I do't need anything powerful on the road, I don't edit while traveling).  I would also be reluctant to transfer directly to a drive (like that WD My Passport Wireless Pro) without being able to see if I can actually see and open the images on the computer.  There are plenty devices that di that such as this: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?A=details&O=&Q=&ap=y&c3api=1876%2C{creative}%2C{keyword}&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9PzvqbLh2AIVx7bACh3FIgygEAQYASABEgKOsvD_BwE&is=REG&m=Y&sku=1191265

I've used these in the past but I don't trust any of them.  They have their own OS and again I have to see my image open on a computer to feel that my images are fine.

 

Thank you for your input.

 

I only keyword if I have some down time. For example, my recent trip to Borneo was taken during the rainy season. On some days, we did get a lot of it. What else to do when sitting in a lodge in the middle of the rainforest with no Internet connection. Keywording for Alamy seemed a good idea.

 

I also had a whole session with my guide, showing him various insects on my laptop screen. He would then tell me what they were and I would add their names to my Bridge hierarchy as we went along. No way I would have been able to identify them myself later on from Internet resources. Way too tricky and time consuming. Better ask the experts.

 

 

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7 minutes ago, NYCat said:

I did get my luggage wrapped coming back from Namibia. It was recommended. I guess it works. Fortunately, I have not had any theft problems though I do carry backup lenses in the checked luggage. Nowadays I have to be sure my little waist bag purse can be put inside my "personal item" before the loading. So annoying.

 

Paulette

My theft was on a flight to Nambia, but via Jo'burg which apparently has a bad reputation for this. I'll think about wrapping if I need to put anything into my hold luggage in future, but maybe it just signals "stuff to steal".

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9 hours ago, wiskerke said:

Maybe just contact the airline.

And if it happens tweet about it: really bad PR.

However because all of this is happening on airports, security/police can be on your back in seconds.
 

I went to Sony FF and no backup body, but 1 or 2 RX100's.

And constantly tweaking for weight.

(But I've always done that, so it may not count.)

There's no long lens for Sony yet, but there's talk about a 2.8-400 in the run up for the Olympics.

And a  200-600mm.

There's also talk about a serious Nikon mirrorless coming in September: it's a Photokina year.

 

I do not travel with long lenses.

My shift+Metabones = 1197gr (2:9.6).

My laptop = 1225gr (swapped hdd for 1TB ssd).

My tripod = 690gr (1:8.3).

Body = 724gr (1:8.7)

70-200 zoom = 912gr (2:0.0)

The 4.0 zoom is lighter than the 2.8:  FF body + 4.0 70-200 = 1623gr (3:9.3)

Drawback: no extender fits the 4.0; only for the 2.8.

The 35mm = 147gr (0:5.1)

The 55mm =  300gr (0:10.5)

RX100V = 300gr (0:10.5) Can go in my shirt pocket or in a small pouch on my belt.

One RX100 goes in the hold.

Binoculars Leica 10x25 = 273gr (0:9.5) can go into the hold if necessary, or in a small pouch on my belt.

Some batteries and cables go in the hold - but not all.

If I would bring a back up body, that would go in the hold as well. (I used to do that with the Canons.)

My tripod sometimes goes in the hold. Plus I carry 1 or 2 poles.

In all my carry around bag is around 5000gr + the laptop.

Leaving the shift out and some small stuff, would maybe just allow for a 3880gr  4/500mm beast.

A lot of people carry their 400/500/600mm attached to a camera hanging from their shoulder. Not sure it would have have satisfied the Jetstar person though.

 

Had a problem in Malaga once: 2 items allowed on the way in, but only 1 on the way out.

You did not say if you're traveling on your own. With two, it's usually easier to redistribute some stuff.

 

wim

 

Thank you for all those information Wim. 

 

I did have a camera around my neck. I thought I would try that for the first time. My bad. Jetstar counted it as one bag.

Small handbag: 2 bags

Left pocket: 3 bags

Right pocket: 4 bags!!!!

Staff angrily pointed at the sign: 2 bags only allowed!!

 

On that occasion I was travelling with hubby who also carried a roo jacket plus my second photobag. He's very laid back but he's becoming fed up with the circus. And it's not exactly in my nature to depend on someone else either. Time for a solution.

 

Gen

 

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9 hours ago, MDM said:

I would use two cards in the camera anyway, one for backup so I would have two copies and separate them when travelling.

 

I think that's going to be the solution for my PNG trip. I'll use the dual slot on the Nikon D4, QXD for main card with auto back-up on SD card.

I just need to buy more XQD cards. I have tons of SD cards already.

 

It should be possible for that trip as it is a shortish one and I don't expect tons of pix. I might live to regret it. No need for keywording on location as I won't be doing insects macro.

 

Gen

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9 hours ago, Foreign Export said:

Gen

what was the outcome with Jetstar? - did they charge you for excess luggage

 

 

My hubby was also wearing a roo jacket and carrying my second photo bag which happened to only weigh 5kgs. 

So we re-arranged the load between the 2 bags.

We also discovered that in fact, we had bought a ticket allowing 10kg carry-on luggage. Having booked the trip over a year ago, we had forgotten about it. Doh!

 

Gen 

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3 hours ago, Marianne said:

Gen - Can you rent mirrorless or is there a camera store near you with a 15-day return policy that you could try out a mirrorless system? What about a hard case you can send through? Costly if it's three flights I'm sure. I wrote about the ease of traveling with mirrorless here: 

https://www.greatescapepublishing.com/articles/travel-photography/light-and-quiet-mirrorless-cameras-are-perfect-for-shooting-stock/

That's my daughter in the photo - which they licensed from Alamy I'm happy to say. I've actually got a series of articles about Alamy coming out later this month and next. 

 

 

Thank you for your input Marianne.

 

Yes I thought about renting mirrorless to try. Unfortunately, this is not available where I live. Even for sensor cleaning, the best bet is to send the camera to Brisbane, several thousand kms away. There is only one camera shop in town, I won't mention the name. It's a boutique shop. During my 8 month road trip, I went to that shop for sensor cleaning somewhere on the West coast. They managed to break the shutter blades on my 1 year old Nikon D4 camera!! They paid for the repairs and offered to lend me an inferior camera. By the time they got the repaired camera back from Sydney and were ready to send it to me, 3 weeks had passed and I have travelled several thousand kms. Needless to say, they'll never see me again in any town.

 

Gen

 

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1 hour ago, Cryptoprocta said:

Has anyone tried having their hold luggage wrapped with that clingfilm stuff?

 

I always have my hold baggage wrapped.... but that's more to stop anyone putting something into my bag rather than anyone taking something out of it.....

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2 hours ago, Normspics said:

Last two years I have been traveling a lot, so I started from the basics my carry on luggage is new I ditched the old carry on which was 8 lbs in weight without anything in it, my new luggage while being airline specification for carry on is 4 lbs, so a big win there and I only travel with carry on, no checked luggage. I'm prepared to pay a little extra to avoid the really nickel and dime airlines, choosing the 10 kilo carry on limit plus one personal item airline. Most airlines will allow a camera around your neck without counting that as part of your limit. In the past that would be a Canon 5D MKii with 70-200 f2.8, hey it's a camera!! Now I use a sling strap and wear it onto the plane usually under a jacket. I'm a cargo pant (trouser) wearing air traveler and what I can't get in them well that's another story, but they do act as another camera bag and without putting bulky stuff in the pockets you can take a lot of weight out of your luggage by wearing spare batteries, chargers, point and shoot camera, off camera flash units (strobes), cables, DSLR body without lens body cap on (GH4). 

 

I have downsized away from full frame to micro four thirds and I would say that for Gen a serious birder the low light performance of M4/3 wouldn't compete with a full frame flagship camera in a rain forest bird shoot. It does great in all other areas where you don't need more than 800 iso.

 

 

Ditto. My empty photo bag with just my laptop in it reaches 7kgs. Absolute nightmare. 

 

I usually hide the bulges in my roo jacket by wearing a loose black cardigan. Unfortunately, temperature was 34C. It would have looked even more suspect!! 

I put all batteries in the hold. But even those are a problem. My macro kit is voracious with batteries and flying with lithium batteries is also a problem.

 

Why o why didn't I choose embroidery as a hobby??

 

 Gen

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2 hours ago, andremichel said:

 

Is this for some high paying commission? Maybe you need to hire some help to carry the equipment. 

 

 

 

No worries. It will be amply covered by my last 3 sales: two Presentation and one Personal Use...

 

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1 hour ago, 79Photography said:

I have not long come back from 11 months (Sept 16 - Aug 17) back packing around Malaysia, Malaysia Borneo, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia, taken many domestic and international flights between them all (mostly Air Asia) and have some how managed to not once have my carry on camera bag weighed. I am aware it happens and maybe once ignored the staff and queue at set of scales. Ive also noticed they seem to target people with those small wheeled carry on's.

I always wear the backpack with booth straps and try to look relaxed wearing it hoping to give the impression thats 'theres nothing to worry about here.'

 

Don't quote me on this but i am sure i read some where that laptops can be removed and not weighted as part of your carry on bag.

 

How did you like Borneo btw? Where did you visit?

 

 

It's also my experience: wearing a rucksack seems to attract less attention. Once while each bag of every person in the queue was carefully weighed, I happily walked through with a 10kg rucksack on my back. Air Asia was one of my flights to/from Borneo. Although there was a big sign '7kgs maximum', there was no attempt to weigh any carry-on baggage.

 

Jetstar ordered me to put my laptop back into my bag for weighing. 

 

I loved Borneo. Super friendly smiling people. The lodge were very good and we saw a lot of wildlife even though it was the rainy season. The sad thing in Sabah of course are the palm oil plantations. You don't see anything else really, either along the road or flying over. 

I went to the usual wildlife places: Sepilok, Kinabatangan, Tabin, Danum Valley. 

We saw orangutans, proboscis monkeys, sun bears, pygmy elephants, red leaf monkeys, macaques, hornbills, tons of insects and arachnids, frogs. We did night walks, and day/night drives.

Watched sunrise over misty rainforest from a watch tower. Get up 4:30 but well worth it.  My kind of trip.

 

Gen

 

 

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21 minutes ago, Cryptoprocta said:

It's a big problem (I'm a bird photographer too, though that's not obvious from my Alamy port).

Way out in the boonies, there often aren't any options of airlines, you could be on a little bushplane with, in my case, as few as two passenger seats (though on that one they weighted the pilot, me, my husband and all our luggage, and I was scared they were calculating fuel to the teaspoon!). Some of the little Cessnas can only hold small amounts of luggage if they're full, and the fuel there is strictly calculated too. You are told about the weight restriction in advance (I don't know about Jetstar), so tweeting would be rather inappropriate.

 

Also on these trips, there generally isn't anywhere to hire, and in some places hiring a big lens for a couple of weeks costs about as much as buying. If on a group trip, there isn't a possibility of getting to a hire shop (other than adding an extra day on either side of the trip). Still, I went through years of only being allowed 5Kg hand baggage - total. But that was film days before I had back ups of bodies and lenses and computing. My compromise is a netbook as someone above mentioned. It lets me see that the files are OK, and I can back up onto an external HD. It's too slow even to view RAWS at any decent size, so no keywording etc. However, if I shot jpegs it would be fine, though a bit slow, for that.

In former times my carry-one bag was the biggest available, and I had small camera bag with my backup long zoom inside my hold case, and I'd use the little bag on a daily basis. However, the last time I had - of all things - my little G12 stolen out of its case out of my hold case - (but not my backup gear!) (i.e. the little camera's case was empty in my case when I arrived!), so I'm nervous about doing that in future.

 

I see that for my next flight, the carry on allowance is so big I'd never be able to carry it (two carryons each weighing more than they used to allow for hold baggage!). However, they do say that they may take one bag as you board. The last time that happened, my lenshood broke, but as it was reversed on the lens, maybe it protected the actual lens from the crush. But no possibility of replacing the hood, which is more or less essential on safari.

 

Has anyone tried having their hold luggage wrapped with that clingfilm stuff?

 

I identify with your experience. Sometimes I fly in seaplanes or Cessnas and weight is super restricted for a reason.

 

An amusing anecdote I will never forget: once I was travelling on my own at the border between Colombia and Brazil. I flew in a seaplane landing on the Rio Negro. The other 3 passengers were Colombians, 2 males 1 woman. They turned up with soft cages containing their prized fight cockerels. They tried to fit them behind the pilot's neck but he objected. They had no choice but to remove one cockerel from its cage, tie its legs with the woman's hairband, and travel with it on their lap to the cockerel's dismay which was furiously flapping wings.

 

Yes, I did use clingfilm once at Rio airport. Did it help? I will never know. Won't bother again though.

 

Gen

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Just now, Cryptoprocta said:

My theft was on a flight to Nambia, but via Jo'burg which apparently has a bad reputation for this. I'll think about wrapping if I need to put anything into my hold luggage in future, but maybe it just signals "stuff to steal".

 

Don't mention J'burg. I had to pay $250 to put my tripod in the hold on the way back, when there had been no problems on the outward journey with the same airline.

I thought of leaving it behind but it was a very expensive heavy Gitzo tripod for bird photography. It would have cost more to replace.

 

Gen

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1 hour ago, gvallee said:

 

I think that's going to be the solution for my PNG trip. I'll use the dual slot on the Nikon D4, QXD for main card with auto back-up on SD card.

I just need to buy more XQD cards. I have tons of SD cards already.

 

 

Yeah and the XQD cards are very expensive. Sony have a virtual monopoly it seems. But they seem to be the future for Nikon so I hope they are worth the investment.

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5 hours ago, Marianne said:

 

M - I thought that too. Just returning my second WD MY Passport Wireless - this one doesn't turn on after charging - the first wouldn't charge up at all. I have many WD drives including two from 2000 that are still working - old archived stuff backed up elsewhere too (not tempting fate) - this is the only one that's been a total bust. Also, without a little screen, how do you trust the photos are on there? I guess you can look from your MyCloud phone account? No clue since I never got mine to work. Is that how it works?

 

 

My one seems ok but it doesn't get a lot of usage and I would only trust it really as a second rather thana primary backup when travelling. I always use the second card slot on my camera as backup anyway and I usually have a lightish 13inch Mac with me when travelling. Like you I have loads of WD drives and they have generally been really reliable. One did fail recently though - a 5 year old 3TB external desktop which suddenly started making clicking sounds and then died. I couldn't get it to mount but fortunately I had a backup to hand.

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14 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

Thank you for your input.

 

I only keyword if I have some down time. For example, my recent trip to Borneo was taken during the rainy season. On some days, we did get a lot of it. What else to do when sitting in a lodge in the middle of the rainforest with no Internet connection. Keywording for Alamy seemed a good idea.

 

I also had a whole session with my guide, showing him various insects on my laptop screen. He would then tell me what they were and I would add their names to my Bridge hierarchy as we went along. No way I would have been able to identify them myself later on from Internet resources. Way too tricky and time consuming. Better ask the experts.

 

 

Makes sense gvalee, but you could eliminate your big powerful laptop (13 inch MacBook would be just fine) but I don't think you could use a tablet.

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On 1/18/2018 at 01:06, gvallee said:

Very interesting, thank you for the suggestion, I will look into it. Can it feed another drive as well or would I need to buy two of those for second backup?

 

The Nikon D4 has a double slot. My main card is XQD but it wouldn't be a problem using only the SD slot.

 

Pro: losing the laptop would be a huge weight saving exercise (I went for high end specs, big screen, to run PS on the road)

Con: I use PS on my laptop to keyword at least the location and arrange downloads in geographical folders. I guess I would lose this ability.

 

 

What about using GPS function in your camera instead of using your laptop mostly for key wording the location?

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