A perennial problem when traveling has been what to pack. In the information age, the problem is what electronics to pack. Whether or not to take your laptop on your next overseas jaunt needs some careful consideration. Laptops can be weighty things, and usually have to travel as cabin baggage. The convenience and familiarity of using your own laptop has to be weighed against cabin baggage limits, the risk of theft or damage, and the sheer exertion of having to lug it around. Laptops do not travel well packed in suitcases. They are very vulnerable to impact, or weight applied to the centre of the screen even when closed. Even if carefully packed in the middle of a suitcase full of clothes, a baggage handler crawling over your suitcase is still likely to cause strain failure to your laptop. As cabin baggage, they have their own problems. Most security checks will require that you remove the laptop from its case and scan it separately. Occasionally you'll even be required to remove the battery. Some airlines no longer allow laptops to be turned on in-flight following instances of laptop batteries igniting spontaneously.
Despite all the negatives, many travelers still elect to take a laptop with them. For many, the only laptop feature they require is the ability to either capture large amounts of data in the form of digital photographs or to have with them their reference material and other documents. In this instance, travelers might like to consider carrying a USB hard drive. Typically a mini USB hard drive is smaller than the average pack of cigarettes, weighs very little, and can be plugged into any computer at an internet café or a colleague's office computer to give you full access to over 60 GB of stored documents or allow you to transfer photographs from your digital camera to the hard drive for storage.
Images
Taking photographs is part of the international travel experience, and most tourists will want to carry a digital camera with them. Unless you are a serious photographer, go for the point-and-shoot models. The fully-automatic digital camera will give the amateur a better result on average than the more expensive professional cameras. Even cameras costing just a few hundred dollars have excellent features. Practise using your camera before your holiday begins, and if all else fails read the manual. One of the valuable features is 'burst'. Essentially burst allows the camera to take a number of photos in fairly rapid succession, reminiscent of a motor winder on a 35 mm film camera. This means that you may be able to take up to 20 photographs in 10-20 seconds and can then select the best photo from the set. Since there is no cost for a digital photograph, taking a burst photo is ideal for those instances where you may miss the action such as fireworks or a cycling race. However, even just taking a photo of someone smiling requires timing, and the best photograph captured from a burst sequence may sometimes provide a better result than taking only one image.
The resolution or picture quality of cameras has continued to increase dramatically, and even low-cost cameras now have quite high resolution. This is measured in 'megapixels' a term which describes the number of colour cells the image is broken down into as it is digitised. As a rule of thumb, the higher the megapixel count is, the better resolution the photograph will have (and consequently a 3.0 megapixel camera produces a higher quality image than a 2.0 megapixel camera). It's important to remember that the higher the resolution, the larger the resulting file will be, and the more storage space it will require on your camera, memory card or hard drive. Resolution can always be reduced in subsequent processing so an image doesn't need to be printed or published on the Web at the same resolution at which it was captured. However, resolution cannot be increased during processing, it can only be reduced. The safest idea might seem to be to take all your photos at the highest resolution, but it is worthwhile experimenting with what resolution will give you a good result either for printed photographs or for publishing them on the Web, as any extra resolution is a waste of storage space. Often moving the camera from high-resolution to medium-resolution will increase the number of photographs able to be stored on the camera tenfold.
Cameras rely on batteries, and batteries go flat. Pay attention to battery life when you buy your camera. Some will run on removable disposable batteries and others may use built-in rechargeable batteries. Some types of batteries or brands give very different results in digital cameras to others. Experimentation seems to be the best way to go. Rechargeable batteries always take time to recharge, and sometimes you may be better off being able to insert new batteries while you are standing on top of the volcano to get that one extra fantastic shot, rather than waiting to recharge your camera back at the hotel room that night! The digital display screen is a big consumer of battery life. Some cameras may also have an optical viewfinder - the traditional look-through-the-hole way of framing your photograph. A camera with an optical viewfinder as well as a display screen probably gives the most flexibility and the best result for battery life. Without the display screen you cannot check the image after you have taken a photograph. If you have both an optical and a display screen you can choose to turn the display screen off and take photographs through the optical viewfinder, which will give you a considerable improvement on battery life.
Cameras, like laptops, need to be carried and you should consider the weight inconvenience. Often a small camera that will fit in your pocket conveniently is more use than a large camera, unless you are seriously into photography and need the extra features that larger cameras may offer.
Image Storage
Digital photographs require storage. Look for a camera that allows you to buy cheap storage cards. There are several formats with different prices per megabyte.
One strategy is to buy several memory cards and keep your photographs on the cards until you get home. If you are traveling with a laptop, you can transfer your images from the memory card to the hard drive regularly. Images can then be burned to a CD. The various types and brands of memory card are very similar in performance for the average user, and price is the primary difference. The price of memory cards will be sufficiently important that you may choose the model and brand of your camera based on what sort of memory card the camera uses.
Remember that your photographs are precious and irreplaceable, and that technology can at times be unreliable and fail when it's least convenient. Keeping a backup copy is important. Since luggage also gets lost from time to time, keep a backup copy that is not with the camera or in your luggage. Making backup copies on CDs and mailing them home is a good strategy. You can also publish photographs online as a way of making a backup and sharing them with your friends and family at the same time. Google has a good service called 'Picasa' that may be useful for this.
Whether you are traveling for work or pleasure, backpacking or living the high life, you will probably need to travel with at least some electronics. Some prior planning can make your technology work for you and prevent any data disasters along the way.
January 23, 2007
Further information or clarification is available from the author.
Wayne Bucklar
P.O. Box 857
Fortitude Valley 4006