35mm developed digitally
 

I am still struggling with my issue of what camera to take to SA. What about getting 35mm film developed locally and saved to a disk to simply e mail home? Is this possible in SA and if so, is it quality? Also, if using a digital setup with a smart media card in the floppy adaptor, I know you can't read it without installing the software, but could you e mail it to someone back home who did have the software installed and let them sort it out?

To read the floppy adapter you only have to install the driver, which can be done without even asking for it. Just sit down on a internet cafe and sneak in the floppy containing the driver, install it and there you go.

E-mailing all your digital photos home is not a very good option. Slow lines will be in the way, and you would be very limited to the amounts of photos you could take. A better option maybe, if you use the floppy adapter, is to take advantage of the cd-writer you often find in internet cafes. Burn a cd, better burn two, send one home and keep one for yourself.

But since you won't know for sure how long it will be between each backup, you have to carry a few extra memory cards, to avoid running out of space.

Digitizing 35mm images is certainly possible in SA, but probably only in major cities. Even so, bandwidth will restrict how much you get sent home. Use snail mail instead.

We met a few travellers in SA who had brought a digicam but no storage device. As a result they ran out of space and carried the camera around as dead weight. Have you looked into the Digital Wallet (see http://www.steves-digicams.com/digital_wallet.html), a small storage device that will keep all the images for your trip and then some. Expensive though, and I guess you still want to connect from time to time and ship some images home.

good luck

------------------
Dag
http://RocinantesTravels.com