Cameras, iPods & Other Gadgets
- Should I bring an iPod?
- Should I bring a camera?
- What about a video camera?
- How can I store digital photos?
- What other items might I consider?
Should I bring an iPod (or similar device)?
If you are already a committed iPod user, the answer is probably yes. If you think your RTW trip might be a good excuse to finally jump on board the bandwagon, it might be, but ask yourself a few questions before you leap.
Let's face it, for some of us recorded music is a huge part of not only our daily entertainment but also part of the way we keep our sanity. But for other people recorded music is something to play at a party or when the cable TV has gone out. If you are in the former group an iPod will be extremely valuable on a RTW trip. If you are closer to the latter group, there isn't much reason to think an instant conversion will take place on your way to the airport.
Bringing expensive gadgets on a trip like this is generally a bad idea, but an iPod can be as essential as a camera for some of us, and some of the downsides aren't as down as they were not long ago. The first few generations of iPods were quite thick and not really well-suited to carrying in a front pocket, but the newer ones have taken care of that.
Some people argue that an iPod puts up a barrier between you and the people, sights, and sounds you are there for in the first place. Yes, listening to music while strolling along the Champs Elysées is probably taking it too far, but your trip will consist of much more than that. Whether you realize it now or not, there will be dozens, and probably hundreds, of hours waiting for flights, riding on trains, buses, and planes, and just hours you'll want to relax alone to recharge your own mental batteries. If you use music to help calm and entertain yourself, you'll be glad you have a music player with you.
Security is definitely an issue, but particularly with the newer and smaller ones it is realistic to carry them with you just about everywhere. You can't let your guard down so you have to prepare yourself to be very cautious. If you are listening to it in a crowded hostel dorm room you can't assume that stuffing it inside a sock in your backpack will guarantee it will be there when you look for it next time. And if you are going swimming or otherwise getting wet you'll want to leave it behind somewhere, but as long as you are careful this shouldn't become a major issue.
The other advantage to bringing an iPod with you is it can also be used for data back-up in addition to being an audio/video player. You can keep computer documents and travel photos saved alongside music and video files.
Should I bring a camera?
Yes, definitely. Not too many years ago even the smallest digital cameras were hard to jam in your pocket, but all that has changed. And before that, there was the whole issue of actual film and developing it. But now that digital cameras are tiny, relatively cheap, and still great quality there isn't much reason to travel extensively without one.
Security is an issue that you'll need to stay conscious of, just as with an iPod. These little cameras can be a great temptation to drunken or unscrupulous travelers, as well as local thieves and pickpockets. With cameras in particular it's not unheard for thieves on a motorbike to literally grab them out of your hand as you walk along the street, so it's important to keep this in mind and keep them out of sight when not in use. And unless you are a real pro, you might also consider bringing a $200 camera with you and leaving your $500 camera at home, just in case.
And now that we are on the subject here are a couple of other photo-related things to consider. When you visit a famous place, say, the Colosseum in Rome, you'll see many people snapping away without really appreciating the place in person. When you have your camera with you it's easy to treat places as photo targets instead of as physical attractions. Remind yourself once in a while to spend some time absorbing the subject itself, in addition to photographing it.
The other thing to keep in mind on a trip like this is that some of your more cherished photos when you get home will be of things you might not bother to photograph on a short trip. If you visit the Eiffel Tower, go ahead and take a photo or two. But when you get home you'll be able to find hundreds of better photos on the internet than the ones you took. Some people like to have themselves photographed in the foreground with famous things in the background, as if they need proof for the people back home they were there. There isn't anything wrong with this, but don't forget to capture some of the other things as well.
Take a photo of those cool locals you met at the pub, or of that girl you met at the hostel. Even if you don't exchange details with them these photos can be great later. After a one-week trip we remember even the most mundane things about it, but after two months of travel we forget a lot. Take a photo of that unbelievably tiny hotel room, or of that great pastry, or of that enormous bottle of local beer you paid only $1 for at the bar. Even if you don't show them to people when you get home, it's these sorts of things that will bring back great memories for you.
What about a video camera?
With digital video cameras getting so much smaller and cheaper lately this isn't as easy to answer as it used to be, but we are still going to try to talk most of you out of bringing a video camera. Of course, if you are a would-be director or cinematographer and you really enjoy editing videos and posting them on Youtube and whatnot, this is your chance of a lifetime to take awesome footage. But if you are on the fence about this it's probably best to leave the thing at home.
They are more expensive than still cameras and the batteries go pretty quickly as well so you end up spending a lot of time recharging. And since the data files are so much larger it's a big project to offload and store your footage as you go. But the main reasons why video cameras aren't ideal companions on RTW trips are less obvious.
As mentioned in the still camera section, there is quite a temptation already to start treating your trip as something to be photographed rather than something to be experienced. With a video camera you are almost obligated to fall into that trap. If you see a parade, or a street performer, or a massively overloaded donkey cart going by you'll instinctively whip out the video camera and then watch this event right in front of you on a tiny screen instead of in real life. Or worse, you'll feel the need to video motionless objects, like statues in a museum, in one sweeping pan shot. Bor-ing!
Which brings us to the other main point, and this part is definitely a bit sad but still true. When you get home no one is going to want to watch your endless footage anyway. At least with still photos you can easily upload them onto your blog site as you go and your friends and family will scan through them as you do. But someone really has to love you a lot to want to sit through your wobbly and poorly-lit production of your Alpine hike back towards Salzburg. You'll already be shocked when you get back about how little people actually want to hear your stories. Unless you happen to be really good at shooting and editing, there is no quicker way to clear a room than promising to show your vacation videos.
Nearly all the newer digital cameras can record short videos these days anyway. For most people this will be plenty since it automatically keeps you from rolling for large chunks of time that will bore people. And they work well enough that if you want to record a short clip of you and some friends you meet on the road saying hello, and then post it to Youtube, you'll be covered. It's the really long stuff that most people will want to avoid.
How can I store digital photos on the road?
You've got quite a few options here and this is getting easier all the time. If you've got a fast connection on a public computer you can upload your photos to an online photo-sharing site, like Flickr. As long as your camera or your camera's memory card reader has a USB output cable you should have little problem finding internet café computers to plug into to offload your photos. You can then upload them to a photo-sharing site with just a few clicks. But if you've got a ton of photos or the file sizes are large this can take a bit of time.
If you want to keep them with you there are a few other options. Many internet cafes all over the world do a brisk business burning CDs and now even DVDs full of photos for travelers passing through. You can get hundreds of photos on one CD and obviously a lot more than that on DVDs. It's usually quite inexpensive so you might consider getting a duplicate of each disc to store in a different place or even mail home. If you find an internet café with CD burners enabled (not too difficult) you can burn your own discs. Some people bring re-writable CDs so they can keep adding more photos to each disc until they are full.
Another option that is becoming very popular is bringing a small portable hard drive along with you. These are getting smaller and cheaper every month and many of them are made specifically for this purpose. Some of the more expensive models even have a preview screen on the hard drive so you can sort easily. Make sure you have the right adapters before you leave. USB adapters and memory card readers are quite cheap, but you don't want to have to hunt one down on a beach somewhere.
There are portable drives with many gigabites of memory (and some with screens) specifically made for photo storage on the road, but you should also bring a keychain flash drive or something similar as well. For around $20 you can buy a 2 GB keychain drive where you can backup your entire photo collection on the road. And by the time you read this they will probably be cheaper and have greater capacity.
And if you are thinking about buying a portable hard drive for this purpose you might also consider buying an iPod (or similar device) instead. These obviously cost more than a similar size hard drive, but not that much more, and now you've got an iPod too!
What other items might I consider?
Generally you'll want to bring as few things with you as you can get away with. If you decide you want or need something after being on the road for a while it's usually pretty easy to get almost anything without paying much more than you would have at home, and sometimes even less. But if you decided to bring your portable iPod speakers with you from the beginning it's pretty tough to get rid of them once you realize it was a bad idea. But still, there are a few small items you might want to consider.
A small AM/FM and possibly World Band radio can be worthwhile for some people. You can find a compact one with no speaker and use headphones, or a slightly larger one with a speaker that is only a little bigger than an iPod. It's not for everyone, but for some of us listening to foreign radio stations can be fascinating as well as entertaining. You might be amazed at how much English-language music is on the airwaves around the world, but listening to local music in the local language can give you an interesting twist on the culture that you wouldn't get otherwise.
Just normal AM/FM will give you access to music and local news (occasionally in English as well) but a radio with the extra World Band (Shortwave) frequencies is only a bit more expensive and with those extra bands you can almost always find a BBC World Service station or an American Forces Network station or even one of the bizarre China Radio International (in English) stations around the world. If looking for an inexpensive radio, be aware that FM stations in some countries are on the odd frequencies and others are on the even frequencies, so be sure to bring a radio that gets both (i.e. 100.0 and 100.1 fm).
Another possibly useful gadget that's even smaller is a compass, even a tiny keychain model. These can be surprisingly handy when you are in a strange place for the first time. Let's say you know your hostel is 5 blocks west of the metro station, but once you climb up to ground level you have no idea which direction is west. Reach into your pocket and you are on your way with confidence. Or you might need to catch an eastbound train at a small station. You are standing on the platform wondering which city is east of you and which is west. A small and cheap pocket compass can take a lot of the guesswork out of these sometimes-stressful situations.
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