For the third time in recent history, I reached for my digital camera only to find that I'd forgotten to put the SD Card back in. It was still sitting in my laptop, miles away, after I'd extracted all the photos into Picasa.
Right then I decided that this clearly something I'm never going to get right. The solution was to buy a second SD Card. The new procedure will be to swap cards when I want to extract photos. That way there's always a card in the laptop and always a card in the camera.
Simple solutions to simple problems: life made a little bit easier.
For the curious, I was hoping to take a few pictures of our trip back to southern California to retrieve the plane we left there last weekend. A group of us flew down in a Cessna 185 to complete the mission. Citabria N5156X is now home, at the Reid-Hillview airport.
Yay!
Posted by jzawodn at April 24, 2006 01:38 PM
My system involves leaving the trap-door which covers the CF slot on my camera open when the card is out. That way, when you pick up the camera to put it in the bag, you notice the open trap-door swinging. Ditto for the battery compartment. Of course, this probably doesn't work as well for SD slots as it does for CF slots, given the size difference.
Your method is cheaper. But it's still something I'd have to remember, and I'm becoming skeptical of my ability to do that.
Mine will hopefully prompt me to take the right action. Hopefully.
Otherwise I'll just be leaving twice as many SD Cards at home. :-)
The two-card thing is great, but will probably bite you some day all the same. I remember the first time I got caught out having to fill BOTH of my BBQ propane tanks :)
My method is always keeping a spare card in my wallet - they're pretty tiny, after all.
"But it's still something I'd have to remember, and I'm becoming skeptical of my ability to do that" -- and you're the guy with TWO planes?
(I have two cards, and do the keep-the-door-open technique as well)
Jeffrey
Heh. Let's hope I can remember where I park the plane. :-)
I use the same technique with two camera batteries, since my Canon camera eats through batteries. (Even when not turned on, a definite negative.)
One stays in my camera, and one stays in my wall-wart charger. Whenever I'm about to go out for the day, I swap the batteries and head out the door.
The only worry I have is that I'm charge cycling the batteries too much. If I had a bit of time I might devise some sort of way to 'switch' the battery on and off on the camera by somehow disconnecting its leads, so it doesn't drain so easily.
It's a good idea to have two smaller cards rather than one big card anyway. If you go on a trip and lose a card or one gets fried, at least you've only lost half your pictures.
It is always a good idea to have more than ione card. But I solved your problem by not using the card to transfer photos to the PC anymore. I now use the USB cable to *move* them, so the card is always in the camera and always ready to start again. YMMV
I use more than one card, plus a couple of batteries. I have stickers with my name/address that I put on each card which I then write the number 1, 2, 3, etc. That way when my brain keeps on seing '2' I think there must be a '1' somewhere (stuck in my PC!!).
Funnily enough we would always recommend more SD cards ...
If you forgot to take pictures on the flight, you'll just have to go for another :)
