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Stephanieann

May 17, 2004, 4:54 PM

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digital camara question

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When I come down for a month I will be traveling with a digital camara. So I don't have to buy a bunch of memory cards I had hoped to find places to either process my pictures or have them put on discs in Mexico. I will be in both small and larger cities but just don't know what to expect. I know here in U.S. they have the machines in Walmart that let you do your pictures right there but no idea if they have those at Mexico Walmarts. I had thought about internet cafes and emailing them home but didn't know enough about how they work or if the usb ports exist or would be available. Are they're regular photo places the deal with digital? Any help? advise? thanks.

Carol Schmidt

May 17, 2004, 6:44 PM

Post #2 of 7 (288 views)

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Re: [Stephanieann] digital camara question

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I know there's at least one camera shop in San Miguel de Allende which will put your digital camera shots onto a disk. I don't know the cost--consider whether more memory cards might be cheaper. My cards hold 256 photos each. I've never used more than two on a two-week trip, though I delete photos I don't want immediately.

And remember batteries--I always carry a recharger and rechargeable batteries when I go anyplace and plug in the charger each night so I have fresh ones in the camera, an extra set charged the day before in my purse, and the ones back at the hotel plugged in.

Carol Schmidt

thfarrell

May 17, 2004, 7:03 PM

Post #3 of 7 (281 views)

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Re: [Stephanieann] digital camara question

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Hi...

Find the geek.

> find places to [...] have them put on discs

In places from Morelia to Merida, I've been able to get digital picts put on CD by finding the local internet cafe that's run by a geeky kid. There's usually at least one in the next day or two's travel.

Internet cafes are usually run by a younger person who either has or knows the whereabouts of a CD burner. After all, Burning CDs is something they're doing for themselves all the time. Ask around. The elegant internet cafe on the town's main drag is not the place to look or ask. Make getting the CDs burned part of the fun rather than a hassle.

tom
---
"Beauty is in the i of the Beholder"
(Julia Mandelbrot)

Stephanieann

May 17, 2004, 7:12 PM

Post #4 of 7 (272 views)

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Re: [thfarrell] digital camara question

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Thank you both. That is helpful to me. I went and bought another memory card today and it will take approx. 110 pictures on my camara. It cost 60.00 and I do have another smaller card but I am thinking that having cd's made has to be cheaper than another 60.00 bucks. I will remember the battery charger and extra batteries thanks. I'm smiling about the geek approach I will give it a try.
Thanks

rlg

May 17, 2004, 9:08 PM

Post #5 of 7 (249 views)

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Re: [Stephanieann] digital camara question

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Last christmas we were in Tampico we had a hard time finding any place to download our memory card to CD or print to paper.My first thought was the cyber cafes, we went to several (upper class and lower class places) but no one had a card reader.The only place we found was at HEB photo lab.They told us it take about a week.I told them to forget it.
I had planned on taking my own card reader but could not find the CD that goes with it.
If you had your own card reader some cafes might let you install it.

May 17, 2004, 10:17 PM

Post #6 of 7 (241 views)

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Re: [Stephanieann] digital camara question

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Quote

Stephanieann writes:
....I had thought about internet cafes and emailing them home....

This part of the idea is pretty much a non-starter. Your standard flash memory card these days runs in the 64-512 MB range, your standard email box usually caps out in the 10-50 MB range. This means that before you even email home the contents of a single flash memory card you run out of mailbox space at which time your emails start bouncing back as undeliverable. You can have somebody at home downloading and clearing your email off of the server, but this still involves either some intricate coordination or multiple trips to the internet cafe to clear a single flash memory card.

Having the images burned to a CD (I'm a fan of computer post-processing) is far more viable. When you're wandering around looking for a geek-enabled cybercafe (some will be quite reluctant to allow you to load your camera's software onto their machine, meaning finding one with a flashmedia reader becomes more important) make sure to look into the windows of any one-hour photo processing stores (with the advent of the Noritsu minilab film processors quite common in Mexico) for a computer workstation attached to the processer unit. These workstations, identifiable by a monitor and keyboard, are used to crop, touch up, and enlarge images from negatives before printing, are very frequently equipped with (a) CD burners and (b) multiple format flashmedia readers. At least one staff member at these stores will be familiar with the process of reading your flashmedia cards and burning them to CD, very often with a nice touch like an index ("contact") print being made for insertion into the CD jewel box. The price charged is only a small increment above that charged by a cybercafe.

Esteban

May 17, 2004, 11:18 PM

Post #7 of 7 (233 views)

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Re: [Stephanieann] digital camara question

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Bring your USB cable that connects your camera to a computer. That may solve a lot of problems. Here in Maz. there are many places that will burn your camera memory onto a cd...price is around 50 pesos.