Digital Cameras

[SUBSCRIBE GOCAMINO Paul]

I returned from the Camino a little over a week ago.  My wife and I bicycled from Roncesvalles
to Santiago.  A fantastic trip that we already are missing.

We took two cameras: a Canon Digital Rebel and a Canon S500.  Both cameras worked quite
well.  The Rebel was weighty as I brought the basic lens and a telephoto as well as a
monopod.  It was a lot of weight to carry on the bike, but got some very good keepsake
photos for framing.

Regarding the question of transferring the photos, each camera had a 500 MB card.
Following the advice I got on this board, when we filled the cards I sought out an el Corte
Ingles (this was in Burgos).  The only dumping system to CD there was a Kodak kiosk
machine that wanted 10 euros for every 40 photos.  It was cheaper to buy a 256 MB card
which is what I did as a stop-gap.  The very next day I found a store on the corner of the
Cathedral plaza that did, as described in one the posts here, a dump of each card onto CD for
three euros.  Had each card dumped twice, kept one copy and mailed the other home for
safekeeping.

Did not need to do another dump until Santiago.  The store we found there charged six euros
(they gave a jewel case for each CD).  Still a good deal.

As for SLR versus the point and shoots: the SLR is heavy and a pain to keep pulling out for all
the sites you will see.  Unless you want to take some serious photos, the point and shoot is a
very good alternative.  Next time that is what I will do and I very much like the SLR.

Buen Camino to all.

Paul