[rosalind dna (OP)]

I have been uploading my photos from my digital camera since I bought it in August 2007 but I've not thought
of having them made into proper photos yet.

But I know how to use USB memory sticks as I own 3 so far. I will probably buy more from Amazon soonish.

I have been wondering if it's possible to put the photos onto a USB memory stick?

The only memory card that I have is for 80 photos and if it's taken out then I can't use my camera.

The camera's a Sony CyberShot.

Thanks Rosalind

[dentstudent]

Hi Rosalind

Firstly, yes you can use a stick for photo storage. But, the storage capacity on them is used up rather quickly with photos. It might be useful to you if you get yourself an external hard drive. These are effectively the same as sticks, but have a FAR bigger capacity, which means that you can store your photos on there without worrying about it getting full, and without taking up space on your computer's hard drive.

[rosalind dna (OP)]

Hi Rosalind

Firstly, yes you can use a stick for photo storage. But, the storage capacity on them is used up rather quickly with photos. It might be useful to you if you get yourself an external hard drive. These are effectively the same as sticks, but have a FAR bigger capacity, which means that you can store your photos on there without worrying about it getting full, and without taking up space on your computer's hard drive.

Hi dentstudent, that is interesting and would the make of the memory stick matter?

If not then I'd been thinking that 8GB might be the largest possible harddrive thing.

Although the new printer (HP deskjet) is slowing up the computer and I have only had it about
2 weeks.
I don't take photos every day though only when I feel like it.

[RD]

A digital photograph in jpeg format sufficient to create a photo-quality* print of about 20x30cm requires about 2Mb of memory. If the image is only ever going to be displayed on a computer or television screen then a 200Kb (0.2Mb) jpg file is sufficient.

So on an 8GB (which is 8000 Mb) stick you could get 4000 print quality images or 40,000 screen quality images.

You should make backup copies of your photos on another stick or CD (or DVD) and perhaps additional copies online too, so if disaster strikes you will always have copies of irreplaceable images.


(* indistinguishable from a photograph taken using a film camera).


BTW  Rosalind your local library may run a "digital photography for beginners" course where you can learn how to archive and manipulate your digital photos.

[rosalind dna (OP)]

A digital photograph in jpeg format sufficient to create a photo-quality* print of about 20x30cm requires about 2Mb of memory. If the image is only ever going to be displayed on a computer or television screen then a 200Kb (0.2Mb) jpg file is sufficient.

So on an 8GB (which is 8000 Mb) stick you could get 4000 print quality images or 40,000 screen quality images.

You should make backup copies of your photos on another stick or CD and perhaps additional copies online too, so if disaster strikes you will always have copies of irreplaceable images.


(* indistinguishable from a photograph taken using a film camera).


BTW  Rosalind your local library may run a "digital photography for beginners" course where you can learn how to archive and manipulate your digital photos.

RD thanks and I'll buy a few memory sticks when I next go to the Amazon site as theirs are cheaper than the local prices of £22.99 for 4GB and £40.00 for 8GB in the shop.

Yes I'll look into a course in my local library about digital cameras for beginners only I've been using the camera ever since I bought it as an amateur.  I do delete my worst ones though

I don't understand why I would need a CD as my computer doesn't have a CD writer drive in it or for DVD but I can use both and do.

What Gigabyte size do you recommend, RD would be best for my purposes??

[ukmicky]

You should have a USB cable with your camera. plug it into the Pc and then the camera and turn the camera on. You may be prompted to load drivers but dont normally have to.

A box may now come up asking if you want to transfer the images,if it does say yes and direct it to where you want to save them.

If it doesn't ask, go into my computer where your drives are and your camera should be there as a removable drive like it does with your memory stick/ Find the photos and copy or move them

Most memory stick can hold hundreds

[RD]

What Gigabyte size do you recommend, RD would be best for my purposes??

Personally I find the 4Gb sticks more convenient: a DVD can hold 4.7Gb so I can copy a full 4Gb stick on one DVD.
 With a full 8Gb stick I’d have to store the contents on two DVDs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD#DVD_as_an_archival_medium


If you don’t have a cable to connect your camera to your computer it may be possible to remove the memory card/stick from the camera and plug in to your computer: this may require a device called a card reader.


Note memory cards for computers and cameras are not always interchangeable: a computer (USB) memory stick cannot be installed in your Sony camera.

[rosalind dna (OP)]

You should have a USB cable with your camera. plug it into the Pc and then the camera and turn the camera on. You may be prompted to load drivers but dont normally have to.

A box may now come up asking if you want to transfer the images,if it does say yes and direct it to where you want to save them.

If it doesn't ask, go into my computer where your drives are and your camera should be there as a removable drive like it does with your memory stick/ Find the photos and copy or move them

Most memory stick can hold hundreds

Micky Thanks, I have the USB cable for the camera already plugged into the back of the PC's tower and I use it a lot. I've also got an USB Hub for extra USB thing like memory sticks.
I know what to do when I upload my photos and follow the computer's instructions to upload with that box for slideshow, printer and scanner etc.
But it's the size of the gigabytes that a memory sitck that I should buy, I would like a recommendation please.

[dentstudent]

It would worry me that I would lose the sticks, since they are a little small. This is why I like my external hard drive which is book sized and stores 500 Gb. This space you can get for the same price as 4 sticks, and so is a much cheaper way of gaining storage.

[rosalind dna (OP)]

What Gigabyte size do you recommend, RD would be best for my purposes??

Personally I find the 4Gb sticks more convenient: a DVD can hold 4.7Gb so I can copy a full 4Gb stick on one DVD.
 With a full 8Gb stick I’d have to store the contents on two DVDs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD#DVD_as_an_archival_medium


If you don’t have a cable to connect your camera to your computer it may be possible to remove the memory card/stick from the camera and plug in to your computer: this may require a device called a card reader.


Note memory cards for computers and cameras are not always interchangeable: a computer (USB) memory stick cannot be installed in your Sony camera.

RD thanks and yes I do have the USB camera's cable plugged into the back of my computer's tower as it's been since I bought the camera about 2 years ago.

The hole that I put the USB cable into the camera is the same as a USB memory stick. In fact I was using the camera and uploaded some of the photos only last week. I will do so again soon.

I do own a few DVDs but don't use them all the time and I've never used a blank one yet.

Also I've taken around 600+ photos and probably deleted a lot of them. The earlier ones.

How come that memory sticks or cards are not always interchangeable because I'd thought that if I take the information/photos from the PC that are there now??

[rosalind dna (OP)]

It would worry me that I would lose the sticks, since they are a little small. This is why I like my external hard drive which is book sized and stores 500 Gb. This space you can get for the same price as 4 sticks, and so is a much cheaper way of gaining storage.

Thanks again dentstudent but I don't even know how to put the main HardDrive into a computer and would bust it. Even with an external harddrive interesting as your helpful idea is.

I do keep my present memory sticks in a safe place already and would make sure that I wouldn't lose them. I hope.

How does an external HardDrive work?

Because I am interested in knowing how to store the photos onto a memory sticks in case the computer crashes one day (hope not) and I lose them all.

[dentstudent]

It would worry me that I would lose the sticks, since they are a little small. This is why I like my external hard drive which is book sized and stores 500 Gb. This space you can get for the same price as 4 sticks, and so is a much cheaper way of gaining storage.

Thanks again RD

RD? Indeed! (Sulks)

An external hard drive works in exactly the same way as the sticks. There is a USB connector and usually a separate power connection. That's all! Just plug it in, and there is all that extra space, which you can then unplug and take with you if needed.

[RD]

My concern with hard drives is they are fragile mechanisms.
Flash memory (in memory sticks) is far more robust: they use it in those "black box" thingys which survive aircraft crashes.

So for irreplaceable things like photos I would use memory sticks with backup copies burned to DVDs and further copies online.

Even if not accidentally dropped, the external hard drive will probably fail in under a decade.

DVDs allegedly retain data for 30 years.

[rosalind dna (OP)]

It would worry me that I would lose the sticks, since they are a little small. This is why I like my external hard drive which is book sized and stores 500 Gb. This space you can get for the same price as 4 sticks, and so is a much cheaper way of gaining storage.

Thanks again RD

RD? Indeed! (Sulks)

An external hard drive works in exactly the same way as the sticks. There is a USB connector and usually a separate power connection. That's all! Just plug it in, and there is all that extra space, which you can then unplug and take with you if needed.

dentstudent sorry for my mistake,. I was in a rush to go out.
Also I've only just started using the memory sticks as someone had advised me to do so, a while ago. so far it's mainly my family tree information on the 8GB one.

I do plug the memory stick into the USB hub to back up any data on my PC as I did earlier.
Then unplug it from the USB hub.

I will take the photos if that would help as my mobile has a camera as well??

[rosalind dna (OP)]

My concern with hard drives is they are fragile mechanisms.
Flash memory (in memory sticks) is far more robust: they use it in those "black box" thingys which survive aircraft crashes.

So for irreplaceable things like photos I would use memory sticks with backup copies burned to DVDs and further copies online.

Even if not accidentally dropped, the external hard drive will probably fail in under a decade.

DVDs allegedly retain data for 30 years.

I have not dared to remove a harddrive as I'd said earlier if I did do that then I would put everything back in the wrong way most likely and bust the PC.

I wouldn't be taking the memory sticks everywhere but I just want to sure that the photos are backed up so that I don't lose them. I can't write DVDs or CDs as the computer only has one slot for them.
I agree that I don't want to lose my photos. Yes I should have thought of this before but I wasn't aware of them. Good advice thanks Wow that's incredible that DVDs can hold data for 30 years,

[ukmicky]

1024 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte

Thats 1024 1 Megabyte pics, on a 1 gigabyte stick.

Okay most pics on your average digital camera are between 1.5 and 2 megabytes,so on a 4 gigabyte memory stick thats 2 thousand shots minimum. Enough space for most people 

[rosalind dna (OP)]

1024 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte

Thats 1024 1 Megabyte pics, on a 1 gigabyte stick.

Okay most pics on your average digital camera are between 1.5 and 2 megabytes,so on a 4 gigabyte memory stick thats 2 thousand shots minimum. Enough space for most people 

Thanks and the pixels size of the digital photos are 3072 x 2304 pixels that is before I've resized them but the mobile phone's camera is 600 x 480 pixels.

I have only taken about 600 pictures so far and not kept them all. I will have a look on Amazon on in the shops for a largeish memory sticks (Gigabytes) I mean.
What's the difference between a memory stick and a memory card like the one I have in the camera?

[RD]

What's the difference between a memory stick and a memory card like the one I have in the camera?

The only practical difference is that USB memory stick will not fit in your Sony camera, but the memory card in your Sony camera can be connected to a USB port on a computer via an adapter called a card reader. If you have a cable to connect your camera to you computer then you don't need a card reader.

Once your camera's memory card is nearly full, connect it to the computer and copy the photos onto your computer and/or a USB memory stick attached to your computer. Having copied the photos onto the computer (and onto a USB memory stick) then you can delete the photos on the camera's memory card giving you space to take more photos.

Like I said attending beginners course at your local library or camera club where someone can show you how to do this would be the most reliable way of enabling you to confidently archive your digital photos and avoid losing irreplaceable pictures.

[rosalind dna (OP)]

The only practical difference is that USB memory stick will not fit in your Sony camera, but the memory card in your Sony camera can be connected to a USB port on a computer via an adapter called a card reader. If you have a cable to connect your camera to you computer then you don't need a card reader.

RD, as I have already mentioned that I do not own (yet) a memory card reader. But if necessary
I will buy one. Also when I've taken some photos then I usually upload them to the PC by plugging in it's USB cable, turning it on then the box appears and follow the instructions.
Yes I've got a memory card for 80 photos but then this is my first ever digital camera.

Once your camera's memory card is nearly full, connect it to the computer and copy the photos onto your computer and/or a USB memory stick attached to your computer. Having copied the photos onto the computer (and onto a USB memory stick) then you can delete the photos on the camera's memory card giving you space to take more photos.

Yes I know that when the camera's memory card is nearly full then I upload the photos and delete them afterwards to give the memory card more space as the camera shows me with it's icons. I would attach a memory stick to the USB hub that has the USB computer mouse and Printer's USB plugs in them. I am confused

 Like I said attending beginners course at your local library or camera club where someone can show you how to do this would be the most reliable way of enabling you to confidently archive your digital photos and avoid losing irreplaceable pictures.

After this Bank Holiday weekend's over I'll ask in the library as it's always closed on Fridays. No I don't know why.
Agreed I do not want to lose the irreplaceable pictures or photos even other data.

[RD]

After this Bank Holiday weekend's over I'll ask in the library as it's always closed on Fridays. No I don't know why.

Your local library and local camera club will probably have internet sites,
 so you can probably google them to see if they offer digital photography courses for beginners.