Note: This site is currently "Under construction". I'm migrating to a new version of my site building software. Lots of things are in a state of disrepair as a result (for example, footnote links aren't working). It's all part of the process of building in public. Most things should still be readable though.

Proprietary Cables and lots of storage space

I'm notorious for taking forever to get my photos in a state where people can see them. In the old days, this meant that I had a lot of film that it would take me forever to develop. (Okay, it's still those days now since I have a lot that I still haven't developed These days, in my digital shooting world, it means I take forever to get things either A) downloaded off the camera/cards or B) get them posted on a site so someone can see them. I got a new point and shoot camera a while back with a 2GB card. I'm not sure how many photos it would take to fill, but it's a lot. Probably 800-900. This camera has a different size memory card than my other ones so I was planning to just use the USB cable to pull them off in the sort term. After I took the camera out of the box I took a quick look to make sure it had a USB connection on it then thru the cables that came with it in a box with two or three million other cables since I already keep the standard USB cables in my bag. Turns out, the end of the USB that plugs into the camera is a proprietary Fuji plug. Still USB, just not the same shape. This is one of those things that's really annoying. It doesn't appear to be a size issue since the cable is almost identical to a standard USB. It's just a little bit different. Just enough so that Fuji can sell you their replacement instead of being able to get a standard one off the shelf if you don't happen to already have five other ones laying around. So, I finally dug thru the box and got the cable. I've had the camera for a few months now and have 414 shots on it. The good news out of all this is that I could have continued to shoot for at least a little while at the same rate without running out of space. Most photographers I know have a story about a friend or relative who finished up a roll of film in the good old days and when they got the prints back saw that not only did they have this years 4th of July photos on it, but last years as well. (Nuge just posted a similar thought What is increasingly both good and bad for me is that with the amount of storage you can get these days, it's less critical to pull stuff off immediately. This is good because I don't feel rushed, but can be bad since without a deadline I'm likely to leave stuff on a card for a long time.