I love the convenience of the digital camera. I love to take pictures. I don't love running out of room on my memory cards, or having to buy more.
This service is a booth or automated machine located inside a theme park, at a hotel or airport or at a destination location.
Simply insert your camera's media (all common types accepted) and the service will transfer the contents to a CD-R disk for you. You can then take the disk, wipe out the card's memory (the machine may do this for you, but for security's sake, it probably shouldn't).
The service could use a dual-payment structure. One fee for the first time and a new disc, and a smaller fee to add new data on to a disc as a multi-session format.-- Cedar Park, Aug 04 2003 Aladdin Kiosk http://home.fujifil...ma2000/aladdin.htmlIt accepts memory cards. Select the pictures to put on CD and/or print. Often found at a Super Wal-Mart. [Amos Kito, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Image Tank http://www.image-tank.com/This holds a bazillion photos. Give or take. [Amos Kito, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] mail the cd or dvd http://www.clovercase.comI think this is a great idea; this could made into a clear winner over an 'image tank' if the service gave an option for the kiosk to keep the disc and mail it via snail mail to an address that you specify. That way you have nothing to carry around, nothing to lose, nothing to break. The images could be stored on a local harddrive within the kiosk, and in case there is a problem with the mailing (ie. lost in the mail), the data could be retreived and re-mailed. The service could use a simple mailer like the folks at netflix or they could opt for the new CD and DVD mailers that are popping up, like the ones at CloverCase. [crafti, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] I'm on vacation, I don't want to drag CDs around. Just store the pictures on the net and download them at home. Fee could be $5 for the upload and 60 day storage and $2 per download. At the low download price I can afford to look at the pictures a few times from the hotel room using the pay-per-view system.-- kbecker, Aug 04 2003 I like this idea! It would be great to have this in gift shops at nature areas, too. If they had a kiosk [link], they could do it. I think you can get a CD with the "film developing", or even in lieu of prints.An image tank [other link] is another option. But CDs are lighter and less delicate than a portable hard drive.
//store the pictures on the net//kbecker, I took 500MB of pictures on my last vacation. The net may not be so hot in some situations. But I agree that a few photos at an amusement park could be put online no problem.-- Amos Kito, Aug 04 2003 [kbecker]: Unless high-speed internet is available at the location, waiting for 128Mb to upload is going to take some time...-- Cedar Park, Aug 04 2003 Another idea would be a rentable wireless Digital Camera (probobly for another entry), that the parks would give out. 1) you wouldn't need a digital camera to begin with, and 2) the "bulky" (I'm gonna get thrashed for this) built-in storage media, reader/writer. An amusement Park isn't that big, and Wiring it with Wireless antenae should'nt be that hard. Security would be a prob here, but not that big. At the end of the visit, just select a storage media type: CD, Internet, or Download to a Laptop.-- jong-scx, Aug 04 2003 I don't want to print my photos. I just want them on a CD to free up my memory card. I'll crop/resize/color correct and print when I get home.-- Cedar Park, Aug 05 2003 Good idea. Maybe they could fill up the remaining space on the CD with promotional stuff and thus give you a rebate (on the other hand, since you will not see the promo's until you get home, it might not be so meaningful)-- Brummo, Aug 05 2003 [Brummo]: I hope it won't amount to this. I'd gladly pay for a disk, instead of fight the crapware back at home.-- Cedar Park, Aug 05 2003 I was in exactly this situation in Australia earlier this year. [Cedar Park] you deserve a punnet of croissants for tapping this one out.-- neilp, Aug 05 2003 if you had a laptop with a card reader, you could transfer pics to the laptops hard drive. But a laptop is big and heavy
I saw a device which essentially is a card reader attached to a notebook HD with some circuits, a usb interface, and a rechargable battery. Insert card, turn on, press button marked copy contents of card to HD, turn off. Your pics are copied safely onto a subdirectory on the HD-- vmaldia, Aug 07 2006 Ah, yes. I think these are widely known to exist now. You can walk into shops in countries which only have electricity for a few hours a day and get this done now.-- neilp, Aug 07 2006 random, halfbakery