Disneyworld and gear thoughts

We just came back from a wonderful week at Disneyworld just before Christmas, and I course brought cameras, lenses, flashes, oh my (gee what a surprise, particularly posting here). Now, we've been to mouse land a few times, and my daughter is now 24, so we probably had different experiences than many who go with young kids.I thought I would ramble on some thoughts about camera gear that I had during the trip. Hopefully it will not be too boring.

Pocket vs. Pen vs. DSLR camera :

One of the things that those of us who own multiple cameras or lenses, go through is what camera to use. Here are the cameras I did bring on the trip:

• Olympus VG-120 pocket camera that I bought for the trip on the USA black friday sale;
• Olympus E-P2 with Olympus 14-150mm and Panasonic 20mm lenses;
• Olympus E-3 and E-5 bodies with 11-22mm, 14-54mm, 50-200mm lenses, and EC-14 teleconverter;
• Metz 48 AF-1 and Olympus FL-36 flashes.

Yes, I took way too much gear, and my carry on bag was way too heavy. However, I had a few different use scenarios at the parks:

• General snaps: VG-120
• Splash rides, E-5 + 14-54mm
• Animals at both the Animal Kingdom park and Animal Kingdom lodge where we stayed, either E-3 or E-5 with 50-200mm. Because on the safari ride, you don't have much time, I did the two camera approach, with one camera with the 14-54mm mounted and the other with the 50-200mm (and maybe EC-14) mounted. If I had a fast focusing superzoom camera, this would have been ideal, but none of the cameras I've used that can do 10x zoom focus all that fast (C-2100UZ, SP-550UIZ, E-P2 with 14-150mm).

If I wasn't planning to take pictures of the animals, I would have left the 50-200mm and E-3 home, but given I wanted to capture them, I put up with the extra weight. I did wind up hitting my wife a few times with the 50-200mm. You really have to watch to make sure you don't hit other people.

I only used the flashes once or twice, and I could have left it home.

The E-P2 wasn't used as much in the trip primarily due to the LCD is hard to see in the sun. The newer VG-120's LCD is a little better in the sun, and I recall when I used the E-PL2 in a sales event, that I could see it better in sunlight.

I have two options for dealing with this, the VF-2 and the clearviewer. The VF-2 as I've complained about in the past is impossible to see when I wear polarized sunglasses, and I generally need to wear them all of the time due to migraines. In addition, I would worry that the VF-2 would come off as I'm going through the parks.

The clearviewer is usable with polarized sunglasses, but again, it really isn't made for the stress of going through the park. I've seen gadgets on ebay that have magnetic mounting which might be better for things like a park.

In addition to not being able to see the VF, I didn't use the Pen when I thought I would be doing splash rides. I would really like to see a weather sealed Pen with a builtin EVF. That would give the E-3 and E-5 a run for their money.

Videos :

Since getting the E-P2, I've been shooting videos occasionally. For the renaissance faires that I'm the photographer for I now make videos of many of the acts, and upload them to youtube. I made some videos at disney:

• The Olympus cameras I own are really inefficient at encoding, though the VG-120 is slightly more efficient than the E-P2 and E-5 in that I was able to capture a show at 17 minutes and 22 seconds of SD recording before the 2GB file size limit was reached. I look forward to upgrading to newer cameras that support AVCHD and the ability to shoot longer performances.
• I shot 19G of videos (about 2 hours, 40 minutes), and it overflowed the filesystem on one of my computers (fortunately not the laptop I too with me on the trip). I was anticipating upgrading my disk space during the USA black friday sales, but with the floods in Thailand, disk prices have shot through the roof, and I refuse to pay more for a 500GB disk now than I would have paid for a 2TB drive last year.
• I bought a Kodak ZX-1 last summer for the renaissance faire, and it is much better at encoding video, but I didn't bring it with me. The Kodak is also weather sealed, but the downside is it a fixed focal length, and at times I wish it had a real zoom and not just a digital zoom.
• I am really, really poor at handholding even light weight cameras like the VG-120 for long periods of time. However, I don't want to carry a full size tripod with me through the parks. I'm going into my camera shop to see about cheap travel tripods, probably the Manfrotto 5 section compact photo/movie tripod (MKC3H01) or the one for just photo (MKCH02). I've thought about the Tamrac ziplink, but it really isn't tall enough for my tastes, but it is tempting due to the size. Obviously, these tripods would only be for the VG-120, E-P2, and Kodak ZX-1.
• In terms of the tripod, I did take my full size tripod with me, and I was going to use it to capture the fireworks when we were in the magic kingdom, but I eventually decided to leave it in the hotel room. My daughter in fact said to me: who are you, and what have you done with my daddy? when decided I didn't want to lug it on the bus, and store it in the locker rental during the day. The lockers are nice for storing stuff, but at Disney, it can be something like half an hour to walk to the front of the park to get the locker.

Other guests cameras :

I tend to notice other folks cameras. Call it the camera geek in me. In terms of DSLRs, the big winner seemed to be entry level Canon, probably from a few years ago. I saw very few high end Canon (1D, 5D) or Nikon (D3, etc.) cameras, instead it was the consumer crop cameras. Nikon and Panasonic lead the pack for bridge and superzoom cameras. I don't recall seeing any Nikon V1/J1 cameras. I recall seeing two Olympus E-5xx cameras, no E-x, E-6xx, or E-4xx cameras. I only recall 2 micro 4/3rds cameras, both held by Asian tourists (one Pen with the 14-42mm, one Panasonic with the 14mm in a really nice leather case).

Stats :

• 19 gig of movies (36 seperate movies);
• 14 gig of JPG (2,693 photos, 1,169 photos deleted during my initial scan);
• 1,605 photos shot with the E-5, 59.60%
• 704 photos shot with the E-3, 26.14%
• 248 photos shot with the VG-120, 9.21%
• 136 photos shot with the E-P2, 5.05%
• Olympus 14-54mm lens used for 54.52% of the shots on E-5, E-3, and E-P2
• Olympus 50-200mm lens used for 17.63% of the shots
• Olympus 50-200mm lens + EC-14 used for 16.61% of the shots
• Olympus 11-22mm lens used for 5.69% of the shots
• micro 4/3rds Olympus 14-150mm lens used for 4.13% of the shots
• micro 4/3rds Panasonic 20mm lens used for 1.43% of the shots

Weather sealing :

Call it childish, but I baptised the E-5, taking it on Splash Mountain (in the Magic Kingdom) and Kali River Rapids (in the Animal Kingdom Park). I was more successful with getting shots on Kali River Rapids than I was Splash Mountain this time. With splash I probably should have kept the lens covered until the final drop sequence as I had droplets of water on the lens after the first drop. I also probably should have feathered the shots, rather than keeping the shutter down on sequential shooting. It is funny to watch people concerned that I might wreck my fancy camera (Kali river rapids has a container that keeps out most of the water).

The water rides did tend to affect my choice of what camera to pack for the day. For people without weather sealed gear, it would be nice if they had lockers need each of the rides, rather than only at the front of the parks. While we didn't do Universal, I recall reading that the Harry Potter ride does have storage area near the line, but evidently it is an area of great congestion.

Fireworks :

As I mentioned previously, I had initially planned to do fireworks the normal way I do it for fourth of july, namely camera on tripod in bulb mode, low ISO, using a shutter release, but since I didn't bring the tripod, I contented myself with shooting them handheld. I did at times need to shoot high ISO, but I was able to get a few keepers just shooting that way..

Interesting.

Visting Disney World in 2004, Sandra and I used a Canon MV-100 to record DV tapes, using a 6 Amp-hour external battery belt pack. I came home with 11 hours worth of DV tapes, which got converted to 8 DVDs, once I had a laptop that could handle the raw capture via firewire as well as the rendering into MPEG2. We still watch the DVDs. Sandra had done quite professional introductions -



We were there for three weeks, and it was the best holiday that Sandra and I had, individually and together.

I also had the Olympus C-750UZ for stills, but I did not take many. Here is one showing the Mexico exhibit across the lake at Epcott -



The video on the C-750UZ is 320x240 resolution with AM quality sound, strictly for emergency use.

Right now my Olympus SZ-30MR can take 29 minutes of HD1080p in one take, but the 1-year-old laptop is only comfortable with HD720p for rendering. If I don't faff around I can make a battery charge last 1 hour, but I have three batteries.

Sandra and I probably will not see Disney World again. But next week I will be on a Morris Dance Tour, which creates about the same requirements for the camera. Last year the Stylus 9010 did quite a good job with the Morris Tour videos, but I also used the SP-570UZ for those long shots in the zoo and at the lake in Hamilton.

Henry

--



Henry Falkner - SZ-30MR, SP-570UZ, Stylus 9010
http://www.pbase.com/hfalkner

Michael, I'm impressed at your dedication and enthusiasm...bringing all those cameras and lenses to Disneyworld. For me, I think having three DSLR cameras with lenses attached is perfect. Without a tripod, there's techniques to keeping the camera steady which I've shared with you all in the past, including bracing the camera. Also by being creative, you can set the timer to 2 or 12 seconds and rest it on the camera bag. It works kind of like a tripod. I know because I've done it.

Can you share some of your favorite Disneyworld photos here? I'm sure you must have some really good ones.

Whatever floats your boat...I have a Canon XT/350D and two lenses (10-22 wide angle and the little 18-55 IS kit lens) plus an Olympus XZ-1. This covers my needs nicely and doesn't result in any chiropractic treatment when I return. It's whatever works for you that counts.

Jim

Henry Falkner said:

Interesting.

Visting Disney World in 2004, Sandra and I used a Canon MV-100 to record DV tapes, using a 6 Amp-hour external battery belt pack. I came home with 11 hours worth of DV tapes, which got converted to 8 DVDs, once I had a laptop that could handle the raw capture via firewire as well as the rendering into MPEG2. We still watch the DVDs. Sandra had done quite professional introductions -

Click to expand...

That reminds me, I have some tapes when my daughter was younger. I need to think about converting them to digital, now that we gave away the camera that shot them (we can still play them on our video recorder with a converter cassette, but we've been trying to move all of our commercial videos to DVDs). One of them, if I can find it, my daughter was playing in the sidewalk fountains in EPCOT, and you can hear my wife scolding me for trying to play auteur and direct my daughter to smile for the camera, instead of just capturing the moment

Henry Falkner said:

We were there for three weeks, and it was the best holiday that Sandra and I had, individually and together.

Click to expand...

We were there for 7 nights and 8 days, and my wife said it was about a day too long.

Henry Falkner said:

Right now my Olympus SZ-30MR can take 29 minutes of HD1080p in one take, but the 1-year-old laptop is only comfortable with HD720p for rendering. If I don't faff around I can make a battery charge last 1 hour, but I have three batteries.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it sounds like they have come a long way with the SZ series. I haven't used the SP-550UZ in about a year's time, because the focusing is so slow.

Henry Falkner said:

Sandra and I probably will not see Disney World again. But next week I will be on a Morris Dance Tour, which creates about the same requirements for the camera. Last year the Stylus 9010 did quite a good job with the Morris Tour videos, but I also used the SP-570UZ for those long shots in the zoo and at the lake in Hamilton.

Click to expand...

In living in the east coast in the USA, it is somewhat easier for us to get there. Normally we think of going every 5 years or so, but in this trip, we had gone for a family reunion and 80th birthday for my father last year. It was in the middle of June and hot, plus my wife had some issues where she was barely mobile and in pain (she needed to rent a powered wheel chair most days). She has since had back surgery and it has helped a great deal, but still the last 2-3 days she needed to rent a powered wheel chair. Now, there are many things you can say about Disney, but they are one of the places that actually tries to make things accessible to those of us who aren't able bodied.

In terms of dancing, after my wife's surgery, we hooked up with a group that does occasional dances from various historical periods, and we went to a Fezziwig's ball (from the dance seen in the Ghost of Christmas Past in Christmas Carol) in December before going to Disney, and my wife just radiated from the experience for a couple of days. She is already planning costumes and such, and we are signed up for lessons in January. We had met at the MIT square dance club, some 30 years ago, and we have also done some New England contras. I see Morris dancers perform every so often.

Good luck with your Morris tour.

Digirame said:

Michael, I'm impressed at your dedication and enthusiasm...bringing all those cameras and lenses to Disneyworld. For me, I think having three DSLR cameras with lenses attached is perfect. Without a tripod, there's techniques to keeping the camera steady which I've shared with you all in the past, including bracing the camera. Also by being creative, you can set the timer to 2 or 12 seconds and rest it on the camera bag. It works kind of like a tripod. I know because I've done it.

Click to expand...

Yeah I know about the techniques, but it was more, just wanting to not have to always taking pictures. I find if I get too much in that mode, all I remember is taking the picture, and not the experience itself. In leaving the big tripod in the hotel room, it was more, I just wanted to enjoy the fireworks, and taking pictures was secondary.

Digirame said:

Can you share some of your favorite Disneyworld photos here? I'm sure you must have some really good ones.

Click to expand...

Thanks.

I haven't started processing the photos yet from this trip (I still have 3 events of photos to process before I start tackling the mouse). However, as I mentioned to Henry, we did go last year in 2010 as a family reunion/80th birthday trip, and I will share a few from those albums:

Here are some pictures from the Animal Kingdom park safari ride, with E-3 and 50-200mm:











Here are pictures from the Animal Kingdom park bird show, with E-3 and 14-54mm (I was the one on the stage in the 2011 trip, and it is a lot harder to get the shot in that position):















Here are some pictures from the various entertainers at the World Showcase in EPCOT taken with the E-3 and 14-54mm (and the goofy guy in the blue shirt and hat is me, captured by my wife with my E-3):













Here are pictures from EPCOT's Illuminations fireworks, captured with the E-3 and 14-54mm handheld:









Here are pictures from the Animal Kingdom Lodge where we ate dinner in the 2010 trip (and stayed in the 2011 trip), taken with E-3 and 14-54mm:







And finally some pictures from Disney's Hollywood Studios, taken with the E-3 and 14-54mm:

...for your thoughtful and detailed response. Most appreciated.

Henry

--



Henry Falkner - SZ-30MR, SP-570UZ, Stylus 9010
http://www.pbase.com/hfalkner

Those are nice photos. I'm glad I came back and had a look. I like seeing the eagle. They are so majestic and in the wild I have a tough time getting to them close to photograph.

Digirame said:

Those are nice photos. I'm glad I came back and had a look. I like seeing the eagle. They are so majestic and in the wild I have a tough time getting to them close to photograph.

Click to expand...

Thanks. The eagles in the show are only carried out at the very end of the show, and unlike the other birds, they don't fly free. The show uses the eagles to say, that in some cases, things are getting better, since eagles were removed from the endangered status in 2007.

Nice recollections. Can't remember the car jump. Maybe they did not have it then.

Your pictures do bring back even more memories.

Henry

--



Henry Falkner - SZ-30MR, SP-570UZ, Stylus 9010
http://www.pbase.com/hfalkner

Henry Falkner said:

Nice recollections. Can't remember the car jump. Maybe they did not have it then.

Click to expand...

It was added in 2005, so you wouldn't have seen it. The Lights, Motors, Action Stunt Show came from Disney Paris. The studio backlot tour got shortened except for the Catastrophe Canyon part to make way for it.

Henry Falkner said:

Your pictures do bring back even more memories.

Click to expand...

Thanks.