Any tips for a first time WDW digital camera user?

[Timon]

I bought a Canon S400 Digital Elph and have been playing around with it for 2 months now. I have learned quite a bit already but have never used a digital camera in WDW before.

Do you digital camera pros have any advice for me? How do fireworks and nighttime parades turn out? What about night shots..I take a lot of those so any tips would be useful!

 

[keithomas]

OK, you'll be using a 4MP camera....how much storage are you taking, and what type?

Last summer I used a 5MP camera and carried two 128Mb CF cards each day. At night I dumped them to a Mindstor (portable hard drive). CF cards are way cheaper than they used to be, so you might be just using lots of CF cards....but I like having the hard drive to dump them to.

Take lots of pictures...you can cull them later...that's why you got a digital camera, right?

This year, I've actually downsized my "tourist" camera. I'm taking the little brother of your S400.....an A70 3MP. Still going to use the two 128Mb cards and Mindstor though.

With the Canon, for day shots in bright light I like to lock the ISO at 50, and use the Aperture Priority mode and use as large an Fstop as possible (usually F8 or so). It makes your pictures much sharper, especially if you focus on something 'just in front of' your actual subject.

Also, ALWAYS shoot at the maximum resolution and minimum compression so you can crop later before you print.

Have fun, and just ask if you have any specific questions.

 

[keithomas]

The daytime parades are usually pretty easy if you get a curbside seat. Make sure that you are not shooting directly into the sun.

Night shots are sometimes difficult without a tripod. Unlike your 800 or 1000 speed film......the digital ISO 400 and up is REALLY grainy, and your flash isn't strong enough beyond about 10-12 feet. Try using the LCD and manual mode and experiment for best results. I can only handhold down to about 1/30 sec...and that depends on how I'm sitting or standing etc. Good Luck.

 

[Timon]

Thanks for the info! I have a 256 MB CF card right now and will be buying another one of those before I go. Since at the highest settings, one card will only take 128 pics, I am thinking of taking it to a Walgreens or something and burning the images onto a CD so I can take lots of pics as I don't want to spend the $$ on a portable hard drive.

 

[keithomas]

Memory cards were still pretty expensive about 1.5 years ago. A 256Mb card cost about $200 then..At the highest setting that would have only held 100 or so 5MP images. That's why the portable drive was my best option at the time. About $250 for 5 Gig of drive space about the size of a Palm Pilot.

If I didn't already have it today I would probably just buy more CF cards!

 

[Timon]

I've been checking out prices and the 128 MB cards are about $80 here and the 256MB ones are $125 CDN. I will hold out for awhile and maybe get a better deal.

I just re-read your post and you say to use my highest resolution and minimum compression....

So for compression settings, I have normal, fine and superfine...so are you saying I should use normal? Does that not affect the quality of my picture?

I printed out some test photos online at Future Shop to see the difference between resolutions L M1 M2 & S and there was a huge difference! But I haven't tested the compression setting yet on a printed picture.

I am a scrapbooker and the quality of prints is very important to me.

Any tips?

 

[keithomas]

Superfine "compresses" the picture the least, hence my term lowest compression. Sorry to confuse you like that. Make sure you use the largest image size and superfine compression for the best pics.

 

[NotUrsula]

There are a ton of online dealers that have very competitive prices on memory, and if shipping to Canada is an issue, you could have the cards shipped directly to your WDW resort right before you go.

My camera uses SmartMedia cards. Locally, the best price I could find for 128MB was $40+tax; online I got them for $28/each with no tax or shipping charges.

 

[esrade]

I have a Powershot S30... I find my night pictures turned out beyond bad, mostly because I can't hold it still worth a darn for more than 1/100 second. On the other hand, because it's a digital, I took around 20 (night shot down Main St to the castle. Also, pictures that are zoomed in all turned out fuzzy, I imagine for the same reason?

Also, night pictures where there is not a lot of light turned out badly for me because of the poor flash (like keithomas said, about 10-12 feet). So ixnay on all the Tapestry of Dreams pictures... apparently forever since the parade is history. Anybody out there have any tips? Should I just turn off the flash? OH, and the pictures we have from Mexico (Epcot, not the real country) - the people in the foreground turned out great. But you can't even tell there's a volcano or anything in the background. No idea on how to have properly shot that, either.

Apparently I am just a bad photographer.

Last thing - portable hard drives are great and all (I've got the Archos Multimedia w/ photo module - 20 GB hard drive) but heck, bring a laptop if you can! Not only can you download all your pictures, you can see them (larger than 1"x2" or whatever your camera screen is) AND e-mail them to your jealous friends and family back home.

 

[keithomas]

Every night before bedtime we had a family "slide show" on the TV in the room. Just plug the cord into the video spot on the TV and presto! It really added closure to our day and helped establish that important sense of "routine" at bedtime for the kids.

 

[bunnyfoo]

I found it was hard to photograph the fireworks, but that's probably because my camera is sloooow. For some reason, the camera takes a long time to save pictures that I take at night. Can you tell I'm not much of a technical person I found for my camera, I would need good timing to catch the fireworks. So, I would have to press the button a second before I wanted the picture. I'm sure this isn't the same with everyone's camera. I usually end up cropping fireworks shots for my scrapbook so I take lots

Remember to bring lots of memory. You might need more memory since your camera is a 5 megapixel and you're going to be shooting at a high resolution. I would take a couple different memory cards, just in case there's a problem with one or you lose one.

You can also download your memory card in Epcot (Journey Into Your Imagination Building). I believe the price is $11.99 for the first 40 images and $5.99 for each CD (of 40 images) after that.

Play around with your camera lots before you take your trip. That way you'll know what to expect

 

[erinch]

the real test of your pictures is really the software you use to enhance them. I am a fan of 2: uleads photoimpact and adobe's photoshop elements (which is an under $100 version of photoshop.) Elements offers a fill flash option which can save dark nighttime pictures. Both of them offer ways for novices to enhance their pictures. If you want great pictues, this is the best investment you can bring.

the problem with burning all your pictures to a drugstore cd is that unless you have some kind of drive to delete the lousy shots, or take the time to select them at the photo calendar, you're going to be paying for a lot of pictures you might otherwise delete.

On Ebay, a 256 mg cf card is going for less than $50; a 128 mg for a little over $25 and a 512 mg for less than $80. if you can't take a laptop or portable drive, this might be your best bet

 

[TigerLaw]

great tips everyone!

 

[Ratpack]

I have the Sony Cybershot P32, anyone have any specific tips for this camera as well?

 

[mnbrowns]

I borrowed a 4mp camera on my last trip and have great shots from inside Mexico with NO flash. I'm looking at buying a 2.1mp, can I still get good indoor and night shots?

 

[house_of_princesses]

I wanted to downsize from my 35mm. DH went and bought a Sony Cybershot 5 megapixel (at least that's what it says on the camera ) The thing is HUGE! When I asked why he bought something larger than my 35mm, when I want to down size, he said "It has night vision!" Great. So, here I was, lurking until now, trying to figure out what to do. I'd like to say you all have helped. I can't. I'm just as clueless as when I woke up.

Guess I'll read the manual.

 

[Kellyh123]

NotUrsula

Where did you buy your memory cards online?
Thanks

 

[Timon]

Thanks guys for all your great tips!

We will be bringing two 256 MB flash cards but even with that at the best settings, it only takes 123 pics each...246 pics...SO not enough But I can't see myself spending money on more than 2 CF cards when I won't get much use out of them. Burning them onto disc is my best option I think!

I asked on another post about places to d/l pics onto a disc and someone mentioned Walgreens, which is right around the corner from where we are staying so we will probably do that, it seems much cheaper than doing it at WDW and just more convenient too!

What I have gotten used to is checking my pictures on a regular basis and deleting the ones I know I don't want. I know that will eliminate most of the bad pics so I won't be burning too many photos that I don't really want, although there will be a few that just won't look good once I see them full size.

My camera is actually 4 Megapixel and I plan on playing around with it LOTS before we go, especially with night shots.

bunnyfoo, I hear ya about the fireworks pics! On all of our previous trips, I also had a hard time taking fireworks pics! But as a scrapper, I also took LOTS of pics of them so at least a few would turn out And now with digital, I am sure it will be even better!

I own a student copy of Adode Photoshop 6.0, which I use to enhance my photos and for doing my website clipart etc but my knowledge of the program is not very extensive.

I am sure that there are a lot of tips on the web about using it and I will have to educate myself a little more so I can take advantage of it to edit my photos when I get back!

 

[Geoff_M]

The ability to shot photos in low lighting conditions have nothing to do with the mega pixels on the sensor, it has to do with the quality of the CCD or CMOS sensor. The "grainy-ness" in digital images is know as "noise". Some cameras are noiser than others when you boost the ISO setting. Here's two excellent Internet resources for researching how digital cameras, of all sizes and prices, function in the field:

www.dpreview.com
www.imaging-resource.com

When it comes to low-light photos at WDW (parade, castle, fireworks, Osborne lights, etc.) the best thing to do is to try and "anchor" the camera as best as you can. No matter how hard you try, you can't hand-hold a camera still enough to make most images worth a hill of beans. The three best things to use at WDW for steadying a camera are: trash cans, fence railings, and lamp posts. A fourth good one, when the crowds are light enough, is Main Street itself.

Trash Cans: The cans at WDW have FLAT tops and are numerous. Rest the camera on top. If you need to tilt the camera upwards, place a folded napkin under the front of the bottom of the camera to raise the lens up. I got lots of good ambient light (camera-speak for "no flash") photos from the Osborne light this year using trash can tops.

Fences and balconies: Same deal. I got some great shots of Illumunations by using the fence railing around the lake in Epcot and the railing of our balcony at the YC.

Lamp Posts: Excellent for vertical photos... especially castle photos.

Main Street: This one's a little tricky and only works when the crowds are very light. One of the tricks to interesting photos is to use something OTHER than eye level to take your pictures. Get "high" or "low". One time I got some good photos of the Main Street stores with the castle in the background by laying down on my stomach and placing the camera directly on the pavement. I know it looks funny, but it works.

Also, sometimes blurry photos can be very cool! I took a good photo right before FITS of the vendor next to us that was selling the light-up/spinning toys. Again, I used ambient light and got a long exposure that showed the light trails the toys made as they spun on her cart.

Cards... As noted, the prices of memory cards just keeps falling. I bought my first CompactFlash card in April of 2001. It was a 64 meg card and was on sale for a good price of $99. This month I bought a Sandisk 256 meg CF card for $59 ($49 after rebate). You're in the catbird seat if your camera uses CF as they've always been cheaper than the other formats. Right now Dell and Amazon have some of the cheapest prices around. Dittos for Sam's Club. Ironically, camera stores, discount mass merchandisers like Target and Wal-Mart, and electronics stores like Best Buy are some of the pricier places to buy digital media.

 

[mnbrowns]

What a great thread.
I'm looking to buy Nikon coolpix 2100 or Kodak 2650. I looked at reviews and don't see any comments on "noise". Any first-hand experience on indoor and night shots with these cameras?
These cameras are 2mp and around $200 (maybe over). Are there better cameras with better prices?