Any tips on using a camcorder

[Michael Ventura]

I am taking my family to WDW to exprience the magic and also to Star Wars Weekend. This is going to be our first family trip and will be the first our time to Orlando. We are very excited and I plan on getting everything on camcorder. Could someone tell me what I can record while in the park?

 

[seashoreCM]

If you are shooting at night, you should use manual lens adjustments if possible. This is especially important for the Spectromagic parade and fireworks. Othewise the color gets washed out. For a night scene, if your camcorder has an electronic viewfinder (most do) the scene there should not look like day when you are shooting at night.

Generally you may shoot video anywhere in the parks out in the open, generally you may not shoot inside rides or in theater shows.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[tink2]

I've read a post about this before, but I'll share my experiences. I have taken my camcorder inside rides and shows. I've taped:
Small World, Peter Pan, Snow White, Haunted Mansion, Pooh ride, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Great Movie Ride, Safari ride at AK, etc. My husband even taped Star Tours- talk about a bad video- makes you sea sick to watch!
I think most places allow video.
As far as night, I advise practicing before you go. Different cameras perform differently. For instance, my camcorder taped Spectromagic just fine without using any special effects. My SIL's didn't the first night and the second she used Nightvision- which really distrots the colors. Try using you camera at night before you go with different effects.

 

[mommystieg]

I begged my DH to practice before our trip but he ignored my pleas and we now have some of the most boring, useless videos I have ever seen After he got home he found out that the camcorder has a "fireworks" mode--wish he would have figured that out before he left home. So I agree, practice, practice, practice!!!

 

[ragamuffin]

My advice, from an experienced camera man, is to tape a little bit of everything rather than a whole lot of a few things. When I edit my video, i will only include highlights as most people I show it too don't want to sit through 30 minutes of video. They just want highlights.

Also, don't spend the entire time looking through your viewfinder, or you will regret it. Sometimes I felt I missed entire vacation days because I was video taping too much. Get the highlights then enjoy your vacation!

 

[primax]

Anyone have a problem with humidity and taking their camcorder into air condition attractions and then back outside? Our camera begins to freak and saw "Dew Detected" then shutsdown for about 10 minutes.

 

[MarkyMouse]

I have been using a camcorder for more than 20 years now and I learned long ago to limit the amount of time you video. You have two choices
1. Video for hours and hours and then edit it all down to highlights or
2. Only video snipits of things you see.

Example: My wife videoed more than twenty minutes of my daughter walking around at the bus stop at Old Key West. Most boring thing I have ever suffered through. Two minutes would have sufficed. I now will do n entire weeks vacation in about thirty to forty minutes of taping. Hope this helps.

 

[KK Cat]

When looking back over the tapes on return, and since I feel the same as the post above regarding taping long sections. Every time we look at the videos, we fast forward thorough the same bits (Indiana Jones stunt show, Lion King show, Tapestry of Dreams parade). We do watch parts of them, but not beginning to end. The parts I wish I had more of (and intend remedying next week in Disneyland Paris ) are shots of Main St USA, general shots around the parks, not just rides. Merchandise in shops.

One of my favourite parts of our video is the Barber Shop Quintet singing to us when we were in the queue for Dumbo. The one long section we never fast forward through is the fireworks in Epcot. I didn't think they would come out so well on video but they are marvellous. Don't bring the camcorder every day, enjoy the parks!!! 10 mins here and there is plenty.

Enjoy!!

Anne Marie

 

[KittieKat]

You can tape pretty much everything. Even rides or shows..well at least I did. Most of the time they just require not artificial light. Which is no problem most of the time. The only problem for me is that i lloovvee to tape..everything!! lol. I'll tape the least meaningful things. Last trip I taped almost 2 hours of footage..which isnt bad. But the family we went with taped that must atleast each day, no thats sad. To conserve tapes/discs and battery power I would definitely suggest only taping things worthwhile.